1) Driving to the Gold Coast today alone during that massive storm. Around Logan I was thinking "that sky is really dark, hey that was cool lightning, this is really cool driving and watching this and listening to The Used really loud. However, about Yatala it became an intense storm cell with strong wind, heavy rain (almost hail) and huge lightning and thunder, it was as dark at 4:15pm as it is at 8pm. The 110km/hr zone quickly dropped to 80km, then 60 then almost a standstill. All the spots on the side of the road under the bridges were taken so I had to keep going. I don't have a lot of experience driving in rain so I was really panicking and had to tell myself to breathe slowly and just focus. Never been so glad to arrive at my destination as I was today. This video on youtube was taken at the exact spot where I got off the highway to take shelter - I was sitting in that Caltex carpark at around the same time!
2) Going on my first camping trip and sleeping in the back of the ute with Ben, the night after going to a midnight screening of Uruguayan scary movie "The Silent House" by myself. The movie is a fantastically chilling one-take wonder about a girl and her father staying in a remote house when they hear some very scary sounds from the upstairs level. So that first night camping, Ben turns the light out and I realise it is very very dark. And we are out in the middle of nowhere (okay Bribie Island beach side, not that far from normal society at all, but it felt like nowhere) and sleeping in a car with just a zip off canopy over our heads. So my brain starts thinking back to the movie and hearing some very different noises than I'm used to and thinking about how anyone could just come past and kill us. They could just reach in and touch my face! It took me a looooong time to get to sleep that first night. Ben isn't going to let me watch any scary movies before camping ever again.
3) When I realised 1 second beforehand that we were about to have a front-on car accident, back in 2009. Minding our own business, legally going through a green light on a straight road on a Sunday evening after The Bronx concert, a young unlicensed driver turned across in front of me cause he "thought" I had a red light. Ben just had time to yell "watch out" and I slammed on the brakes and squeezed my eyes shut and then we hit and spun around. Very scary moment. We were lucky to escape with no injuries worse than whiplash, bruises and scraped arms from the airbag, other driver was fine but his passenger went to hospital with sore neck (hope she was okay). I feel bad all the time for my friend Brad who was with us that night. Car was written off and I didn't drive anywhere for about a week, but then I got a new car and had to get back on that horse.
4) Watching The Descent for the first time. I rate this as the scariest modern movie by a mile. The combination of spelunking in tight caves and gruesome death by half human creatures is a total winner in the heart stopping fear stakes. For me anyway, and I think many would agree.
5) Going to see Paranormal Activity (the first one) at the movies with 3 mates from work who were generally scary movie novices. The entire theatre was populated by people who were really into the movie, even screaming out loud at some of the big moments. I wanted someone to hold my hand about 3/4 of the way through, but nobody would. The part where Katie is dragged out of bed and out of the room has to rate as one of the most chilling moments in cinema. The sound effects of this movie at the cinema were top notch, really getting the heart beating faster. Afterwards, we were all shaking and standing in the foyer discussing the movie, I actually got goosebumps down my arms just thinking about that scene again.
6) About a week after seeing Paranormal Activity when Ben got out of bed and just stood at the side of the bed motionless for several minutes. This is not going to make sense unless you've seen Paranormal Activity so rent it out if you haven't seen it. When I woke up and saw him doing this, I got this very cold tense feeling. Thank god he just got back into bed eventually and went back to sleep! And he had not seen the movie so he wasn't playing tricks on me.
7) Going through the bad storm of November 2008 that hit The Gap the worst but still hit our area pretty hard. It has been likened to a cyclone or tornado in the worst hit areas - here's a link to the newscast the day after the storm. Scariest moment is a toss up between when it started to hail and I dashed out with a doona to cover the side of my car that was exposed and I was hiding behind the columns of the carport to dodge the stones, when a tree in the corner of the yard fell over (not a big one though) or when we got caught out after driving over to check on some friends at Ferny Hills and got down some streets with large fallen trees and had to go on the footpath to get back and then the tyres had no traction - thought we were stuck out in it and would not be able to get home.
8) Watching Rob Zombie's Halloween one night, curled up on the couch with all the lights off, when suddenly there is an action scene and something touches my leg. It was a whoosh of air from the subwoofer which I was sitting about 1.5 metres away from and it scared the hell out of me! I don't normally sit on that seat to watch TV so it was a big shock.
9) The day I realised that I occasionally have true dreams. This was the day someone close to me died, after I'd had a dream that someone related to me was going to die in their car. This may sound far-fetched but it was a fairly clear dream and I woke up feeling such intense sorrow that I felt compelled to tell my mum to warn somebody about it. She did so, as she already believed in my dreams at that time, even before that one came true. However it was sadly not the right person to prevent it coming true. Now every time I have a nightmare (they are frequent and vivid) my heart skips a beat if anyone I know is in it.
10) Seeing a number of scary movies as a teen when I wasn't quite adjusted enough to cope. Geez we were scared of that clown in Stephen King's "It". I think I can add Pet Sematery, Nightmare on Elm Street, Braindead, The Lost Boys, The Hand that Rocked the Cradle, Gremlins, Goonies, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Silence of the Lambs to that list. I think what these movies all have in common is that they were watched in my teens, at night, in the dark, with friends at a slumber party or sometimes with my family. The best way to enjoy horror or chiller movies.
Well that wraps it up, hopefully you're not laughing at me right now. I much prefer the movie based scares in this list than the real life ones. There is something that I just love about sitting in a dark room and immersing yourself in a scary movie, whether it is one that makes you jump out of your skin (I still jump every time there's a cat jumping out of a cupboard/from behind a door) or just get goosebumps or look over your shoulder as you unlock your front door when you get home.
Please feel free to share your own scaredy cat moments so I don't feel like such a dork. But even more so, please make sure you sit down and watch a scary movie with all the lights off this coming Halloween, and think of me when you jump.
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