Who got you into horror movies?

My mom with Jaws in 1982, and my sisters with The Evil Dead in '83.

My StepDad used to go to all-night horror movie marathons when he was a teenager, and introduced me to Hammer, Dr Phibes and all sorts of groovy stuff. But even before then, I was hooked on old monster movies. Just naturally drawn to 'em I guess.

My parents.

My sister. She took me to see Jaws.

I really don't know how I got into horror. My mom hates horror movies, yet I've been watching them my whole life. I really can't remember a time period when I wasn't watching horror. When I was in Kindergarten our teacher told my class to draw a picture of our idols and I drew a pic of Freddy Krueger!

My older bro.

My mother. She's a horror nut so, yeah, it runs in the family.

Sometime in 1990 i rented Friday The 13th 7. I heard about this Jason guy, but i wanted to know more. This was the only Friday in my video store,i remember halfway through,actually kinda toward the end When Tina falls through the floor i fucking freaked. I needed to go outside and gather myself,i went back in and finished the movie...i was hooked. I rented every fucking horror film in the 2 video stores in that town (Secaucus, NJ.), but quickly grew tired of horror since i thought i'd seen it all. Then i saw Scream when it came out,and went nuts over it. After that i became totally involved with horror again, watching the movies that i enjoyed before and all these new horrors i've never heard of from Europe. I guess to answer your question i've gotten myself into horror, and don't plan to get myself out of it until i'm long dead...Long dead, bc i'd like to be a zombie watching zombie movies in a dark dank crypt somewhere.

I kinda did it to myself, actually. I remember my aunt was a fan, but I never watched a movie with her. They used to scare me, so I started watching them to get over the fear, and got hooked...

My mom, with Jaws and Poltergiest.

She loves to pick through my dvds when she's bored. Yesterday she watched "The Eye."

Curiosity and boredom. May seem dumb and ignorant, but that's what really got me into Horror. Although growing up in the 80's and somewhat early 90's it was almost necessarily to watch horror seeing as it was all that was being released. I to remember drawing pictures of Freddy and Jason in class and so on. I completely lost interest in Horror after my family split up and I no longer got to watch films with my sister and friends. Beginning to relies I was becoming an adult I had to decide what I really wanted to be in life, and what I wanted to do. I never cared for customer service and hate running a register, so basically I guess almost every job was out of the picture, the fact that I wanted to do things different didn't help also. I thought about horror for a little while and stumbled across Tom Savini, I read up on him and said to myself, "Yes, this is it. I will be a special effects make-up artist."

Running down the list from Rick Baker to Steve Johnson I grew obsessed and even managed to discover Bill along the way. I started studying horror and then realized that maybe this job would be to risky, I mean the future of it’s employment was uncertain, especially with the technology of computers and the fact that Jurassic Park nearly blew my mind. I went ahead and applied for a couple of special effects make-up schools. I listened to Tom talk about how the more he did the more he got to do and said to myself that if I wanted to be a writer and director that I would need to get behind the scenes first and being a make-up artist was the only way to do this. I enrolled in the Art Institute with low hopes, my drawings sucked and I still swear to this day I can’t draw for crap. I did manage to buy some make-up supplies at Party city and did a couple of test on my arms, the pictures turned out horrible, but I thought I did a fantastic job although no one could see it! To my surprise I was accepted into the school where the months ticked down till I was getting ready to go, I started seriously thinking about the money and how unsure I was if I could afford it. The total cost incase some of you want to know was $38,000.00 just for an associate degree. I was getting nervous and scared and decided I would decline my enrollment, I canceled out and sat by myself thinking about what I was going to do. I felt that my passion was not for make-up but for writing and directing. I did not want to go to a school and waste almost forty grand for a career I was unforsure of.

I began to discover Italian horror where I came to understand a man called Dario Argento. He sparked my interest in horror further then it has ever been, I began writing scripts for films and this is where I am now. It’s hard to say what would have happened if I went to the school, but I’m not one to live in the past. The fact is I don’t think people have to go to school to become a successful writer or director. I don’t think people have to spend forty grand just to call themselves a make-up artist. This may sound ignorant especially to those who have gone to school and are “real” writers and directors, but this is how I feel. The only trouble I’m having and I’m sure a lot of other people are, is trying to figure out how I am going to get discovered, but I realized something, sitting here typing isn’t getting me nowhere, the only way your going to be someone is by getting out and doing it, whether you’re a shy person like me or not, sometimes you just have to go for it and risk everything, but remember to have fun for without it, winning is only half the reward. Sorry if this is off topic.

Curiousity and the great glass-headed god of TELEVISION ...

Back in the 70's, I'd watch old films like THE FLESH EATERS and VALLEY OF GWANGI, not to mention great TV shows like ONE STEP BEYOND, THE OUTER LIMITS, and THE TWILIGHT ZONE ... Those were broadcast at hours when a 5-7 year old could watch, and as I got older and stayed awake later, films like TOURIST TRAP and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD were some of my favorites ... and they still are

I guess I can almost pinpoint it to a moment in time. In the early '70's I remember my mother putting me in front of the t.v. on a Saturday night and turning it to channel 19 (Cincinnati) and the Cool Ghoul was on. Horror host. I think the movie was "War of the Gargantuas" but I won't swear to it. It seems from that moment on I was hooked on the bizarre. Comics (especially), movies, t.v. series. I think in those days they still showed reruns of "One Step Beyond" but I don't personally recall any of them.

On a side note, I was wondering if anyone remembers the short-lived anthology series "The Darkroom." James Coburn hosted.

In any event, I hope my daughter grows to love horror as much as I do. She can already tell you the basic plot of "Pumpkinhead." Not bad for 5.

It probably my parents. I remember sitting up with them and watching shows like TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE. That was probably my first dose of horror, and it just propelled from there.

My dad, sitting me down when I was 12 and telling me flat out that I was watching the Shining with him, because its the greatest horror movie ever made.
And I agreed, and still do.

Same here. My dad got me into horror as well as great directors. I remember watching Blue Velvet when I was very young in the mid eighties. The ear scene from Blue Velvet still brings back disturbing memories from when I saw it around the age of 8 or 9? Somewhere in there.
Anyway my dad let me rent Re-animator or was it Bride of the Re-animator? on Christmas Eve when I was 10. My mom came in on the scene with the decapitated doctors head giving head to the girl. She was very angry.

Jonathan Ross's brilliant Incredibly Strange Film Show tv series

John McCarty's fabulous book Classics Of The Modern Horror Film

Fangoria. Corny, but so true.

Endless after-school detours to the local video store, perusing the horror sleeves and scaring myself more with what I thought the pictures would about than when I actually sat down to watch them a couple years later.

My Mom & Dad when they took me to see "Jaws" in a Drive-In for my seventh birthday.

I'm still scared of going to far off the beach.

Michael Jackson.

The "Thriller" video scared the piss out of me when I was a kid, but I was determined to get over it, mainly so my dad wouldn't laugh at me anymore. Never looked back.

Back when I was a wee lad my brother had what I assume now was an 8mm projector and I remember seeing a copy of the Wolfman with Mr Lon Chaney Jr. That hooked me big time.

Sure I remember DARKROOM. It had a short life in 1981 on ABC.
As I recall some of the stories were pretty good. Can't recall any one in particular though. It seems like most of them were directed by Rick Rosenthal though, which intrigued me at the time because he directed HALLOWEEN II.

My parents are most definitely responsible for my love of everything horror.
My earliest memories are of staying up late with them every Friday night to watch THE FRIGHT NIGHT LATE SHOW which ran here in the Buffalo area from the early 60's to the mid 70's. Infact I recall that the very first movie that I ever remember watching was on the late show when I was about 5 ( which would have made it about 1966 ). The movie was Bava's BLACK SUNDAY. Not a bad start if you ask me.
Anyhow, THE FRIGHT NIGHT LATE SHOW totally captured my imagination by running all the old Universal classics as well as a bunch of Mexican horror films like THE BRAINIAC, ROBOT VS THE AZTEC MUMMY, THE MONSTER DEMOLISHER ( & all the other Nostrodamus vampire films ) & a bunch of other goodies from other countries & studios too numerous to mention. Needless to say, I LIVED for Friday nights as a kid. And both of my parents were always right there watching beside me no matter how many times they'd already seen the same movie.
Along with being latenight movie fans they were big drive in movie fans as well, so during the warm weather months they were always taking my 2 older sisters & I to the many drive in theaters that existed in this area back then. And of course at least half the time the double & triple features were all horror & monster movies to my great joy.
By the time I was 6 my parents were buying me every single one of the old Aurora monster model kits & my MOM would be the one who would put them together & handpaint for me. And FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND became a monthly fixture in our household along with dozens of comicbooks. I was the envy of many other kids because my parents were just SO cool like that.

And so here I am, 41 years old & every bit the horror nut I was as a kid. And at least 2 of my 4 kids are following suit. My 2 oldest girls Jessica & Ashley ( 12 & 10 ) aren't too much into horror, but my 2 youngest Nigel & Autumn Myst ( he turns 4 & she turns 2 in November ) are TOTAL monster nuts. Infact Autumn's best friend right now seems to be my large MOVIE MANIACS Micheal Meyers figure. For the past month or 2 she goes over to where he's displayed & has long fiendly dialogs with him a couple-few times a day. I don't know whether to be thrilled or chilled by this... wink

Found it myself thanx to the local shows, and it was reinforced by a cousin who would babysit for me. He brought Evil Dead 2 the first time he watched me and I always begged for hium to babysit me cause I knew he would bring over something col to watch.

When I saw my first horror movie, Child's Play, when I was just a young'n, I was so scared that I started crying like a little baby. It didn't make matters better when my mom decided a 'My Buddy' doll would be the coolest birthday present ever. (If you don't remember, 'My Buddy' dolls look very similar to the 'Good Guy' dolls, except they had brown hair and a hat.)

Rob Zombie

I was a big fan of his music and when I saw an interview with him where he was talking about how old school horror was better than modern day trendy pop slashers in particular Texas chainsaw massacre, and I had never seen TCM so based purely on his recomendation I rented it and I had never been that drawn in and effected by a movie in my life and since that reletively short time ago I've been playing catchup on all the classics I've missed

The Sunday Morning Movie

it was either old kung-fu or an old horror movie

When I was growing up, there was a show called "Creature Features" on Saturday nights. The show was hosted by a guy named Bob Wilkins, a nerdy-looking dude who smoked cigars. Anyway, he usually played a double-feature, with the first film airing at 8:00. Wilkins played all the cool classic horror films (this is where I first saw the original Frankenstein and Dracula movies). But the film that blew me away the most was the original Night of the Living Dead. I was around ten-years-old when I first saw this film, and it absolutely terrorized me. I couldn't get the images of those flesh-eating zombies out of my head, and the scene where they find the body at the top of stairs freaked me out. I don't think I slept a wink that night; I just cowered in bed with the covers over my head. Watching "Creature Features" really got me hooked on horror movies (Thank you Bob Wilkins, wherever you are).

"It's alive...it's alive!"

I've always been predisposed to the morbid and macabre but I definitely give props to my parents. No matter how much I can attest to their lack of good parental skills, God bless 'em for letting me have my guts 'n gore.

My Mum HATES horror with a passion BUT, the woman loves over crime and murder mystery novels and movies. She always bought me fairy tales too and let me get any books I wanted. I was not a studious kid, but I was a voracious reader, and she figured, if she couldn't get me to get into school, she'd be damned if I was going to be illiterate.

Dad is more responsible though, being a sci-fi/fantasy/horror/action movie nut (not so much now as when I was young though) so we would watch movies all the time.

Plus I was always more inclined to "icky things" as a kid and Dad having no sons was all about that. I dug monsters and bugs (I now cannot deal with bugs at all though, funny how one grows into her femininity wink ), playing with GI Joes and He Man guys. But the movies were the favorite past time. He let me watch just about anything horror too and I would secretly watch anything I wasn't allowed to see (I Spit on Your Grave was not a good choice for me to see so young).

Being a geeky girl helped too: when one is not busy with a social life, one has much time to watch movies