When I was a child, I only knew one horror movie, which was Gremlins, a movie that gave me nightmares for years. I thought nothing could ever scare me more than that one, but I was wrong. And it wasn't even a horror movie. One day my best friend brought her VHS tape of E.T. The Extraterrestrial, and we watched it together. I don't remember what I thought about the movie itself, or what I expected going into the movie, but I remember just how terrified of E.T. I was. In the beginning, when Elliott discovered him in his garden and you could barely see him, I was hoping I wouldn't get a clearer view, I didn't WANT to see him. Then, the scene of E.T. screaming in the field, briefly illuminated by a flashlight. I wasn't able to take a second look at this scene for years afterwards, I had to cover my eyes and ears each time. That was the worst one, but almost every single shot of E.T. gave me chills. Even though I was so extremely scared, my friend and I somehow ended up watching this movie multiple times every month for a few years, until her VHS tape broke down and became unwatchable. During that time, I had three nightmares I remember very vividly. They were almost identical, I was sleeping in my bed in each of them and E.T. was sitting on my blanket, staring at me. In one of those dreams, I was trying to hide underneath the blanket and he was walking all over me, it felt extremely real and I can still feel the weight of his steps 18 years later. When I was a bit older and thought my fear was gone, I ended up sticking a picture of E.T. onto my wall, then had to sleep with lights on for months just to make sure the picture wouldn't move. Nowadays I own an E.T. plushie and cuddled it at night once. Only once because my fear resurfaced, which is wild considering I am an absolute horror movie junkie now and thought nothing could scare me anymore. I hold both of the before-mentioned movies very dear to my heart. No idea how that's even possible after so many sleepless childhood nights caused by them…
Poke Trekkie,
Can’t thank you enough for this Traumafession! I always love when we get new ones! Makes my day!
You are not alone in being scared of E.T. and please know his legend lives on! My niece just showed her kid both E.T and GREMLINS for the first time and well, she was terrified of both!
I’m glad that you ended up getting an E.T plushie and embracing your Kindertrauma!
Funny enough this past Christmas I gifted my great nieces two Gremlin plushies (thanx 5 Below), one of Gizmo and one of Stripe. Gizmo was welcomed and Stripe was absolutely not! They both wanted Gizmo and I learned my lesson!