Only a handful of people can rival my own nerdism of horror movies and trivia. One of them is author, Alan Spencer. And, you can see just how much in his book, B-Movie Reels, and its upcoming sequel, B-Movie Attack. I hope you enjoy his post below and if you haven't already, swing by Amazon.com and order some of his books. Be sure to visit him on his own blog HERE!
Today, Kristopher's been kind enough to allow me to take over his blog for a day. Well, I'll make myself comfortable. I'm Alan Spencer. I'm a fellow Samhain author with Kristopher Rufty. So what's the topic for today? How about what horror movie actually scares me?
What a question, right? My obsession with horror movies started when I was really young. The 80's were a booming time for horror flicks, so they were on TV all the time. I even remember Thursday Night horror on Cinemax. I also rented horror movies from the local rental store like a fiend. I feel I have to preface the answer to the above question by mentioning these facts, because movies only really scared me when I was a kid. Now they fascinate me. That's not to say I haven't seen anything that's given me chills as an adult. The most recent flicks would be A Serbian Film, Inside, and The Descent.
But what actually scared me were movies I recall from childhood memory. There's one film in particular that freaked me out. That's not to say it wouldn't be laughable now. I haven't seen this film in a good fifteen years. The movie's called Judgment Night, or The 3rd Hand. It involves a devil creature bringing punishment and damnation to an entire village once a year. Its like a tour of torture and pain wrought upon many. Two tourists get caught up in the local legend and learn this annual activity is very real. When I see pictures of the devil now, I think it's laughable. I can see through the rubber mask and bad make-up. So why did it freak me out so much when I was younger?
A lot had to do with the fact I hadn't seen a low budget movie before. The film quality was grainy and cheap and slightly washed out. As a kid, this was the first really seedy looking film I'd seen. Reality seemed askew through the foggy lens. That alone freaked me out, never mind that creepy laugh the devil had, like a weird vulture golem. The evil chortling kept repeating in my ears before bedtime when the lights went out. I thought the devil would come out from under my bed and punish me for my sins. That's probably why I haven't seen it in so long. It hasn't been released on DVD legitimately, but we'll see. One of these days...
So I'm eager to see what my buddy Kristopher has to say on the subject of scary horror movies. I'll guess I'll read about that on my blog! In the meantime, watch out for our co-released e-books coming out this August from Samhain, The Lurkers, and my book, B-Movie Attack, the sequel to B-Movie Reels.
Keep reading horror!
No comments:
Post a Comment