When I was a child I spent most of my time outside, it was a requirement in my family. So for me days were spent riding bikes or playing with my star wars action figures. Very little of my days saw me in front of the television consuming the darker more appealing visions that I now obsess over. As a small child fantasy and horror were not words I associated with television or movies. The closest thing to scary that I was aloud to watch for a few hours after school and on Saturday mornings was Scooby-Doo, and The Space Giants. I actually prayed for rain or winter because it was the short time in a year that I could sweet talk my parents into letting me 'veg- out' in front of the television for more than two hours at a time. Most of the days were spent listening to my mom's cabinet stereo belt out Elvis or CCR tunes. That all changed when HBO came to town which was around the same time that I learned to explore the library at school.
At age 9 I remember after pleading with my older cousin who babysat me on most weekends to allow me to watch HBO and stay up later than 9:30. Thankfully she did because on one glorious night I enjoyed my first taste of horror. It happened to be the movie "The Beast Within" a film about a deformed monster child locked in a basement who escapes and rapes a woman. I remember how the creature was always in shadow and most camera angles where through it's eyes. I even remember the seen where in senses the woman in a wooded area walking, then breaks free and hunts her down. It climbed on her and "went to town" so to speak. That was my first time enjoying the feeling of being scared with my knees up to my face, feet on the couch, holding my breathe waiting for the film to be over. I however could not stop staring at the nightmare unfold on the floor model television set that sat in our living room. It held me in it's clutches forcing me to watch in terror right up until the credits. I had nightmares that night!
Later in the same year I found a copy of Cujo in our school library in the fiction section. Our schools had rules about age appropriate reading selection. Cujo was not as my librarian stated - "appropriate for me". So later that same day I waited until the library was busy and slipped the paper back under my shirt and walked out of the school. I did return it back to the library after I read it- so it wasn't really stealing! Anyway from that moment own I was hooked on horror- everything! I sought out books about ghost stories, more Stephen King novels, anything I could find that would scare the hell out of me I had to locate and experience. Then after I turned 11 I managed to convince my mother to let me start watching and reading openly more horror material. It took some deep persuasion but finally she cracked. She even started looking for books for me to read at stores and flea markets. Most of the material was Stephan King and then I ran across a large illustrated collection of nightmares about patchwork dolls that killed, creatures in the bathroom that feed on people, things more in tune with H.P. Lovecraft, more demonic.
Then came the days of VHS - my spiritual experience! I fell in love with the local video store with the hard obsessive desire akin to adult men and the strip club. Luckily for by this time there was whole shelves of material to consume listed specifically under horror. Films like "Night Stalker", " Basket Case", "Texas Chainsaw Murderer". Another crucial factor in my horror indulgence was my two aunts who as I did became obsessed with VHS. They would take me to various rental stores around the county to seek out more films, and thankfully most of the material was horror or exploitation films. This was before the PMRC and others took away a child's right to b terrorized and gleefully so by demanding age restrictions and labels. Plus a person could rent up to 10 movies at a time and keep them for 3 days which I did every three days with my allowance from the age of 12 to 18.
I love horror movies and probably always will. I have watched Jason Voorhees so many times slaughter so many teenagers that I kinda find the character hot! Yeah I know it is twisted- but so am I. When the horror industry had it's hay day in the 80's with the Friday the 13th franchise and Nightmare On Elm Street films it was pure nirvana. There were so many horror movies that came along that opened my eyes to the terrors and nightmares of fantasy . Jason made me wanna go to summer camp, and Freddy actually made me hope to dream. I learned how to fear the water from the first Friday movie after Jason rose from the water all deformed, and Nancy showed me the best way to stay awake on those long weekends so I wouldn't pass out before watching all my rented gore films. For a kid into horror the films are more than nightmare candy or gore-porn, they are life lessons! I still think that zombies are real and locked away in underground government facilities being experimented on, and that aliens are more likely monstrous creations that see us as a natural food source. So to all those in the horror industry who have given me so much pleasure over the years I thank you, and especially to Wes Craven who made it cool to make horror films again and express it openly and fervently without having people through holy water on you or look at you like your mentally challenged. So bring on more gore, after all your raising the next dementedly horror-ific generation of dreamers who see a fantasy world filled with blood and screams!
At age 9 I remember after pleading with my older cousin who babysat me on most weekends to allow me to watch HBO and stay up later than 9:30. Thankfully she did because on one glorious night I enjoyed my first taste of horror. It happened to be the movie "The Beast Within" a film about a deformed monster child locked in a basement who escapes and rapes a woman. I remember how the creature was always in shadow and most camera angles where through it's eyes. I even remember the seen where in senses the woman in a wooded area walking, then breaks free and hunts her down. It climbed on her and "went to town" so to speak. That was my first time enjoying the feeling of being scared with my knees up to my face, feet on the couch, holding my breathe waiting for the film to be over. I however could not stop staring at the nightmare unfold on the floor model television set that sat in our living room. It held me in it's clutches forcing me to watch in terror right up until the credits. I had nightmares that night!
Later in the same year I found a copy of Cujo in our school library in the fiction section. Our schools had rules about age appropriate reading selection. Cujo was not as my librarian stated - "appropriate for me". So later that same day I waited until the library was busy and slipped the paper back under my shirt and walked out of the school. I did return it back to the library after I read it- so it wasn't really stealing! Anyway from that moment own I was hooked on horror- everything! I sought out books about ghost stories, more Stephen King novels, anything I could find that would scare the hell out of me I had to locate and experience. Then after I turned 11 I managed to convince my mother to let me start watching and reading openly more horror material. It took some deep persuasion but finally she cracked. She even started looking for books for me to read at stores and flea markets. Most of the material was Stephan King and then I ran across a large illustrated collection of nightmares about patchwork dolls that killed, creatures in the bathroom that feed on people, things more in tune with H.P. Lovecraft, more demonic.
Then came the days of VHS - my spiritual experience! I fell in love with the local video store with the hard obsessive desire akin to adult men and the strip club. Luckily for by this time there was whole shelves of material to consume listed specifically under horror. Films like "Night Stalker", " Basket Case", "Texas Chainsaw Murderer". Another crucial factor in my horror indulgence was my two aunts who as I did became obsessed with VHS. They would take me to various rental stores around the county to seek out more films, and thankfully most of the material was horror or exploitation films. This was before the PMRC and others took away a child's right to b terrorized and gleefully so by demanding age restrictions and labels. Plus a person could rent up to 10 movies at a time and keep them for 3 days which I did every three days with my allowance from the age of 12 to 18.
I love horror movies and probably always will. I have watched Jason Voorhees so many times slaughter so many teenagers that I kinda find the character hot! Yeah I know it is twisted- but so am I. When the horror industry had it's hay day in the 80's with the Friday the 13th franchise and Nightmare On Elm Street films it was pure nirvana. There were so many horror movies that came along that opened my eyes to the terrors and nightmares of fantasy . Jason made me wanna go to summer camp, and Freddy actually made me hope to dream. I learned how to fear the water from the first Friday movie after Jason rose from the water all deformed, and Nancy showed me the best way to stay awake on those long weekends so I wouldn't pass out before watching all my rented gore films. For a kid into horror the films are more than nightmare candy or gore-porn, they are life lessons! I still think that zombies are real and locked away in underground government facilities being experimented on, and that aliens are more likely monstrous creations that see us as a natural food source. So to all those in the horror industry who have given me so much pleasure over the years I thank you, and especially to Wes Craven who made it cool to make horror films again and express it openly and fervently without having people through holy water on you or look at you like your mentally challenged. So bring on more gore, after all your raising the next dementedly horror-ific generation of dreamers who see a fantasy world filled with blood and screams!
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