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Five movies that got me into watching horror

The Fog (1980), The Amityville Horror (1975), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Nosferatu (1929), & The Blob (1958)

Five movies that aren’t for me

I lovingly hate Between Worlds (2018) & the entire Bad Ben series & will rewatch with friends anytime because I deeply enjoy hearing people’s reactions to them.

I was annoyed at existence & being alive in general when I watched James Wan’s Warrenverse films.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977) & The Strangers (2008) & movies with similar plots are my least favorite to cover because ghouls & demons are ridiculous but flesh & blood people are fucked & entirely capable of the evil often written off to supernatural or extraterrestrial forces.

Five movies I loved covering on this podcast

Mandy (2018), Train to Busan (2016), WolfCop (2014), Bad Channels (1992), Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1998)

Five actors, directors, studios, or writers that I always look out for

Nicolas (Daddy) Cage, John Carpenter, Full Moon Studios, & anything adapted from the works of Anne Rice or Stephen King (& any of the other books I stealth borrowed from my mom’s bookshelf throughout the ’90s).

Three characters I can’t help but love

  • Louis de Pointe du Lac from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles because I’m a sucker for an emo kid that haunts weird shacks in the countryside & uses his eternal lifespan to read books.
  • Father Merrin from The Exorcist for the epic rant about how he lost his faith on pg. 369-370 of William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel. “Long ago I despaired of ever loving my neighbor. Certain people… repelled me. How could I love them? … My faith was shattered … At last I realized that God would never ask of me what I know to be psychologically impossible … He was asking that I act with love … and that I should do it unto those who repelled me, I believe, was a greater act of love than any other … we have no need of Satan to manage our wars; these we manage for ourselves.”
  • (The dry grandpa of good) Brick (Highcock) Bardo for having all of the unearned audacity & swag while being 12 inches tall & a hundred years old.

Freddie, Jason, or Michael?

Always Freddie if for nothing but the bomb cock rock soundtrack for Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987).

A perfect horror movie should include

Always first for me is consistent lore. If there is a supernatural or magical element, I want to be able to piece together consistent rules of the lore by the middle of the movie. If there is no paranormal element, the backstory/history & character motivations just need to make sense.

If lore borrows from existing occult practices, it needs to make sense with a cursory read of said practices & should avoid closed practices in most cases. There is nothing more infuriating than a movie or book that indulges in a gross gaze at a practice they obviously do not understand. Othering something has not been scary for decades & I am 30 or 40 years old & I am too old for that shit.

Beyond being a dick about lore, I love a solid, evolving, main character; goofing on corny shit; & playing with tropes in new & subversive ways.