Whereas the movies weren't all the frightening - in fact, when I was really young, I always fell asleep well before the monster ever appeared on screen - the opening of Nightmare Theater scared the living daylights out of me! The camera would pan across a scene of pastoral rolling hills dotted with trees, obviously a miniature train landscape. "Lightning" would flash, and the sound of an impending storm could be heard. Then, the camera would focus on a single, old creepy building and the lights would flash on and off again.
And that's when it would happen - the maniacal, evil scientist laughter. It would thunder out of the TV and send shivers down my spine, scaring the bejebus out of me. Most Fridays, as soon as I saw the camera headed to the scientist's lab, I would flee the living room, throw myself onto my parents' bed and cover my head with a pillow to block the fear out. (Often times I was followed by my big brother, John, doing a mocking impression of the laugh!)
The kicker is, I knew damn well that the laughter was created by Fireman Frank, the character played by Ron Ross on a kids' television program. But that didn't keep me from getting a bad case of the creepy jeepies every time I heard his voice.
Not surprisingly, like most 9-year old boys, Gus is fascinated with the "paranormal" and scary shows. So we've started a little dad / son tradition: our own "Nightmare Theater." Now, what constitutes as "frightening" has definitely evolved since I was a kid, but we started off by Netflixing the series, "Ghost Adventures."
The premise of this "reality" show is three men spending the night "locked down" in a purportedly haunted site. With night vision cameras and electronic voice phenomenon recorders, they wander around old mental hospitals, speak easies, mansions and factories...in the pitch black. In the dozen or so episodes we watched, not one location was deemed to be ghost free.
Now, to be honest, during the first few episodes, I tried to provide Gus with a healthy dose of skepticism. I went so far as to explain the idea of false hypotheses to him - arguing that the one "false" hypothesis that these guys could never disprove was their own imaginations. "Look," I said, "they're in a dark, cold place at night, they've been told it's haunted. Of course they're going to think they see ghosts."
Then I thought, "What fun is that?" So I let go of voicing my doubts, and embraced Gus's wish to believe. Pretty soon I no longer asked him to close his eyes when they played an EVP to see if he heard what they claimed they had (he never did), and instead wholeheartedly agreed that I had heard the disembodied voice say "get out" too. (Even though all I heard was disembodied static.)
We've abandoned Ghost Adventures in favor of a scripted series called "Supernatural." First off, writers are always better at telling stories than 3 terrified former frat boys with night visions cameras. In fact, when I watched the first episode to determine if it was appropriate for Gus, I found myself jumping a couple of times.
The show is about two 20-something brothers investigating paranormal mysteries as they search for their missing father, who raised the boys to believe in - and destroy - all manner of the supernatural after their mother was killed by some evil entity.
As usual, Gus provides me with a running commentary of his thoughts, predictions and advice for the two main characters. And after a couple of hand-grabbings to scare each other, we've agreed on a truce - of course, I can't even put my arm on the back of the couch without being accused of a potential violation of the treaty.
I love this time we have together, and the opportunity to just enjoy something with one another. Even if today's scary TV options are more chilling than the b-movies I watched on Nightmare Theater, they still can't hold a candle to Fireman Frank and his terrifying laughter.
Reliving your childhood, Christopher?
ReplyDeleteI did that too by showing my children The Day the Earth Stood Still. When they grew into teens we talked about the cold war and the messages progressive-thinking film producers were trying to deliver with the Klatu-Gort collaboration. Then there was The Night of the Living Dead where if you went to sleep a pod (communist) would take your place, and you'd then become a Godless zombie? I love those old films that mock wingnuts.