Prudence and Madness

I was writing a response to a plurk meme, 5 things about you, when I got reminded of how much the movie, Ring, has scared me so much I’d rather not see it again, even at gunpoint:

Masked Goon:  You choose: I rape you or you watch Ring?

Me:  No way!

Masked Goon:  I repeat:  I rape you or you watch Ring?

Goon takes off mask and to my utter dismay, he looks like this:

Un-Masked Masked Goon:  Rape or Ring?

Me:  Huhuhu…Rape! (prays that he’s got a big cock to compensate; and that there’s newspaper nearby to cover his face)

Frack, I HATE the Ring movie that much I’d rather suffer being raped by a guy who looked like that than look at Sadako’s eye again.

But then, please, hear my reasons first.  Then you could laugh at me after.

Believe it or not, I watched Ring when it came to theaters.  I watched it ALONE at Robinson’s Place, Manila, and during the LAST SCREENING, which is around 10 or 11 p.m.  There were a lot of people watching so, even if it’s a horror film, I never really did feel quite scared while inside the theater.  I remember thinking, as I was leaving Robinson’s, that it’s quite an effective horror flick for a relatively low-budget film, but not scary enough that I wouldn’t want to see it alone.  And so I hopped in my jeepney ride and went back to my empty apartment.

I opened the door and saw the hallway very dark, with only the streetlights illuminating the window.  Not a surprise really because roomies are already gone and we don’t usually leave the lights on as an electricity-saving measure.  I was still in the dark hallway when I heard the phone ring.  And shit, I still remember how haunting that phone ring sounded in an empty apartment.  Fancy imagination or not, it was like echoing all over the room.

I wasn’t at all in a hurry to get to the phone because, practically, I cannot see the floor, being visually challenged that I am, and I’ve to walk tentatively if I didn’t want to trip on an electric cord.  When I finally got to the phone, I lifted the receiver and said hello to it.  No answer.

And anyway, who the hell would be calling me up in the dead of the night?  Not even my bf did that.

Then suddenly the memory of phone call after watching the cursed video came rushing back.  I quickly went to the bedroom, painfully avoiding looking at the full-length mirror we have near the dining area or at the computer and television screen, and slept for the first time in a very long while with the lights on.

I think I’ve avoided looking at blank TV and computer screens and mirrors for 2 weeks.  And a television suddenly going static makes me rush back to the comfort of my bedroom.

And I never did find out who was that person calling in the middle of the night.  Nobody from my friends or my roomies’ friends ever claimed responsibility.

Years after, I was already living with my aunt in Mandaluyong.  One night, I discovered, after flipping channels, that the Hollywood version of Ring was being shown on HBO.  Figuring that watching even the tamer version of Ring would finally cure my fear of it, I’ve decided to have a go at it and I was actually doing very fine.

It only turned very bad when, while I was watching the climactic scene in which Samara is about to come out of the TV, with her dirty pale hands and broken fingernails already at the edge of the TV monitor, ALL THE LIGHTS WENT OUT.

What the fuck?!?!

Then suddenly lights flickered back on.

The TV screen, however, instead of turning back to the last channel it was on, has decided to have a static screen.

I must have been frozen in bed for some time, before I remembered to simply just grab the remote control and turn off the damn thing.

And today, I’ve watched the original cursed video again on YouTube.  Still scares the shit out of me, so I’m not posting the vid here.

So there you go.  You can all laugh now.  I’m going to die after 7 days anyway, so I don’t care anymore.  LOL.

And since you’ve all had a good laugh because of me and my “irrational fear” of Sadako, let me leave you with a little something…

Look, if you dare, and tell me what you see…