It always fascinates me how our children constantly challenge us and lead us to try new experiences we might never have considered ourselves. Take my daughter, for example, who’s now eighteen. As a child and young teenager, she would beg me to accompany her on the scariest rides at Movie World – like the Superman Ride… And I did.
The queue for the Superman Ride was long, but my fear made it move quickly. I was dreading boarding the carriages, convinced I’d become that one in a million chance statistic who was left hanging upside down mid-ride due to a technical failure. Of course, that never happened and I felt such an adrenalin rush from the G-force factor that once the ride was over, I immediately wanted to do it again and again.
From a tiny tot, Veronica has always had a passion for movies. As she grew older, that developed into a love of horror films. It didn’t really surprise me because I’d been the same at her age, until I saw Friday the 13th which took gore and blood-spattering to such an extreme level that I was put off horror for life. Veronica has since seen that too and declared it to be ‘lame and dated.’
So naturally she was over the moon with excitement when she saw the ads for the Cinema Nova Monster Fest – a 2-week celebration of horror films at the Carlton venue.
She booked a couple of sessions to see with friends but there was one experience she wanted to share with me. The ALL NIGHT MOVIE MARATHON screening of FIVE back-to-back Nightmare on Elm Street films. Really? A WHOLE night of horror starting from 11.30pm sounded spooky enough, let along having to endure ONLY Freddie Krueger in all his gluey-faced glory, mauling his victims for more than eight hours…
But she caught me in a moment of weakness, when she’d been dealt one of life’s disappointments. Wearing her sad face and asking ever so sweetly, I got sucked in.
The event was last night.
Now here’s a spooky photo. Just before the screening, I took this on my I-phone and because it’s not hugely flattering for Ronnie, I might not have posted it – but check out what my flash did to the eyes of a couple of the other patrons… That’s not regular ‘red eye’ – that’s just weird… It was a spooky start.
Like the Superman Ride, I was dreading this experience too. Not just because of the horror I knew would make me jump and squirm, but because of the SLEEP DEPRIVATION… I haven’t been drinking much coffee at all lately, but last night I had three large cups – straight, strong and black.
I was pleasantly surprised by the festive nature of the screening. There really was an air of excitement among ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ fans – some dressing up, others bringing bags packed with goodies, drinks and even dressing-gowns to get them through the night. There was also a trivia quiz at the end of each movie with prizes and lollies being handed out.
And it’s much funnier watching horror classics with diehard (‘scuse the pun) fans, because they will laugh uproariously in the most gory of moments because an actor’s bad line or lack of acting ability has since become infamous. (like Nancy’s mum in the first Nightmare movie – just appalling…)
It was also a wonderful irony that the movie’s major promotion line is ‘You’ll Never Sleep Again’. In the middle of our session, that’s kinda how I felt…
I had warned Veronica I might not be able to last the distance till 8.30am this morning. Even though she initially insisted she wanted to stay for ALL the movies, she agreed after the third movie – at 4.30 this morning – that our bums and legs were numb enough to warrant an exit pass. Thank God!!
(Although I am now on a promise to borrow DVDs of the movies we missed to watch at home.)
I finally fell into bed just after 5.30am. But the most horrific part of the experience was by far and away the DAMN BASTARD FORK LIFT DRIVER AND CONSTRUCTION WORKERS who revved up motors and power tools in our street at 6am and woke me up just half an hour later. Timing. Now that’s when I REALLY wanted Freddie Krueger to make an appearance.
Now, don’t you agree I deserve a Mother of the Year award???
