Movie Fear

I lived on the fifth floor.
My friend lived on the eleventh.


She was the first of our friends to get Cable. and the Movie everyone was watching on cable was...was...Oh I cant say it!

Lets just say it was a very very scary movie. When I was 11 even the commercial advertising it when it first came out in theaters  gave me nightmares.
                                                 
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I was about 15 and she invited me to her place to watch cable. They were playing the very movie who's commercial caused me to run out of the room when I was younger.

"Please come up" she pleaded. "I can't watch this by myself!"

"Then why watch it at all?" I reasoned. "It's dumb." *translation* "I might pee myself with fright!"

"P L E A S E !" she pleaded

"Oh alright!" I went upstairs, we made popcorn and sat on the floor to watch the movie.
                                             
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Within ten minutes we both ran out of the room and could not go back in even to turn off the darn TV!

I had nightmares for months...
                                    
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     Fast forward.

In my late thirties they re-released the movie in theaters again. Now if you know me you know that I hate to be afraid of anything...I hate it. and whenever I can I try to face my fears ex...rock climbing early this year even though I am deathly afraid of heights.

It seemed that I had been afraid of that stupid movie for over 20 years...well no more! I called my best friend who was also a chicken about that movie and talked her into going and watching the whole thing with me...hey I wasn't about to go by myself! If I'm going to pee myself I'm going to have someone with me who'll walk behind me so no one will see the wet spot. My Husband said "Joanne you shouldn't go. That movie is going to give you nightmares".

"Nope, it won't. It'll help me face this fear."

The plans had been made and I was going to face my fear of this stupid stinkin' movie once and for all.

My friend and I loitered outside the movie theater letting everyone in ahead of us and even then we kept asking the ticket guy...."Well, what do you think of the movie? is it scary? will it freak us out?"

"NO NO NO." he answered. Well of course he answered that way. The guy has been desensitized playing violent video games and by watching movies like Saw. A movie made in the 70's was not going to phase him.


We had to make a decision. So in we walked. Instantly I slumped in my seat with a jacket covering me all the way up to the bridge of my nose like a security blanket.
                                                  
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I looked at my friend and she looked exactly the same. We were two grown women and I was right back feeling like that scared 11 year old watching the commercial.  Throughout the movie I kept my eyes closed for a lot of it and what little I did watch was through tiny slits that I would allow my eyes to open and see through.

My friend and I laughed nervously at our stupidity because no one around us looked as scared as we did. I couldn't wait for the movie to end.

As we walked out of the theater we congratulated ourselves and we concluded that it was not that bad.

At home I told my husband that I had hyped it up so much in my head that when I saw the movie it really wasn't that bad.

"Oh really? he questioned me with a knowing sneer

"Yes really." I answered

" Joanne, I know you. You are not going to be able to sleep and you will not allow me to sleep either." He added

"Oh please! I'm over it! I've seen the film and that is that. I am no longer afraid of it."

"We will see."

"We will see" I mocked him. I was done with that fear...onto the next. Him not believing me made me feel a bit miffed...."I'll show him!" I thought.


That night as he slept soundly (and I tossed and turned) I woke him up

"What is it Joanne?" he groggily asked

"I have to go to the bathroom." I said

"So, GO." He yawned

"Go with me?" I meekly asked

"I KNEW IT!"


For the next week I couldn't sleep and would race to bed so that he would be the last to turn off the lights.
Facing my fears.... wasn't all it was cracked up to be.