Yesterday was Friday the 13th. I had marked it on my calendar with yellow highligher and some aqua blue sharpy, so it pretty well stood out. I was counting down the days, waiting for the unholy day to come. Questions raced through my mind. What exciting thing was going to happen? What plans did I have? Where would I go, what would I do, and most importantly, what was the weather going to be like?

I woke up to my phone alerting me that I had a text message, interrupting strange dream I was having of me driving down the interstate watching in wonder at a police car moving sideways. "So early?" I thought.

It was my friend Allison. "Happy Friday the 13th!"

Ah, yes! A smile spread wide over my face. We exchanged what we were doing at the moment and left it at that. Conversation over.

Unfortunately, I did nothing yesterday. And it was nearly one hundred degrees and I was in no mood to step outside.

Before I go on, I will tell you a little about what Friday means for me. I don't usually watch TV except for 'Dr. Know' on the Science Channel. Fridays, however, are different. That is usually when most of the horror movies come on and AMC has their 'Fear Friday', a collection of random horror movies that seem to becoming rather predictable of late, I'm afraid. Every week after everyone goes to bed, I settle down with popcorn and assorted food and drink and watch whichever movie happens to tickle my fancy and 'The Soup' (a totally unrelated TV show).

As I said before, I was excited it was Friday the 13th. That's because, in my logic, it would be like Halloween, when all the sensible movie channels play nothing but the Halloween series. "Surely today will be the day everyone (the movie channels) decide to break out all their Friday the 13th movies!" I thought. "Yes! It must be so!"

Was that the case?

No, it was not. I sat there, on the couch, scrolling through the guide, looking, searching, hoping the word 'Friday' would pop up and the evening would be set. No dice. Nothing. Not even a non-Jason Friday the 13th related movie. I was quite disappointed. Curses for me that I never bothered to pick up Jason or his mother at Hastings!

I hate unemployment. So depressing.

Still here? I'm suprised, for I have it set in my head that I'm a rather dull and boring person, although no one has told me that I am.

So there were no F13 movies on the tv. Why should I care? Because. Would it not do Jason justice to show him chopping someone up on the day we all know so well, partly because of his series? This makes me fairly upset, even if it does seem a bit out in left field. I think I said it above, but I will say it again: we show Halloween on Halloween. Why can't we show F13 on Friday the 13th? I've seen it on when it wasn't Friday and it wasn't the thirteenth. Then again...

I never see April Fool's Day on April Fool's (to be quite honest, I never looked, but one of my friends would have told me, I'm sure). I never see Black Christmas, Silent Night Deadly Night, or any of those other winter horrors around Christmas (I've checked that one. Too many family classics: A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, etc, etc, but come on AMC, you have Fear Friday!). My Bloody Valentine never plays around Valentine's Day. There are more, I'm sure...

Granted, yes, I have most of these on DVD, but I never see them on TV. It puzzles me. Sure, there's stuff that must be censored and such, but still. Have a little holiday horror spirit! By that I mean all holidays.

If you're looking for my point I'm getting to, I'm not positively sure I have an actual point. I'm just saying, so many holiday movies and no one wants to play them on their day. Yes, yes, I know, with the exception of Halloween. But you know that.

*sighs* That's my rant for today. I must bid you adieu.

I gotta stop writing such long posts...

Au revoir,mon amis, á la prochaine! Goodbye, my friends, until next time!

So, I went to Hastings yesterday. It could have been the day before; I don't remember. I got two movies, two books, and three cds, but for the time being we are just worried about the first movie I picked up.

Originally I wasn't going to go into Hastings, but the person I was with at the time wanted to see if they carried Oliver and Company and I felt obliged since I was the one driving. We walked in, I found O&C for the friend and wandered over to the horror section, ah, my favourite part. Not really looking for anything in particular, I scanned the shelves looking for a title that really popped out at me.

And then I saw it.

There was only one there, almost hidden between Friday the 13th and some other movie whose name escapes me. I probably wouldn't have stopped if it hadn't had been for the bright yellow spine and those huge red letters that screamed out FREAKS.

I immediately stopped and shivers, literally, shivers went down my spine. So this was it. This was the movie I had heard so much about from my elders. The movie that scared the hell out of so many... And it was right there in front of me, practically begging to picked up. So I did. I picked it up. I picked it up, realizing it was the only one there, and that if I didn't take it, someone else would come along and snatch it up.

After that I was feeling pretty good and rather free with my money (which made me realize Hastings was rather expensive, but did I care? Of course not!). Walking out, I was happy with my purchases. All I had to do was get home and pull out my dvd player.

I arrived home a pulled the dvd out of the shopping bag. Like the spine, the background was a palish yellow with huge red letters. Then there were the people. On one side you have two "normal" people, more or less, and then on the other side you have a small group of odd beings, big and small, both sides glaring viciously at the other.

By now the dvd player and the tv were both turned on and running. I popped in the movie and prepared myself for the hour to come.

I was amazed. This movie was very surprising. The plot (for those of you who have no idea) is basically about a little person (as I must be politically correct), Hans, who falls in love with a big person, Cleopatra, even though he's engaged to one of his own stature, Frieda. Of course, Cleopatra is only toying with Hans until she learns of his grand fortune he has inherited. Then the two get married and Cleo begins to poison him, which doesn't go too well with the rest of the preformers. At the end there's this grand chase scene and Cleo get turned into a chicken! Or a duck. Either way she's been turned into one of the "freaks" she so horribly ridiculed. But what can I say, she had it coming.

All in all, you have to look at the deeper theme that runs through Freaks. A person is a person, no matter what they look like or how strange they are. It is how they are preceived that drives us away and greed that draws us near. I suddenly hear Dr. Seuss suddenly echoing in my ear: "A person's a person no matter how small." And I must ask, how was this movie so scary? Granted, this was made in the early 1930's; there weren't many horror films back then that really pushed the envelope. Maybe it's my generation. We've been pushed and hammered with all this gore, suspense, cheap thrills, and such, that we don't find the classics scary. They are good, yes, but not scary. Ok, maybe a little. I admit, I was on the edge of my seat towards the end. Yes, what they did to Cleopatra did freak me out. And I did scream in the 1960's 13 Ghosts, and I still can't sit all the way through The Exorcist, but those are whole other movies in whole other decades.

Perhaps I can answer my own question. There was certainly a shock in seeing this film. What other movie has its main roles made up almost entirly out of circus sideshow performers (who were fabulous by the way. I love them all)? So shocking it was banned from the UK for nearly thirty years! But isn't that going against everything that Tod Browning was warning of by directing Freaks? Don't judge by looks alone, otherwise you end up as a quacking mutant in a slideshow yourself? (Ok, so I added on to it, but hey.) Or was it offend one, offend them all? (Which I believe, is really not the case.) Either way, do you see my point? By being afraid of someone's appearance (as many were) you were kind of in the same category as Cleopatra and Hercules, cruel and ignorant. Sure, back then most people didn't know why these sideshow characters were different, but they were still people who had feelings. There is no need to be mean.

Maybe I'm being a bit preachy. I'll step down off my soapbox for a moment. All I'm saying is watch Freaks. It's a really great movie. It changed me, it really did. I don't know how to explain it. Let's just say it really opened my eyes.

Oh, and a bit of cool trivia I learned by watching the special features on the dvd: The man who played Hans, Harry Earles, was also in The Wizard of Oz. He's part of the "Lollipop Guild." He's the one wearing blue. Harry was also the brother of Daisy Earles, who played Frieda. She was also in The Wizard of Oz, I believe, but I'm not sure which part. I don't think it was a major part, but I could be wrong. My sources aren't that detailed.

Mmm, forgot to mention, this movie was based on a short story called "Spurs," by Tod Robbins. If you want to check it out here's a link I found: http://www.olgabaclanova.com/spurs.htm Quite different from the movie, but you can see the similarities. Much different ending too.

Now I want your opinion. What do you think?

BTW I'm watching the original The Fog tonight. I forget how much I love the zombies and their glowing red eyes. Well, the main one anyway. That is one of the best endings ever. Leaves you with a bang. Also The Puppet Master. Really neat score, I think. Blade was the best.