Fear Exchange: Tackling The Mike's Fear of Needles

While some might call my fear of fake sharks, real spiders and running long distances irrational--I like to think that they are wrong. Sure a fake shark may not look menacing or rather it may not be menacing because it is...... fake but I beg to differ. I mean what looks more menacing to you a fake shark, or a little needle? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Although my experiment in facing my fear was largely a bust--it still felt good to at least try to vanquish it. It also felt good that time that I wrote down what my least favorite shark scenes--which were pooled together from the small amount of scenes involving sharks that I have seen (And yes, half of them were animated sharks because that's how I roll). That is why I like to encourage my fellow bloggers and friends to face their fears. Which brings me first to The Mike.

The Mike among other things is awesome and also afraid of needles. While running the superbly written From Midnight, With Love, The Mike is also trying to balance his life and the ever looming fear of needles that hangs above his head each and every single day. I never gave needles much thought before The Mike came along with his screams and shouts of anguish--but I'll tell you...needles are everywhere in horror movies. In fact, they seem to pop up a lot more than fake sharks and spiders do, which might make them all the more terrifying. Not only that, but needles are often hard to avoid in real life.

It is because of The Mike's great fear of needles that I proposed a most excellent solution. Switching fear lists! I have given him the duty of making a list of some truly memorable shark moments while I have taken on the needles. Ooooh the needles. In an effort to avoid contact with each other's list, and to make sure we don't have heart attacks--neither of us will be reading each other's list.

So without further ado here are some of the needle scenes that even made ME flinch--and I love needles (and heroin).

WARNING: I'm including pictures of needles here, so don't be upset.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

I couldn't believe I had gone so long without seeing this. It's Freddy at some of his most creative moments in history. Moments that really do feel like nightmares, and moments that stick with us when we try to fall asleep. I could hardly contain myself for example when Freddy turned his knife fingers into syringes.

Syringes that he then proceeded to stab Taryn with, killing her with the massive over dose of drugs he had just injected into her. Imagine the sort of fear The Mike feels from seeing just one needle....and now multiply it by 10!

Opera

Whenever I try to imagine what having little needles taped under my eyes would be like--I cry... BLOOD. Sure I like needles, but I'm pretty sure I would not like needles that pricked that very delicate skin under my eye lids. In Opera, our killer has a habit of forcing our heroine Betty to watch as her friends get murdered. He forces her to do so with the aid of this needle tape.

I should also point out that I always think the needles are there so that our heroine cannot close her eyes. The reality of the situation is however that she can close her eyes---she just ends up pricking her eye lids every time.

And when I see that blood start to trickle out....ugh.

The Craft

I love The Craft for a variety of reasons, mostly having to do with that club I started in the 5th grade where me and my friends pretended to be witches. We used butter knives instead of real knives, and food coloring instead of blood. I'm guessing this is why our spells did not work.

Anywho, I often forget that The Craft has not one but two needle scenes in it. The first is the very slow, yet still agonizing scene of a finger prick.

It's something that isn't particularly upsetting yet it always causes amazement from me when I see how up and close and personal it gets.

The other is of course the burn scars, giant penetrating needle scene.

While we never actually see this needle enter into Neve Campbell's horribly burned flesh--we do sense that it probably hurt a fucking lot. Seeing the needle, hearing the needle--watching Neve squirm, it's all a bit hard to watch and more so I would think if you have a problem with needles, and also if you have a problem with gross skin deformities.

Halloween 2

I had no idea there would be so much needle trauma in this but apparently I missed the obvious that since it takes place in a hospital--needles would be out and about quite frequently. Poor Jamie Lee Curtis....she gets pricked quite a bit, and as is rarely the case--we see EVERYTHING. I'm still shocked at how up close and personal the needle is in this is. I'm having flashbacks where Jamie Lee Curtis takes out her IV and then later painfully puts it back in. There may even have been been more than one instance of needles--all I remember is reminding myself that Halloween 2 has lots of needle trauma for that one day when I might write a post about needle trauma.

Deathdream

I had completely forgotten about the existence of this scene until I was perusing my database of screen shots and came across this one of Andy holding a syringe and looking all menacing and dead.

Then I remembered that in that scene, Andy actually stabs someone to death with a syringe! Shit's crazy!

Ichi the Killer

Here's a fun tip---never get yourself caught in the interrogation room of Kakihara. If you do, you run the risk of being strung up by metal hooks put in your back fat, being burned silly by the hot oil of tempura cooking and getting metal skewers shoved through various parts of your face.

Technically these aren't necessarily "needles" but they are pretty much the same thing because they have a point....and are long....and stick you.

Audition

From one Takashi Miike to the next, Audition always reminds people of yuckiness. Whether it's because Asami puked in a dog dish and is feeding it to some guy with no tongue--or because she uses piano wire to cut off a man's foot---Audition does not mess around. Which is why, when she begins her needles assault, we already feel like we might pass out. We begin with a large

syringe injected in the tongue.

Then we get needles stuck all over the stomach.

And THEN we put needles in the eyeballs. It's pretty much a needle fest and although we don't see a whole lot of the actual needle being put in we do hear it. Squish, squish.

Pulp Fiction

A list about traumatic moments involving needles would not be complete without the addition of this well known scene from Pulp Fiction. After overdosing on some high grade heroin, Uma Thurman is brought to Lance and Jody's house for a quick revival. Using a medical book, Lance relates to Vincent that the giant needle filled with adrenaline must be stabbed directly into her heart to work. The build up to this moment is pretty fantastic, and that strange popping sound that the needle appears to make upon insertion is very yucky.

Saw II

People don't talk about needles without bringing up this scene from Saw II. As part of Jigsaw's evil, torture chamber of a house, one unlucky person must be thrown into a pit of needles to find a key. The way that Amanda just kind of falls into the pit, and seeing all the needles sticking into practically every open spot on her body is very disturbing.

Watching her dig through the needles however---is extremely disturbing.

Requiem For a Dream

And finally, we end with what is in my opinion--the most disturbing needle scene I have ever witnessed. I was unsure at first while watching Requiem for a Dream of whether or not any real needle action would be taking place. It is about heroin addicts after all--so to not show any needles kind of felt like a bust to me. Then all of a sudden, Jared Leto complains about how much his arm hurts.....he pulls up his sleeve to reveal that his heroin arm of choice has become horribly infected, complete with a giant gaping hole. He then thinks it is a brilliant idea to inject himself with heroin DIRECTLY into that hole. That's called "mainlining" it for all you heroin amateurs....

I'll tell ya, I've never been very squeamish around needles before but this scene may have finally shaken me off of my high horse. Dear god why is that so horrifying? Make it stop ahhhh.

If you have a fear that needs conquering, let me know.

Stay tuned soon for the next Fear Exchange, where me and BJ-C of Day of the Woman tackle her fear of Eye Trauma!