I HAVE TO ADMIT, I have a real fear of quicksand. Still. What brings this to mind is an article in the New York Times about the cultural significance of quicksand and its disappearance from film as an object of terror. That there are quicksand fans, doesn't surprise me. I'm sort of an anti-fan. It was mentioned in the article that a reason for the vanishing of quicksand in movies as a fear factor was the quagmire we got into in Vietnam. I myself am not smart enough to draw that conclusion. I think it has more to do with advanced special effects. Or a more serious blood-lust.
A number of other fright inducing themes infected my childhood. I grew up in NYC. and the merest possibility of any of my nightmares having a basis in reality is as far fetched as a handsome, virgin vampire seducing me. Now.
But my list of primal movie fears still has the power of inducing a chill to run up and down my spine on a stormy night. I must say that #1 is definitely the Hound of the Baskervilles, which successfully incorporates sinking in quicksand, while being attacked by a slobbering mega-hound. Logic didn't enter into my vision of cracks in cement sidewalks shifting to quicksand beneath my feet, and hounds leaping for my throat.
Crowding each other for the next place on my scaredycat list, I have to place: Zombies. Walking dead lurked even in well lighted supermarkets. Next, Indians surrounding my wagon, thus, either a scalping or a kidnapping. And, last but not least, a ravenous Lion, leftover from some jungle movie or other, jumping out from the hedge in front of my apartment building.
I wonder if there are others out there, who have some movie induced hoo-haa's, and are even now running in horror from the Hound of the Bloggyvilles.
http://www.minblu.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/lynxny
