For P-C Conan: The Musical [link]

Ha ha ha, DJ!! That's awesome. My friend—who will be in Agnes the Barbarian —was watching the movie last night and IMing me about how terrible it was, so this is perfect timing.

I'm with Dawn - Pinocchio freaked me badly. The dark shapes that take all the donkey boys onto the ship really gave me nightmares.

Also the child catcher in Chitty and the monksy in Oz.

I saw Santa Sangre but it didn't freak my shit. But I'd already seen his other movie, The Holy Mountain. So I knew what I was getting into and I like that kind of freaky. Also, it has interesting references to early Lon Chaney (Sr.) movies, like The Unknown.

For fans of The Great Race, it's on TCM in two hours.

The only movie I remember being freaked out by as a kid was The Odessa File...a movie about how an underground version of the SS was still exterminating people in modern day Europe. (My brother was babysitting me and we only had the one television.) I blame it for recurring nightmares about concentration camps that I've had all my life.

The Great Race

I just called my DH to set the tivo (he's home dealing with the bee guy) I love that movie.

And yet, way less freaky than the book

I would have lost it totally.

We watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang over Christmas because my daughter had to do a paper on it for her study of film class. She kept looking at me and saying "what sort of movie is this???" she did not enjoy it at all. She doesn't like The Wizard of Oz either but she adored Wicked beyond the telling of it.

I remember being really freaked out by Pulse, which was about, basically, evil electricity. There was a scene where a woman was taking a hot shower and the water became scaldingly hot and she couldn't turn it off. That was my Psycho.

The Wicked Witch of the West and the flying monkeys didn't freak me out at all. The stripy feet of the Wicked Witch of the East curling up and vanishing under Dorothy's house? Endless nightmares.

And Poltergeist. I still won't re-watch it.

I know I've told my mom's story here about how, when she was in nursing school, she and some classmates went to a conference in Kalamazoo. They checked into their motel and then decided to go out to eat and see the new Hitchcock film. Yes, it was Psycho. After, my now-aunt flat-out refused to take a shower, and one of the other women had my mom stand guard in front of the bathroom door while she showered, reluctantly.

There was a scene where a woman was taking a hot shower and the water became scaldingly hot and she couldn't turn it off.

Could she not just jump out of the shower?

Probably not, but I don't remember why. Maybe she was just flailing a lot without considering that option.