My Little Phelpers

I’m not a big scary movie person. I never have been.

When I was little my older brother and younger sister watched Gremlins and it scared me so much. I spent most of the movie behind the couch, hiding. I think since then, I’ve never really enjoyed scary movies.

I’ve seen a couple here and there, but things just hang in my mind for too long and without a doubt, if I see a scary movie, I’ll have nightmares about it. And it always seems that whenever I watch a scary movie, something frightening happens in my life to go along with it and make the whole situation worse.

Example:

In college, my friend Ashlie and I were invited to join my cousin Ashley and her friends for a movie night in Smith Park. When we got there, the sun had set and the park was dark. We sat on blankets and pillows and watched Poltergeist. Now, it would not have been my first choice of movie, but we were already there and stayed for the whole thing. After the movie, Ashlie and I went home and got ready for bed. As we were chatting, we flipped off the light and climbed into bed. Seconds later, the light turned back on…by itself. I don’t remember exactly what happened next, but I am sure it included screaming like babies and running from the room. That was probably just me though.

We discovered that there was a short in the light switch. As a makeshift solution until the apartment complex could fix it, we used tape to hold the switch all the way down so we could get some sleep. Although after the movie and our mysteriously turning on light, I don’t think that I slept very much.

That taught me to watch a scary movie in the park.

Another example didn’t happen to me, but I was an eye-witness.

My family was still living in Orem and my older brother decided he wanted to watch The Blair Witch Project. He spent the evening with his friends watching the movie. After it was over he came home and was telling my parents about how much the movie frightened him and how freaked out he was. I was sitting on their bed listening, but not paying too much attention because even him telling them about the movie scared me. After we were all done chatting, my parents told us to go down and go to bed. I followed Rob into the hall, but stopped to get something. He had already made it down the first flight of stairs and was getting ready to flip on the dining room light, so I stood at the top of the stairs and waited for the light. Just as he flipped the switch, the light bulbs flashed and burned out.

I have never seen my brother jump so high in his life.

And he squealed like a little girl. Thinking back about it, I still laugh.

So I think I’ll stick with comedies and romance for my movies of choice.