Feeling the Fear

The other night, Himself set up a film for us to watch which he told me he’d seen reviewed in a particular national newspaper about the burgeoning Irish film industry. I don’t know what I expected – other than humour – and while that was certainly present, so were vampires…

Now I have long chosen not to watch horror movies, yet the people pleaser in me has nevertheless ended up seeing a surprising number. While I enjoy the humour, in the immediate aftermath I am taken back to my childhood fear of the dark <shudder> I got the creeps that night while turning out the lights, and had to force myself not to run to the bedroom.

As a child, our ayah (Indian nanny) ensured our good behaviour at bedtime with tales of the bogeyman. It wasn’t great for sleep, but I did stay quiet – rendered shock still in bed by the least unidentified sound, shadow or movement. That fear was cemented when I started boarding school and had to walk through the convent’s dark shadowy cloisters, then through a dank underground tunnel with timer controlled lights to get to the dormitories. As I joined mid-year and didn’t know people, I often made the journey alone. My mother sending me outside near midnight to check she’d locked the car immediately after she’d had me watch the shower scene in Psycho with her was another memorable moment.

Fortunately the fear doesn’t last long and, as it’s only triggered by something like this film, it doesn’t limit me.  I’ll happily walk down dark streets and use underground car parks at night for instance. I know I’ve always had a very lively imagination, and feel this is a small price to pay for that.

Himself still has a higher price to pay as I found that article he read – where the headline included the words horror and vampire…

Did you have a childhood fear? Does it still pop up from time-to-time? More importantly, how should Himself be made to suffer? 😉