A few weeks ago, my oldest daughter sent me an email. The subject line read: “Have you retained Daddy’s training?” She’d taken an online fun quiz called “How Long Would You Last in a Horror Movie?” and she was proud to report that she’d made it all the way to the end. “You’re the Lone Survivor,” the quizmaster told her.
She sent the quiz to her younger sisters. One emailed back that she’d achieved the rank of “Lone Survivor.” The other achieved the next one down: “Hero’s Significant Other.” None of them credited me for their expertise in outwitting the crazed killer in the make-believe horror flick. Nope. They all believed their ability to handle themselves in difficult situations was a direct result of their father’s instructions.
Eugene, my late husband, was not a fan of horror movies. Not because he was squeamish. (Anyone who watches Hong Kong kung fu movies made for the Asian market has to have a tremendous tolerance for blood and gore.) But he could not abide the “stupid women” who populate horror films. And he let his daughters know about it. After yelling at the TV and walking out ten minutes into the movie, he’d invariably come back and finish up with a lecture on how not to be a victim of crime—or war or anything else.
Eugene was born in the middle of a brutal war. For the first seven years of his life, he lived under Japanese occupation. If he learned anything during that time, it was how to survive in the face of danger.
I’d seen him switch into survival mode on numerous occasions. One memorable example took place in 1972, the year after we moved to the Philippines. It started with a 5:00 am phone call. Catching it on the first ring, Eugene sat up and listened, his body tense and alert, sparking danger like a tiger about to spring. After a few minutes of whispered conversation, he hung up and jumped out of bed.
“That was my secretary,” he said as he pulled on a pair of pants, “Marcos just declared Martial Law.”
He spent the rest of the morning calling people who might have heard more details about the declaration and sitting on the hardwood floor listening to the radio. He instructed me and the maids to stay inside the house. Then at 11:45 am, he surprised me by suggesting we go out for lunch.
So, while our daughters, ages two and four, strapped on their sandals, I instructed our cook to watch over the baby. And away we went.
We could have gone somewhere in Makati for Spanish food or Chinese or American. Instead, he headed for EDSA, one of the main highways in Metro Manila and turned left toward Mandaluyong.
The usually teaming highway was nearly empty. Should we really be out there driving around when most people seemed to be hiding in their houses? Oh, well. I let it go. Eugene knew more about living in Asia than I did.
A few minutes later he turned into Barrio Fiesta, the one restaurant guaranteed to attract hungry military men. And sure enough, as soon as we’d placed our order for lumpia, kare-kare, kaldereta kamping, pancit bihon, and leche flan, a dozen wary, uniformed and well-armed members of the Philippine Constabulary sat down at a couple of nearby tables.
So why did my normally safety conscious husband take us out that day? I suppose that, like most of us, Eugene was a tangle of contradictions. In this case, his curiosity overcame his caution.
It wasn’t the first time. When he was a child, that same little boy who learned to bow politely to every Japanese MP he encountered, threw caution aside more than once to climb onto the roof of his house and watch dog fights between a Japanese Zero and a P-40 “Warhawk.” What little boy could resist such a show?
We all need some curiosity and daring to go along with a healthy dose of caution.
I sometimes suspect my daughters fear that if I found myself in a dangerous situation, I’d behave like the “stupid women” in horror movies. I hoped I wouldn’t. So I tried the online quiz, and … what do you know? I also achieved the rank of “Lone Survivor.”
Try the quiz yourself. And if you do, let me know how you fared. Here’s the link again.
I would probably do better in a ghost movie than a suspense movie in which the killer is a mortal man. LOL!!!
I don’t move well in darkness because I am claustrophobic (and the darkness seems to blankets me, making me hard to breathe); but I think I’ll have more gut to charge on a ghost than a man with a big knife. 😀
It’s so much easier to know WHAT to do than to do it. I think the two problems I might have when confronting a villain are: 1)Being slow to react, and 2) being reluctant to hurt anyone. I have no trouble killing cockroaches and mosquitoes, but I can’t kill anything bigger–even a rat would be difficult if not impossible for me.
I didn’t even have to take the quiz- I know I’d be dead in the first 30 seconds, Nicki! I’m an A class coward, but I loved your story. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Jo. Fortunately most of us don’t need the skills and courage to survive a horror movies.
Hero’s Significant Other – I lasted 79 minutes. By the way, things have settled down at my house a bit and I’ve finally had a chance to start reading again. Finished “Tiger Tail Soup” Monday evening. What a wonderful book, NIcki, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I’m so glad you enjoyed “Tiger Tail Soup,” Barbara. Thanks for letting me know.
Fun idea and quiz. I wonder what you answered to get such a high score. Maybe you’ll come back for me??
I think you’d probably get a high score, too, Paddy. We could escape together.
That is very interesting, Nicki! I am not a fan of horror movies or any type of scary movie for that matter, but I know how it feels when survival mode kicks in. I like to think I am quick on my toes and take the necessary actions to arrive at the desired end.
I also would like to think I’d be “quick on my toes.” You never know, though. The stupid things women do in horror movies are only part of it. We still need to react quickly and decisively.
Denny and I are currently learning more about home defense that gave me input in relating to some of the questions in the Horror Movie Quiz. I, too, made it to last survivor.
I don’t know about you, but I’m probably better at guessing what I should do than I am at doing it.
Same here, Nicki. I lasted 86 minutes ~> the Lone Survivor. But in a setting like The Hunger Games, I’m sure I’d be dispatched in short order.
I guess I watch too many movies and youtube channel called ‘Cinema Sins’ – very interesting channels where they point out logic mistakes in movies, so I got “You would last 84 minutes in a horror movie, you are the Lone Survivor.” 🙂
Congratulations! Watching movies is educational after all.
Most of us have never had to master those skills but we hope that in the face of a crisis we could pull it together and do whatever was necessary for survival. I suspected that your husband was interested in the conversation at the nearby tables as a means for information. Since you were a family unit, there was safety in that. Did life change for you under martial law?
For a while there was a curfew. But after that was lifted, life was basically the same for us. Martial Law sounded more scary than it turned out to be.
I made it to Hero’s Significant Other. So according to the quiz I would last about 70 minutes. But I defy the notion that I would trip over a root and go down!
I agree that caution and curiosity are a good combination. 🙂
Of course you wouldn’t trip over a root. I suspect you’re much too coordinated.