HALLOWEEN HORROR IN RINTELN by Eileen Nolan

Now, I enjoy a good scary film as much as the next person. In fact, when I was in my mid- teens, my eldest brother would take me to the local cinema to watch “X” rated horror films. I am not sure how we actually got through the door, but we did, and I remember seeing “The Thing” and “The Drip” at the cinema with him. At home, my parents didn’t mind me watching the Hammer House of Horror films, Edgar Allen Poe, Frankenstein and Dracula. All water off a duck’s back except that I do seem to have an aversion to Bats for some reason! The thing is with these old horror films is that Good always triumphed over Evil so I never lost any sleep over them. That is, until I was posted to Rinteln! 

Let me set the scene…….BMH Rinteln in 1975 was a lovely place in a rural setting. It was a short walk into town and a different short walk to the railway station giving access to all over Germany and even to the Hoek of Holland to get the overnight ferry to Harwich.

It did however, have one drawback that I could see - there wasn’t exactly a lot to keep you busy in the evenings short of the NAAFI bar or going down the bars in town. We had no televisions in the accommodation and even if we did, there wouldn’t have been a lot of point in watching it as there were hardly any programmes in English! We did have the wonderful BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) which entertained us via the radio and on a Tuesday evening, my roommate and I would settle down to listen to the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries. Imagine!

The other thing we did have was Friday Night Film Night in the NAAFI bar. It was the highlight of the week and was always packed. Often, we did not even know what film was being shown and we didn’t really care as it was just a great social event.

Everyone went no matter what rank and even patients who were fit enough were able to go over provided they were back on the ward within thirty minutes of the film ending. That was to try to stop them partaking of the bar of course!! The NAAFI was directly opposite the main entrance to the hospital so not exactly a long walk back to the hospital bed.

Well, October 31st 1975, Halloween night was a Friday and we did not know in advance what film was being shown. I remember several of us second year student nurses going in excitedly and finding good seats. The seats of course were simply individual chairs placed in rows, not the comfy padded seats you get in cinemas.

Then the film started!!!!!! OMG, if you have never seen “The Exorcist”, my one piece of advice to you is…..dont!!!

The film started innocently enough and the theme tune was Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. I loved that music and the first present my boyfriend at the time (now my long suffering husband) had bought me was a cassette tape of the album which I played regularly. 

As the film progressed, there was a lot of squirming in the seats with some people looking for a way out. We unfortunately, were right in the middle and very much locked in and felt we couldn’t go anywhere for fear of humiliation by our RAMC colleagues for being scaredy cats! So, we sat it out and I held onto the fact that all horror films come right in the end and Good always triumphs over Evil! How wrong I was. I won’t give the game away just in case any of you feel you want to see the film after my wonderful review of it but lets just say, I think it was the first of a line of films where my belief in Good triumphing over Evil did not hold true and I can assure you, I have never seen the sequels!

When the film ended, none of us were in any state to go to bed to sleep and that was the night I was introduced to German wine (good old Liebfraumilch – can't stand the stuff now)! My roommate and I had only arrived in Rinteln a few weeks earlier and up until that point, I didn’t really drink alcohol very much but our group of students ended up in one room and we talked and talked into the early hours. No-one wanted to be the first to go to bed and the wine flowed freely I think, in an attempt to dull the memory of that film. It didn’t work of course as forty six years later, I can still remember the film only too well and the thought of it still scares the life out of me!

Oh, just in case you were wondering, my cassette tape of Tubular Bells was never played again and was dumped in the rubbish bin. I did confess all to my boyfriend and he forgave me as he was, and still is a scaredy cat when it comes to horror films, even Watership Down had him gripping the seat!!!!!.

I do still get the shivers when I hear Tubular Bells being played……..!

 

Eileen Nolan       1974-1975  CMH, 1975 – 1977 BMH Rinteln, 1977 – 1978 Royal Herbert and QEMH