I don't quite recall when I first realized I disliked clowns. As a kid, I do recall watching Presto the Clown on WDRB in Louisville. He was on after school and did magic tricks, but I never found him scary. I don't remember a lot about the show, but he didn't have guests on that I could recall. I think he distracted me with the magic and I always tried to figure out how the trick was performed.
I think it happened sometime after first grade and I think specifically it came from an episode of Fantasy Island that involved a scary clown in a nightmare, but it may be blurred from the years that passed.
In 1983, my cousin Melissa and her friend Michelle were going to take me to see E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial. Melissa and Michelle were both seniors in high school and I was in 8th grade at the time. It was really nice for Melissa to invite me actually. I think someone told her I had not gotten to see it, so she called and asked me if I wanted to go. My brother and sister saw it on opening day, I think it was for a birthday party, and I was going on the third day of the release.
As fate would have it, the movie was sold out.
I was probably a little too smart for my own good in 8th grade as I remember reading the movie page when we were looking for the times and I saw an ad for the movie Poltergeist. I knew Steven Speilberg had made E.T. and the advertisement for Poltergeist listed it as a Steven Speilberg production.
Upon hearing that E.T. was sold out we were looking at what other movies we could go see and I mentioned that Poltergeist was also made by Speilberg, so we should go see that. Melissa and Michelle thought the logic was sound and we bought tickets and sat down.
I don't think I had ever seen a horror movie in the theater before that day. I seldom watched them on TV before because just the stories I remember people telling me of the movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th scared me. I can remember our babysitter, Renata, telling us about the movie When a Stranger Calls and it scared us as kids.
I remember having the popcorn and Melissa was seated to my right and Michelle was to her right.
The movie started and we settled in, not even aware this was a horror movie. I did not even know what a poltergeist was at age 13.
From the opening where the little girl walks down the stairs with the creepy music and starts talking to the TV, it became an intense experience for the next two hours with each build up, false scare and actual scare.
Carol Anne was a creepy little girl, talking with the dead.
When they found the dead bird and the tractor pulled up the dead bird corpse, I remember thinking the ghost of the dead bird was causing the house to be haunted.
The scene with the steak crawling on the counter and chicken covered with maggots followed by the guy ripping his face apart and having the fleshy bits fall into the sink was so intense, I had to cover my eyes in the theater. Melissa and Michelle were screaming as it happened (as was most of the theater.)
The tree that crashed through the window and grabbed the little boy as he counted the intervals between the lightning and thunder and the bodies rising in the water sitting in the hole where the swimming pool was being built were much too frightening for my first horror movie.
The actress that came in and "cleansed" the house was either creepy in real life or the best actress in the history of Hollywood.
The big giant evil face that came out from the other side. Seriously? Who thinks up this shit?
This was a horrific movie to be at the age of 13.
And there was the creepy little clown on the chair that stared at the boy.
SHIVERS when I watched it as he was clearly scared of the clown and he would throw a blanket over it during the first storm as the music played. It was a small drama as he covered it up.
When he missed after the house was "cleansed," the little bell on the clown head jingled. There was no creepy music setting it up. The little boy scampered back under the covers, too scared to get out of bed and cover it, I thought my heart was going to stop.
So the kids are falling asleep while mom is taking a bath and when Robbie woke back up, the clown was gone! We were all screaming when the music and the evil clown laugh hit us at once as the clown grabbed him from behind.
When we walked out of there, all three of us were shaken by what we saw. Kids today will not understand the intensity we felt when that movie gripped us for two hours, leaving us too scared to sleep that night.
About ten years ago I mentioned to Melissa I got Poltergeist on DVD and she shook her head and commented again on how much that movie scared us. I bet she has not watched it to this day.
I think that was the driving force of my not liking clowns.
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