Happy Halloween, everyone! Halloween is my favourite holiday, for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it’s the one day I’m sanctioned to play dress up in public. If I had my druthers, everyday would be Halloween, but alas, I am not Queen of the Universe (the last I checked anyway).
The Doctor and Rose...on a pumpkin!
Other reasons to love Halloween include the beginning of the “holiday season” here in the US, a definite turning of the seasons here in the Northeast, pumpkin and apple-flavoured hot drinks, and giving the finger to my Korean Presbyterian upbringing by loudly proclaiming the Devil’s holiday as the one I worship above all others.
Now I glory in all things creepy and gothic, and a while back, I wrote a post wondering why horror seems to have gone out of vogue in children’s fiction, and I love a good scare more than anyone. So I will be brave and air my irrational fears before you.
Things Which Scare JJ
- Dolls. Otherwise known as pediophobia (but not to be confused with pedophobia, which is fear of children, although one might argue I am also afraid of kids). One of my best friends in high school didn’t believe me when I told her I was scared of dolls (because, after all, I freaking love stuffed animals), so she left a doll in my locker as a joke. When I opened it and saw the Satanic hellspawn staring back at me, I immediately burst into tears and fled the room. I don’t think she’s played a practical joke on me since.
- Um…little holes. In things. This is a phenomenon called trypophobia (I can’t even look at this Google page–ugh! I’ve got the willies AGH!), and for years I thought I was the only person in the world with this strange affliction. When I told Teddy Bear about it, he thought it might be an OCD tic, as my mother also suffers from it, but no, I have discovered other non-OCD adults who also wig out at seeing little holes in otherwise flat surfaces. Psychic Roommate is the other notable sufferer, and we used to creep each other out by taking photos of things which “trypped” us out and texting them to each other. Because we’re good friends like that.
The doll thing people can sort of understand, but the trypophobia is definitely “You have it, or you don’t”. Thankfully, it’s kind of hard to make horror films or write horror books about little holes in flat surfaces (because it’s a visual fear), so I’m generally safe. I say generally, because the movie Holes managed to make my mother and me screaming for the theatre doors when we took my brother to see it when he was young. (It was the dried lake bed scene. Those who have it will totally understand what I’m talking about.)
So there you have it. My irrational fears. What are yours?
I have a severe fear of cats…and frogs…and bats. Okay, I’m not much of an animal person, period, except for puppies.
Aliens. Odd for a sci-fi fan, but not all aliens freak me out. I just have my own “uncanny valley” when it comes to alien representation, and it has varied over my life. I used to find E.T. and the embalmed alien bodies in Independence Day almost too scary to take, but now I’m fine with them.
For a while, I figured it was just classic “realistic” Roswell-type aliens that freaked me out, but after watching Paul, I realized that it was actually dead versions of those type aliens. Basically, if you google image “alien autopsy,” you find my personal horror show. *shudder*
Which my old co-worker friends understood and supported by putting random alien autopsy photos in my paperwork so I’d be innocently going through and suddenly have a heart attack.