Grandma Emma and the "Screaming Skull"

Now, Grandma Emma loved to go to the movies. Mom worked at a fishing tackle plant during the week. On the weekends is the time when we would go to the movies or out for Sunday dinner. Dad was either working or sleeping. He drove a semi truck hauling beef around the country to meat packing plants. We didn't see him at all during the week because he was out driving. Neither Mom nor Grandma knew how to drive, although, Mom did learn to drive later on. I had heard stories that it wasn't safe to put Grandma Emma behind the wheel.

Anyway, when we did go on our outings we would usually walk or take a taxi. There might be other grand-kids tagging along as well. Grandma had a big family and at the time they were all pretty much all living in the same city.

Grandma's favorite types of movies were normally westerns. She loved the cowboys, especially John Wayne and William Holden. In fact Grandma's favorite television show was "Bonanza". Grandma Emma also liked thrillers and scary movies. Yes, she had a dark side. My mild mannered sweet little Grandma liked the scary stuff. This particular Sunday we trudged down to the local movie theater. I think it was called the "The Orpheum". There was Mom, my brother, myself, Grandma, and two of my other female cousins. Now we were given a choice. We could either go with Mom and see some sweet little nice love story, or we could go with Grandma Emma to see, "The Screaming Skull". We decided to go with Grandma Emma to see the movie called "The Screaming Skull".

The opening scene of the movies was a sort of advertisement that said if we died during the movie, we would receive a free coffin to be buried in. This was too much for my brother who went screaming from the theater with my grandmother racing after him. As she left, she told us to stay put. We remained in the theater as told, with some trepidation as you can imagine. Luckily Grandma Emma returned pretty quickly. My mother had been in the lobby and my brother went with her.

This movie first came out in 1958 and was a black and white film starring John Hudson and Peggy Webber. The couple were newlyweds who moved into the man's old home that he had shared with his dead first wife. It turns out the the home was haunted by the man's first wife who had died there. The movie is full of screams from the new wife and skulls rolling around from the dead first wife.

Yes this movie scared me and I loved it, but I have to tell the truth. From that day on I was a little bit afraid to be alone. If during the daytime, I would keep looking over my shoulder to make sure that nothing was coming to get me. At night when I would shut the light off I would run and jump into bed before anything could grab me from under the bed.

The funny thing is, as an adult, I saw this movie again. It's a pretty old movie and it was done in black and white. There was no blood and gore and from today's standards it was pretty tame. The special effects were laughable. In fact it was a pretty bad movie. Just goes to show you what different perspectives you have when you're a child. Everything is bigger than life. As an adult I thought the movie was boring and pretty stupid. This time I wasn't even scared.

Surprisingly, I just noticed "The Screaming Skull" on Netflix and am going to order it just to see it once again and refresh my memory. It certainly doesn't compare to the scary movies of today, but it might provide a good laugh.