What was your introduction to horror films? If you were into horror movies at all.
If you grew up in the 80’s like me more than likely you were introduced to horror movies and gained an obsession for them, also if you grew up in the 80’s you were on a first name basis with horror. Michael, Jason, Freddy and maybe even Chucky were a few of the names that cordially invited into their fun yet frightening nightmare worlds.
For me being born in 1975 it was Michael, Myers to be exact. It was probably the early 80’s when the original Halloween released in 1978 played on HBO or Home Box Office as we were still calling it.
I was 9 or 10 maybe younger when I pretended to be asleep on the couch so that I could watch Halloween on HBO when my parents went to bed. This was before DVR or even the VCR, so I had to know what time it was and plan my mission which broke the rule of R rated films in my house perfectly.
I looked over my shoulder so many times that night. It was late and I was alone, in the darkness of the living room for the first time and this film was scary!
An obsession was born.
I followed all the old movies that aired on creature double feature after this. The Universal Monsters and some low budget zombie stinkers which aired on Saturday afternoons.
My parents being strict about me not seeing the R rated films kept me from seeing anything else in the genre worth viewing until the advent of VHS/Video Stores and a friend’s house with no adult supervision.
The video stores and sneaking into local theatres that weren’t so strict on carding kids opened a world of frightful fantasy for me. Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Jason 256: Jason Meets the Muppets it seemed as though I never seen an original or classic in the theatre, but it didn’t matter they were all classics to us.
You also couldn’t go wrong picking up a copy of Fangoria or Gorezone Magazines at the time.
It was one afternoon in particular that I was watching a UHF station out of Philadelphia that I saw the film Satan’s Cheerleaders.
Unintentionally funny and delightfully camp Satan’s Cheerleaders introduced me to the B movie. The fact that a horror film could make me laugh opened a new world to me and another obsession was born.
I lost interest in horror in the late 90’s, early 2000’s when the genre went stale save for a few psychological or atmospheric films like Let the Right One In which is one of my favorite films let alone horror films.
Directors like Robert Eggers, Ari Aster and Brandon Cronenberg have restored my faith in the genre, and I have never gone back to being interested in the slasher genre and probably never will.
I do respect the classics though and will never forget the names Michael, Jason, Freddy or Chucky.
"Jason meets the Muppets." Lol
I grew up during the Golden Age of Slasher Movies.