The Scariest Movie Ever

Okay, technically this isn't about the scariest movie ever. I'd have to put a lot more thought into what that would be. But I know what movie scared me the most (a fine, yet valid, distinction). The Blob.

The Blob, the original version with Steve McQueen, scared me for years and gave me nightmares. Years before I ever saw it, mind you. Mom was talking to some friends about movies when they were kids. I was in the room, and about 5 years old at the time. She talked about The Blob, and how it oozed around and squeezed through any space at digested people. This horrified my young mind.

But that's not the bad part yet. Because, young though I was, I had a fairly rational approach to being told about a movie where a gelatinous monster ate everyone: I asked how you killed the Blob. I was no idiot: I knew that you had silver bullets for the Wolfman and crossed garlic sunrises for Dracula, and for Frankenstein Monsters... um, pitchforks and torches, apparently. (Child psychologists recommend reassuring the child that it's only a make-believe. I recommend preparedness.) Anyway, I asked how you killed the Blob. Mom couldn't remember.

That's why the Blob was so scary! I had no idea what to do if the Blob came after me! Not that I had a ready access to silver bullets as a small child, but at least I knew that's what was needed, and I had been thoroughly convinced that knowing was half the battle. In the coming weeks I asked Mom often how they killed the Blob. She said she thought the teenagers came up with something, but they didn't actually kill it. THEY DIDN'T KILL IT? You can imagine how much this information helped. And of course she wouldn't let me watch The Blob until I was much older, because after all it was "too scary" for a 5 year old.
Nightmares.
Traumatized.
For years.