My History With Horror Part 1: Childhood With Chucky

I'm extremely impatient for October to start.  Seriously, it's four days away and I can't stand it.

I love anything seasoned with even a modest amount of Halloween feeling, that vague sensation of dread, the color of burnt orange right behind the eyes, the crunch of dead leaves as my fingers brush across the page (or, more usually these days, a touchscreen). Slap a sticker of a Jack o'lantern on something and put down money that I'll buy it.  The odds won't be against you.

I try to put off my hardcore Halloween feeling binge until the month of October actually starts, but every year its creeping tendrils snake their way into the end of September, if not farther ahead.  I'm capable of avoiding any of the movies on my daily October list, but I find myself finding more and more overt ways of sneaking a taste, so to speak.

I signed up for a free trial of Comixology's Unlimited program, just so I could raid their selection of "borrowable" horror comics.  Even before that I was reading through the entirety of Mike Mignola's Hellboy universe.  My wife and I have been watching through the first six movies in the Child's Play/Chucky series, just so we can be prepared for the release of Cult of Chucky next month. We also watched the entirety of the first season of Stranger Things in one day, which I realize is not abnormal, but I'm notoriously slow with watching any television series.  I'm also replaying Bloodborne, having just beaten it a little over a month ago.  These are things I don't typically do, but such is my craving for the Halloween feeling that I just. Can't. Wait.

As such, I have no choice but to force anyone who finds themselves reading along to experience that early taste with me; I am the leather jacket-clad hoodlum, hiding behind the school building, offering you the illicit substance that is Halloween feeling.  There are plenty of friends I could call on to help me exert peer pressure, but the one I'll be talking about the most (today) is Chucky himself.  Mind you, he won't actually be talking because, let's be honest, he never stops once he starts.

I didn't see many horror movies as a kid.  My mom was oddly contradictory in the way she raised me, in that I wasn't allowed to watch R-Rated movies, except sometimes I was, and one of my earliest memories is playing Mortal Kombat on Sega Genesis.  With my mom.  So it wasn't always consistent.  My dad, for the most part, didn't really care what I watched or played, especially played.

Actually, looking back, violent video games have been a part of my life for literally as long as I can remember.  As an adult I feel compelled to question the wisdom of that parenting decision, but hey, I turned out okay, thank Satan.

Anyway,  I remember a time when I was around nine or so.  My mom and I were visiting some cousins of mine in Florida, as we did most summers.  One night the adults were doing whatever adults did in the 90s and my cousins and I, and maybe one or two of their friends, were gathered in a room, and Bride of Chucky had been rented for us.  I genuinely don't know why, or how that choice got past my mom, but there we were.  I remember vividly the feeling of that viewing.  It was a small room, with four or more kids packed into it, and it was summer in Florida, so, as you can imagine, it was freaking hot.  I was seated next to my older cousin Rachel, because of course I was since, as a kid, if she and I were in the same state, I stuck to her like a puppy.

I can't pretend to remember or know what anyone else thought of the movie when it was over.  I remember that, at the time, I wasn't scared at all, but other than that, I can't even remember how I felt about the movie itself.  What I remember is the feeling.  These were my favorite people in the world, and we were in a dark room, watching something I vaguely knew we shouldn't be watching, something that could very likely give me nightmares.  It was high summer when we watched it, but, looking back, it just feels so much like Halloween.  That right there is proof enough that it doesn't even have to be fall to be Halloween.  That's the first time I ever saw a horror movie without an adult present.

A bit later, a couple years or so, it was summertime again.  At least, I assume it was summertime because I was staying with my dad and I'm fairly certain he had to work the next day, so it wasn't the weekend.  Anyway, he had long since gone to sleep, and I just didn't sleep in those days, so I was left watching TNT or TBS or one of those Georgia channels they had in the 90s and maybe still do have who knows, and coming up next was Child's Play.

I had a slight sense of dread about this, but I had seen Bride of Chucky and made it through fine, and I was a big boy now, gosh dang it, so I buckled in and watched it through (with occasional commercial breaks).  All alone.  In the dark.  And as any fan will tell you, Child's Play was much more of a "horror" movie than Bride of Chucky is.  Now again, at the time I wasn't really afraid of the movie itself.  Then I tried to sleep.  That's the first time I ever saw a horror movie alone.

Now, I'm all for doing what you can to keep kids away from things that might make the wrong impact on them, or give them a skewed outlook on what's acceptable in polite society.  I am also, however, completely of the mind that kids should have that experience with fear every now and then.  Fear is a big part of being a kid, being afraid and not understanding why.

I'm an adult now, and I'm still afraid, but now I understand why.  I have a whole new host of rational (and irrational) fears that I understand perfectly.  But Chucky?  Chucky is a childhood friend, one I've recently reconnected with after far too long.  He's the same as he ever was, but now he's on my side.  And he's always down for some Halloween feeling.

Tomorrow: my teenage years.

Until next time!

Current Interests:
Listening - Sweeney Todd Motion Picture Soundtrack (2007) / Dio: Holy Diver (1983)
Playing - Sword of the Samurai (1989)
Reading - Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Volume 1 (2014)
Watching - Unsolved Mysteries (1987)