{"id":173,"date":"2015-10-22T15:51:53","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T22:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/?p=173"},"modified":"2015-10-22T15:51:53","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T22:51:53","slug":"confessions-of-a-horror-lightweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/?p=173","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of a Horror Lightweight"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have often derided myself as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lightweight\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when it comes to horror movies. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many people talk about how horror movies are fun because they let you get frightened in a safe environment. \u00c2\u00a0You get all the fun stuff without any real danger. \u00c2\u00a0And this makes a lot of sense to me.<\/p>\n

But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m one of those people who gets deeply immersed in the virtual world when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m watching a movie. \u00c2\u00a0On some level, I become part of that world, and I forget that it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t real. \u00c2\u00a0Brutal violence leaves me profoundly shaken and it takes me a while to pull myself together afterward.<\/p>\n

Lots of gore, body horror, intense personal violence — these things are just not my speed. \u00c2\u00a0I barely made it through the original <\/span>Evil Dead<\/span><\/i>. \u00c2\u00a0The original <\/span>Dawn of the Dead<\/span><\/i> left me shaken and weeping. \u00c2\u00a0I had to bail on <\/span>Hellraiser <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Blade II<\/span><\/i>. \u00c2\u00a0I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even want to think about the <\/span>Saw<\/span><\/i> movies.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are few movies out there which bring enough other valuable stuff to make the distress worthwhile. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span>A Clockwork Orange<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Pan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Labyrinth<\/span><\/i> come to mind; and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve still only been able to watch them once.<\/span><\/p>\n

But all of that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that I dislike horror movies. \u00c2\u00a0Far from it!<\/span><\/p>\n

Monster movies, kaiju, the work of studios like Universal in the 1930s through the 1960s, Hammer, Amicus — I love that stuff! \u00c2\u00a0I relish the creepy, the occasionally gruesome, the mysterious, the atmospheric.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the violence is restrained, or just unrealistic enough that I can abstract myself and remember that what I am seeing is imaginary, then I can get frightened, creeped out, even excited by the possibilities of a mysterious and supernatural world. <\/span><\/p>\n

I spent several very key years of my childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area and spending my late Friday and Saturday nights watching <\/span>Creature Features<\/span><\/i>. \u00c2\u00a0It was the late 1970s, and things were quite different from the way they are now:<\/span><\/p>\n

There was only one \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Star Wars\u00e2\u20ac\u009d movie. \u00c2\u00a0It was called <\/span>Star Wars<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Home video games were limited to the brand-new Atari 2600, which with a price tag of over $800 in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s money, was a toy for the well-off.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was more or less accepted that smoking was bad for you, but most people did it anyway and it was legal just about everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

Home video recorders didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exist. \u00c2\u00a0If you wanted to watch a TV show, you had to plant yourself in front of the set when that show was on. \u00c2\u00a0And you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d better hope no one else in the house wanted to watch something on another channel. \u00c2\u00a0Most folks had only one TV set in the house.<\/span><\/p>\n

During that time, I often spent Saturday staying over at my best friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house. \u00c2\u00a0Sometimes we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d swim in her pool. \u00c2\u00a0Other times we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d play games on the Atari, which I was terrible at. \u00c2\u00a0(Some things don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change.) \u00c2\u00a0We also played with our Barbie dolls, making up stories that were much more befitting the movies we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be watching later than the usual clothes, cars and glam stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n

After dinner, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d make a batch of chocolate chip cookies, finishing up with one giant cookie each, and took that still warm and gooey treat into the den and settled in to watch <\/span>Creature Features<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get the tail end of <\/span>The 10 O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Clock News<\/span><\/i>. \u00c2\u00a0And then came the funky theme music<\/a> and the decidedly un-funky host, Bob Wilkins. \u00c2\u00a0Unlike many horror hosts, he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go in for costume or schtick, but simply sat in his chair in a spooky old house set, smoking a cigar and telling us a little about the movie we were about to see.<\/span><\/p>\n

As often as not, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d caution us that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d best not expect much. \u00c2\u00a0I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember ever being put off, though.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our favorites were the Godzilla movies. \u00c2\u00a0We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d make up Godzilla\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dialogue, our own translations of what everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favorite giant radioactive lizard was saying with those weird roars. \u00c2\u00a0Those roars have echoed down through the years and informed a lot of my taste in movies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Come to think, Godzilla movies (along with <\/span>You Only Live Twice<\/span><\/i>) were probably my introduction to Japan and Japanese culture, giving me a curiosity which blossomed into full blown fascination when I discovered anime almost a decade later.<\/span><\/p>\n

We saw lots of other movies on <\/span>Creature Features<\/span><\/i> too. \u00c2\u00a0Universal monster movies, spooky haunted house flicks, William Castle weirdness, goodness knows what else. \u00c2\u00a0I might have even seen <\/span>Night of the Living Dead<\/span><\/i> there, although I doubt I made it through the whole thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or maybe I did, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why the movie disturbs me so much to this day. \u00c2\u00a0Who can say? \u00c2\u00a0I certainly can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/span><\/p>\n

I probably saw my first Hammer films on <\/span>Creature Features<\/span><\/i> too, but my strongest memory of a Hammer film comes from the fall of 1984.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was alone in a college dorm TV room, stitching trim on a cape and watching a movie with the (as it seemed to me at the time) outlandish title of <\/span>Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter<\/span><\/i>. \u00c2\u00a0Outlandish or not, that movie ended up having a lot of influence on my writing, and still does.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve shared my background, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to contribute more to this blog. \u00c2\u00a0I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be offering my takes on some old favorites and new discoveries. \u00c2\u00a0I hope to share an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153old school\u00e2\u20ac\u009d perspective, and maybe even show how \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lightweight\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be exciting, appealing and fun. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After all, getting a broader perspective can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hurt — especially when you have to look over your shoulder or into the dark.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have often derided myself as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lightweight\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when it comes to horror movies. \u00c2\u00a0 Many people talk about how horror movies are fun because they let you get frightened in a safe environment. \u00c2\u00a0You get all the fun stuff without any real danger. \u00c2\u00a0And this makes a lot of sense to me. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.afterhell.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}