Stories From Candyland by Candy Spelling

Author:Candy Spelling [Spelling, Candy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780312570705
Google: fnzzJZT5XD0C
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2009-03-31T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

1984 Was a Very Good Year, After All

I love horror movies.

The first one I remember was House of Wax, which came out when I was seven. I knew something was up when my brother, who was well on his way to teenage mischief by then, told my parents that the movie was a love story. Even then I wondered why he wanted us to go see a love story when there were a lot of Westerns out. It was even stranger when they handed out 3D glasses, but I put mine on to see love up close.

It wasn’t a love story, but I fell in love that night with scary horror movies.

For those who don’t love horror (and that’s most of the people I know), House of Wax was one of those Vincent-Price-at-his-worst movies. Although I didn’t understand why someone would want to set fire to his own wax museum, I did realize someone had done something really bad, and the scenes of people melting like wax stayed with me for a long time.

Anyway, dead bodies had started disappearing from the morgue (a word I think I first heard on Dragnet, but I wasn’t sure). There was a lot of darkness and scary music, and this crazy guy wanted to make some girl into a wax figure of Marie Antoinette. At the time I didn’t know who she was, but later I made some dolls which I dressed like her. It was also my first time hearing the word guillotine (I never learned how to spell it, though, or had an occasion to use one). Blood was everywhere, people screamed; my mother couldn’t look.

My parents were horrified, my brother smirked, and I couldn’t wait until the next monster was ready to hit theaters to scare me.

To digress, when I saw that Paris Hilton was going to be in the 2005 remake of the film and that it wasn’t going to be in 3D, I decided I didn’t have to see it. I was very attached to my 3D glasses, and they were part of my original experience. Nope, a remake wasn’t necessary, and I wanted to keep my first memory of House of Wax.

The irony that House of Wax was my introduction to horror made itself clear years later. The movie co-starred Carolyn Jones, who married Aaron Spelling in 1953. So, while I was a preteen being frightened by Carolyn Jones in 3D horror, my husband-to-be was enjoying his new bride’s big-screen success.

Anyway, my life of horror films had begun. My attic, filled with beautiful Christmas decorations and patriotic Independence Day symbols, also has a section for Halloween. Over the years, I’ve collected some of the worst examples of witches with scary laughs, bloody creatures who lunge toward unsuspecting visitors, and enough devil and skeleton costumes to outfit an elementary school.

I can’t wait until the 99 Cents store, Costco, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and Target all get their Halloween decorations on the shelves. There’s always something cheap and tacky there that I don’t own yet.

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