As I was laying in bed one night I was thinking of Halloween and ended up putting on an older tv movie of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Most of you will probably know that this is a Sherlock Holmes book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It takes place outside of London at Devon moorland. When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead, it is placed on the family curse. The legend of a supernatural hound. With the heir of Sir Charles coming to take his place, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have to find out what is the truth and what is the story.
Nightmare Imagination
I think I was 9 or 10 when I was home alone one Saturday. My parents were working and as I often did at that age when I was alone, I browsed the tv stations for something to grab my interest when it was a dreary day out. That ended up being a tv movie called The Hound of the Baskervilles. At the time of course I had little idea that this was really a novel or how popular Sherlock Holmes was. I just saw a dog and was like: ‘cool’. I was very into dogs at that time, having gotten one of my own. A very cute maltezer called Minoes.
The movie was dark, atmospheric and quite frankly a perfect Halloween watch. I watched until the end and then put it out of my mind when my parents came home. Until night came around.
I couldn’t sleep right away and I hadn’t slept with a night light for a long time. But as I was looking to the shadows in my room I couldn’t help but feel frightened. Weren’t that the eyes of the hound that were watching me from that corner? I was so scared that I called out for my mom.
This continued on for a few weeks until it started to fade. Even so it took years for me to completely shake the feeling that there wasn’t a hound in the shadows of my room on nights where I couldn’t fall asleep easily.
Re-Introduction
It took me many, many years before I saw the movie again. I never forgot my over active imagination or how the hound looked in my mind and I suppose that made me automatically stay away. Until the start of my twenties when i was browsing a dvd section and came across an old The Hound of the Baskervilles movie.
If it was the same one, I can’t tell you. I only really remember my own imagination. I ended up buying the movie and watched it during the day. And saw easily that this wasn’t that scary at all. Not to my adult mind.
A few years ago I finally read the Sherlock Holmes stories, and The Hound of the Baskervilles became my favorite of them all. I guess the story was already so familiar to me and the movies I had seen had all been such faithful adaptions, that it was almost like a reread. From then on out I have grown truly fond of the story. I think I’ve watched the dvd over 50 times by now.
I think with my past with this story it has made me feel even more fond of it than I might have felt otherwise. There is a certain nostalgic feeling to it, even though the story obviously can’t scare me anymore like it did when I was young.
Do you have a history with a classic because of a movie adaption or some other reason?
A Dance With Books 
Thanks for sharing us your story! I remember watching a certain Mickey Mouse episode with a really scary villain that haunted me for months… but I’ve never watched this particular adaptation of Hound of Baskervilles! Will definitely check it out this Halloween 😉
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It is interesting to see what triggers us and what we remember of it. 🙂
You should. 😀
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I love Sherlock Holmes stories as they were the books that got me into reading. But for an attachment like this, I’d have to say for me is ‘The Last Unicorn’. I remember seeing the animated version when I was a kid and falling in love with it. And then it disappeared, you couldn’t get it anywhere and even the book was hard to find. When I finally found the book – many years later – it felt like meeting an old friend again. Even though I hadn’t watched the film in years I still remembers it, and the book feed me all the details I had lost over the years.
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Ah that is great. ❤
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I remember seeing the old black and white A Christmas Carol from 1938 on television when I was very young. I remembered the overhead shot of the ballroom scene and the doorknocker turning into a face. I had no clue what movie it was until I saw it again in my teens. I like to watch it every year. 🎄 I did watch a Twilight Zone episode about tiny aliens terrorizing an old woman when I was young and I was afraid there were aliens under my bed, or in the closet, for a long time. Ha ha. 👽
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It is fun to have those from younger days.
That would creep me out too haha.
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What version was it that you saw? I was (stupidly) allowed to watch the Hammer version with Peter Cushing when I was about three or four years old. Ever since I have been terrified of it (can’t even type it) and I have frequent, recurring nightmares about it. Sometimes in the dreams I just hear it howling but know it’s coming. Sometimes I wake up as it is ripping my throat out. The terror in these dreams is indescribable.
I’m really glad you managed to overcome your childhood fear of it. I’m 47 and only last night had two dreams about the wretched thing. I Google to see if anyone else has the same dreams and found your blog.
Moral of the story: parents should be very careful about what they allow their children to see. Even something innocuous and aimed at children can play on their little minds, let alone a horror film (albeit tame by today’s standards!) aimed at adults. Brrrrrr.
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Oh that must have been so scary at that age.I can imagine that it still haunts you. At that age you can’t quite place anything of that movie, emotionally.
I’m not sure which version I saw. I was so young and I didn’t keep track of that. But the one I own is the bbc version.
I tell my husband this when he shows 4yo things that are for 6 and older. I don’t think that has quite sunken in yet though.
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