From Horror to Unexpected Heroes

In 2005, a 12-year-old girl was walking home from school somewhere in Ethiopia when a real life nightmare happened. She was kidnapped by four men. Not only is this scene terrifying as they were forceful and abusive with her, but what they planned to do with her would make them rich and her a victim of forced child marriage. The groom wasn’t with them. He wasn’t even known yet—they were planning to literally sell her to the highest bidder.

The police were notified and looking for them, but the captors were confident they would make a pretty clean getaway. They had to first cowardly beat this girl into submission. This is where our hero showed up. But not the hero we’d expect.

Seeing this deplorable scene was too much for three onlookers to bear. They came to the girl’s rescue and chased off the kidnappers. Then they waited with her, protecting her until the police officers arrived. It was only then that they decided to turn around and go home. It wasn’t three men. Nor was it three women or three children. It was three lions!

Imagine that. Three of the most dangerous animals on the planet chasing off bad guys and protecting a scared 12-year-old. Now, an animal expert in Ethiopia had stated that the lions likely were planning to eat her, but what stopped them was a kind of pseudo-compassion. You see, once the men were gone, the young girl was crying. According to the animal expert, her cries sounded to them like a mewing cub. So they protected her instead.

Either way, it’s a pretty remarkable story. A 12-year-old gets saved by both dangerous creatures and by simply being in a state of helplessness.

So, as opposed to our nominees this week, our story is about killer animals, BUT they do not kill anyone. Quite the opposite, and I loved it so much I decided to pass it along. Speaking of our nominees… 

Congratulations Cujo. This is your week. 

And the Oscar goes to…

Best Actress:

Dee Wallace as Donna Trenton in Cujo. This was Stephen King’s favourite performance by an actor in any of the movies adapted from his novels, which is impressive considering this would include Kathy Bates’ Oscar-winning performance in Misery (1990). Another interesting note, this is the actress who played the mom in E.T.

Best Actor: Danny Pintauro as Tad Trenton in Cujo. If you watched sitcoms in the 80’s, you might remember him. After this movie he went on to play Jonathan on Who’s the Boss?.

Best Quote: “They’re eating the guests, sir.” – Shawn Nelson as Whitney in Piranha.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that this week’s picks were all either a bad movie or at least campy. But not to worry. The best is yet to come. Next week we will have some major blockbusters to choose from.