How Did the Obsession Begin for You?

[mark meakin]

I've been collecting magazines & films since I was 16 so that's 24 years now.My first recollection of any horror film was a viewing of Hammers The Gorgon when I was very young at my grans house.I was then chilled by the 1980/1 premiere of The Omen on ITV which scared me to death as a 12/13 year old.After this while I was on holiday in Mabelthorpe I came across an amusement arcade selling copies of the HOUSE OF HAMMER magazine.Issue 11 happened to have a Brian Lewis cover of The Gorgon so I bought this issue for the princely cover price of 35p,as along with issue 12 it contained the comic adaption of the film.I also bought issue 1 which featured Dracula (1958) as the adaption.A year later I came across a Spar shop in Ingoldmells which had further issues & copies of Famous Monsters Of Filmland which I also bought.Then in 1984 my stepdad rented a Fergusson Videostar toploading VHS video & we first rented The Last Flight Of Noah's Ark & the uncut Guild precert of 10 To Midnight (Which I was not allowed to watch).Not too long after during the hysteria whipped up by the Press & MPs regarding 'Video nasties' I was able to pick up cheap ex-rentals from video stores clearing shelves of iffy titles.I picked up Evilspeak on the Videospace label for £3.00 & when Fox's Music & Video had a clear out I bought The Witch Who Came In From The Sea (VTC)Dead & Buried (Thorn EMI) & The Toolbox Murders (Heavily cut) among others.I can also remember my first blank tape I bought which was about £10.00 & I remember Alien being about the first film I ever recorded though it had been shown earlier in 1982 during the World Cup on ITV.I sold The Witch Who Came In From The Sea to my mate who owned a second hand shop.One of his friends asked who had sold it & this was how I met my mate 'Ollie' who introduced me to the tape underground where I was introduced to the uncut versions of Dawn Of The Dead,Weasels Rip My Flesh,Zombies 90 Extreme Pestilence (absolute shite) & Ilsa Keeper Of The Harem Of Oil Sheiks among others.Hell you youngsters have it easy now as you can pick stuff up at the click of a mouse !I miss the old days at it has took the fun out of collecting but I'm still a big horror fanatic

[mark meakin]

Originally Posted by Daemonia

I first really got into horror via the horror double-bills that BBC2 showed in the late 70's/early 80's. I was introduced to horrors both old and new. So I still have a soft spot for vintage horror, as this is what got me into horror. Then in the early 80's my first introduction to VHS horror was a double-bill of Carrie and The Exorcist and there was no turning back after that - that was a real eye-opener! So I avidly viewed any and every horror film I could get hold of after that. Then came DVD and I began collecting in earnest.

Another old timer !.Yes I was introduced to the likes of The Ghoul (1974) & the marvellous Night Of The Demon (1957) thanks to the BBC 2 double bills.In 1983 the channel screened a superb season in the early evening of Sci-fi films too including Invaders From Mars & My first ever screening of Creature From The Black Lagoon.Channel 4 was also decent in the old days screening a lengthy season of Universal Classics,The Uninvited (1944) which I've never seen since.They also had the The Worst Of Hollywood season which screened Robot Monster & Godzilla Vs The Smog Monster among others,& episodes of the outstanding 60s TV series BORIS KARLOFF PRESENTS (THRILLER).I was also introduced to the Kolchak-The Nightstalker series in 1983 when it premiered on Central for the first time though they messed the series about meaning I only got to see them all when BBC 2 had their DR TERROR seasons showing these & various films.TV is crap for horror fans now though BBC 2 show the odd gem & BBC 4 have screened the old BBC Ghost Stories For Christmas.Mind you satelite is not much better as the Sc-Fi Channel is crap now despite showing Night Gallery & Humanoids From The Deep (1980) in the old days

[Mojo]

Another old timer here

Started watching Dr Who as a kid at the beginning of the Pertwee era and loved the scary / horror element. Sometime later I bought World Of Horror magazine as it had a Dr Who cover and got interested in the horror films they featured. As a result I then started watching the Friday night horror films on my local ITV station. Onwards to the brilliant BBC2 horror double bills....and the rest is history, as they say

[mark meakin]

My uncle said once I started courting or got married I'd stop collecting !.Wrong, though my wife does not share my taste in films preferring Elvis & Doris Day movies.TShe did like the first Saw film & the TCM remake,but does not like any Hammer films.

[DeadAlive]

I grew up on a healthy diet of Hammer Horror films on late night T.V. which turned into a fascination for the films of Argento, Cronenberg, Romero and Carpenter. I saw quite a few of the video nasties before they became known as video nasties. I was always interested in finding out how the effects were done and still love to see behind the scenes and making of extras on DVD's especially when they go in depth on the effects side. My father bought me "Bad Taste" and "Zombie Flesh Eaters" for Christamas one year purely because he thought the covers were something that would appeal to me.

Luckily my wife does share my love of horror, to a certain point. My other love is Martial Arts/Hong Kong cinema. That she has no time for unless it's Bruce Lee related.

[Peter Neal]

My introduction to the genre was slighly different as I got into horror via radio plays, which were very popular in 70's/80's Germany and could be bought cheaply on vinyl and tapes, most of them were cheap knock-offs of classic Hammer movie plots, featuring all the greats from Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, the Mummy...later came the "Alien" and Zombie rip offs as radio plays...until the German censorship craze in the 80's also ruined this creative outlet for horror....
They got me so inspired I started to write and tape my own "scary" radio plays when I was about 11, later on I began to collect horror movie soundtracks to beef my amateurish radio plays up (which never had a commercial run back in those days).
Horror movies were hard to come by in 80's Germany, but I read a book called "Lexikon des Horrorfilms" in which about every post Hammer genre title got severely bashed. The writers had a special disliking for slashers and Italian undead flicks....
Nonetheless I got interested and wanted to see the movies, which I only "knew" through their music, like Carpenter's "Halloween" and so on.
Then my father (of all people!) ACCIDENTLY rented the original "Friday, the 13th" from the highly restricted "for adults" video store, mistaking it for some comedy. Since I knew what it was, I popped the VHS into the player while everybody was still sleeping...
What's to say? I was 15 and I fell instantly in love....!

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

I first became obssessed with the artwork in DER's VIDEO AT HOME catalogue.
The only person I knew who had a Video recorder,was my uncle,who btw,was a psychiatrist (I shit you not).He also had a car and used to take the whole family on our holidays,he seemed fascinated by my fascination on horror videos.When he came to collect us from our holidays,he had bought me HORROR MOVIES by Alan Frank,which was fully illustrated.
So there you have it,a shrink started me out on my horror film obssession.
These days,if he'd given a nine/ten year old that book,they'd have had him struck off....

[Daemonia]

Originally Posted by mark meakin

My uncle said once I started courting or got married I'd stop collecting !.Wrong, though my wife does not share my taste in films preferring Elvis & Doris Day movies.TShe did like the first Saw film & the TCM remake,but does not like any Hammer films.

My missus loves all the movies I do - so we watch exploitation goodness together. I Spit On Your Grave and Cannibal Holocaust are two of her favourite films - bless her heart. Hell, she even sat through Ilsa with me.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Hold on to her mate,they're a rare breed,mine would rather watch shite like Mamma Mia.....

[Daemonia]

Originally Posted by reaper72

Hold on to her mate,they're a rare breed,mine would rather watch shite like Mamma Mia.....

Hehehe - don't worry, she ain't going nowhere. I watch horror movies, I know how to commit the perfect crime.