My earliest memory of my fascination with horror movies was probably around 1976 when I was 10. I remember walking down the hallway on the top floor of my house to my parent’s bedroom and the door was closed. I heard some weird creepy music and some voices. I knocked on the door and my mom told me to come on in. She was sitting up in bed watching Beyond the Door on cable TV. She invited me to sit with her and watch it. I remember being nervous and scared but I couldn’t peel myself away. From that point forward my mom realized that her fourth daughter had inherited her thrill for horror movies. My mom would tell me horror bedtime stories and I would love them. They were the coolest but ghastliest fables; she could get really creative. She had one hell of an imagination. My mom also had an interest in bizarre oddities and freak shows or any movie or documentary on the subject. I too shared that interest. The movie Freaks from 1932 is one that I will never tire of. Although this movie was not well received by audiences and it had much of it cut out. One of my all time favorites is the Exorcist. That movie is a work of art. People ask me why these movies don’t scare me and I guess it’s because I don’t believe in the stuff, so I can watch these movies and sleep like a baby at night. The movies that really scare me are the ones about serial killers or torture and things of that nature. I avoid those types of movies because they are too real and disturb me. Now that was one difference between my mom and me. She liked those types of movies and I did not. Like the movie Hostile and Silence of the Lambs etc. Although I did go to see Silence of the Lambs with her and it was really torture for me to sit through it. I was almost scared to walk to my car after seeing that. Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses is kind of a mix of bizarre freaks and torture so this one I liked but it made me uneasy. The Evil Dead series are great. One of my favorite parts in that movie was when one of the possessed girls eats her own arm off! The scene lasts for it seems like a long time, and she just continues to gnaw at her own arm until it falls off! And the sound effects during this scene are awesome – makes me laugh every time. Evil Dead #2 was great as well and goes way over the top on the entertainment scale. Army of Darkness is in a league of its own. If you’re a horror fan I highly recommend all three, and it would be great if you’d comment and let me know what you think of them. Drag Me to Hell which is one of the most recent movies I’ve seen was a really good one too. It made me laugh in a lot of parts. It was great when the old woman falls out of the casket on top of the girl and all of the fluid comes pouring out of her mouth onto the girl’s face! Well I can go on forever about horror movies. My mom passed away two years ago and one of the million things I miss is not having her here to chat about all of the horror and gore we both loved. Years before she passed away just after she retired she befriended another lady who was a horror fan. She was 78 and in a wheelchair. My mom would go pick her up at her apartment and wheel her into see these horrific movies. She said people would give her the weirdest looks (but can you blame them). That woman has since passed away too.
There are 100's of horror movies that I can mention but this blog would never end....I like too many of them. I hope that when I am an old lady and in a wheelchair I have a friend like my mom, who will wheel me in to the movies to see the horror and bizzare oddities that I love.
The following is dedicated to my mom who I miss very much:
A true Chimes classick. Sicker than pea soup through the lips on a fresh wound of cherry juice and milk.
ReplyDeleteComments from Old Blog:
ReplyDeletemongrel1
Excellent blog. I feel the same way about both Science Fiction and Horror. My dad was the one who got me going on SF. He would do strange things like blindfold me so I wouldn’t know where we were going and at the last minute when he took the blindfold off we’d be at a theater where "War of the Worlds" or some other 50s sci-fi flick was playing. Starting when I was about ten I would catch the bus to go into town to see a double feature horror bill just about every weekend like "Tarantula" plus "The Black Scorpion" or "Macabre" plus "Thirteen Ghosts".
These days I’ve got to have humor with my gore or I can’t swallow it. The Sam Raimi films you mention are also some of my favorites (the Evil Dead saga, Drag Me…etc.)
Zombie comedies are fun for me (Sean of the Dead, Fido) Keep screamin!
December 19, 2009
ChimesofLife48
There are not too many parents who share such wonderful horror with their children! We are amongst the lucky few! :-) LOL
December 19, 2009
BungleGrind
ReplyDeletecan i just say that this blog had me jumping up and down like a giddy little child who still believes in santa claus and is awaiting gifts under the tree? i write about many things ….music,heartbreak,you name it ….and maybe besides waxing over metal nothing excites me as much as horror.good horror movies ….bad horror movies ….you name it.i am one year younger than you,so i am very sure we grew up on similiar movies.
when i was a small child, i watched a tv show called kolchak:the nightstalker.the vampire episode.that show scared the living shit out of me.i had nightmares for days.but, there are two kinds of people ….the people that ride the roller coaster and get off horrified and vomiting and are traumatized for life …..and then, there are the people who get off,are horrified and vomiting …..and yet, they want to get right back on it.
so, the next time the show was on i watched it again and i loved it.still do.so, of course being in the era i was in i used to watch anything that caught my eye.they had 4 o’clock in the afternoon horror movies every day.mostly showing hammer films.that is how i got turned on to those.there was a saturday night horror host named count gore devol.that is where i saw night of the living dead for the first time …..un-cut too! i also saw a lot of those early creepy movies like lets scare jessica to death,don’t be afraid of the dark,gargoyles.oh my god!!!!!!! and trilogy of terror! remember the voodoo doll? vincent price movies.my dad seeing that i was in love with these movies and not affected by them started taking me to see everything.so, at a very early age i saw all the classics in theaters ….suspiria,jungle holocaust,zombie,gates of hell,the omen,exorcist,last house on the left,dawn of the dead,beyond the door,texas chainsaw massacre….i could go on forever.he even used to take me to these weekly double features and that is where i saw freaks and some of the early david cronenberg movies.
i don’t really draw the line though at a type of horror.i just love it all.i mean, i can’t pick one thing over another because there are great old horror movies that have no gore in them at all….and then, there are bloodbaths like many of the italian movies and early peter jackson movies.
i do think if i had to pick one thing i am very fond of it would be italian cinema in general.the gory movies,the giallos,euro crime,all of that.i just love the atmposphere.those and any hammer or tigon movies.i’m in love with all of those movies.
i haven’t seen a good new one in a while and been looking.any suggestions? as you can see this whole thing has excited me.if you ever want to talk horror i am absolutely your go-to guy on here.as a matter of fact, my thing right now is wanting to know your all time favorite flicks.gimme a stack of them.as many as you can rail off.i’ll make a list of some of mine for you if you want.but, i watch a lot of sick and disgusting stuff.i’m not exactly how far you go here.thanks again for posting this! much respect to you.
ChimesofLife48
DeleteSomeone that jumps up and down about horror?! Wow I hit the jackpot! Thanks for the deliciously detailed comment. We are a rare breed aren’t we? How did you like the Evolution of Horror video? I wish my mom were here to see it; I think she’d really enjoy it. I’ll work on my favs list. As far as how sick and disgusting I’ll go – I go pretty far. I don’t like anything that involves children or animals. The more freaky and supernatural it is the better. When I see movies like this there are never scary enough for me and I almost always think of ways that I could have made it better. But then again if I made them it would probably have to be NR17 because it would be too much. I don’t require bloody type gore at all to enjoy these types of movies. The most recent one I’ve seen that I would recommend to you is Drag me to Hell. BungleGrind man I think we may have some fun ahead of us!
December 20, 2009
BungleGrind
Deletethat video was cool.but it sure was missing a lot of good stuff.i swear, i could go on and on for days.you have no idea.if you are interested in trying to keep up i welcome the company.your mom sounds awesome.i’m actually really close to my mom.we hang out.like, go to concerts and stuff.but she hates horror movies.we always want to go to movies but can never agree on anything.i’m dying to see more of your favorites.actually, i was a little disappointed in drag me to hell.i used to love sam raimi.the evil dead trilogy is absolutely one of my favorites.but he went on to being big hollywood spiderman guy and i thought drag me to hell was more so hollywood spiderman raimi than evil dead raimi.another thing is i tend to shy away from hollywood horror movies.anything with young pretty actors that is pg-13 is most likely not gonna cut it with bungle.
but, i’m a horror freak and geek of the tallest order.i go to the conventions.i even collect horror soundtack cds.i have some nice ones.
man, i swear you’re gonna get me going here and i am never gonna be able to shut up……
December 20, 2009
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMunkyman
I love "Freaks" I have it on DVD with a bunch of interviews with real freaks, found it in the $5 bin @ the evil Wally World.
December 25, 2009
ChimesofLife48
Interviews with the freaks?? I am salivating!
December 27, 2009
Munkyman
a couple of the freaks from the movie were still alive to be interviewed & they rounded it out with contemporary freaks & I think even a couple Munchkins from Oz.
December 28, 2009
ChimesofLife48
Now that’s something I’d love to see.
December 28, 2009
bloodintheeyes
interestin.
December 28, 2009