I’ve always been fascinated with monsters, ghouls, ghosts and zombies. All the creepy, scary things that give you goosebumps, make the hair on the back of your neck stand up and cause you to turn all the lights on as you head up the dark stairway to bed.
It’s my late father’s fault.
Way back in 1969 my father took the family (myself and my three older siblings) to the drive-in theatre in Surrey. At the time, I was just five years old and my Dad was sure I would fall asleep in the back of the station wagon long before the scary double feature would begin.
Not a chance.
There I sat, watching George A. Romero’s cult classic, The Night of the Living Dead. I did not fall asleep, in fact my eyes opened wider and wider and wider as I saw ghouls (we call them zombies now) slowly kill and eat our heroes.
If you watch the film today, the scare factor is greatly diminished, but it was definitely inappropriate for a five-year-old.
I never saw the second film that night. No, I didn’t fall asleep. I was too busy crying and vomiting. You could say that experience had a strong affect on me.
After the shock wore off, a few days later, I was strangely hooked on horror. I wanted to know how they made the effects, how they managed to scare you, how the music set your nerves on edge and the shadows made you see things that may not be there. I became a horror movie aficionado. I still am today. It’s like a secret pleasure. I have a collection of hundreds of films - Evil Dead, Dawn of the Dead, The Thing – the list goes on. The more scares, the more effects, the better.
Naturally such an interest in the horror genre made Halloween a special night for me.
I mean Christmas is great - presents, food, family - but Halloween mixes horror, costumes and candy, three of the greatest things ever created.
I would always dress up as a monster character on Halloween. I’ve been Dracula, Frankenstein, a skeleton and when I got older Freddy Krueger and even a clown (the scariest monster ever created).
Halloween was also profitable for me as a child. Two years after the whole drive-in experience, I became a Type One Diabetic, meaning no candy for me. However that didn’t stop me trick or treating. I just collected the candy and sold my bag to the highest bidder, usually my brother.
Today, things are different.
Maybe I’m old and grouchy, but I haven’t dressed up in a long time.
Watching a horror film at home doesn’t have the same impact as watching in a dark theatre. Neither does watching them alone. My wife won’t watch them and I only managed to turn one of my three sons into a horror fanatic, but he’s now 40 and lives in Kelowna.
My granddaughter lives with me though, but she’s only 10, so horror is out for now (I learned from my Dad’s mistake).
However there is some hope. She enjoys the Hotel Transylvania movies and her Halloween costume this year is the Corpse Bride, so she’s showing me a lot of potential.
For now Halloween is more about the candy and less about the costume for her, though that could change as she gets older.
I wonder if I should start her out with Night of the Living Dead, or just go for it and watch The Exorcist together?
Who am I kidding, I can’t do that. If my wife found out I’d finally know if ghosts were real or not.
Tuesday is Halloween and kids will be getting excited to go out and collect candy. As always take precautions, make sure you can be seen as you cross the dark roads, check your candy before you eat it and don’t go anywhere alone. The monsters I enjoy are fictional, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t villains out there in the real world.
On Tuesday afternoon, you can come to Downtown Mission from 3-5 p.m. and trick or treat in the daylight. Make sure you stop by the Mission Record for some candy and we’ll take your picture. Who knows, you just might end up in the paper.
- Kevin Mills is the editor of the Mission Record