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!
Fun Traumafession! Let's face it, ET is objectively pretty freaky-looking. I love this film though. Elliot is one of my favorite characters from the 80s – I think that we get a sense of his big heart and bravery from how he reacts to this squat, anatomically bizarre alien.
I find how we process our Kindertraumas to be very interesting. Much like Trekkie's plush E.T. doll, my favorite horror film ever is Return of the Living Dead, and it scared the holy hell out of me when I was a kid (ancient Traumafession here). If you could have somehow told 13 year-old me that I would one day be so enamored with RotLD that I would pony up for a poster signed by the cast I would have assumed that you were nuts (or, more likely a zombie disguised as a human to get my guard down).
Wow…I found this today only because I had a nightmare about E.T. last night and I felt compelled to research it. When I was little E.T. HAUNTED my nightmares, way more times than I care to remember. Keep in mind I was 4-6 years old and I can remember and tell you every one of my E.T. nightmares from back then in detail. Here I am 35 years old and out of nowhere I had one again last night after all these years. A father and husband and I woke up my wife because I was trying to scream in my sleep. Keep in mind, these days, I don't mind E.T. at all. My son has a plush and has had it for years it's nothing new. E.T. species has even been made cannon into the Star Wars universe (you can see 3 of them in Phantom menace in the galactic senate) and I am a huge Star Wars fan, so I really have no issue with him. But this nightmare last night even aged with me. I was my current age now, and I had my family, in the house I currently live in. It's like the nightmare version of him followed me. I could literally feel the vibes coming off of him in the nightmare. It's interesting to hear the effect he has had on others int he world.
Speaking of which, James Karen's Pathmark ads, especially the Can-Can ads, used to totally freak me out as a kid for some reason. It was maybe a combination of his grating voice and the cheap, stilted animation. I used to leap off the couch and change the channel when those ads came on (this was before remote controls were common). Weird what freaks us out as a kid.
bdwilcox – I can't say that James Karen's Pathmark commercials (which I think were regional to the Northeastern United States – I grew up in New Jersey) ever scared me as a kid. I did get a kick out of seeing "the Pathmark guy" in Poltergeist, though! And, of course, in Return of the Living Dead, as well, which I didn't see until much later.