Disturbing Childhood

by Richard

It all started when I was eight years old and I watched my very first horror movie. I always loved things that made me scared or curious, and I have a creative mind when it comes to creating images that scare me.

My older sister, who was twelve at that time, had recently gone to her first sleepover, where she and her friends watched The Ring (I hate that movie).

Of course she got a little traumatized, and I just liked to take advantage of it (I remember forcing her into the wardrobe). She had told me the story, but it sounded way different in my head, and fed my mind with images I created. So I began to bug my mom to let me see the movie. My sister kept telling me I shouldn't watch, but I couldn't resist.

Finally, a month later, I got my mom to rent the DVD and watch it with me. The first night after the movie, I had to sleep with my sister. The fear wouldn't go away. I couldn't stand staying alone at night. I had to sleep with her for several months, but I couldn't forget the movie (I had nightmares almost every night). For a year, my parents tried pretty much everything to make me sleep in my own room, like stay with me until I sleep, which didn't work, because I was scared to close my eyes, almost fall asleep, open again, and my father wouldn't be there. Yes. I was pretty messed up.

I started making some improvement after a year of therapy, but I didn't feel quite safe. My family, by then, hated that movie more than anything. Supposedly what really 'cured' me was after I went to a psychiatrist, when I was about ten, and took a medicine.

Whether it was psychological or not, it actually worked for me. So I was pretty much forbidden to watch horror movies after that. I only teased myself with them (like looking up for images or parts of them), and that still was enough for me not to sleep sometimes.

Finally when I was about thirteen, I fully watched The Grudge, and I slept just fine. I was so happy I watched all of them on the same week. And then I felt like I was in paradise.

Now I'm fifteen and I'm always looking for more horror movies, but here's what I've already seen:

Drag me to Hell, Daybreakers, Rosemary's Baby, Orphan, The Human Centipede, Saw (all), REC 1 and 2, Paranormal Activity 1 and 2, Dawn of the Dead (remake), The Crazies (remake), The Exorcist, The Midnight Meat Train, The Shining, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nightamare on Elm Street, The Ring, The Grudge 1,2 and 3, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, and I think that's it. At least that's the good ones.