Flashback Friday - Oh, the Horror! Pt. 1

by Lauren

It's October - Halloween season - our favorite time of year*. Last year, we reminisced about our favorite Halloween movies and TV- most of which were family friendly - but this year, it's time to get scared! Each week in October we will share our favorite or scariest horror movie memories...

For me, Poltergiest (1982), was the 'thing-that-scarred-me-for-life.'

In 1983, I was 10 years old. A sheltered little Long Island girl with straight A's and pigtails that had never seen a truly scary movie in her life**. And we had HBO...

One day my parents were busy doing yard work, and I happened across a movie about a little girl and her family. She had a brother and a dog, just like me.

I started watching, unaware of what was to come...

​It literally broke my brain.

To this day I am petrified of clowns.

I ran from the couch in fear of  the clown - and fled to the nearby staircase where I could still peak around the corner and see the TV.

I will never know WHY I stayed and watched the whole thing.

Yeah, wasn't a fan of pools for a while either...

I had nightmares for days. I threw out all of the clown dolls and figurines I had in my room. I refused to go anywhere near a TV that had static on it. We had an old TV downstairs that would randomly turn itself on and off - I was convinced our rental house was haunted and I would die any minute.

Explaining to my husband why I still won't sleep with the closet door open... was awkward.

It wan't until college that I watched another 'horror movie.' By then I could laugh at most of the schlocky scary film classics of the 80's and 90's - but I have only ever sat through Poltergeist once more as an adult - and I didn't laugh. It still scares the heck out of me.

As far as the 2014 remake goes - hell no. The clown poster alone is a HARD PASS.

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* Except DragonCon
​**Except that time my 3rd grade teacher let us watch Disney's Watcher in the Woods - IN CLASS - which is still scary as shit.