I started off my Thanksgiving Day with parades and the like blaring from the TV while I finished cooking my late mom’s traditional turkey day dishes, y’all. I ended the day one of the best ways I know how — watching horror.
Well, it’s usually one of the best ways, but because of the movie I chose, it fell short.
Director Kyoshi Kurosawa is known as the master of cerebral horror. That’s why I snuggled up with a cuppa hot tea with brandy and Doppelganger (2003). The film started very creepily with the main character scared stupid and stalked by his impossible double and, less than 20 minutes in, the doppelganger was confronting him. Yes! Instead of having to wait 3/4 of the movie and wade through filler on top of Hollywood filler, we got right to it and I was happier than a tick on a hound.
That’s when everything went…
The movie turned into some kind of comedy.
The acting was superb, the visuals amazing, and the funny parts were OMG did I just see that, did I just laugh at that funny. BUT. I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t want to be in suspense because the doppelganger had the power to blow this guy’s life apart (and he did). The one thing I wanted was to be scared. And I wasn’t. *sigh*
So, I found my mind drifting back to the “doppelganger” incidents in my life.
They weren’t scary either, but they did make me go O_O
I worked with Candace in Corporate America back in the mid-80s. To us, we only slightly resembled each other, maybe like sisters. She was taller than me, and in my mind we looked alike the most when she smiled. To our entire office floor, however, we were bookends.
One day, she invited me to a fashion show at her church. My mom came with me, and as we walked into the sanctuary, Candy’s longtime pastor and his wife both grabbed my hands and said up in my face, “Candace, you look lovely this morning! Where’s that husband of yours?” I couldn’t get my mouth to move. I think I mumbled “good morning” and got the heck on to a seat.
Y’all should’ve seen their faces when Candy came in 10 minutes later.
She laughed her butt off about it, but I was hoping they didn’t think I was some devil or demon in disguise and rise up against me or something.
When I finally met Candace’s husband at a company party, he stood there, stunned. I was like, Okay, I guess there is something to this after all. He came to his senses, slid in between us with one of us on each arm, and looked like he’d just won the lottery. Unlike at the fashion show, Candace didn’t laugh at that. ROFL~ She got hubby’s attention with a Yeah, right, dream on, hero and shoved him on across the room. LOL! *snort*
Gah, I haven’t thought about that for the longest. ^_^
A longtime fiction focus critique-mate and friend swore she saw me in Mississippi, though it wasn’t me. We’ve known each other some 15 years, and see each other practically every month, so if that person looked that much like me… ?
The latest incident was at a Jimmy John’s drive-thru, when I was buying a roast beef sandwich. The guy taking my money almost dropped it, took a step back and froze as if snakes were sprouting from my head, then leaned back out of the window and told me he could’ve sworn I was his mother-in-law, though she’s 4 states away in Virginia. He begged to take a picture of me right there in the car, and phoned his wife with a Honey, you’ll never believe—
The line of cars behind me started honking. His co-workers took turns gawking at me out the drive-thru window. His expression was shining and full of wonder like the Grinch’s when his heart “grew 3 sizes that day.”
I just wanted mah sammich!
Doppelganger did have a scary element in that if you saw your double with your own eyes, you died within hours. *shudder* Mmph. Definitely not down with that, y’all. So. If you’re out there looking just like me, no offense, but JUST. KEEP. IT. MOVING.
‘Preciate it! *V sign*
Manuscript. Head. Drawer. 