Wednesday 5 May 2010

My Introduction To Horror

My whole life has revolved around Horror, I remember as a child having a fascination with these films that I wasn't allowed to watch, I was banned from seeing them apparently for my own good. Like most children if I was told not to watch or do something I would do it! It was like staring at a giant red button stating "Do Not Press!!" The problem was the covers on these VHS videos looked more interesting than my cartoon videos, I remember seeing the cover for "Evil Dead" and begging my mum to let me watch it, "No son, your only 9" I was very disappointed and decided to sulk whilst watching Nickelodeon that my mum put on for me.

Then one night I snuck downstairs and  searched for "Evil Dead" but without success, I would've kept looking but I didn't want to make too much noise. I stumbled upon on "Halloween" I remember thinking the cover didn't look as good but what the hey, beggars cant be choosers! I decided to put headphones in the TV, my thought was that if I get caught then at least I can say I tried and was clever about it.

The next 91 minutes transformed my life, the music, the screaming, the deaths. I switched the TV off, put the video and headphones back and went straight back to my room. I had to try and sleep with the light on because every time I switched the light off I saw a white face in the corner of my room. Its safe to say I never slept that night.

Over the next few weeks, despite how scared I was after "Halloween" I continued to do this, sneaking downstairs, plugging the headphones in and getting myself terrified. I managed to watch, "A Nightmare On Elm Street", "The Omen", "Friday The 13th", "Hellraiser" and some that I have forgotten.

To say I had bad dreams would be an under statement, I could now see why my mum didnt want me watching these silms but I was fascinated.

Then one night whilst secretly watching "Sleepaway Camp" my dad caught me. Instead of telling me off he sat me down and asked me what I was doing watching a Horror film. I told him I thought it was a comedy because of the title and that I couldn't sleep and the reason I was using headphones was to wake no one up. He then sat me down and made me watch the rest of the film in the dark (After "Halloween" I decided to have a dim lamp on so it wasn't completely dark). Then my dad asked me if I was tired which I wasn't because the film had just freaked me out and I was having second thoughts about my Mum and Sisters gender because of the ending of the film.  Then my moment had arrived, he pulled out "Evil Dead" and stuck it in the VHS Player. I had alot of mixed emotions, fright, excitement, fear, anxiety, giddiness .....So many emotions. I remember burning up and sweating with anxiety.

The lights were off, it was 2am and here I was with my dad about to watch the film I had been wanting to watch for the last 6 months.

The film ended and I was absolutely terrified!!!! my dad put me to bed, with a smile on his face, thinking he'd taught me a lesson. Thing is he'd just made me want to watch more, these films gave me a rush of excitement and fear at the same time, the films I was meant to watch for my age did nothing for me except give me the odd laugh. I started to tell my friends about the films I'd been watching. Especially "Evil Dead" to me Ash was the coolest guy alive!! my friends just thought I was weird.

Then one night whilst walking through the living room whilst my sister was watching "X-Files" I saw Ash on TV, I remember thinking he looked older but I didn't care so I sat down and waited for the zombies and the chainsaw. It never happened, I was seriously confused. That's when my sister explained to me about actors etc. I was very very upset.

Bruce Campbell opened my eyes to the horror movie world and I'll never forget it, same with my dad and his VHS Horror collection. Its funny watching "Evil Dead" nowadays and thinking back to how much it scared me. But it did its job I guess. I still watch the trilogy with fond memories and nowadays I still watch anything with Bruce Campbell in it.

My mum never found out what my dad did, We'd both be dead if she did, but over the next few years he let me watch more by sneaking them in my room and letting me watch them on my own TV/Video combo I'd recently got for Christmas (Still with the headphones). That was until I got to the age that my mum thought I was old enough to watch them maturely and not get frightened. I was now free to roam the world of Horror.

4 comments:

  1. My parents would take us with them to the drive-in theater and watch the double feature, the latter usually being a horror. I, too, was introduced to horror by the 'Omen', 'Exorcist', and others including B grades like 'Night of the Lepus' (which was probably more sci-fi), 'The Incredible Torture Show' or 'Food of the Gods'. I don't watch them much anymore because to me they're less about scaring as they are about grossing you out. To me, true horror goes back to before I got started watching, such as anything by Vincent Price or put out by Hammer Studios. Those were the good old days.

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  2. The films With Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi etc are the true classics, living in England we dont have anything like drive-in theaters though I bet they were great expierneces

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  3. Love this post. Awesome.


    I remember my first horror. It was Dracula with Bela Lugosi but my great-grandmother didn't wanna tramatize me with something gorey at the time. Later on we moved onto gore but I am thankful she was my teacher. Plus my grandfather reading me Edgar Allan Poe at age 3 and on to age 8 pretty much prepared me for all horror.

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  4. Glad you like it :)

    Thats awesome, Gotta love Edgar Allan Poe

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