A Healthy Fear

What I think I liked most about the remake of King Kong, is that they pulled out all the stops with the creatures that threatened the film crew on Skull Island. There were the basics that appealed to small peoples' nightmares -- for what 7-year-old doesn't worry about the T-rex in the closet or the raptor under the bed. There were the giant spiders and scorpions for Everyman. The giant bloodsucking grasshoppers must have been for girls with big hair, and the vampire bats -- I'm not sure who they were for. But they found something for even me, who is not afraid of those sundry other beasts. They appealed to my secret, shameful fear of nematodes, with giant human-eating ones (they're bad enough when they attack a plant root or live in a fish)with a couple of extra sets of teeth for good measure. God, I love Hollywood.