My pre-teen genre crushes

As a young lad, I did a lot of things for girls, in grade three I scratched the crap out of the backs of my hands in ridiculous sissy-tests (and yes at 33 you can still kind of see the scars), in grade five I performed in lip-syncing concerts to girl bands from the sixties (Leader of the Pack, by the Shangri-Las was my favourite), but it is interesting to note that I owe a lot of my current love of genre fiction and film to my pre-teen crushes as well.

So here they are, my big screen pre-teen crushes that helped lead me to my genre loving self today:



5. Rebecca "Newt" Jorden, from Aliens
Here's the thing about Newt - you just wanted to protect her from the horrible monster infesting the colony. I remember seeing her as more of a sister than a crush, but having a girl my age in the movie definitely upped my interest in the film specifically and genre films overall.



4. Mae, from Near Dark
Part of a clan of horrible vampires, Mae simply seemed very realistic to me - a girl who looked like she was in trouble from a distance, but then got more complicated the closer you get. Sorry Star (The love interest from The Lost Boys), but for my ten-year-old self it was Mae all the way.




3. Emahassure, from Mannequin
Yes, I will admit this fantasy film was pretty silly, but the idea of loving a girl from afar (I would have been eleven when this came out, so afar was about as close as I was willing to get to girls) and eventually meeting the girl who would then magically love you seemed like the ideal for me.



2. Kristen Parker, from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors
The thing about Kirsten is that she was in the situation every kid fears, she knows something horrible is happening and no one will listen to her. In the beginning of the film she does her best to fight Freddy and even though she survives, her parents mistake what happened as a suicide attempt and have her committed. It is only later through the help of friends and a new doctor (The main character from the first film), that she is able to fight back.



1. Sarah Williams, from Labyrinth
Sarah Williams was the first girl character in a Jim Henson movie I could crush on a little (sorry Ms. Piggy, it was never meant to be), She was five years older than me - so entirely unatainable, but seemed a lot like friends of mine in how much she dug all of her toys (my toys at that age were Star Wars and G.I. Joe action figures, plus she got to hang out with muppets (so cool!)


I'm sure there are others I've missed, perhaps like my BFF Mike, you were into Lynn Tanner (or as I've always susptected of him - V.I.C.I. Lawson). These however, were the genre girls who caught my pre-teen eye.


In the end, although I may have found my way to genre films and movies without them, these characters (and the actresses who portrayed them), definitely played a big part in finding the genres I love today.