When I was eleven, my family owned a house in Redlands, CA that had a very unique feature: It had a completely separate guest house about one hundred feet from the main house. It was basically a huge studio apartment. It had a kitchen and a full bathroom. It had big wood beam rafters and an open ceiling that paralleled the roof line. We moved there when I was five and at that time my two older sisters shared the guest house. As time moved on, my sisters moved out and only my oldest sister would sometimes stay in the back house when visiting. Technically, it was still her room. But when she was gone, it became my “play room”. I would never sleep out there, I wasn’t quite ready for that yet, but I would watch TV and play out there from time to time. One night I talked my parents into letting me sleep out there. It was my big moment!! I was about to be a grown up. It was going to be like having my own house, I couldn’t wait!!! I was ready to go. Since there was cable out there I knew it was movie night for me. HBO with no parents around!!
The following story was derived from eyewitness accounts, as I have no recollection of these events.
I do remember both movies I planned on watching that night. First up at 9:00pm was Star Wars, and I was pretty excited about that. My dad came out at one point to say goodnight and that’s what was on. The next movie, on at 11:30, I had never heard of, but that didn’t matter. The name alone was enough to entice me. It was not anywhere near as popular as it is now. But, it had only come out a couple years before that. The movie, in my opinion, is the one that started the zombie mania and really put the dead on the map.
The movie was called: The Return of The Living Dead.
Now I don’t remember the events leading up to “The Moment” nor do I remember ANY of the movie. All I know is what my parents have since told me. So picture this, if you will: An eleven year old boy, staying the night in a big guest house all by himself for the first time, watching his first scary movie, lights off, starting to get into the movie, laughing at the split dogs, staring in amazement at the flapping dead butterflies, jumping at the naked dead guy running out of the freezer and then laughing again as he ran around headless. Then watching in awe as there is a dead guy getting embalmed, and let’s not forget the whole “Rabid Weasels” moment. Then the fear of watching the dead come out of the ground. Apparently, from what I told my dad, it happened right as Tarman made his first appearance. So now go back to that boy, watching Tina see Tarman as he looked at her and gurgled “brainsssss” as the boy sits there, huddled under the blankets, on the floor, in front of the TV. As Tina turns to run, something hits the boy on the head…….something big. As he screams and looks around expecting to see Tarman standing behind him, he looks down and sees a huge dying rat lying in front of him. The rat seems to scream “Brains!!!” at him as he jumps up and runs full speed screaming in to the house, never to sleep in the back house again.
See, what I didn’t know at that time, was that my sister had seen a rat running across the rafters the week before. She told my dad, who put poison up in the rafters the day before I attempted to sleep out there. The rat had eaten the poison and hung in there for a while. But then it started dying and lost its balance. When my dad went to go check if I was just freaking out, sure enough, there was a still twitching rat lying in front of the TV, which had a zombie movie playing on it. Busted.
I didn’t watch horror for awhile after that, but when I finally did, it was Friday the 13th Part 3. That’s how I became obsessed with Jason Voorhees. Now, at thirty four years old, I have one of the largest private F13 collections in the USA. I also am a reporter and reviewer for a horror website, own my own horror collectible store and just published my first zombie story. All because of Tarman and the rat.
Now that I’m aware of my “addiction”, I see that it’s like a meth addict or a heroin junkie: I am still hunting for that original high that I got in that back house. The closest I have come was the first time I watched Pet Sematary…….almost, but not quite there. So I will keep trying and I will love every minute of it. I just don’t know if I can ever top that moment. It will probably take me breaking down by an old camp ground and seeing a hockey mask wearing, machete carrying, guy stalking toward me. But even then, I don’t know. But I do know one thing……if he throws a rat at me; I will run and scream for my mommy, there is no doubt in my mind.
BY DAVE MINYARD
