Me And Movies 1

  I just saw "Super 8" this week, and it really tugged at my heartstrings. Without giving anything away, I will say that it involves some kids who love movies. Especially horror movies. Kids after my own heart. It reminded me of my much younger self, which is what movies do so well at times. I love that younger self, and I think she was pretty dang cool.
  Movies and I go waaay back. Long before  digital downloading, Netflix, DVDs, cable, VCRs....back when the options were basically the nearest theatre or late night television. I loved when the weekly TV Guide would arrive in the mail box. I would sit for hours, scouring the listings and circling in ball point pen all the options I had for the next 7 days.
  In the summer, I remember staying up until all hours watching "Creature Features", often with my Mom. She was the best Mom ever, because she let me, along with all the neighborhood kids, watch all the creepiest horror movies we wanted. I was introduced at a tender age to the delights of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (still the sexiest vampire on screen, sorry Edward Cullin...), Bela Lugosi,Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney. All staples of the late night horror fests. I even made and painted the monster models to put on my bedroom shelf. These were the oldies but really goodies, until Abbott & Costello got hold of them.....
  I couldn't make up my mind whether I wanted to be bitten by the Vampire, or the Vampire himself. It was a very confusing time for me. Could I grow up to be Mothra? Rodan? What would I do if the Living Dead attacked our town? Was the Creature of the Black Lagoon under my bed, just waiting to grab me and pull me to my ultimate death? The giant ants, humongous tarantula... scary, for sure, but that 50 foot woman really freaked me out. I would lie awake worrying whether I would have time to get the whole family(including my Grandma who lived up the street...) safely into our various closets when "The Birds" attacked.
  It was always a delightful blend of being heart pounding scared, and completely thrilled by the idea that it could happen to me. All of it. Vampires. Zombies. Wolfmen. Giant Insects of all sorts. Robotic Space Aliens, Blobs of Slime, and of course, Super Huge Radioactive Reptiles from Japan.
  It was heaven sent when I got my job at Kit Parker Films, a local 16mm film distributer that used to have it's headquarters here. Over several years working there, I was able to see many of the obscure, foreign, and classic films I'd only read about in the books and magazines I collected. Good times, Good times....the sound of the projector chic-chic-chic-ing, and the film flap, flap, flapping at the end of a reel. Heady days. In many ways, movies saved me, and made me who I am today, but that's for another posting..
  As time has passed, I still love really scary, gruesome horror films, and now I can stop and examine each disgusting scene, frame by frame, thanks to modern technology. But don't get me wrong.... I don't watch horror exclusively, I'll go in for just about any type of movie from summer block-busters to art house indies. I am no film snob (well, Julia Roberts is a deal breaker).
  These days we try to see a movie every week on the big screen, and I can easily go through several dvds a week, sometimes watching movies for the 5th, 6th or 10th time. Drives my husband nuts. I enjoy every minute, from the previews to the soundtracks, the credits are always too long, but fun to watch... I like to see where in the world the movie was filmed. It's all a world of wonder for me, and always has been. When I sit and watch a really great movie, I am that little kid again, with eyes wide open and heart pounding, just waiting to see what will unfold up there on the big screen.