Dude, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is Legitimately Scary

So two weekends ago I was watching "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" with my girlfriend, who's made too many appearances on this blog recently, because she hasn't yet seen any of the trilogy (now quadrilogy?) and, after weeks waiting for one to be available at my library, this was the first.

The opening scene in the Shanghai nightclub is great fun, but after that, the movie is terrifying. Seriously. Enslaved child labor, exorcisms, famine -- even the scene of the feast, where Kate Capshaw and "Short Round" are served snakes, monkey brain soup, etc, which is meant to be played for laughs, is gross. (Trait I share with Indiana Jones: Snakes make me weak in the knees, not in a good way.) How did this movie ever receive a PG-13 rating?

We shut it off midway through because it was too scary. In fact, we were searching for a mildly upbeat scene, even a neutral one on which to end, and after 20 minutes of waiting, it hadn't arrived. Now, I've never been courageous or stiff-willed, but, wow, that movie gives me the creeps, which is a shame because the other two are such good fun, with a wonderfully stylized approach to adventure. The absence of digital trickery makes them refreshing to watch. Here's a really scary part from "Temple of Doom" just to wreck your day:



Listening to Migala's "Arde" as the rain falls outside is much more soothing.