As I'm sure I've mentioned numerous times in the years I've been writing this column, I'm pretty much a big wuss. I'm not into scary movies AT ALL! In fact, if you're ever in a scary movie and you hear someone sniveling in the back row, that's probably me.
I've never seen any of the Jason movies and the one Freddy Kreuger film I saw gave me nightmares for a month. And, even though I'm a grown woman, I will NOT, under any circumstances, sleep with my closet door open.
But, even though I don't like to BE scared, I love to scare other people. When my husband and I were first dating, I'd jump out and scare him all the time. Oh, it was great fun! He'd be in the bathroom, and I'd inch up as close to the door as I could get with the hugest, scariest smile I could muster. He'd open the door and jump backwards so far he almost broke the shower door. Oh, it was great fun, though he didn't think it was too funny.
I even did it to my daughter once (unintentionally, mind you!). When Raina was a baby, she loved to look in the floor heating vents. I was afraid of germs so tried to keep her away from them. One day, she was pushing her little fingers into the vent. I crawled up behind her and said, "what are you doing?" in a playful voice. Folks, she literally jumped. Then, she started to cry. Then, I started to cry because I made her cry. So, I don't scare my kids anymore. Steve, on the other hand, is fair game.
I told you all that to tell you this ...
Every Halloween, despite the fact that I'm a big baby, I make it a mission to see whatever scary movie is in theaters ... just for the sake of the holiday.
So, this Halloween I ventured to the theater to see "Saw II," BY MYSELF! Now, I usually make it a point to take someone with me to a scary movie, so I have a shoulder to cry on or so that they can tell me what I've missed while my eyes are covered.
But, this year my husband couldn't go and my good friend, Shauna (AKA, the "Horror Queen"), was about to give birth. I had thought to coerce Shauna into going with me anyway, especially since she went to the original "Saw" with me last year, but she looked like she was about to go into labor, so I decided not to push it.
So, there I was ... all by myself ... lonely and scared ... trying to decide if it would be better to hide behind my bucket of popcorn or to wedge myself under the seat and cover my ears.
Actually, the movie wasn't really that scary. It was more of a mind-thriller - like "Silence of the Lambs" - than a psycho-guy-with-big-knife-jumps-out-and-scares-you film.
I'm really not going to say too much about this film because I don't want to give anything away. Suffice it to say that it was an awesome movie. Those who saw the first film remember the plot twists, and won't be disappointed to see that "Saw 2" offers a few twists of its own.
It stars Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Eric Mason, a jaded policeman who investigates the grisly murder of an informant. When Eric sees the crime scene, he determines it is the work of Jigsaw, a mysterious man who captures people and makes them play a bloody "game" to earn their freedom. Since Jigsaw has never actually killed anyone, he can't be classified as a serial killer; he just sets it up so his victims kill themselves.
This time, Jigsaw has locked eight strangers - unaware of their connection to each other - in a house and forces them to play his game.
"Saw 2" is rated R "for grisly violence and gore, terror, language and drug content," so is only recommended for mature viewers.
Hitting theaters over the next couple of weeks are "Chicken Little," "Jarhead," "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," "Derailed" and "Zathura."
Selina Vert is editor of Bay Mills News.
