Corey and I were talking about some of the first things that scared us as kids. Here are some of the images and movie snippets that stand out to me as being the stuff of my earliest nightmares.
Ghostbusters
I reeeally wanted to see Ghostbusters when it was first in the theaters back in ’84. Everyone else in the family had already seen it and even though my sister was going with her friends to see it again, I wasn’t allowed to go. Through some amount of convincing, I was able to sit in the theater on my own and watch it while everyone else shopped at the mall… or saw something else… I don’t remember. I just remember having to hide my eyes through the whole opening scene. I would have been 10 or 11.
The Day After (Attack Scene)
I feel like I saw this when it was on TV. In ’83. When I was 9. I must have snuck in while my parents were watching it. I remember that shit at the 3:30 mark in my nightmares!
Bega’s Battle (Data East 1983)
Around the same time as seeing Ghostbusters on my own, I would have started being able to run around on my own at the mall. At first I would disappear in the electronics aisle of Hills or Roses and play the Atari 5200s and Colecos set up along the flickering bank of small color tvs. Eventually I was allowed to go by myself into the arcades until my family was done shopping. I loved watching people pump quarters into Gauntlet and Dragon’s Lair. Then Bega’s Battle showed up and I was awestruck by the cinematics. It would have been one of my first exposures to anime style animation and I had never seen anything like it before. I could not look away when the guy’s face melts at :22 I would stand frozen gaping in front of it. I would shudder whenever I would walk past the arcade, knowing that if I went inside I would just b-line it to Bega’s Battle to watch the horror. Not wanting to, but not being able to resist. For some reason, I was not at all horrified by these: Dragon’s Lair Deaths
Time Out! 
Basket Case Trailer (1982)
I remember hearing this trailer playing on the TV from my room. I was supposed to be in bed I’m sure, but instead I was trying to listen to my mom watch M*A*S*H from my door. Close your eyes and listen to the trailer and pretend you’re 7. WHAT’S IN THE FUCKING BASKET!?!
Videodrome (1983)/Vidiot Magazine
For some roadtrip to a grandparents or something, my parents bought my an issue of Vidiot Magazine. My sister got Games magazine, and since I was crazy about Atari games, I’m sure Vidiot seemed like a good choice. There were some movie previews in this issue with some screen caps from Videodrome, a movie I knew nothing about and was too young to see. The memorable image was of a man whose head had been bitten off by his television.
I think I eventually had to rip that page out too keep myself from flipping to it and freaking myself out.
I wanted to catalog some of these things to remind myself to pay attention to the sort of things Jonah sees. I still get a residual almost nostalgic shudder from all of these things and even though I was sensitive and a scardy-cat back then still, I think dealing with some of these early images helped fuel my creativity. It definitely fueled my imagination.
