When I initially heard about
OWFs 31 Days of Horror, I wasnt chomping at the bit to start writing. Despite enjoying the more serious entries in the genre such as '
The Shining', '
Rosemarys Baby', '
Dawn of the Dead' and '
Let The Right One In', Ive never really considered myself a fan of horror movies. My older brother, on the other hand, is a horror nut, collecting films and memorabilia and attending horror conventions. He even persuaded Freddy Kruger himself,
Robert Englund, to record a fiendish voicemail greeting for his mobile phone, when he attended last years Collectormania in London. All of which I consider to be slightly foolish behaviour for a 40 year old man. Or has adulthood just made me too serious? There was a time I shared my brothers love of horror. 1984 to be precise. That was the year our combined nagging finally paid off, forcing my father to purchase the familys first VCR; a toploading VHS as big as a suitcase with buttons like factory levers. By todays standards it was prehistoric, but to us it was the gateway to enlightenment. Every Saturday night my brother and I would drag our father down to the local video rental store, to sign off our weekly horror fix. Whilst the old man waited outside, smoking his umpteenth cigarette of the day, my brother and I would studiously peruse the two shelves of video nasties. Certificate 15s were normally frowned upon, as if the BBFCs bestowal of an 18 certificate was an indication of quality, like horrors version of a Michelin star. An 18 certificate normally guaranteed a high body count, with oodles of gore and violence. Film bogeymen who displayed new and inventive ways to dispatch their victims where held in particularly high esteem. Back then, as a nine-year old boy, I wasnt interested in Disney or 'ET'. The only things that appealed to me were 'Rambo', Bruce Lee and horror films. My father never questioned our weekly selection at the video store, and I never remembered being censored as to what we could and couldnt watch at home. Despite my age, I was always inherently aware of the fact that these were just movies. My fondness for horror came not from a sense of morbidity, but from a vivid appreciation of fun. Whilst I recall being scared, make that terrified, on many occasions, my overwhelming experience when watching most of these films was one of harmless enjoyment.
In his brilliant documentary series '
The History of Horror', Mark Gatiss defines his own childhood obsession with scary movies as knowing you shouldnt look, but wanting to see. Its this sense of curiosity so fundamental in the human condition, which forces us to look at things that can both shock and disgust us. Yet still we have the urge to look. I would argue that its the horror genres brilliant exploitation of this natural instinct that places this genre, more effectively than any other, in direct contact with the raw emotions of its audience. Done well, the horror film can control the viewers reactions and responses like a puppet master; nerve ends stretched to breaking point by the relentless build up of tension, punctuated by shocks and truly disturbing pay-offs. The more gruesome the better. What follows is a short list of films, which have stuck in my mind from those Saturday night horror sessions. With equal measures of fear, shock, disgust and amusement, those nights now represent some of my fondest film viewing memories. As Ive got older and more serious about my love of film, through study and writing, Ive probably lost the ability to enjoy the simple pleasures of a horror film, which the film snob in me now sees as a guilty pleasure. And life is all the more duller because of that.
The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Without doubt my all time favourite horror film is this tale of brain-hungry zombies bought to life when toxic gas from an army experiment is accidentally released. As with most of the films on this list,
Dan OBannons movie is as fun as it is scary, combining unsettling tension with camp comedy and a hard rock soundtrack. It also featured brilliant special effects for the time, the high point of which are the half-dissected dogs and a rampaging headless body. Creepy, funny but never boring, OBannon expertly combines the grotesque with the hilarious, guaranteeing ninety minutes of pure entertainment.
Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn (1987)
With
Sam Raimis original '
The Evil Dead' falling foul of the UK video nasties act, my brother and I jumped at the chance to see the sequel/remake, which somehow got through the BBFC censors. Such was this movies reputation, I neither had the stomach nor courage to watch it at night, instead waiting for the morning daylight before venturing in to Raimis creepy world. Despite featuring some of my favourite darkly comic moments in horror, such as
Bruce Campbells self-amputated hand flipping him the bird, I felt an overwhelming sense of terror and dread that almost led me to stop the film on several occasions. Featuring an eerie woods, demonic possession and something unspeakable lurking in the cellar, Raimis film was the first time I felt I was in the presence of pure evil. Absolutely terrifying.
Creepshow (1982) and Creepshow 2 (1987)
The brainchild of horror legends
Stephen King and
George A. Romero, '
Creepshow' was a comic-book-style collection of five short stories. Tongue firmly in cheek, the tales include a monster in a crate, an apartment overrun by cockcroaches and a man infected by a meteorite. The one story that really stayed with me however, was the tale of a jealous husband, played by
Leslie Nielsen (horror never strays too far from comedy), killing his adulterous wife and her lover (
Ted Danson). Nielsen buries the pair up to their necks on a secluded beach, leaving them at the mercy of the incoming tide, only for the dead lovers to rise from their watery graves, wrinkled and covered in seaweed, to return the favour. There was something about this slow, torturous death by drowning that really gnawed away at my childhood imagination, contributing to a fear of drowning and confined spaces that has stayed with me well into my adulthood. 'Creepshow 2' featured stories about a wooden Indian statue that comes to life, a dead hitchhiker in search of vengeance and a strange blob-like creature attacking teenage swimmers in a lake. The latter features one of my favourite shock climaxes in cinema, offering proof that you should never, ever presume youve beaten the bad guy.
The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974)
I still remember the palpable sense of anticipation as my brother returned from one visit to the video store with a movie that combined our twin loves ... horror and kung fu, in this Hammer and Hong Kong co-production. In a loose reworking of Kurosawas 'Seven Samurai', Hammer legend
Peter Cushing leads a band of kung fu siblings on a mission to free a small Chinese village from the grip of Count Dracula and the Seven Golden Vampires. The brothers each have a special skill, defined by their weapon of choice - theres bow man, axe man, spear man, mace man, tandem sword men and kung fu man ... oh and not forgetting their sister, knife girl. The much underrated Cushing aside, the acting is stilted, the dialogue terrible and the plot convoluted, as Hammer desperately tried to appeal to declining audiences by creating a mishmash of fist and fang. However, like all the films on this list, its eminently enjoyable. After all, when youre 12 years old, what can be cooler that seeing Dracula square off against a band of kick-ass kung fu brothers.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
The fact that
John Landis set his brilliant werewolf film just 35 miles from my childhood home, must have played havoc with my 12 year old imagination. Before then horror had normally been the far removed stuff of fantasy and legends, but this was happening just down the road.
Rick Bakers amazing effects in the transformation scene blew my mind and made this werewolf completely believable, far from the hairy-faced man wondering through the woods in the Universal horror pictures. The scene with the wolf stalking a lone businessman in the underground station still sends shivers up my spine, and occasionally lurks in the back of my mind when Im in a tube station on my own late at night. Funnily enough, it was during a television premiere of this film that I experienced parental censorship for the first time. As
Jenny Agutter and
David Naugton got it on, I was hastily sent to my room by my concerned parents, forcing me to miss the entire second half of the film. It seems that disembowelment and half eaten corpses were ok, but the first hint of nookie, and its off to bed you go young man.