# What made YOU such a HORROR FREAK?



## Master-Macabre

I'm guessing about 99% of the HauntForum peeps would be absolutely proud to call themselves a horror freak as I do, but what is it that got us into this amazing genre that opens up so many other doors such as haunting and spfx makeup? Where you just a kid watching halloween specials and being absolutely amazed? Did you sneak a film you knew you where obviously too young to watch but watched it anyway? Tell me your story, how you got introduced to horror:zombie:, and how it made you feel. Because honestly, without horror would any of us be here? Anyway, here's my story:

I was about 2 years old, too young to clearly remember when it happened but I have bits and peices recollected. I was chilling in my crib/bed in my parents room while they watched Wicked Stepmother (with Bette Davis). I distinctly remember leaning against the rail of my crib looking at the tv with my parents to my front/left. (SPOILER TO WICKED STEPMOTHER COMING UP) The climax of the movie came in which Maranda(Bette Davis) and Priscilla(Barbara Carrera) have both their personalities put into a black cat. Priscilla falls onto the floor and her head spins with crazy camera flashes and such and every time her head spun a different face appeared to represent the various personalities they had taken up. I was absolutely astounded. I had never seen anything like it in my entire life. From there on (when I was about 4), I would BEG my dad to keep renting Wicked Stepmother EVERY SINGLE TIME we went to the video rental store. He would because he knew it wasnt all that scary but eventually he got fed up and refused to rent it. He introduced me to some very iconic films in my life that I believe have made me who I am. Movies like Monster Squad, Little Monster, Labyrinth, Tales from the Crypt, Mars Attacks, Species, and Goosebumps in particular. These movies led me to want to rent more and more so by the time I was 5/6 all I ever wanted to rent was scary movies. Now my dad wouln't let me rent the older stuff I craved so badly so I had to make do with less graphic stuff but after many tantrums and embrassments at the store he gave in and let me rent whatever scary movie I wanted if I begged and told him I'd behave enough. By the time I was in kindergarten, halloween was the best thing in the world next to Christmas. I'd rally up my costume and do my makeup and freak out all the other kids at school. When I got to around 4th grade my costumes started getting serious. I would refuse to buy the retail costumes everyone else got and instead I would piece together my costume. I would do some pretty good makeup for my age. Loads of white and black with latex slashes and blood literally pouring down my face. I did various zombies but always lost the school costume contest to the kids with the stupid wal-mart costumes. But whatevs, in the end I freaked out more student and teachers then anyone else. Around 7th grade I went into an amateur local haunt and I was just a newbie volunteer. I established myself as a haunter and exercised my scaring techniques to just about perfection. Now I'm leading alot of that haunt and about 1/5 of it belongs entirely to me and my scene. I'm totally self taught in makeup and now I can easily apply foam prosthetics and do airbrush makeup. I've even been asked to do some lead characters for a theater production for Macbeth at a community college. My dream is to be a professional makeup effects artist and work for a prestigious workshop such as KNB Effects. I'm only 15 and I gratefully owe all of this not only to Wicked Stepmother and it's cast but to all horror in general. NOW HauntForum peeps, tell me your story...


----------



## jaege

For me it was the "b" monster movies with Lon Chaney Jr, Bela Lagosi and Bori Karloff. Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein etc. I then got into those Aurora plasic glow-in-the-dark monster models, moved onto the snap-action Pirates of the Carribean skeletons and finally made it to the ultimate haunt - Disneys:The Haunted Mansion...the rest is history.


----------



## RoxyBlue

I married a man who was born on Halloween - 'nuff said


----------



## Master-Macabre

RoxyBlue said:


> I married a man who was born on Halloween - 'nuff said


Hahaha
Niceee


----------



## Master-Macabre

jaege said:


> For me it was the "b" monster movies with Lon Chaney Jr, Bela Lagosi and Bori Karloff. Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein etc. I then got into those Aurora plasic glow-in-the-dark monster models, moved onto the snap-action Pirates of the Carribean skeletons and finally made it to the ultimate haunt - Disneys:The Haunted Mansion...the rest is history.


Oooo I LOVED those too but I could never get a hold of them  I still remember going to my video rental store and asking for Wolfman. But my favorite b-monster had to be Creature form the Black Lagoon. It was mega special to me cause I could only watch it near halloween when it was on AMC


----------



## groovie ghoulie

my parents were big on decorating, We had to be the only ones with light up stuff 40 some years ago! Then we went to Disneyland and The Haunted Mansion! THAT sealed the deal!


----------



## Master-Macabre

Haha
I think we all have a childhood fascination for The Haunted Mansion 
I think it's sad how alot of people totally forget what it was like to be a kid going through the haunted mansion, or Disneyland for that matter


----------



## Spooky1

Being born on Halloween was probably the start for me.


----------



## Master-Macabre

Spooky1 said:


> Being born on Halloween was probably the start for me.


 LUCKY!!! D:


----------



## RoxyBlue

Master-Macabre said:


> LUCKY!!! D:


That's the man I was talking about


----------



## Master-Macabre

RoxyBlue said:


> That's the man I was talking about


WOAH hahahaha
Thats so cool. You guys just made my day


----------



## sparky

My evil beginning was when I was i kid , my friends said they were done trick or treating... I said I was going to go out more ,screw them...so I went to the next street to get more candy, as I walk up to the house ,get my candy and turn around ,some old kid(adult or teenager) jumped out of the tree and scared the crap out of me like I've never been scared before....... after that I thought I could do a better job of scaring kids then that...I swore I would scare kids and adults more then that!!!!!
The EVIL beginning started that night.......HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Jack Reaper

I do not remember when I became a horror fan, always have been, always will be....

But my father once told me that he took my mother to see Rosemary's Baby when she was pregnant with me, but.....since I predate that movie...I think he made it up...


----------



## The Bloodshed Brothers

halloween made me a horror freak


----------



## debbie5

The Blob. 
Scared the poo out of me. I was about 9. I have never looked at a ventilation grate the same way since.
Now that I'm older, I don't watch as much scary stuff, as I am afraid I will drop dead from a heart attack.


----------



## divaann

Dark Shadows..... Barnabus Collins 
This was my first taste of the undead.


----------



## Non Compos Mentis

Seeing the movie "Halloween" on 'Halloween' when I was five got me hooked onto horror films. I remember just being so scared, but since then, I've been drawn to all types of horror films.


----------



## The Creepster

Original "CreepShow" of course "Just tell it to call you Billy"


----------



## Just Whisper

I am very much like Vincent Price. He loved making horror films, but was scared of watching them. He was a terrific actor in those films. My love of Halloween grew from watching people's love of being scared. Most of us enjoy getting scared as long as we know that we are actually safe. Myself included. But I cannot stand to watch a blood and guts gory horror film. I just like being scared, not grossed out. So i have never been a horror freak, I guess. I just like making people happy and I love building stuff. How cool for me that it works together at Halloween.


----------



## The Creepster

so no "Last House on the left" for you then huh? The Original of course not the remake


----------



## Haunted Bayou

Always had a fascination with the macabre and anything that would keep me scared to go to bed.
I was banned from all horror movies when I was a kid due to nightmares but I couldn't help it. I'd watch those damn movies through my fingers. 

I always loved the B&W movies that played on Saturday Night on Shock Theatre.


----------



## Don of the Dead

George A Romero's Day of the Dead started it for me...it all went downhill from there


----------



## DeadDudeintheHouse

I'd say I was only a casual horror fan until I saw Scream. That's the film, if we're really talking films, that kicked it into high-gear for me. Because of that film, I went on a psychotic renting-spree for about a year, and when I got the internet, I started researching the most popular and highly rated horror films around and kind of made it a silent mission to see them all.

One of the things that made the genre a fascination is advertising and artwork, from fans and the-like. Watching trailers online. Finding the Houseofhorrors.com website's Vault section (Google it if you've never been there, it's a lot of fun!). I've now seen all 32 of those films except Cannibal Holocaust, which was added to the beta site's Vault, and the remake of Night of the Living Dead.

Another thing that makes me a freak for great horror movies is variety. The genre's form is entirely flexible. You can do anything with it and make at least one successful film from it. With the right talent attached.

And, the high importance and social relevance of some of those films. Especially Rosemary's Baby- which so perfectly illustrates the tragedy of a woman with all control of her life taken away from her.

It's a very rewarding genre. No matter what you come into it looking for.


----------



## Tralan

Master-Macabre said:


> I'm guessing about 99% of the HauntForum peeps would be absolutely proud to call themselves a horror freak as I do, but what is it that got us into this amazing genre that opens up so many other doors such as haunting and spfx makeup? Where you just a kid watching halloween specials and being absolutely amazed? Did you sneak a film you knew you where obviously too young to watch but watched it anyway? Tell me your story, how you got introduced to horror:zombie:, and how it made you feel. Because honestly, without horror would any of us be here? Anyway, here's my story:


As much as I love Halloween, I am not a horror freak. Don't get me wrong, I love old old old horror films... Wolf Man, The Fly, etc. But really, most horror films bore me. While the campy cheesy horror films are fun to watch with a group of people, I rarely catch them on my own.

I do like gothic feeling movies. Underworld is a recent series that drew me in. But I loved older movies like Edward Scissor Hands and even the Craft had some appeal to me (though I hate the Craft because of the hordes of teenage girls who watched and tried to claim to be Wiccans).

What drew me into the macabre genre in general? I don't think it's a single event. I've always been a weird kid. While all my friends were pretending to be Ninja Turtles, I was pretending to be Spock. while they were off watching Pro Wrestling or the latest Adam Sandler flick on weekends, I was busying my Friday nights watching Harryhausen flicks on TNT's Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs, and on Saturdays I was staying up late for TNT's 100% Weird, which not only featured Harryhausen movies, but often-times the Stooges as well. That, and being naturally nocturnal, I've always been drawn to the dark. Demons and monsters, and weird sh*t have always fascinated me, and I have no idea why.


----------



## Haunted Bayou

Tralan, you aren't the only one on HF that doesn't care for horror movies, and some don't like gore either.


----------



## Tralan

I love gore. More blood the better. Underworld... yesssss. Kate Beckinsale in tight leather didn't hurt things either lol.

I guess I just don't scare easily. Sure, things might pop out at me and I jump or scream, but that's not scaring me, it's startling me. Everyone raved about how terrifying The Ring was. I watched alone in the dark... and was horribly dissapointed. Then I was told "Ringu is even scarier." Again, I watched it alone, in the dark. And again I yawned. I do like some "horror" movies for other aspects, though. Frailty, although kinda weird and twisted, had a really good, dark story. Bram Stoker's Dracula (The Francis Ford Copolla [butchered that name] version) didn't scare me a bit. but it was visually a good flick.

The only thing good about the new Friday the 13th film was the hour and a half of nudity throughout the film. It wasn't even cheesy fun like the old movies were.

Dark is definately what draws me to "horror."


----------



## DeadDudeintheHouse

I don't think most of us are easy to scare either.


----------



## hexerei

My mom used to let me stay up late to watch Elvira Mistress of the Dark(the hostess with the Mostess) with her when she still had her weekly show showing cheesy old b-flicks late late at night. I almost never made it through the movie without falling asleep on the couch before it ended, but my mom and I still worship her to this day and that started my love for all things horror. Plus my mom always was a complete halloween freak. It just runs in the family.


----------



## Death's Door

Even at a young age, I would watch horror films when my parents were watching them. I remember staying up and watching "Suspiria" and "Satan's Triangle". Also, Wee Willy Weber had "Creature Double Feature" I used to watch. I would also go to the King Street Movie Theater on Saturday for their horror matinee films. 

I remember on one Saturday after the movies where done, someone came on the stage and told us to stay in our seats because a live band was going to play. While the band was playing, the all the lights in the theater went dark and only strobes were going and then Dracula, Wolfman, Mummy, and a few other characters would be going done the aisles and cutting through the rows and scaring people. (I'm getting goosebumps and sporting a smile right know just thinking about that.) Being scared by these films back then gave me such a rush. I was hooked and couldn't wait for Saturday afternoons for my fix.


----------



## BloodyHarry

thats my bday as well roxy...sometimes, you're just born into it


----------



## BloodyHarry

that sounds awesome!!!wow


----------



## sickNtwisted

It started with watching horror movies with my grandmother at the age of 4. 
A love for the macabre runs in the family, it's in my blood.


----------



## morbidmike

I always watched horror movies ever since I was a wee ladd but people who did halloween dispalys really set the wheels turning now I watch every horror movie I can good and very suckkie ones to get ideas.......the first nighmare did scare me alot I was only like 12 when that came out and I didnt sleep for nights on end ...so Thankyou Freddy for turning me into the freak I have came to be


----------



## Marrow

Scooby doo on Zombie Island, the goosebumps books/movies and _fright catalog._ I think Fright Catalog got me into the really spooky/gory stuff. Found that website when I was 5. Yep. I know that's awful.

My parents completely banned me from it when I was drawing bloody bodies, ripped in half, with intestines dangling from them, chained to the wall of a torture chamber. I was screwed up.
Theres more to the story, but it gets a bit personal, as you can imagine. Psychologists involved.

Fine now.


----------



## pensivepumpkin

I spent a great many evenings sneaking into the living room after bedtime and hiding behind the sofa listening to what my insomniac dad was watching. Lots of those movies have been listed already, though since I only heard them I became fascinated with the atmospheric effects and to this day I cannot point them out based on visuals. Listened to a lot of Richard Pryor that way too.

Plus, I grew up in a haunted house so I am constantly looking for that visual that matches the real thing. I don't do gore in my haunt, but I do love a good gorefest movie. Devil's Rejects always works for me. I also second the Kate Beckinsale comment. When I don't want to work out, I visualize her in Underworld and think "I totally have to wear that costume." Keeps me going for another mile, at least.


----------



## wolfatdoor

*Dr. E. Nick Whitney*

local host of b horror movies sat. afternoon. always thought I could do it better. So year after year I keep trying to up the ante.


----------



## pamelakumar

We were distributed novels in classes to read for a week and then submit it in the next lecture the following week to get another novel. 'Phantom of the Auditorium-Goosebumps' was the first horror book that I had got in hand to read. And it is since then, that, I have started becoming a horror freak.


----------



## BunchOfHocusPocus

As as kid I was always drawn to the unknown and loved watching the X-Files growing up. Each time we went to Blockbuster I always found myself going towards the horror section and selecting a lot of scary movies. Watched Night Of The Living in black and white and it always stuck with me. After that I got addicted to watching lots of horror and each year when Halloween would come up I'd go to look at decorations in the stores near by and begging my mother to buy them for me. And I still continue to love buying decorations till this day and my horror movies collection have been growing and growing over the years.


----------



## the Master

I'm a horror freak because I simply live a dark life. It's the only thing I feel excepted in people will take one look at me and scream!


----------



## The-Hog-Flu

I think it stemmed from watching horror movies with my Dad when I was a youngster. I remember sitting with him on Saturdays and watching the "Creature Double Feature" on the old channel 56 here in Ct. I was hooked since I was about 5 yrs old. Good times and good memories.


----------



## Little Haunter

I honestly think it was wired in my brain from birth. When I was little, my father would calm me down by having me watch that fake alien abduction video from the 90s. My Dad and Mom were goth. I was named after a character from Spawn, for Lord's sake. I have fond memories of watching the Addams Family, B-grade horror movies, and the old Universal horror movies, along with stuff like Scooby Doo. When I was eight, I became obsessed with Cryptozoology and the paranormal. I'd watch documentaries ALL the time. When I was twelve, I discovered Halloween Horror Nights... And, well, Twilight, which got me into Anne Rice. I'm also just naturally nocturnal. Recently I've been into the gory stuff; must just be the teen in me! But yeah, HHN got me into Halloween as a whole. I went to The Haunted Mansion in 2012 as a 13/14 year old for the first time...renewed my interest! Just as amazing as a teen than as a kid. 

Now, if only I can become an actual Haunter...


----------



## Jacksonville Haunter

I think I was born this way, loved it since I was tricker treating as a baby. When I was to old to go out I started trying to scare little kids and I never stopped.


----------



## CrazedHaunter

I am in that 1% that in this group that is not into horror. I grew up watching Frankenstein,Dracula and The Wolfman. What ruined it all for me was Friday the Thirteenth. I sat there in the theater and could predict exactly who was gonna get it and how. The girl I was dating told me as we left that she would never go to another horror movie with me again.


----------



## austenandrews

I've loved early horror flicks since I was in grade school. I'm not sure what specifically hooked me but by middle school I was always scouring late-night air waves and cable channels for anything old. Sometimes the poorer the sound and picture, the better - it meant the movie was really obscure. It was the only way to see that stuff before home video exploded.

Naturally I fell in lust with Elvira when she went national. I had just started high school. Then I finally saw _The Exorcist_ uncensored and it blew me away. It made me hungry for genuinely good horror and remains one of my favorite movies to this day.

Oddly enough my Halloween jones is slightly unrelated. My mother, who'd never watch a horror flick in a million years, was obsessive about decorating for holidays. She didn't skimp on Halloween, which was by far the most fun in that department. So when my kids were born I knew I had to give them the same experience. Which may be why I view Halloween decoration less for horror than for childhood fantasy.


----------



## Pumpkin5

:jol:What is horror??? What chills you to the bones? What nags at your normal sense of appropriate actions? Hhhhmmmm...good question... No horror film really made me a Horror Freak....more like the things that just tickle my outer wall of fear.... I love the whole concept of horror, the glowing pumpkins, the flowing ghostly forms, the flying witches and flapping bats... I love the expertise of Hitchcock...I love the idiospoctic of Burton.....and the blackhearted dash of De Palma...horror is alive and well....in all our minds... Each to his own....small fries....


----------



## Doc-Dead-Inside

I grew up on troma flicks, phantasm, howling, and Romero... My pops was a lover of ware wolves, vampires, and most B-rated gore, so at an early age I grew to appreciate all things bloody, and gratuitous nudity was always a plus. I was always more into zombies (way before zombies were trendy), and to this day I think the scariest zombie flick is Serpent and the rainbow. I love the FX, so much that the most fun I personally have at halloween, is doing creepy makeup. Horror is always a first choice for entertainment, but to be honest, I get more of a chill watching arachnophobia, or outbreak. I'd welcome Freddy, or Mr. Myers over for dinner, but I'm not a big fan of spiders lol


----------



## ghoststory

*A long time coming...*

For me, my life seemed to point me in this direction. The first house I grew up in, the backyard was attached to a graveyard. I remember, as the sun would set, I would make sure I was in the house, because I thought that I could be taken by the "ghosts" of the graveyard. After that, while my childhood was normal, there were always macabre undertones --like the horror host that visited our elementary school; I briefly worked in a hospital and had to clean the morgue; then as I started a writing career, I had my first success with horror stories.


----------



## Perk-a-Dan

I feel like if you don't fall in love with this kind of thing as a kid, if you aren't a little mystified by it- I don't think you ever fiend for it like it's larger than life to you.

That might be hard to explain but this is a haunt / house decorating Halloween season themed site. So, we get so many things naturally. Love things that are in that vein. I think we understand how horror and Halloween and maybe horror and fantasy, horror and imagination and a lot of things that are unreal or surreal go hand-in-hand.

I've always loved almost everything unreal as a child and have that curiosity / hunger to see unusual things in an artistic, creative way. I was a huge Disney fan as a kid, loved fairy tales and spooky stories and all things 80's and Halloween, magic, folklore, amusement parks, game shows- you name it.

You put all that together, I think that kind of explains it.


----------



## Lizzyborden

I remember watching horror movies with my dad on Saturday nights before I was old enough to start school. A lot of them were Christopher Lee and Vincent Price movies though I do remember the older classics too. Funny thing is that I had no idea what the name of these movies were at the time. Over the years I have rediscovered many of the movies I remember from my childhood and it is a nostalgic experience. In one instance we were near the end of the movie when it was preemteded for a ballgame.  About ten years ago I discovered it was Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I also grew up in the Freddy and Jason era and even went so far as to snatch the monthly TV guide and make notes of all the horror movies in hopes of watching or recording them. Of course it also helps that my birthday is a week before Halloween too!


----------

