The meaning of the word frightened is a sudden and extreme fear; a sudden terror. I believe growing up we all had at least one thing or event that has put us in a place of pure and sudden terror. I can still feel the shivers down my spine and the soreness of my throat from screaming at the movie theater screen. I felt the feeling of vulnerability that this alien character would take me from my bed and to his spaceship.
Surprisingly my family and I loved the movie E.T., we watched it many times as our family movie night film on Fridays. In fact, I loved the movie so much when the theater held a special anniversary viewing of the film with extended scenes, my mother surprised me with a mother-daughter movie date. Little did she know it would turn my love for E.T. into pure fear of the poor Alien away from home.
I remember the scene as if it were yesterday. It was one of the extended scenes that were not featured in the original movie. E.T. was taking a bubble bath. I remember laughing thinking this part was so funny, yet in an instant the laughing stopped. E.T.’s head disappeared into the bubbles. Where was E.T. I thought? The camera zooms into the bubbles. Where could he have gone? Then all of the sudden out shoots E.T.’s head. Grasping for air he extends his neck like a giraffe while wailing, and he wasn't the only one…
Ever since then I have been utterly terrified of E.T. I have not been able to watch the movie since. In fact, I remember loving this one TV sitcom called “Monk’ and one day during the commercials a promo for E.T. came on. Ever since then I could not watch that TV show again in fear of that promo repeating itself.
While writing this essay, I thought how neat would it be to watch the same scene again that caused so much trauma in my life as a child. I would compare my feelings as a child to now. I looked up this scene on YouTube and to my surprise, nothing has changed. I still feel the tingles up my spine. I still feel the immediate feeling of someone watching me in my room. Just the look of him still sends fear through my veins. As King stated, “I knew, watching, that the Creature had become my Creature; I had bought it,” all those years ago, and this still rang true. Books and movies have the ability to impact our lives in such crazy ways. I have bottled up that fear within of this young alien that just wants to “phone home.”
End of story. I don't do E.T.
