Unfortunately I grew up in the era when film directors realised the full potential of having creepy children in their movies. I think it may have begun with the blonde geniuses in Children of the Damned but by the seventies Damien in the Omen really took the prize for terrifying toddlers. Damien freaked me out and then at a very vulnerable age I happened to see Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and that was the icing on the nightmares. ...
Of course since then we've had The Sixth Sense and The Ring so that now the scary supernatural child is almost the default position in horror films and the trope is so pervasive you begin to suspect it even in your own life. Tonight my daughter and I were out for an evening walk in a tumbledown part of St Kilda when we passed a house covered in ivy with a decrepit roof, old fashioned shutters and windows that had a vague, oddly sinister fairy-tale appearance. The garden however was full of wild flowers, so I said "Oh what a lovely house." My daughter replied, "Yes, but the gate is talking to me and wants me to go in." I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't been conditioned by The Ring, The Omen etc. I would have just ignored this remark; as it was, a chill went down my spine. "What do you mean the gate was talking to you?" I asked. "Oh you know, the way everything talks to you," she explained.
...
I was scared and did not press the matter further. I decided that I didn't want to know. Finding out accelerates you to Act 2 and for the present I want to stay in Act 1. Of course it's nothing more than the innocent ramblings of an imaginative seven year old, but then again...
44 comments:
Adrian, if we never hear from you again, I just want you to know, it's been great.
Was she the elder or younger daughter?
Arwynn is old enough to attempt a practical joke at her credulous father's expense - and probably she was set up by your wife.
Alternatively, I've read a short story in which malignant spirits tried to mnifest in your very own St.Kilda (wasn't very good). Maybe the negative emotions after the defeat against the Geelong Cats have dangerously weakened the already thin dimensional barriers.
And maybe your daughter is the new Buffy.
Whoa, that is creepy. I think I must share your conditioning. When my eight-year-old daughter was a baby she had a musical box she liked to play at bedtime. I hated it. Every time I saw her in her cot, all helpless and innocent with this tinkly music playing, I just knew something terrible was going to happen. It never did, thank God, but...you know.
Oh, and here's a creepy kids moment. When walking into town, my wife and I used to avoid the main road as it's frequented by smoke-belching lorries and buses. We take a shortcut through a cemetery. Until, that is, Heather, started waving to people only she could see. We decided pollution was preferable.
Oh, I can't wait for Act 2.
Another creepy child movie: "The Bad Seed" (1956). That little psychopath Rhoda scares the stuffing out of me.
Matt
Thanks man, I was going to say "I hope to live a long time yet" but that's just about the kiss of death isnt it?
Marco
It was the older daughter. It wasn't a practical joke, it was all just too casual for that. I told the wife and she can press it if she wants but I'm never going to mention it again. I really dont want to know.
The Melbourne Storm won the Rugby League championship over the weekend BTW (Australia's second most popular sport) so my own magical powers may be intact.
Michael
The music box sounds terrifying. Why would you have such a thing in your house? One day it will start playing by itself mark my words.
Yes better to go the long way. Avoid the graveyard, entirely agree.
Seana
I definitely can. And will.
Holden
I havent seen that one, but that Children of the Damned was bad news. Based on the John Wyndham novel and subsequently parodied on The Simpsons.
I am not too worried about Arwynn, you know. I've read her reviews.
You on the other hand might want to stay away from that house.
Seana
I'm definitely not going near that house again. Michael's music box story has also given me the willies. Those things are awful. Clowns too. Nobody in their right mind likes clowns.
Four Clowns of the Apocalypse
And the classic Killer Klowns from Outer Space, though admittedly it's not quite Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
I won't say that I love clowns, but I do have a couple of friends who don't even like to hear the word.
Oddly enough, I just posted a bit about the uncanny over on my Lapse of Memory blog yesterday.
It's not scary and there are no cl--wns.
Of course Freud (and Jentsch before him) based his concept of the Uncanny on E.T.A. Hoffmann's short story The Sandman, an absolute masterpiece which is in the public domain and can be read online or downloaded from Project Gutenberg and various other sites in many formats, so you really have no excuses if you haven't read it yet.
I just noticed on Wikipedia that Killer Klowns was filmed in Santa Cruz. If I knew this once, I've forgotten. I suppose I'll have to track it down...
I'm sure that I can think up one, though.
Adrian,
She is truly her father's daughter, a gifted storyteller. At least, I hope she is.
Marco, actually what I meant was that I could probably think up an excuse for not having already read it--it sounds quite interesting. I saw the opera Tales of Hoffman once, oh, and read an Robertson Davies novel about him, now I think about him, but as to the primary material,no.
Brian, now that you're here, it reminds me to mention that I've kept thinking of The Unearthed all day. True, this isn't going to make Adrian feel any better, but there it is.
Marco
That was a good story.
And dont forget the Isane Clown Posse and Stephen King's It. Bad clowns all.
Seana
Clowns, spiders and wise creepy children would make one uncomfortable horror movie for me.
Brian
Well, I'm not going to find out. I choose not to.
I don't think any of these things have too much zing for me. I never really got The Turn of the Screw either. I was thinking about clowns and I realize that mostly I just find them tedious.
Spiders, cool unless they are the brown recluse type but I wouldn't recognize one of those if I stepped on it.
Wise children? Well, they're all a lot wiser than I am, so I pretty much submit, unless they're about to get themselves into peril, in which case I rely on superior upper body strength to snatch them from danger.
No love for your friendly neighborhood spider, then?
Burying your head in the sand won't work.
Ghosts will talk to your daughter through television, and what will you do when furniture begins to float? Better steel yourself and be prepared.
Tell Arwynn not to speak to gates. Just in case.
And I'm just reminded of John Connolly's new book The Gates...
Seana,
Let's hope that Arwynn uses her powers for good. And if not for good, then at least for something interesting, i.e. blogworthy.
And thanks for the plug ;)
Seana,
Let's hope that Arwynn uses her powers for good. And if not for good, then at least for something interesting, i.e. blogworthy.
And thanks for the plug ;)
Brian, like I said, it's not Arwynn I'm worried about. And you're welcome.
What is the picture of the creepy house from, anyway?
Miss Witch
Typical, I finally get a supernatural child and she starts channelling John Connolly.
Seana
I dont know, but its pretty cool isnt it? I just googled "creepy cottage" and that came up. It reminds me of folk art or something.
marco
Well I hadnt read the Hoffmann but have now. Yup, pretty good.
Brian
Did you ever read that Arthur C Clarke novel Chilhood's End? Its a good one for prospective parents.
For the love of God, Brian--don't listen to any of his parenting tips.
It's like that house has started to influence him already.
Adrian
Yeah, man, read it a couple of months ago. I enjoyed it, but damn that's a strange book.
And also frightening.
I read it in high school so it's surprising I remember anything at all, but whatever Clarke's intentions, I apparently did not believe this was a good outcome for future generations even, at the ripe old age of sixteen.
Brian
Oops, too late then.
Definitely avoid the omen if you can.
Seana
I liked it. Although like you its been a few decades...
It's not that I didn't like it. In fact, I think it even sparked some sort of short story about a tribunal of some kind--it's hazy. It's just that it's not exactly Parent's Magazine.
You know, all flippancy aside, maybe you are just more attuned to the supernatural than some. Gateways and the like.
But I still wouldn't worry about Arwynn.
How does it feel to be the third- or fourth-most imaginative person in your own household?
=================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
At least one person in this string has performed as a clown in Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey cricus... At lest one... The one ...
=================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter,
Intriguing and mysterious comment about the clowns. I'm piqued.
Yes it is depressing being the least creative member of the Australian McKintys. And the least adventurous of the McKinty brothers I think too.
It's just that it's not exactly Parent's Magazine.
It deals with classic parental fears: what if my children join an overmind and leave for a disreputable part of the galaxy without even cleaning their planet first?
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