Last night, I uncovered my FIRST MEMORY while looking at DVDs.
As a kid I was fascinated by scary 1970's imagery, centering around Fangoria magazine, Ozzy album covers at the K-Mart and particularly petrified by those occultish paintings on the facades of ride-through haunted houses at the State Fari, where I would stand struck motionless until my father dragged me away in tears, threatening to force me into that very dungeon of the damned.
So, I was pleased to see the re-released DVD of 'It's Alive' at the video store last night. The cover is identical to the newspaper ad that burned itself into my memory so many years ago: an innocent looking cradle with a small demonic claw reaching out. It was horrifying to my mind. I remember that ad better than the entire plot of 'I *Heart* Huckabees.' You should look it up at allmovie.com.
Curious, I flipped the box over to find the original release date. 1973!?! I would have been two! Oddly the year my little brother was born, presumably hanging out in just that type of monstrous crib-from-Hell. No wonder the image scarred my brain so acutely. Also, this means that I was reading newspapers at two, at least scoping out the movie ads that were, I guess, adjacent to the comics page. Strangely, this conclusion makes sense.
Most importantly, this movie ad may very likely be my FIRST MEMORY. I can't, off the top of my head, think of any prior images unaided by the family photo album. What an Proustian moment, although completely Americanized; horror movie artwork at the video store replacing the ubiquitous madeleine dissolving in a cuppa tea.
So, I'm thinking of printing up business cards that read: Blaine Elliott, Epiphanist.
