Horrifying Hump Day: Movie Induced Fear

When I was a kid, I was super shy. Like hide behind my mother shy. If you know me at all, you know that is impossible to imagine. I was basically afraid of people. Maybe my mother, who had somewhat of a tragic childhood, did too good of a job prepping me on that "don't talk to strangers" thing. Here are a few other notable fears from my childhood: The screened-in porch at the lake house where my grandparents lived. I was certain that the little fast lizards that lived there would eat me alive, or at least run across my feet, and so I always ran from the porch door into the house. There was also a ceramic hand holding a bird at their house that scared me. My grandparents were not typical grandparents. 

As I grew up, I had my moments of being afraid of the dark. There were the typical snake, mice, spiders fears. But the most lingering of all fears for me has been and still is...FIRE.

Hell hath no fury like a Barrymore in a Stephen King movie.

I have no idea where it came from. By the time I was 6 years old I remember my mother was blow drying my hair for me and she made an off handed comment "oh, it's on fire." What she MEANT was that a piece of my hair was caught in the dryer. What I heard was, "You are going to burn alive." I screamed and flailed, and ran the length of the trailer we lived in while she tried to catch and calm me. I can only assume that my fears were based more on what I'd seen on TV than real life. I mean, I'd never been IN a fire to my knowledge. But I did watch Carrie, and Firestarter, and Towering Inferno all before the age of 7. 

When I saw the movie Labyrinth, I was afraid that some version of David Bowie and the muppets would take my baby brother. I slept on the floor by his bed for a while after that one. 

Poltergeist made me afraid of raw meat. To this day, I still have a hard time touching it or smelling it. 

Shhh! I'm trying to read!

Ghostbusters made me afraid of libraries, but I got over that one pretty fast. 

Stand By Me made me afraid of leeches and very glad I was not a boy. It also made me afraid of trains/train tracks which was a fear solidified by Fried Green Tomatoes. A fear of trains/train tracks in the South is kind of a problem. 

I don't love heights, though I have been enough places and done enough to push past that one from time to time. Ropes courses, rappelling, flying, and maybe just being tall has forced me to deal with it. 

The fear I hate admitting because it immediately puts me in a "dorky, not eligible to be cool, we just won't invite her" category, is roller coasters. I have ridden them before. I am not one of those "never" people. But I don't enjoy it. I am a much better purse holder/people watcher at theme parks. So please do invite me, I'm good for something I promise!

Even with all of these shifting fears, my fear of FIRE emerged as the primary one. I hated sparklers and fireworks. In fact, years later when I would become a camp counselor, I was the counselor who stood in the back with all of the kids who were afraid of these types of things. While I love camp fires or fires in fireplaces, I am terrified of them. I hate the sparks that pop into the air threatening to catch my hair on fire or burn out my eyes, or even burn down the house/forest/entire world. Lots of movies have fire scenes in them. Backdraft did me in, I only watched it once. I didn't even bother with Backdraft 2 Ladder 49. Frequency, Always, Roxanne, Legal Eagles, and pretty much most disaster movies (though I do love them) all have notable fire scenes that have left some deep internal scar that fed directly into my already flaming fears. Oh, and also, I didn't watch Fireproof for obvious reasons...well, those reasons might not have anything to do with fire now that I think about it.

For starters, Tartar and Ranch are always unacceptable as are all mayo based condiments. 

When I examine my life today, I think my fears are pretty normal. I have the typical afraid of food going bad fears. Like mold on cheese or bread or old milk. I don't keep condiments more than a month EVER. So maybe that's not so typical after all.

My emotional fears are probably more normal. Things like not wanting to be left out or not wanting to be forgotten. But if I dig down, what scares me the most, is the fear of what I WON'T do in life. Opportunities I might miss that will lead to new experiences. This fear has worked its way down into my deepest parts and has led me to places like...well, China. Maybe this is the fear of regret. I don't want any of those.

I think it's safe to say that, as scary as fire is, the idea of never feeling warmth is so much worse. 

What are you afraid of? 

Have any movies played a part in your fears?