What Lies Beneath

It all started when I was in elementary school.

Back in that day, movies were on VHS tapes, music was on cassettes, and computers were ugly, hulking machines. Books then are the same as books now, however, and my love and respect for them hasn't changed over the years.

My family has always been thrifty, so I don't believe we went to see The Pagemaster in theaters, but at some point it showed up in my home video collection (whether bought new or at a garage sale), and it became a fast favorite. A fearful kid, played by Macauley Culkin (circa Home Alone era), finds himself in a grand library. He slips, hits his head, and is transported into a mystical, animated book world, complete with book friends based (and named) on genres: Adventure, Fantasy, and Horror. They go off together and encounter otherworldly settings and characters based on actual stories in these genres (Moby Dick, Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) while trying to help Macauley's character escape this cartoon world of fiction and get back home. There's plenty of wholesome lessons and eventually a happy ending - I won't spoil everything for you. It's a dated movie, but cute. Watch it, if you get the chance!

I loved this movie, growing up... except for one scene, which haunts me to this day.

One of the first fictional worlds the characters find themselves in is an eerie manor inhabited by a polite, well-dressed doctor. He invites them inside from the elements, and kindly offers them a drink. Adventure accepts, but the drink ends up getting spilled by Horror... and when the liquid eats a hole in the floor, it becomes evident by the mood and tone so far what story and genre our protagonists are in.

The respectable gentleman downs his own drink and starts to undergo his transformation. "Doctor... Jekyll?" our cautious hero stammers. The man, now bedraggled, slowly creeps toward the screen, fingers interlocked over his face. "My name is... MR. HYDE!" he screams, quickly removing his fingers and revealing a gruesome, horrific, nightmare-inducing face with red eyes, pointed teeth, and a sickening pallor. Consumed by madness, Mr. Hyde chases the characters around the manor until they find a way to escape into the next story.

Mr. Hyde's face... is terrifying. (I looked it up to research this post, and it still legit gives me PTSD from being 7-years-old, so I'm not even going to post the screenshot I found. 😰) His slow, intentional, shambling movements toward the camera... his maniacal laughter... his determination to hunt down the boy and his friends at all costs... it all laid a firm foundation for my aversion to jump scares and horror that I fervently cling to, even now.

For the longest time, I feared that the monster resided in the basement of my childhood home, lurking in the shadows, eagerly waiting for the one day I forgot to sprint up the basement stairs to grab me by the ankle and pull me into the darkness. It didn't matter if the light was on or off - I was certain he was right behind me as soon as my back was turned to the open abyss.

I'm a little less plagued by irrational dread now... but once in awhile, the basement shadows will shift and give me pause, and I'll scramble up the stairs just a little quicker than normal and shut the door firmly behind me. The closed door provides safety and a tangible barrier. I have an understanding with the unknown: I'll share my house with whatever lives down there, as long as it agrees to keep quiet and stay out of my sight.