My Old Saturday Afternoon Secret

Diana Hignutt · Apr 1, 2015

Like many kids in their early teen and preteen years (at least back in the day) I spent my Saturday afternoon's watching old horror movies. In the Philadelphia area, we had Dr. Shock's Afternoon Horror Theater which featured Universal and Hammer Films and the sorts of movies MST3K would later make fun of. I was watching for something else though. It was a secret that I never told anyone.

My friends and I were big old time horror fans, and we were also making haunted houses in my dad's basement all the time. One day, we were at the book store in the mall, and I found a book on classic Hammer films (this had to be like 1976 or so) and paged through it and I saw something that both captured my imagination and awakened a deep yearning in my soul...it was a short article on the Hammer Film Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.

After that day, I never missed a Saturday horror movie. I waited with hopeful expectation to see a cinematic telling of my deepest desire. I waited at least two years before I caught it.

I recently saw the film and memories of my secret surfaced (hey, here's a link to my review of it up in the Movies forum):

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304916

I don't know why I felt like I needed to share that. But there it is.

Do you have any old secrets that are now irrelevant?

RichardGarfinkle · Apr 1, 2015

I remember that movie. I actually saw it in a theater on a double bill with Blood From The Mummy's Tomb. I don't think I was older than 13. At the time it just seemed like a standard horror film to me. Although, I recall wondering what was supposed to be horrible about turning into Miss Hyde. Looking back a lot of subtext went way over my naive head.

Alessandra Kelley · Apr 1, 2015

RichardGarfinkle said:
I remember that movie. I actually saw it in a theater on a double bill with Blood From The Mummy's Tomb. I don't think I was older than 13. At the time it just seemed like a standard horror film to me. Although, I recall wondering what was supposed to be horrible about turning into Miss Hyde. Looking back a lot of subtext went way over my naive head.

Oh honey, I'm laughing!

I watched a lot of those sorts of movies on UHF, but I don't think I can have been as old as ten. Mostly I found them terribly confusing and interesting, but probably not the way the filmmakers intended.

BenPanced · Apr 1, 2015

We were the first house on the block to get cable, which I can thank for introducing me to channel 44 out of Chicago and the Godzilla movies.

maxmordon · Apr 3, 2015

One of the national networks here used to run old horror movies Saturdays after midnight. I ended up watching there The Mummy, The Invisible Man (my favorite from Universal!) and all the Frankenstein saga, including Son of Frankenstein which Young Frankenstein is pretty much a direct parody of, with Lugosi as Igor and the police chief with a prosthetic arm.

I also watched Naked Lunch as a kid on cable among many, many others. It was, um, interesting. I don't know why but there was something in it that dragged me into it.

Actually, it's interesting to think on the long story of LGBT people and the horror genre. Do you think some sense of otherness, observing society with a different perspective is involved with this?

Diana Hignutt · Apr 3, 2015

maxmordon said:
One of the national networks here used to run old horror movies Saturdays after midnight. I ended up watching there The Mummy, The Invisible Man (my favorite from Universal!) and all the Frankenstein saga, including Son of Frankenstein which Young Frankenstein is pretty much a direct parody of, with Lugosi as Igor and the police chief with a prosthetic arm.

I also watched Naked Lunch as a kid on cable among many, many others. It was, um, interesting. I don't know why but there was something in it that dragged me into it.

Actually, it's interesting to think on the long story of LGBT people and the horror genre. Do you think some sense of otherness, observing society with a different perspective is involved with this?

I think there is something to that. That the horror genre has a certain resonance of taboo-violation, similar to the superhero genre has with secret identities that ring with some truth to a certain segment of the population told that they are or engage in "abominations". Definitely.

RichardGarfinkle · Apr 3, 2015

Diana Hignutt said:
maxmordon said:

One of the national networks here used to run old horror movies Saturdays after midnight. I ended up watching there The Mummy, The Invisible Man (my favorite from Universal!) and all the Frankenstein saga, including Son of Frankenstein which Young Frankenstein is pretty much a direct parody of, with Lugosi as Igor and the police chief with a prosthetic arm.

I also watched Naked Lunch as a kid on cable among many, many others. It was, um, interesting. I don't know why but there was something in it that dragged me into it.

Actually, it's interesting to think on the long story of LGBT people and the horror genre. Do you think some sense of otherness, observing society with a different perspective is involved with this?[/QUOTE]

I think there is something to that. That the horror genre has a certain resonance of taboo-violation, similar to the superhero genre has with secret identities that ring with some truth to a certain segment of the population told that they are or engage in "abominations". Definitely.

Click to expand...

There could well be something here. Otherness is often reacted to with horror, humor, or fascination with the alien. That leads to three genres: horror, humor, and SF.

Being the butt of humor is not something most people enjoy. I think people would rather identify with beings deemed to be aliens or monsters. There is at least a sense of power and identity in those POVs.

There is also the subgenre of the misidentified monster, wherein the common social perspective is seen to be wrong e.g. The Day The Earth Stood Still or the X-Men.

maxmordon · Apr 10, 2015

I agree, Richard. But there's also the element of explore ideas that, in a more conventional form, would be regarded too controversial if applied to reality. It's easier to talk about venereal diseases brought by seductive foreigners (Bram Stoker's Dracula), meditate on different types of womanhood interacting with each other (Joanna Russ'The Female Man) or comment on the complexities of having a loving relationship with someone who is not accepted as an equal in society (Spike Jonze's Her).

But then, you also have applicability Vs. Allegory and Death of the Author: Is Invasion of the Body Snatchers about communism or McCarthyism? Or perhaps every work is just influenced by its own time and place, unrelated to the author's intention.

JohnnyGottaKeyboard · Apr 11, 2015

My old Saturday afternoon secret was to sneak into my bedroom to watch Professional Wrestling in an hour-long state of extreme agitation...But, um, maybe that's a different story.

darkprincealain · Apr 16, 2015

I read a lot of X-Men and SF growing up. And I don't object to watching wrestling now and again, although I think agitation would be a bad descriptor of the emotion I feel when I watch.

My Old Saturday Afternoon Secret

Diana Hignutt

Very Tired

RichardGarfinkle

Nurture Phoenixes

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

BenPanced

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

maxmordon

Penúltimo

Diana Hignutt

Very Tired

RichardGarfinkle

Nurture Phoenixes

maxmordon

Penúltimo

JohnnyGottaKeyboard

Who let this guy in...?

darkprincealain