Horrific Memories

This is my first ever attempt at blogging, I've always wanted to have a go. As this is the blog section of a film board I guess I’ll try to keep it relevant but I quite often enjoy going off on tangents so we’ll see.

I thought it might be fun with my first blog to write a bit about some of the films that first got me to love the horror genre. These are films that I saw when I was about 15 and spent most of my weekends renting horror films with friends. We saw a lot of rubbish, Hellgate is one that instantly comes to mind, but most were ****ing amazing. (I’m gonna spare you long plot outlines for any of the films because they films that I would imagine most serious horror fans have already seen, if you haven’t seen them than I’ll warn you there are some spoilers ahead)

The film that sticks most clearly in my from that time was Evil Dead. We passed it over many times when choosing films because we thought the demon on the front cover looked like some weird pirate but eventually we rented it when are small video shop was running low on 18 rated films (back then 15’s were strictly for wusses only ). My memory of my first Evil Dead viewing is that of a fast paced non stop thrill ride of violence, gore and scares, me and my friends had never see anything like it. It delivered in a way which most (horror) films only dream of. My experience watching Evil Dead is pretty much my bench mark for film enjoyment, I’m always looking for the next Evil Dead experience a film that leaves me totally exhilarated and craving for more (There are very few of these films the only time I am certain I had the same is experience at a cinema was when I saw Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels when I was 17)
The other great thing about my first Evil Dead viewing was that there was a trailer for Evil Dead II after the film. The image of a headless corpse running into a tool shed carrying a chainsaw above its bloody stump is still firmly burned (maybe carved is a better word) into my brain. There was no question which film we were going to rent the next weekend.

In the small town that I grew up in there was only one place that you could buy horror videos and that was at the local market, luckly the guy who ran the place couldn’t give a shit or not if you were 18 just as long as you had cash. It was there that I bought Dawn of the Dead (actually I traded my Sega Game Gear in for the whole Dead Trilogy). The version that was swimming around at that time was the so called ‘Dirtors Cut’ which I found out later is actually just an extended cut rather than a definitive Romero version. I loved Dawn of the Dead for two main reasons the action and the gore (is there anything more exciting and visceral for a horror fan than when you first see the biker be literally torn to pieces by the rampaging zombies). Dawn is definitely the film that all other zombie flicks must be judged against.
A few years ago I was lucky enough to see Dawn with a large audience and hearing the audiences reaction when Peter (Ken Foree) decides against suicide at the very end and fights back against the zombies was fantastic(the incidental music that plays while he fights back is my second favourite piece of music in any film the first being the weirdly happy Caribbean??? tune in Zombie Flesh Eaters), the rather feeble looking kick that Peter delivers to the first zombie was greeted with a huge cheer.

The last film that had a huge affect on me when I was younger was Halloween. It's the film that kickstarted my obsession with all things John Carpenter. I watched Halloween (on the night itself no less) on my own very late at night, and from the second I saw the flickering pumpkin and heard the sensational score (anther cinematic moment that is forever seared into my mind) I was terrified, but I couldn’t stop watching. In my opinion Halloween is one of the most technically perfect films ever produced. The opening sequence, where the young Michael Myers kills his sister, that appears to be one long steady-cam shot is sublime. From then on John Carpenter goes on to school everyone in the art of scaring people shitless, an art form he perfect in Prince of Darkness. There have been many imitators, but for me Halloween will always be number one when it comes to the slasher genre.

Ok, so I hope I didn’t bore you shitless with my first ever blog, I’d love to hear what people think about it. I’m already planning my next entry about Asian zombie films which should include a review of the film I’m named after.

Thanks for reading.

BioZombie