I never realized it was a horror flick

One time I read something about how TV Guide once described the Wizard of Oz. Something about a runaway girl meeting strangers on a journey or something like that. I don't remember exactly what it was, but you would think it was a movie with a lot more fright than some flying monkeys.

That's not the point of my story tonight though. That was sort of like a preacher's tease going into his sermon. (You know what I'm talking about and you're already laughing.)

The point of that illustration is to say it's all in how you tell the story. While factual, the TV Guide version, whatever it actually was did not really relay the movie as most people think of it. Well, I'm a bad aunt and told about a movie in a way that made my poor, sweet 6-year old PeyPey cry. Completely not my intention to scare her to tears, but what I did in this case.

Last night, I was making them hot chocolate and told them to pick out a mug. I had several Christmas mugs, and I collect mugs on our trips. I have a mug from Dyersville, IA, home to the Field of Dreams, the actual corn field from the movie. The mug has this black mass on it until you pour hot liquid in it. When it gets hot, the corn stalks appear along with baseball players. I pulled out the mug to show Peyton and Paige what it did. Neither had ever seen the movie, and Paige asked me to tell her about it from the beginning.

"There was this man and his family who had a farm, but the bank told them that they were going to lose their house because they were behind on payments. The man started having these dreams and hearing these voices."

I lower my voice to a whisper, "'If you build it, he will come.' But the man was the only one that heard the voice. His wife didn't hear it. His daughter didn't hear it. But he decided to build a baseball field. Then he heard the voice again."

Again, I lower my voice to whisper, "Go the distance." As I'm saying this, Peyton is standing next to me, getting antsy and grabbing my arm like a blood pressure cuff cutting off my circulation.

"Peyton, it's alright. So, he finds this author of this book who is a hermit and they go to a baseball game and hear the voice again." I also explain what a hermit is.

"ZIP IT!!!," Peyton screams at me.

"Peyton, it's not scary."

"So, anyway, they end up coming back to the farm, and these baseball players start coming out of the corn field. They were ghosts of baseball players." About this time, Peyton runs around from the kitchen upset and goes around to the couch where she and Paige are looking at me over the counter to me at the sink.

I try to explain who the players were and how Shoeless Joe Jackson was thought to throw the World Series. "And they hear the voice again, "ease his pain.'"

"STOP IT AUDRA!"

"Oh, and one of the players was the ghost of the guy that owned the corn field's dad."

This is the point where the tears start flowing, and I start feeling terrible."Peyton, it's ok, it's really not scary," I try to assure her as I hug her and ease her pain (get it - ease her pain?).

But think about it. Weird voices whispering out of nowhere and a bunch of ghosts showing up at your house. Yeah, I guess that does sound scary if you haven't actually seen the movie.

So, today, I had to order the DVD off of Amazon, so we can all watch it together and prove that Field of Dreams is not a horror flick. That is, if she'll watch it with us.

Comments

Linda Crow said…
"Zip it" cracks me up!