My Childhood Trauma: The Ten Commandments

The wrath of God, a burning bush, the Angel of death, Charlton Heston's voice. Put this all together, and you have one of the most famous Hollywood spectacles in history, you also have one frightened little boy.

Easter is fast approaching, it's considered to be the most sacred and important day on the Christian calender, it's also the beginning of Passover, as a child I dreaded this time, for this was the time "The Ten Commandments" would be shown at nausea on television. For me, "The Ten Commandments", wasn't about the spectacle, nor did I think it was about the freeing of slaves, all it stood for was a lot of sleepless nights.

When you think of movies that traumatize children, "Bambi" might come to mind, or "The Wizard of Oz". What about "The Ten Commandments"? That is never uttered. Was I the only who grew up with the disturbing images from that movie?

I don't remember the first time I saw "The Ten Commandments", I just remember every Easter, it came on. Everyone in my family loved the movie, I don't know why, my mom, my dad, my brother, and myself would sit sometimes as a family and watch it. I remember one such Easter where it was actually thundering outside, and rain was banging against our house, and "The Ten Commandments" was on, it was like my worst dreams were coming true. At any moment, I thought God was going to come with one of his many plagues he used to free the Israelites from the Pharaoh.

There are few images from movies that I remember when I was a child, and the majority of the scary ones come from "The Ten Commandments". I remember the image from the burning bush, where Moses talks to God for the first time. As a child, I didn't know the context of the scene, I just remember the deep voice of God along with the Godly voice of Charlton Heston, talking to eachother. It was never a comforting voice, but it was one full of vengeance, and growing up as someone who went to church, I knew God was capable of anything, and he sounded pissed off.

There were also very disturbing scenes when Moses comes back to challenge the Pharaoh. I always cringed at the sight of when Moses' staff turns into a snake, and eats the Pharaoh's staff which has also turned into a snake.

But the mother of all moments for me, and the one that haunted me well into my twenties was The Angel of Death sequence. This was the last plague God put forth on Egypt. I just remember all the houses of the Israelites were plastered in goat's blood or something similar, and the Angel would pass over any house that had that sign. In the film, the Angel is represented by a white foggy substance, that would move through the frame like a snake. You never saw the bodies of the dead, all I remember in the film were the screaming and the moaning you heard as every first born child of Egypt was sacrificed. And I'm supposed to believe Bambi's mother being killed by a hunter is more traumatizing than this? For a long time afterwards, everytime I saw a strange fog like substance in the air, I would get week in the knees, wondering if The Angel of Death was coming after me.

A few years back, I was actually able to watch "The Ten Commandments" in its entirety, I faced my fear and was vindicated. I was no longer afraid of the film, in fact I'm pretty sure it contains some of the worst dialogue ever written for the screen.

I'd love to hear if anyone out there has their own childhood trauma movie that they would like to share