Where did it begin?

I'm pretty sure I was born sick and twisted!

I have -always- liked the strange an unusual. Even when I was itty bitty. Anything out of the ordinary, I liked. But once I learned how to read, this passion started.. mutating..

In the school library, I rented out any books that had 'scary' in the title, anything concerning the paranormal, or mummies. I LOVED mummies. When Book Fair rolled around, I grabbed up the same sort of books. When I finally got a Library card, I began mentally devouring every scary book in the Children's section. ..Then moved onto the books for older people, despite my age.

I was exposed to horror flicks quite a few times when I was littler, but they scared the crap out of me (Trilogy of Terror!). I avoided 'em, for the most part. I only really started getting into them in my mid teens, so I'm still pretty new to Horror, since I'm only 18.. But I love them.

And they still emotionally scar me sometimes, but that's half the fun.

So my love of scary stuff began with books, when I was small. True horror.. In my teens.

Mother has always loved them, especially Carpenter.

But personally...it was:

Scream Greats Vol. 1 - Tom Savini, Master of Horror Effects

Which got me going. I was seven or eight, into anything behind the scenes related. Saw the cover, read the back.

Turned it on...and ran screaming out of the house two minutes later. After I changed my shorts, I took it to a friend's house and watched it proper.

I'm a lot harder now...

Easy, easy, easy.

The Boogeyman. Short story by Stephen King in the collection Night Shift. The scariest story a young boy sleeping on top of bunk beds alone in his room could ever read.

My dad. definately and unqestionably. Itwas allhim.
Started out with his answer to" entertaining the young child in the back on long drives late at night". he would "turn" on the radio and god damn it was weird, but no mater where we were or what timeit was, "Dr Deaths Theater Of Horror" was on, occassionally followed "Mr. Tortures Dungeon" (he would always come up with these stories that he would pretend were on the radio and one to this day chills me called "Mathew" and i have no idea what it was even about-just the name alone invokes that terror)
It started there then progressed where he would tell me about scary movieslike Halloween and the like (but would never let me watch them at that tender age). Blowing into a full blown obsession was my first viewing of a horror movie....JAWS (played during daylight hours with me and a firend backpedaling on our asses about 20 ft from the tv when JAWS first pops out in toothy glory, and leading to many nightmares and an aversion to the swimming pool).
And this is where i am today, pretty normal and well balanced thinks i. My brothers though, who were not exposed to this kind of child rearing, are a different matter altogether!

I guess when I was about 11 or 12. I spent the summers at my grandparents and they would let me stay up late. And they had cable. So I would stay up all night watching horror movies. The Night Stalker was also being shown on the Movie of the Week on ABC back then as a rerun. Man, my grandparents rock.

My parents' love for Godzilla got me into big monsters (I was a massive G-Fan when I was a kid). My dad's love for horror sort of got passed down onto me genetically, I think. MST3K's making fun of Corman and Bert I. Gordan and such films got me "curious" but not too curious. And my dad watching things like Blood Of Dracula and Curse Of Frankenstein always got me interested in that sort of thing, again, curiousity.

Though the main thing? Resident Evil. Got it when I was nine. I'd liked spooky things off and on, Halloween was always interesting. But as I got the crap scared outta me by RE, I became hooked on the creepy crawlies and tension of horror. Dawn Of The Dead pretty much solidified it for me.

Growing up on White Zombie helped, too. (started listening when I was 9, when pops got me Way Of The Warrior)

....movies, videogames, AND music...books, not really. But, hey, 3 outta 4 ain't bad!

Guess that about covers it. Bye now. *runs away*

I guess this would be me too. No one else in my family likes horror movies, but by the time I was in kindergarten I was already a fanantic. One of my only clear memories of kidergarten was the day the teacher told us to draw a picture of our idol and I drew a pic of Freddy Krueger.

Didn't a kindergartner drawing pictures of Freddie Krueger send off alarm signals in anyboys head?

I gotta agree with Krak, I can't remember anything per se turning me on to horror, its just what I was interested in.
Halloween has always been my fave holiday. I had two horror hosts when I was a kid, so I got weekly doses of all the Universal, AIP, and Hammer classics and all the drive in grade z "bad" classics. I was watching those when in grade school.
And I remember school book fairs. I still have three of the books I must have bought when I was 8. "Monsters from the Movies" and "The Story of Vampires" by Thomas G Aylesworth. "Monsters.." has entries on "Man Made Monsters, Self Made, Human Fiends, Back from the Dead and Things from Another World" and goes into the real world history of all, including old prints of werewolves and witch hunts and portraits of magicians like Albertus Magnus, etc. And these were for kids! I devoured these types of books.
Just always loved the macabre....sorry for the ramble

Hey, I used to do that as well! Nightmare on Elm street was my first horror movie, I was 6 or 7, so I guess my love of horror pretty much comes from Freddy.

Watching the great made-for-TV stuff like BAD RONALD, NIGHT STALKER, and GARGOYLES with my Dad got me started, but when my older sister snuck me into DAWN OF THE DEAD in '79, I was forever a changed boy ... Within the next year, I was finding a way to get into the theater to see PHANTASM, ALIEN, ZOMBIE and FRIDAY THE 13th ... It great fun, seeing those films and feeling as if I was seeing something taboo : something a kid my age wasn't supposed to see ....

And growing up back then, I must admit that KISS had a huge impact on me too ... They kind of helped fuel the whole horror/fantasy inspired style of entertainment I love ...

My dad use to scare the shit out of me all the time when 'Child's Play' first came out. He would take my "My Buddy" doll and make all these deep scary voices. Fucked me up big time.

Also i watched Halloween every Halloween Night after i went Trick or Treating. The music freaked me out.

I have always been attracted to anything concerning monsters and the macabre. My parents were kind of protective but I watched a lot of spooky made for kids stuff when I was little. Stuff like E.T., Beetle Juice, The Addams Family, Ernest Scared Stupid, etc. I also liked a lot of fantasy stuff and anything that didn't pertain to real life. I only started watching real horror movies in grade 6 but from then on I was addicted.

I've always said Tales from the Darkside

Two movies lay claim to this prize:

JAWS

and

THE EVIL DEAD

Much horror has influenced me over the years, but none have had such a profound impact as those two.

Yes E.T. was very scary. I couldn't go near a pile of stuffed animals for months after watching that one!

Some of my earliest memories are of nude women and vampires. Hehe, going to the drive-in, my parents woudl assume I woudl fall asleep in the back seat. I remember watching the 2 screens behind the car out of the rear window, seeing the movies silent. Sometimes I woudl watch the double or triple feature front since that one had the sound.... but only if it were horror. Often THEY woudl fall asleep, and as cars started to pull out, I would be waking them up to go home.

But when I was 6, I cried non-stop till my step-father took me to see the movie that was all over the TV. the flashing pic of a little girls face, with a flashing photo negative of .... soemthing else... flickering in and out. And focusing on that eye! Ys, i even rememebr the damn TV spots. He finally took me to see the Exorcist so I woudl shut the hell up, and told me not to cover my eyes since he paid for it.

he thought we woudl leave early once I started crying..... the crying didn't start until I got home and the lights went out. 6 months I slept with a light on, and nothing has ever scared me since. I thrive on this stuff like oxygen.

And KISS is Rock n Roll!

My father who loves horror films, he used to watch them first, and then watch them with us (me and my bro) and fast forward any thing too gruesome!!! Plus my Latin MAster at school who also ran the drama classes - still remember him readin out stephen king to us plus wathcing An American Werewolf in London --- those were the days.

Dear Lord I'm, old....

I was 6 when my dad and I watched Halloween....It scared the shit out of me, but at the same time I loved it....and that started it all!

I'm pretty damn sure i was too.

Seriously i remember owning the F13 video game for the NES as a kid, and becoming obsessed with the idea of Jason. So when i was in second grade i rented Part VII : The New Blood, and loved every second of it. It all went downhill from there.

While I wasn't born twisted, I think my love of horror began when I realized the only thing that made me happy was watching you petty mortals die!

I think we are all the same.I've read your post and i identify with them.
A scare with my father.
An old dracula flick with Christopher Lee,for 6 months i went to bed early so i could fall asleep before my parents did.I even gave away my Dracula comic books.

Jaws(I was afraid in my pool) and Halloween(no more walk in the street at night alone for awhile.

So I think because I scared easely I pushed myself not to be afraid by watching a lot of horror movies.Freud am i right.If so i am a brave little boy.

Ok seriously, maybe I'm just too young or something but was I the only one who was scared by E.T. as a child? I first saw it when I was six and the cornfield scene made me scream. Then when my little brother was a toddler he has an E.T. phobia. Sometimes to torture him I would start playing it when my parents weren't home. It's a scary movie for little kids!

Damn right it was scary.

When E.T. is running through the woods during the beginning, I used to hide under the coffee table in the living room. But I was only 3 at the time.

I think it's good that E.T. scared you, really I do. My Dad took me to see Kubricks' The Shining at the theatre before I saw E.T. and after The Shining it takes alot to scare.

Let me guess... a nude Kathy Bates?