Paranormal Activity & Abnormal Behaviour

So I LOVE horror movies.  Oh and I'm also TERRIFIED of horror movies.  I am the jumpiest person in the world, scared crapless when someone surprises me in the printer room at work (all they have to do is be IN the printer room for me to jump and gasp.. they always seem somewhat wounded by my reaction..), hiding my head under the blankets when shadows look at me funny, nightmares that often wake me up in sheer terror - stomach churning, etc.  Yet I seek out horror!  I'm a roller coaster addict who thinks a 90 degree drop is barely enough.. 420' in the air?  Bring it! I scream like an asshole at the top of these rides and shake like a leaf, pretty much every time.  But always want MORE!  My friend Viv and I have been seeing every horror movie that has come out since we met in 2005 - we scream together, laugh at ourselves, holding each other, jumping out of our skin.  It's fun, it's hilarious, it's mildly terrifying.  But deeply psychologically scary horror movies get to me in a different sort of way when I leave the theatre....  Some people get scared by gore, by killers, aliens, whatever.  None of that really does it for me (I might jump at a surprise, but won't feel scared in the dark aftewards). Psychological horror movies leave me terrified in regular life, and the effects LINGER! Blair Witch Project in grade 11 was about the worst idea ever (full credit to ADRIENNE! :)) - compunded when I had to take the bus home after my friends got off and then walk late at night along dark Scarborough streets by myself.  For AT LEAST 6 years afterwards the woods at night terrified me. I didn't get scared like that again until The Ring.  My tv in university glowed at night and I would have to have my head under the blanket (as above) to fall asleep.  Then I was ok again for some time.  Until a few years back when Viv and I went to see Paranormal Activity - not really knowing what to expect.  Terror.  Fabulous, unadulterated terror.  We actually screamed out loud at the ending, then burst out laughing at ourselves.. probably my fave part of being scared, and why I'm addicted to it: ADRENALINE!!

This is the story of Paranormal Activity (the original).

I was driving that night and Viv and I discussed the movie in high pitched terror all the way back to her house ("remember when THIS happened?!" "how she like SNIFFED his body after she killed him!?" "remember her DEMON VOICE when she said 'everything's fine' or whatever?! AUGH!").  In her driveway we had switched the convo to our next get together.  For a split second my eyes passed over Viv's shoulder where her neighbour was on his porch, presumably just coming home, or taking out the garbage, or something to that effect.  Viv saw my eyes move, turned in her seat and upon seeing the figure (which was at least 20' from the car and not even looking at us) screamed and ducked into her lap, covering her head with her hands.  I laughed for about 5 mins straight, not being able to get that image out of my head. Then as I wove through the dark streets of Guelph's east end, the fear crept into me.. demons.  Scary bad demons. I called Dawn so she could laugh at me, which would for sure calm me down, but I couldn't get ahold of her.  I called Jeff to say "I'm coming home and you better have all the lights on!".  But Jeff was still at the gym.  Uh oh.

Now in my car in my garage and unable to go inside after watching a movie where a demon haunts a couple entirely within their own home, nay, THEIR BEDROOM, I called my parents' place in a panic.  My dad picked up and drily humoured me for a few minutes while I sat in the car. I told him "THIS MOVIE WAS SO SCARY!  I can't go inside!  Jeff isn't home!  I can't go in there and be all alone!!"  "Uh-huh. Ok Kristyn. You're weird."  At that moment the light on the garage door opener flicked off after it's four minutes of remaining on after the garage opens or closes.  Logically I know this is what happened.  In my head: demon.  I started screaming, murder-esque, into the phone and bolted into the house as fast as I could.  My dad had pretty much had it by this point - he told me to turn on the lights, no demon, you're ridiculous, etc. etc.  Then let me go.  WHAT!  So in a rock-climbing fashion I moved through the house, turning each light on before I entered the room and only turning it off when my path ahead was fully illuminated.  I was living in a wee townhouse at the time, but the journey to my bedroom was epic.  Once in my room I felt completely unsafe.. bedrooms are where demons HANG OUT!!!!!!!!!  Dawn called back, luckily, and with my coat still on I pulled the hood up, crawled under the covers and talked to her in terror until Jeff got home.  He found me in the fetal position in bed and proceeded to make fun of me for awhile.  Seeing how scared I was, he relented, got into bed with me, lights ablaze and talked to me as I was way too hyped up to sleep.  Every dark corner held a demon.   Nowhere was safe!!!!!

I tried to turn the lights off to fall asleep around 12 a.m. - NO DICE!!!!  Lights back on.  I yammered incessantly to Jeff until 2 in the morning - sadly I'm not exaggerating.  2009 Jeff was very understanding and stayed up listening to me blather about nothing, distracting myself from thoughts of demons and the eventual darkness that would occur.  I suspect 2012 Jeff would not be so patient....... :P  I let poor Jeff go to sleep at 2 a.m. and eventually, distracted enough by reading, fell asleep myself with the lights on.  I woke up at 5 to blinding light and manned up enough to turn off the lamps and sleep through the rest of the night.

But I was haunted.  For months afterwards, every dark room held demons.  I would challenge the demons to come out when I heard a weird noise ("let's do this!  show yourself!!").  Then I'd try not to think about demons, because that's what gets them fired up, as I learned from my very reliable source: Paranormal Activity 1.  Jeff watched it with me on DVD and stared in disbelief at me when it was over: "THAT was what you were so scared about?!".  When we were in the process of breaking into our house daily as it was being built, we heard a ridiculous noise coming from the basement - distracting white-noise like (much like demons use when they're up to no good, you know).  I made Jeff go down first and he reported that they were heating the basement to dry the concrete that had been poured and the noise was coming from a little gas-powered heater/fire thing.  So I ventured down after him.  In Paranormal Activity, the couple puts baby powder across the floor to see if something is walking there - what emerges are very distinct demon footprints the next morning.  AUGH!  So of course on this night, as I walk into the eerily-lit basement aglow with fire and damp and dark with newly poured concrete THIS is what I see:


Come on now!!!!!!!!!!!! :(  I didn't spent much time down there that night. 

Somehow I've continued to watch the Paranormal Activity series - just watched #3 tonight on the couch with Viv where I gripped her foot so tightly during the scary parts that she may have lost a toe or two.  Viv thinks the part where the guy's wife bursts out of the closet in a scary mask to freak him out was the best - Dave, fair warning that you better check your closets closely!!!!!!

After Viv left I turned on every light in the house (of course), and went straight to my bright computer to write this entry.  And Jeff just got home (PHEW!) - so I'm outtie!!!  I'm going to stop drinking water now so I don't have to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.. cuz... you know....demons and all..........