So apparently phobias are at least partly heritable.
Fisher is utterly terrified, as I was until about age 13, of skeletons. Bones, skulls (ooh, ain't they the worst), whatever. He just DOES NOT like them. He turns his head away when he sees them on TV and we have to tell him when it's safe to look again.
Yesterday, I was folding laundry (!) and watching one of the Greatest Films of All Time, Army of Darkness. For those of you unfamiliar with this cinematic masterpiece and the rest of the Evil Dead canon, it's the charming tale of a young man named Ash (Bruce Campbell, mmm) who is accidentally transported back in time to 1300 AD by an evil spirit that takes over dead things, inanimate objects and people's own bodies, causing things to self-destruct in various amusing ways. Once in this nameless (I think) and completely ahistorical kingdom, Ash must rely on his wits, his shotgun, his dilapidated car and his chainsaw-in-place-of-a-hand to help the people defeat an army of undead warriors and return to his own era (and a depressing big-box store job).
Anyway. I told the kids they probably wouldn't want to watch it, because it had scary monsters in it; but in the interest of total honesty, I also told them it was an extremely funny movie. "The skeletons are hilarious," I said.
Fisher's eyes bugged out a bit at the mention of the bony horrors, but he sat down on the couch to give it a try anyway. Right at the scene where Ash has just killed evil-Ash (who grew out of his shoulder) and is in the evil cemetery trying to decide which of three identical-looking books is the real Necronomicon. Of course, he screws up and is attacked by a legion of skeletal limbs.
And at this point, when I thought for sure Fisher would flee the room in terror... he started cracking up. And snorting. And bellowing. And ultimately, he and Rhys watched the remaining hour or so of the movie with me, laughing at fleshless decomposed monsters that would have sent me screaming to my room well into my teens. We talked about the special effects being used (stop-motion animation, movie makeup) and the existence of a whole magazine dedicated to horror FX--then imagine our delight, just a few minutes later, when an issue of said magazine (Fangoria) popped up on-screen!
So while phobias may be heritable, the process of overcoming them is best guided by family (and the cinematic wizardry of Sam Raimi). And I think spending an hour or so learning that (a) skeletons are OK, (b) horror movies are funny and (c) you can figure out how special effects were done counts as homeschool. Don't you?
This movie is scary!
But Fisher is brave.
*Note to concerned parents: Yes, this movie is rated R. But we watched it on basic cable, so all the language and boobies were edited out of it. In fact, some censorial genius changed the line "You're good Ash, and I'm bad Ash" to "You're good [guy], and I'm bad [guy]." Good freakin' lord.