8.12.2011

Summer Memories of a Horror Fan


While the rest of the nation is suffering a massive heat wave, Summer has only started to rear its sunny head here in Seattle. Now that Summer has arrived just in time for it to disappear, I thought I'd share some of my favorite memories of summer from childhood. Because horror movies were such a big part of my life, horror-centered activities dominated many of my adolescent activities. Here are some I'm particularly fond of:

-Dressing up in the Ghostface mask and hiding outside my friend's house, while threatening them with menacing phone calls. There were tears and it was awesome.


-Inventing a Jaws-themed game in the pool. Chlorine-water sharks will be the next big thing.

-Creating another game of tag that was based off of
Predator. Sometimes this involved Schwarzenegger impersonations.

-Making a feature film over the course of several months on a VHS-C camera with no editing equipment. Not to mention it didn't have a script and involved every slasher cliche known to the human race.

-Using fake blood and latex wounds leftover from Halloween, we loved to pretend some terrible accident had occurred to us and freak our parents out.

-Buying tickets for PG-13 movies, only to sneak into the R-rated horror films. Dang you cinema nazis.

-Sitting around the campfire, telling ghost stories, zombie stories, vampire stories, mass murderer stories...you get the idea.


-Getting my friends in trouble by watching Children of the Corn, even though PG was as extreme as they could go.

-Explaining to my 6th grade teacher why
Halloween was my favorite film and why I was allowed to see it.

-Debating with a friend who thought
I Know What You Did Last Summer was better than Scream. Who makes Direct-to-Video sequels now, huh?

Well, there you have it: a selection of my treasured memories. Feeling all nostalgic yet? I know I am...maybe I'll go home and listen to Bush, while talking on my brick (I mean cellular telephone).

3 comments:

  1. Nice. I remember making wooden stakes with my friends and stocking up on super-soakers (you, know, for holy water) after becoming obsessed with the Lost Boys.

    There were also sleep-overs in a secluded house with my best friend, his step-sister and her friends. Horror movies were always on tap (Phantasm 2 stands out in my memory for some reason).

    Also freaking out using a Ouija board at said sleep-overs. When the planchette referred to me specifically as "New Kid," I almost lost it.

    Never getting around to actually filming "The Montana Leafblower Massacre." Though years later I did recycle most of the title for my horror blog.

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  2. It's never too late to ramp up production of The Montana Leafblower Massacre. And hey, it does have a ring to it. :)

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  3. 3rd longest heat streak in Dallas. I want to die.

    Great stuff. When I was about 5 and our old neighborhood was first built, there were new houses that were empty with the developer still trying to sell them. I fast made friends and we went from empty house to empty house, reenacting the ghost in the ballroom chandelier scene in GhostBusters. We'd 'spy' ghosts floating around the chandeliers hanging down in the front entry way to the homes and take our homemade guns (tennis rackets) out of our proton packs (backpacks). Good times.

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