Things That Go Bump in the Night

All my life I've been searching for a movie (or even a book I guess) that really scares me so far with no luck. Whenever I say this I get "have you seen...you should watch...what about..." and each time I tell them "no, that one didn't scare me at all" or go buy the suggested title, watch it, and then tell them it didn't work. I've seen some great sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat movies (the more twisted and suspenseful the better!), plenty of slasher types (you know, the ones where something or someone is just killing everyone off left and right), gore fests (buckets and buckets of blood just don't cut it as my kids can top any stain a movie can come up with), creepy effects (think The Ring or The Grudge), startle-a-thons (the ones where something suddenly jumps out making you give a little involuntary start) but not one actually scares me!

The only one that's come anywhere close is When a Stranger Calls. This is a movie based on the old, well known scary story in which a babysitter receives a number of disturbing phone calls while on a babysitting job. A creepy voice keeps asking her if she's checked on the children who are supposed to be sleeping upstairs. She eventually calls the police who agree to track the next call to find the guy calling her so they can go pick him up. The police trace the next scary call then call the babysitter frantically telling her to get out of the house, RUN because the calls are coming from somewhere in the house she's in! The finale of the story is that a killer had gotten into the house somehow and already murdered the children in some gruesome fashion. He was hiding upstairs calling her to get her to go upstairs to check on the children so he could pop out and chop her up too. That one does give me the creeps a bit but only because it involves the children and I can't stand for things like that to happen to kids!

I've often tried to figure out just what is the ultimate in scary. I should find it and put it in a book or make a film or something! Wouldn't that just be too cool??? Unfortunately it's going to have to be about what scares others because the only things I can come up with that really, truly scare me in a hide-under-the-covers-and-try-not-to-pee-myself-I'll-never-sleep-again way are people (not even the murderous, zombie, brain eating types, just regular ole everyday people) and the thought of losing someone I really love. I can (and my all too active imagination often does much to my dismay) use those to come up with all kinds of horror that will frighten the beejezzus out of ME but I doubt others would find it nearly as horrifying.

I'm not acting brave or macho in some way it's just the simple truth.

• snakes and spiders - I readily pick up reptiles and arachnids! I've cuddled a carnivorous lizard as long as I am tall under my shirt to keep him warm, I own a boa, and picked up countless scorpions, spiders, and big, hairy tarantulas to save them from being squashed by others less friendly to the "creepy-crawly" set.
  
• ghosts - Many times I've actively tried and am now considering hypnosis to train myself to see spirits. I went to the home of a very well known spirit sensitive who assured me his home was haunted. My husband, also able to see spirits, backed him up saying he definitely saw the same spirits. There was even a ghost there that the home owner swore could be and had many times been seen by people who insisted that they couldn't see ghosts, never had and never would. I really tried! I even sat there making sure to hold myself in an open, welcoming frame of mind rather than risk being offensive with a demanding or challenging kind of attitude. Nada.
  
• animal attack - Animals are probably the least scary thing in the world to me! I understand animals! I really get what makes them tick! I've worked with, communicated with, trained, and helped more types of animals than I'll bother to count right now. See the thing is that animals don't have a malicious bone in their body. They don't set out to harm anything or anyone to get some sort of nasty chuckle. If an animal attacks there is a reason for it even if the humans witnessing the attack don't know or understand that reason. I once got a call to come see if I could remove an aggressive Rottweiler from a neighborhood. I went to the location, my standard pocketful of lunchmeat, cheese, and hotdogs on board, and approached until this huge dog came charging out at me barking and snarling visciously. I simply stopped, stood with a neutral kind of air about me, and kept track of him with my peripheral vision never looking straight at him. He tried for 20 minutes to scare me out of that pose! He lunged so close snapping and frothing at the mouth that his nose brushed my pants but I never moved. He was just starting to calm down a tiny bit and stay close to me longer to sniff at my pants just a little when an Animal Control truck came roaring up disgorging a yelling, pole brandishing officer. The dog ran and we couldn't get close to him again. I really hope everything turned out ok for him.
  

What else is there? Demons? Possessions? Mutants? Headless Horsemen? Zombies? Nope, not scary. So give a girl a hand here? What makes you hide under the covers, fear putting your feet down on the floor, and wish you still had a nightlight?