Horror Film Countdown Day 10 – Movies Anxious Parents Should Avoid

Welcome to our countdown to the most anxiety-inducing horror films for parents!  Today is day ten.

Each day, we are covering the films I both love and hate because they’re awesome and they give me panic attacks now that I’m a mom.

This one had to be talked about at some point and it may as well be today.  The movie(s) that kept me awake for a month, the story of a mother’s quest for truth and the punishment she faces because she tried to help.  14 years ago next week this film changed my life, the way I saw the “golden hour” at twilight, televisions, oval mirrors and random pools of water.  That’s right friends, today we get to talk about…

Disclaimer: Trigger warnings are a given when you talk about horror, but I’m going to say it anyway.  Many subjects covered by horror films are disturbing to parents in ways we can’t possibly understand and each is unique to the parent and his/her experiences. Tread carefully and know your limits.  If this begins to be too much, there’s no shame in closing the window.  Also, this post contains some spoilers throughout. 

22. The Ring/Ringu

One of the most personally impactful horror films I have ever seen, The Ring and the original Ringu franchise is (in my opinion) one of the best ghost stories ever told.  Possibly because Sadako’s/Samara’s tale is based on some truth, this film allows us to consider the thread of reality woven into its fabric, thus making it all the more terrifying.  Given my personal nature, love of the paranormal and desire to save everyone, her story hit pretty close to home.

Beyond the terror, there is so much beautiful, haunting imagery it can’t help but stay with you long after the story is over, making it all the more chilling considering the point.

I had to get rid of my oval mirrors.  Not even kidding, for over a decade, I only had one mirror that wasn’t i the bathroom and it was square.  All the oval ones went away.  Far, far away…

As a parent, this movie is even more terrible than it was BEFORE I had children and that’s saying something considering I spent a month after I saw it unable to sleep, followed by several more with nothing but nightmares because of it.  

When I reprimand my child for hurting her brother and I ask, “can’t you please just be good and nice to him?” and her response is wide-eyed, stoic and perfectly calm as she looks me dead in the eye and replies, “I’m sorry but I can’t” all I could think of was;

“But I do and I’m sorry.  It won’t stop”.

Honestly, now that I’m a parent, it’s the desperation and the loneliness that hurts me most.  My heart hurts for Samara/Sadako.  She was abused, misunderstood, used and neglected.  Her evil was borne out of fear, hate and torture.  It reminds me of every abuse case I’ve ever heard when a child with special needs is involved.  A parent didn’t understand them, hid them away, told them they were useless and stupid, a freak.

When watching The Ring, there is a moment of clarity as Rachel (the reporter mother attempting to unearth the truth before Samara claims her son), climbs into the loft of a forgotten barn where Samara was kept.  There, she understands (or thinks she does) the desperation and loneliness Samara must have felt and she vows to find her, release her, bring her justice.  It just makes me anxious for everyone.  It’s so hard to watch now, imagining this poor little girl.  She is murdered by her own mother and tossed into a well where she slowly died over the course of seven long, cold days.  Then, the mother who wants to save her who I relate to so well, tries to do everything she can to free Samara’s spirit, assuming by solving the crime the curse would be broken.

All Samara wanted was to tell her story, to share what had happened to her …Right?

Empathy quickly shifts to terror however, when we see Rachel is losing her battle against a monster.  The fight is no longer about keeping herself alive or solving the riddle of the tape.  It’s about keeping her little boy from a gruesome death because she finally understands what it means when Aidan says;

This is when we realize the good intentions of a mother’s love sometimes backfires.  Rachel’s attempt to bring peace to the angry ghost of a rotting child’s corpse in a well only releases the creature to do even more damage.  The spirit was never kind, it was never in need of help. It was never reaching out for understanding or reconciliation.  All it needed was a helping hand out of its prison to destroy everyone more easily.  Why?  Because she never sleeps.  And now, neither will you.  Don’t laugh it off, thinking it won’t cross your mind the next time your baby reuses to go to bed or suddenly wakes in the middle of the night, wide awake for no reason for days at a time.  It will.  Oh, it will…

Even if the sleep thing doesn’t get to you, the fact that she forces her energy through a television transmission directly into your brain might.  This film doesn’t just break the fourth wall, it simply tears the concept to pieces as though it never existed at all.  It considers the reality that what you see on a screen can manifest into your reality through the power of Will.  This means anything you watch can be transferring energy, building momentum to manifest itself though your experiences.  For anyone who has ever considered the the idea of manifesting energy based on the power of Will, this brings it all into focus:  Even if the story was never true, does the fact that you watched it make it real?  Could it happen simply because the story exists?  Could it create a paradox?  Should we put this story away and never, ever watch it again just in case?

…the thought has crossed my mind.  I don’t even like that I had to download these images to my computer in order to write this and for a long time, I didn’t keep my copy of the movie in the house and to this day, I still don’t own the originals.  I mean, really – Someone might watch it and then what?  It’ll be all creepy wells, bloody noses, hairballs, and broken TV’s and nobody got time for that.  So, let’s just put this one to bed and hope it stays there while we move onto a new topic.

We can’t talk about vengeful, dead children without bringing up one, very special child who only wants to play….  Tomorrow.  Right now, I need to go watch a Disney movie and pretend this entry never happened.