Halloween

I almost forgot Halloween was last week. It was on a monday, which is my day to teach Literature and my students quickly pointed out that today was Halloween. They asked me how I was going to celebrate it and the perfect thing sprang into my mind: I'll show a scary movie for the students!!
They all gasp in unison, all 56 of them. They began to mutter to each other about what I had just said, you could see the wheels churning in their head.
"What will you show, Mr. Tim?"
I had just picked up a copy of Frankenstein from the creators of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on DVD, so I thought, why not? We were studying Mary Shelley's chilling tale in class as an Audiobook for the Halloween Holiday, so it seemed fitting.
Throughout the day, I kept thinking that the movie wasn't Halloweenie enough, these kids would be let down if the movie sucked and my rep would be on the line for delivering good quality entertainment to the Chinese college kids.
Word spread faster than herpes on homecoming weekend that I was showing a scary Halloween movie. People sent me text messages of excitement and concern--and the place only holds 1,000 students to see the film, so people were trying to get VIP into the showing. I laughed heartily and said a firm No.
I decided to add another film, Ring 2, to the lineup. It scared me in a creepy kind of way--not to mention that the main spooky character kind of looks like she is Asain. (This would be a constant commentary for days after the showing--"If she is Asain, she must be Japanese, because Chinese girls are never that ugly!!" --One of my lovely nationalist students.
First off, more than 2,000 kids showed up to see the film. There were injuries. People were crushed getting into the doors. It was like David Beckham and Yao Ming were presenting the film themselves.
I arrived fashionably late, my cell phone ringing frantically from the other students who were afraid of the large crowd that had gathered outside--they needed guidance. Upon arrival, I couldn't believe the amount of students. It was just a few hours ago that I had even thought about showing a film and suddenly there were thousands of kids outside the classroom wanting to see what scary really was.
The first one, Frankenstein basically sucks. Don't waste your time. The students, as well as myself, were pissed off at the ending of the film, which isnt really an ending at all, its almost like they just ran out of film. Annoying. Students told me that the film was not a horror movie, but rather a science fiction film. Haha, I thought--just wait until you see the next one.
Only about 50 students left when that film was over. The rest of them were strangely quiet as the film began. The best part of the entire night, one of the most memorable moments I will ever have of China, was what happened in the next ten minutes. The film opens with a frightening scene where the scary girl Xiomara, comes out of the television to attack the person that has the curse. When she popped out of the televison on the screen, about 200 students schrieked loudly and RAN for the doors. When I say RAN, I mean they ran like their own lives depended on it. It was pure insanity. They were so scared of this women that they did a full sprint out of the place and straight to their dormitories. I have not seen many things funnier in my life.
Throughout the rest of the film, the remaining students tried to hold out as long as they could--but every scene that was a little scary had the students moving quickly out of the theatre and after awhile I decided to give chase after them as they left--which really made for a good time. I chased after two students who literally fell into the squat position and almost peed their pants from being so scared-- it was AWESOME!
The kids talked about the film for days--some of my students were really mad at me because they couldn't sleep the entire night.
"Mr. Tim, I am very angry with you today. Each moment that my eyes closed last night, the girl would come into my dreams and wake me up. This is not a good movie!"
You can't ask for much more than that!!
Most of the students loved it. One of them entered class the following day in a xiomara outfit, no shoes and he hair combed over her head--she looked terrifying... and when some students saw her, they ran out of the other door and down the hall and did not return to class for several minutes....