The Beginning

What better place to start, I would suppose, then the beginning. I live in upstate New York so, for roughly 8 months of the year, we are either rain or snow bound. Spring has its nice days, Summer is beautiful and Fall is ok though short. TV was not as prevalent in my formative years. We had 3.5 channels. Point 5? You may ask. Yes, we had the basic 3 networks as well as PBS on good days. As you well imagine, this would prevent one from being to much of a couch potato. The total of my viewing was limited to about half an hour in the afternoons after school and then Saturday morning cartoons followed by Monster Movie Matinee.

That was the formation of a deep love. Warner Brothers Cartoons, Three Stooges and good old fashioned Monster Movies. I would say my affection for the horror genre developed around this time. Sure, I liked other types of films. Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Conan the Barbarian to name a few. I like other genres, I love war movies, westerns, dramas and good comedies. My father's favorites were any movie with John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. My mother enjoyed British romances. Horror, however, was a delicious diversion. Now, I am not talking about special effects laden monstrosities, gore fests, Japanese horror, torture porn or the like. I was watching the old Universal monsters. Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaneys Junior and Senior. I was watching Godzilla, King Kong and movies about giant ants and (shudder) tarantulas.

The movies would come on at about 1PM on Saturday afternoons. I would plug in for 2 hours if my parents would allow me(chores needed to be done). So, the break between Bugs Bunny and Bela Lugosi was spent tear assing around the house or yard. I would get done and swoop in to catch the beginning. It was an interesting splash screen with blacks, and blues with a castle silhouetted. Flashes of lighting would illuminate the screen. I always hoped for something good. Dracula, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy were some of my favorites. Occasionally, I would get a Hammer films production which would have more cleavage than a corset showroom floor(god blessem now...at the time I was mildly oblivious to them). Other times, I would get the glorious films of the atomic era. Giant Bugs, People, or Lizards would cause mayhem on what ever metropolis was near by. The army would come and blow the hell out of them.

All of this finally led up to the moment of truth. I was 13 or 14 and saw Halloween for the first time. It had come out years before and we had gotten a VCR. By all of the deities on high it was glorious. I could barely watch aspects of it at the time. I nearly fell off of my bed at the moment when Michael Myers sat up after being stabbed through the eye with the coat hanger. I was hooked. I watched every bit of horror that I could after that. The Friday the Thirteens, Halloweens, Nightmare on Elm Streets, Hellraisers were bread and butter. It didn't matter the budget. It didn't matter the antagonist or protagonist. I laughed with glee at the Friday 3D movie as the eyeball flew at the screen. I giggled at nearly all of them. Some disturbed me. Some bored me. Others, went out of their way to nauseate me. Very few of them actually scared me.

This all is going somewhere, I promise. You see, I have gone to great lengths to figure out what scares people. I would like to write a movie that actually lives up to the old promo posters from the 50s and 60s. The posters would say things like "Pregnant women and people with bad hearts should not see this movie". I have studied fear, horror, terror, and all of the other nouns associated with that gut spinning fight or flight instinct that humanity has. I want to find the buttons that trigger the little place in the back of the mind that goes from the whisper of "oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck" to the crescendo of "OH FUCK!OH FUCK!".

In the interim, on this small little blog, I shall discuss movies of the horror genre. These opinions are my own. I may well be harsh. I may bash the hell out of your favoritist movie. Just keep telling yourself, "Hey...this is just some guy spouting shit on the internet." That is all it is. I do promise you that I shall attempt to entertain as well as tell my views. I shall attempt to back up my opinions with tidbits that I know. I am very opinionated when it comes to horror. It needs to stir an emotion with me. This can be giggling fits of laughter(most often the case), disgust, or genuine fear(the least likely).

To start it off, I am going to be reviewing my most recent viewing and the one that got me started. I will be going through both John Carpenter's and Rob Zombie's Halloween. This will happen in the next couple of days as I am still recovering from viewing the Rob Zombie take.

Regards,
B