THE SCARIEST MONSTER OF THE 80s: A DOLL
I had the great misfortune of growing up at the height of the horrible horror movie age. Freddie and his nightmares came out in VHS in time to be featured at many elementary school sleepovers, and I'm not even going to mention Jason's heavy appearance during my impressionable junior high years.
But the worst, by far, was Chucky.
For those of you lucky enough to not know Chucky, here's the brief version: In the movie CHILD'S PLAY, Chucky is a doll possessed by the soul of an evil murderer. The doll then comes to life and chops people up, with a habit of stabbing them in the ankles or being disgustingly rude to women. The first movie is pretty horrible--but the real horror? There were actually three sequels to this mess.
Now, MOST people watch Chucky and think it's a laughingly bad B-rated flick.
I am not most people.
In my defense, I was six years old when I saw this movie--one of the first movies I ever remember watching, honestly. I wasn't a girly-girl, but I certainly liked Care Bears and My Little Pony at that age. But my brother--the type of brother who enjoyed torturing his little sister--told me he had just gotten a cool movie.
"What's it about?" wee-little-Beth asked.
"It's about dolls!" evil-brother-who-knew-what-he-was-doing said.
And so little six year old me watched this movie. At some point--about two seconds before the credits rolled--my mom came in, saw my face frozen in horror--and stopped the movie.
But the damage was done.
To. This. Day. I don't like dolls watching me. Because they TOTALLY watch me. From that point on, I would gather my Cabbage Patch Kids before bedtime and make them face the wall before the lights were out.
Some people are scared of zombies (my husband has an attack plan all ready to go) or vampires (the non-sparkly kind) but me...I'm terrified of dolls.
*sigh*
It's always the youngest kids in the family that are the most messed up!
Synopsis: A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone—one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship—tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn’t do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed’s hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there’s only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.
Available from Razorbill January 11th 2011
Preorder Online:
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Where to find Beth Online:
Website | Across the Universe Website | Twitter | Facebook
Beth, thanks so much for being part of our Halloween Event! Your story hit home here and brought back memories of being a kid and being tormented by my brother and a doll I was so scared of. *shivers at the thought*
Check out Jessica's Haunted Halloween post with..........
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I don't like dolls either, they just creep me out. They stare at you with unblinking eyes. Maybe that's why I never had dolls growing up.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
DforDarla(at)gmail(dot)com
Chucky freaked me out aswell!
ReplyDeleteAcross the Universe looks really good I will be adding it to my TBR list! Great post!
stephanie_xoxo27@yahoo.com
Oh goodness, when I was a kid I saw chucky too and it totally freaked me out. I had a hard time being around dolls after that. I ended up having to store my dolls in the closet.
ReplyDeletesettle.nicole at gmail dot com
I saw part of one of the Chucky movies on TV a few years ago and thought it was pretty lame, but my one of my sister found it to be quite creepy. ^_^
ReplyDeletehauntingorchid (at) aol (dot) com
Yeah dolls can be insanely creepy. Used to be okay with them, you know baby dolls, I had an American Girl doll too. But creepy.
ReplyDeleteDollhouses are also freaking creepy! Anyone ever see Secrets in the Attic, it's from the 90s and in it is a HAUNTED dollhouse! The dolls freaking move!! They're not evil, they're trying to get the young girl to see something which then leads to a detective mystery sort of where she tries to figure out what the dolls are trying to tell her...which was in relation to their murder. And the dollhouse is a replica of her aunt's house where the dollhouse resides and where her family was murdered!! CREEPY!
And we used to have a dollhouse too. A crappy one, but still after seeing that movie I was ready to get rid of the house!
jessbess2505[at]yahoo[dot]com
Eeek! I totally know what you mean! Chucky was actually one of those movies that was featured at one of my friends' elementary school sleepovers, and I had nightmares for a week!
ReplyDeletemindfulmusings(at)live(dot)com
I also hated Chucky but I'm not scared of dolls. I think that Nightmare of Elm Street terrified me much more. I still have nightmares.
ReplyDeleteromancebookjunkiesdanielle at yahoo dot com
The book reminds me of the movie - I think it's called Pandorum. Something like that. Haven't seen it before, but that's what the book reminds me of, lol!
ReplyDeletebeautiful_molly at hotmail dot com
Beautiful cover, great story!
ReplyDeletedeadtossedwaves at gmail dot com
Vivien
Seriously there are some dolls like Chucky and some of those porcelain ones that are just freaky. I cant stand to have them looking at me either.
ReplyDeletebacchus76 at myself dot com
Dolls make the best scary stories.
ReplyDeleteThere are just somethin about them.
Anyway, the Across the Universe cover is beautiful. I can't wait!
Pokadots1121@yahoo.com
Some dolls are sooo creepy. I especially hated those ones where the eyes can open and close. I'm with on how spooky it is to have dolls facing you when you sleep.
ReplyDeletenalynboni AT gmail DOT com
Scary story! I love the cover for "Across the Universe" :)
ReplyDeleteStephanie
2love.stephanie@gmail.com
Dolls totally freak me out too! I can just feel their eyes watching me....*shudder* haha, I liked your story though! It was interesting to read =)
ReplyDeletesophiayunjin @ gmail .com
I HATE horror movies! I had my own bad experience with a break in while baby sitting and watching Halloween (one of them). Scariest experience of my life. Luckily I lived through it and probably scared the guy who broke in to death with my death scream and everything. When I finally became unfrozen, that is.
ReplyDeleteMy SIL hates doll eyes. Eyes just freak her out. Maybe she had a Chuckie experience. Not sure.
candace_redinger at yahoo dot com
Dolls freak me out too. I don't care how "pretty" they may look. They STARE too much! Ever notice how the eyes just keep following you no matter where you walk in the room?!
ReplyDeleteClowns freak me out too. Remember the clown in the first Poltergeist?? I'd sooo throw them under the bed! lol
Thanks to Chucky I spent my youth rounding up all the dolls and locking them in the closet each night. Yikes!
ReplyDeletebchild5@aol.com
My sister is right along with you. She is VERY afraid of Chucky. She watched it when she was young and it freaks her out to this day! The funny thing about it, she was Chucky for Halloween last year!
ReplyDeletejacindahinten(at)gmail(dot)com
This story was genius! Plain genius, loved it!
ReplyDeleteCreepy story for ya:
One of my best friends and I were in third grade the year that I got a Ouija Board for my birthday. One day we were using it in my room, being stupid and asking it about itself. We wanted it to prove that there really was a "spirit" in my room (STUPID!!) Sooooo...first there was a knock on my wall (second floor, wall that looks out to the front of the house, no tree near it, AHHH!). Then...I have this wind up clown porcelain doll that my aunt gave me a LONG time ago....started playing music!! Needless to say we were through with the board and hightailed it out of my room!!
LOL! Just had to share with you : )
Hannah
Oh forgot my email:
ReplyDeletehccelie[at]gmail[dot]com
I can't imagine anyone NOT being freaked out by Chucky! *shivers*
ReplyDeleteBeth, you totally rock and I can't wait to get my copy of ATU!! :-)
mrso_d at yahoo dot com
Wow. That was a creepy story. Thanks for sharing :D
ReplyDeleteashleysbookshelf@gmail.com
Ashley's Bookshelf
You are not alone in your fear of dolls. I'm not scared of them (but then I avoid horror movies like the plague) but I am an avid collector of ball-jointed dolls, that I use to take into work with me all the time. The one question I got asked most often "Aren't you afraid they're going to kill you in your sleep?" Second most asked question "Doesn't it creep you out that they watch you?"
ReplyDeletejlynettes @ hotmail . com
I too saw the Chucky movie at an impressionable age, but knowing my mother would never let me go to another sleepover again if I told her about it, I kept it bottles up inside myself...and then shortly after that I received a Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist doll (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=140465665164)for Christmas (Mom must have found him on deep, deep discount somewhere and thought I might like learning ventriloquism).
ReplyDeleteI tore off the cheerful wrapping paper on this HUGE box that I was so sure held something spectacular, took one look at the face inside the box, which was very similar to Chucky in my young mind's eye, and started screaming and crying...but I refused to tell my mom why I was so freaked out. Charlie never even made it out of the box...he went to the Salvation Army just days later, unopened!
Crazy Cat Lady
ccllibrary(at)aol(dot)com
http://crzycatladyslibrary.blogspot.com/
The odd thing about Chucky is that, yes, the Child's Play movies are laughable, but back then, they could easily be terrifying to children. I was a freak of nature child who adored the movies. I would park myself on the sofa and just watch the crazy red-head doll go on his murder spree. It wasn't normal, but I can live with that.
ReplyDeletewickedawesomebooks(at)hotmail(dot)com
I haven't even SEEN Chucky but when my friend told me about it it scared the crap out of me. Dolls freak me out too. I can't even have posters with people staring at me (My twilight calender is always face down. those pictures are just creepy) Lol I can't wait to read Across the Universe!
ReplyDeleteaprilxu2222@gmail.com
The book is on my Wish List! And I've never heard of Chucky before...weird...
ReplyDeletetwilightforever.edward at gmail dot com
i really want to read this one
ReplyDeleteMargoTheWriter@hotmail.com
This book sounds really interesting.
ReplyDeleteilikethesebooksblog@gmail.com
I can't stand Chucky! It's one of the sickest, most twisted movies I have ever seen. No wonder you were traumatized. Also...I WANT TO READ THIS BOOK SO BADLY!!! For a while I kept thinking it was a poster for that movie w/Rachel Evan Woods, but after reading the synopsis--I WANT IT!!!
ReplyDeleteI want to read this book!!!! Oh and I am also deathly afraid of dolls as is my sister. Both of us watched chucky it gave us the creeps. I guess chucky creeps some people out the same way that it creeps people out with clowns.
ReplyDeletetruthbetold004 at gmail dot com