I am terrified of velociraptors

When Steven Spielberg’s kick-awesome movie Jurassic Park came out in 1993, I was five. This meant, as it did for every other good movie that came out around this era, that my parents and my brother got to go see it, and I got to stay home with a babysitter. Then I got to listen when my family came home and talked about how spectacular it was. But when I asked if I could see it, I got the standard, “Noooo, it’s too scary for you!”

Even though I protested loudly that it was not too scary for me because I was definitelygrown-up enough to handle it, some inside part of me stored away those words “IT’S TOO SCARY FOR YOU,” and totally believed them. So, over the next several years, as more of my friends saw the movie and loved it, I dutifully refused any opportunity to see it, because my parents said it was just. too. scary.

So by the time my parents decided that I was finally ready, the idea of watching Jurassic Park had become such a huge ordeal that my eight-year-old brain vacillated between excitement and sheer TERROR at the mere mention of its name. But I had also grown incredibly curious: I had to see this movie, with its scary dinosaurs and its detached human limbs, because I had to know what it was like! It was time!

So I saw it. And it scared the bejeebies out of me. And I LOVED IT. Jurassic Park instantly became my favorite movie. I loved the story, the characters, the dinosaurs (the velociraptors were my favorites, probably because the scared me the most; I used to stalk around the living room with my teeth sticking out and my hands curled like velociraptor claws.)–but most of all, I think I just liked the fact that I finally got to see it.

But then a curious thing happened: more than a year after I actually saw the movie, I started having Jurassic Park dreams. And by dreams, I actually mean nightmares. Every other night I was running through kitchens being chased by raptors, or I was trapped in a T-Rex paddock, or I was in a car driving madly away from some baddie dino running behind us. Suddenly, all the fun of being scared by the movie was gone. It wasn’t fun or adventurous anymore. It was just terrifying.

That was almost ten years ago… and I still have Jurassic Park dreams on a regular basis. I had one just two nights ago, which is what prompted me to write this post. Unlike most movies that I loved as much as I did that one, I have only seen Jurassic Park once. And I probably will never watch it again. Why? Because I honestly think it would scare me more now than it did when I was eight. Weird. I guess my parents were right: It was too scary.

Posted on Thursday, March 30th, 2006 at 1:11 am.
Belongs with: Nostalgic Things, Silly Things.
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