When I Was Scared

It should come as no surprise that many children are practically raised by the family television. I can say honestly that as a young and then not so young child I was addicted to television. Thankfully I was also blessed with cable at a young age. School cancelled due to a blizzard? Great!! The warm glow of the television will keep me occupied. While many of my formative moments growing up came about thanks to television, two stand out in my mind.

The first would be me watching the movie Se7en by David Fincher. Sitting home watching Se7en on HBO was quite the interesting experience. Not only was I too young to be watching such a graphic movie, I can state without reservation that I didn't understand half of what was going on anyways. Anyone who has watched the movie knows there are many shocking moments, but the one that sticks out most is the SWAT raid of the alleged serial killers home. SWAT is humorously led by a bald and hard ass John Mcginley. They bust into the purported killers apartment (which they track down by linking the fingerprints found behind a painting) and note that there are hundreds of gas station TREE air fresheners hanging from the ceiling. As the camera pulls back into a bedroom, there on a stained mattress we see a completely emancipated hollow corpse. Mr. Mcginley leans in to the presumed dead body and whispers "You got what you deserved." No sooner does this sentence finish the corpse jumps to life moaning and screaming.

The point of moaning and screaming coincided with me literally jumping back from the television and yelling in complete fear and panic. We've all had moments of dread and fear but this is probably the closest I've come to shitting my pants. Credit goes to Fincher for staging the scene perfectly and lulling the viewer (me) into a modest sense of security only to rip this false security blanket out from me and throw me naked into Buffalo Bill's well.