Halloween is nearly upon us, and nothing quite says Halloween like a good scare....
Halloween is nearly upon us, and nothing quite says Halloween like a good scare.
What's the best scare you've had in your life? I'm not talking movie scare, nor am I talking about cheesy scare (the kind produced by hearing a title like Blood Belly).
I'm talking about a real scare. The kind of scare which leaves your heart racing and your lungs gasping for air . . . but also the kind of scare which leaves you laughing much, much later.
After all, being able to laugh at ourselves is what Halloween is all about.
It seems like a weird pet now, but have you ever had a hermit crab?
They were these pet crabs which stayed inside seashells, and came out every once and while. I had several of them as a child. The one I remember most vividly was probably only ever named "The Claw" - like the Inspector Gadget villain - because all I ever saw hanging outside of the shell was this massive claw.
In those days, I actually didn't watch many horror movies. I was actually afraid of them. I wasn't actually afraid of Freddy or Jason - I was scared as prospect of being scared by watching them. For one reason or another, I was terrified at the prospect of having to watch them.
And this particular night was no exception, when in the middle of the night, I heard scratch scratch scratch at my window.
Naturally, as a kid, I thought . . . "I can't escape THEM! I turn off the TV and they arrive at my window!"
The scraping persisted all throughout the night, leaving me to beg the question . . . what are they waiting for?
Later I discovered the Claw had escaped from his cage somehow - and was scratching at the window the whole time.
What about you? What's your best scare - whether of childhood or recent memory?
Comments
09:30 Sat Oct 24th, 2009
Hands down, this ones easy. I used to work at a 711 convenience store. I worked the graveyard shift. I was about 18 years old. There was a fellow who would come in late at nights to buy some junk food on his way home. He was nice enough, a little older than me. We traded niceties, weather chat, etc. One day he asks me if I smoke pot. ( which I did back then ) He invited me to stop by his place after I got off work for a smoke before I headed home. Night shift, a toke, relax after being up all night, SURE !
So, he met me outside and we headed to his place, talking about bands we like, video games whatever. Then we got into his place. It was a converted loft warehouse. The hallways, elevator and doors were very industrial with large bolt locks etc. In his place there were no real walls or furnishings. There was a counter on one wall with a fridge, stove and deep freezer. A large black cabinet stood near by with a light eminating from it. The rest of the walls were covered in mirrors and the floors were scrattered with blue gym matts. There were all kinds of rope, chains and car tires laying around.
He explained that he and his friends ran their own fight club, inspired by the move. That they often invited new people to come out, and kicked the crap out of them. If they came back the next week, they could join the club. He showed me his illegal pot growing operation. and introduced me to his dog. A pitbull of some sort.
Then he offered me a beer, and he went to the fridge to get it. His pit bull sat at my feet keeping me frozen to my chair in fear. Suddenly I realized as I looked around the room, that this is exactly how people like Jeffery Dalmer find their victoms. I was in the den of the dragon and I was in serious trouble. No one know where I was or who I was with. I was in the presence of a complete stranger who had complete control. And I was about to be drugged by whatever he had put in the beer.
I ran, and I ran fast. I bolted out the door, down the metal staircase and ran the entire way home at top speed. I lived a good 40 minute run away from there. I quit my job and never went back to that neighbourhood again.
Moral of the story - Don't do drugs kids !
13:38 Sat Oct 24th, 2009
You mean like actual scare, or crazy nightmare subconscious scare? Because I have the latter in droves! As for real scares, the only one I can really think of is waaaaaay too graphic to relate here. This be a family site! But I assure you it's not nearly as bad as you probably think when you read the term "graphic" - it's all medical related :-)
21:32 Sat Oct 24th, 2009
Many years ago, before I ever heard the term "LARP", there was a live action fantasy roleplaying game run out of Edmonton called DreamQuest. It took place 2-5 times a year, usually over long weekends at various tree-filled locations about an hour outside of Edmonton--30-100 players would dress up in costume, hop on a bus, and go out and interact with 20+ paid actors. Each weekend was built as its own story with a beginning, middle and end, generally with the last weekend being a culmination of the preceding year's storylines. World Fantasy Award winner Sean Stewart actually wrote a couple of DreamQuest "seasons", before going on to make his mark.
One of the Big Bads of a particular year was the Karkadann, which was billed as a Black Unicorn. When you saw the Karkadann in daylight, it appeared as a fairly silly-looking guy in a baggy, padded costume that was capped off by what appeared to be a horse skull with a black horn in it. The character was played by then-local magician Sean Smith.
But the first time I saw the Karkadann wasn't in daylight.
I've never been good at sleeping anywhere but my own bed. As a result, I generally spent the first night or two of a DreamQuest weekend being wide awake, then would crash out immediately after the quest concluded and thoroughly miss the debauched party that took place afterward.
So there we are, maybe six of us, at two o'clock in the morning in the clearing where a bunch of my friends are camping for the weekend (I shelled out the extra fifty bucks or whatever to have a cabin room with a real bed). We're sitting around a roaring fire, with nothing but clearing for a solid twenty+ feet in any direction. I've got a clear view of the only clear path to the campsite.
It being two in the morning, we were all out of character, just sitting around shooting the breeze about The Cult ("The Cult of The Spidergod?" someone asked me later when I told the story, that cult being a part of the game. "No, The Cult the rock band," said I.)
Someone was making some good point about "Love Removal Machine" when I catch a flutter of movement in the corner of my eye. I turn to look at whatever it was...
...and I'm looking at a horse skull with a black horn hovering in the darkness a foot away from my face.
I fell backwards off my log and scrambled back, away from the thing. Four other people did the same. My friend Matt, who wasn't wearing his glasses at the time, was confused, mostly because he was looking at us beat a hasty retreat instead of what we were hastily retreating from. Matt says, "What's the matter?" I nod at the Karkadann, which in the meantime has moved to within arm's reach of him. He turns, sees the thing, swears, and starts running away.
I guess he got chased around the firepit a few times before making his escape, but I didn't see it--I almost killed a referee as I ran blindly out of the clearing. Stopped, said, "That's the scariest #*&%ing thing I've ever seen," and ran straight for the safety of the cabin. Which was unfortunate, as there was no straight path to the cabin available and I had no light to speak of. Whenever I hit a tree, I adjusted my path, but I didn't stop running till I had four walls around me.
IT WAS AWESOME.
Literally years later, I heard Sean Smith tell this story to other people, completely unaware that I was the guy on the other end of it. Apparently it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a brilliant piece of misdirection, and he was quite proud of the fact that he'd managed to walk into a clearing, lugging a heavy, clumsy costume along with him, and get within a foot of one of six people present without anyone noticing him doing so. I wouldn't be surprised if he still tells the story; I know I sure do.
11:15 Sun Oct 25th, 2009
Wow . . . just wow . . . Andrew and Elliot's stories were awesome! Elliot's needs to be turned into an after-school special, while Foley's is just sooo funny!
I'm a little surprised Tenzil mistook a hamster for a giant wolf spider . . . but then again, on the opposite end of the spectrum, once my grandmother was walking with my mom in one of the Ohio caves. Deep within the caverns, something flew by my grandmother's head.
"Oh, look!" She exclaimed as the shape darted into the shadows. "It must be a bird!"
My mother just nodded, eyes widening, as she thought. "It's probably best she knows that wasn't a bird."
16:41 Sun Oct 25th, 2009
In my defense, it's not that I mistook a hamster for a spider. All I saw was something low to the ground moving very quickly behind me. It was the motion that caught my attention and made me look, alas, half a second too late to identify Herman. My arachnophobia and imagination did the rest.
17:32 Sun Oct 25th, 2009
@TK When I was about 13 years old, I went to a friends house to watch the movie Alien. Right during the chest buster scene, his pet ferret got loose and ran infront of the TV.
So I can relate to rodent related scare factor.
17:56 Sun Oct 25th, 2009
I guess I can't really joke much. When I went to a late night dragstrip race with my dad, I spotted a couple of men warming themselves by a makeshift. Unfortunately, a) it was dark, b) these guys were really hairy and c) I had just seen "The Howling" - all leading me to conclude they were werewolves. I'm pretty sure I told my dad and he just looked at me funny - asked what made me think that - and kept walking.
00:16 Mon Oct 26th, 2009
GHOST STORY!!! I forgot to tell my (real, true) ghost story, mainly because while it was freaky it was not my biggest ever scare.
I used to live in this huge old creepy in a cool kind of way house when I was in University for a semester. I lived there with three other guys and that place was famous for doors and windows opening and closing themselves, weird sounds, everything like that. Never actually saw a ghost, but we joked about "Charlie" our ghost all the time.
Now three of us were in the same program and one night when we were studying for a big test one of the girls in our class asked if she could come over and study with us. We hit the books hard for an hour or so, then got to talking. Someone mentioned the ghost and soon we were telling her all about Charlie. She kept saying, "No way" and stuff like that, but I could see she was getting scared. Then, suddenly, the light bulb above us lit up bright like a minor sun and then exploded! Seriously.
She screamed and we all kind of jumped.
She left soon after and I think we all kind of wished we could too!
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Tenzil Kem
00:21 Sat Oct 24th, 2009
For sure one of the biggest scares of my life occurred when I was about fifteen. It was very late on Friday night, around midnight or maybe a bit after and I was watching the Friday Night scary movie on CBS. I was sitting on the floor in our rec room in the basement of our house, looking over to my right to see the television and everyone else was fast asleep.
Suddenly, though I was looking to my right, I sensed a movement to my left and did not quite see something dash towards me, and move right between my butt and the wall. It was big enough and quick enough that my mind instantly seized upon the unassailable fact that a giant wolf spider was right behind me!
I'm not sure how far or high I jumped, but if I'd been at the Olympics they would have tested me for sure.
Oh, and in case you are wondering - I am frightened to death of spiders.
Luckily, like in any good horror film, this proved to be a false scare, as what had happened is that my brother's pet hamster had escaped from his cage (and my brother's room) and headed for the only light he could see. All was fine in the end, but it took quite some time for my heartbeat to return to normal.