What brought you to the genre?

The original Dawn of the Dead.

Reading The Exorcist in junior high. Freaked me the hell out. I didn't see the movie until many years later. The movie that really hooked me was Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. That damn dog gave me nightmares.

I think I was around eight or nine when I saw Halloween on ABC. I was so terrified of Michael Meyers and that movie yet so fascinated by it and the exhilarating feelings I was having of fear itself. I've been obsessed with the horror genre ever since.

As a kid I read Goosebumps a lot, but it wasn't until about age 13 when my horror obsessed best friend sat me down to watch The Evil Dead. From there we went on a renting spree and got every horror movie we could find just to watch it.

JAWS at age 4 and THE EVIL DEAD at age 5.

There was a big cardboard display for Evil Dead 2 with the granny monster in the window of a store I would pass every Sunday going to church.

Damn, man, you had some permissive parents. Or ninja-like skills of parental evasion.

Yes, what with these movies being on past my bedtime, the act of parental evasion was another of the things that drew me to the genre.

It could have been anything, and it happened to be violent movies that were frowned upon. If they were dead set on me never watching the news, i would probably be far more interested in current affairs right now.

This brings up the question of why, if we watched these things just to break rules, we are still watching them now we are adults?

I didn't watch them to break rules. I watched them because I liked them. There's no social equation to apply here. I like horror movies, therefore I watch them.

In terms of JAWS, my parents let me watch it. With THE EVIL DEAD, my sisters rented it and let me watch it with them. They did that a lot, and hence I got to see a lot of the greats when I was very young.

I don't know if I can pinpoint any main influence when I was an adult, although the first time I saw THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE as an adult was a pretty defining experience.

A weekend spent watching THE THING, EVIL DEAD 2 and THE SHINING kind of clinched my love for the genre. I think notoriety was a big factor when I was younger, but now I look back and realise most of the conversations about horror movies with my friends were in the vein of Millhouse talking about a movie where a piranha swims down a submarine periscope and bites a guy in the eye. Bullshit that kids made up just to sound like they had watched these "really scary" movies.

Seeing A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET when I was a kid. My dad used to rent horror flicks and let me watch them with him, which is how I ended up with a love of the genre. I became obsessed with Freddy Krueger in the same geeky way I would become obsessed with other films and characters when I got older.

It was definitely the heavyweights for me. Freddy, Jason and particularly Chucky. It's not like I could avoid it: scared as I was, I had three older siblings who LOVED to torture me.

My father took me to see Alien in the theatre when it was released; I remember this very well though I couldn't have been more than three at the time. That sort of traumatized me for a few years.

Of course that all pales in comparison to the time my dad took my mother to see Caligula, thinking it was a period drama. Really glad I wasn't around for that.


Oh, and Fabfunk, you'll be happy to note that your lead in the you versus JuddL poll is widening. I voted for you.

Boy, this is gonna date me...
I, too, had an older sibling who tried to scare me every chance he got. I remember watching Rod Serling's Night Gallery and Night Stalker, along with Vincent Price's Dr. Phibes stuff on TV at a young age, then Jaws and Marathon Man (not really horror movies, but damn...).
We had a drive-in near our house, the movie The Undertaker and his Pals scared me shitless.
When did I decide for myself that horror was keen? Probably Phantasm.

When I was three years old ('83 or '84) my mother decided to sit me down for my first movie experience (on video), for some reason she thought "Halloween" would be a good primer...it damn sure was.
I didn't see the film again until I was ten, and by then a hardcore horror fan, but two scenes stuck in my head from the first experience: 1. Myers impaling poor Bob on the pantry door & 2. P.J. Soles' topless scene.

Sex & violence, nothing quite like it.

Like some of you, it was Evil Dead. As a child, I was scared to death of the dark and horror films in general. Many years later, apx 16 or so, I went to a friend's house. Walked in and he was watching Evil Dead. I walked in at the tree-rape scene. Of course, at that point, I was hooked. I went ahead and picked up the VHS ASAP and have followed through from there. At this point, I have well over 500 horror DVDs in my collection. I just can't get enough of the genre, especially anything with a damned zombie in it.

When I was little probably 5 or 6, my dad let me stay up and watch Halloween with him. And that movie scared the shit out of me. The theme song still gives me the chills.

As a young kid, I was scared as shit of anything remotely resembling scary. I wasn't able to even see the final confrontation in Who Framed Roger Rabbitt?.

When I became 9 or so, I saw a film that became very special to me eventually. It starred not some nubile young babysitter waiting to get slashed up, her only defenses being screaming, running or hiding. Nay, this film starred a man's man of kingly stature and demeanor! He fought the spooks and ghoulies and meanies with his pure awesomeness. That man was Bruce Motherfucking Campbell, the movie was Army of Darkness.

Even now, when people ask me what my favourite movie is, I either give them the long or the short answer.

Long answer: "Well, there's a bunch of movies I really, really like, in different and quite incomparable genres. I'll probably give you another answer tomorrow, or the day after that, and still I can't even say that the answer Iw would give today would be the definitive one, .... "

Short answer: "Army of Darkness. You're a fag if you haven't seen it."

Halloween gets me as well. In 5th grade I got a gift certificate to Suncoast and decided I wanted to see a scary movie. The pumpkin head cover looked scary enough, so I bought it.

My mom told me that I couldn't watch it til the weekend because she didn't want me having nightmares and not getting enough sleep for school. I wasn't having that, so I snuck downstairs that night (around midnight or so) and watched it.

Afterwords, I couldn't leave the sofa for about 20 minutes. I was that kind of scared where you're scared to move because you don't know where a killer may be lurking but you're at least pretty sure he can't see you right where you are.

I wanted to call for help, but I couldn't cuz I'd get in trouble.

Like Greg, I've got much love for Where the Wild Things Are and The Night Kitchen- plus those Scary Stories books with the insane art that used to give me nightmares. And Bunnicula.

But I can't really pin down an exact moment I got into horror. I remember watching movies like The Time Machine (damn morlocks were scary!) and American Werewolf in London with my dad as a kid.... the fact that he usually felll asleep on them scared me even more, being stuck alone in the dark with the movie. The 80s Blob also scared the everloving shit out of me, especially the scene with the kids in the movie theater.

But for the most part my parents didn't allow me to watch much horror growing up, so I'd sneak in whatever I could at friends houses- Monster Squad and Gremlins were mainstays. And of course I became obsessed with Army of Darkness and freaked out a few years later when someone told me there were 2 more of them.

The original KONG. The adventures of Carl Kolchak. And Don Siegel's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

ETA: Hammer Horror, baby! Especially late-night viewings of THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and QUATERMASS AND THE PIT.

my older brother showing me the classic Universals on TV are among the earliest memories I have.

then later when I was old enough to operate the remote control, I got heavily into the John Carpenter stuff and other late night horror flicks (back when british TV stations were still good for that stuff).

also, EC COMICS REPRINTS.

I remember seeing Kong on TV aged about six. That left a big impression and, as it was part of a season of classic SF and fantasy flicks, also introduced me to the Metaluna mutant. So my horror love definitely comes more from monsters than slashers.

My stepdad was a big fan of the classic Hammer horrors, Dr Phibes and the like, and he'd often introduce me to those (he also showed me Blade Runner, The Forbin Project and Jaws) though this wasn't until I was about 9 years old. At about the same time I saw Alien on video at a friend's house, and left before the end - making up some excuse about being late for something. In truth, I was more scared than I'd ever been.

Aged about 14, I borrowed James Herbert's The Rats from the library and then embarked on a quest to read every schlocky horror novel I could find. Mostly UK stuff, like Shaun Hutson or Guy N. Smith, with a few of the big King books as well. I remember one book about giant praying mantises (mantii?) that was just terrible, lurid gore porn.

Clive Barker's stuff came later, which is probably just as well, as I was able to appreciate it more.

Once I was old enough to buy my own videos, I went on a spree of picking up anything rated 18 that looked half decent. Somewhere in amongst the shit, I found Evil Dead, Halloween, American Werewolf and the other classics. Also a lot of Cronenberg, which I'm still amazed I stuck with as a fidgeting teen.

I didn't see an Elm Street movie until I was about 15, when I saw Part 5 at the cinema with friends. Then I ran out and bought the previous 4 and watched them all in one day.

And then around the age of 20, I just got burned out on the gory stuff. I distinctly remember, as a teenager, picking up The Brain Eaters and putting it back down when I realised it was a) black and white and b) rated PG. As a young man, and therefore infinitely more mature, I went back to the old b-movies and they became my new obsession. AIP, Corman, Bert I. Gordon, Jack Arnold, the Universal Monsters.

And it's pretty much stayed that way ever since. My interests are probably 80% monsters and old stuff, and 20% slashers and modern horror.

Just like "Psycho", it's all about Mother. My mother was obsessed with horror films, but was too scared to watch them alone. The old man worked midnights (or just never came home), so I was the only other person she could make watch them with her. Back in the 70's in Detroit, there was a classic guy called "Sir Graves Ghastly", basically Elvira without the humor (or the rack). Every Saturday from noon-2:00 we were booked, watching the old B&W Horror films, from Frankenstein through the Roger Corman/Vincent Price Classics. Prime time viewings had "The NIght Stalker", "The SIxth Sense", and "Night Gallery". Afternoons, it was reruns of "the Twilight Zone". Eventually, we got a hold of a VCR(about 2 years after everyone else), and it was all over for me from there. Every single Genre flick available I rented, disected, and found myself wanting more. And now, hitting the Big 40, I still rent every flick that comes out. As soon as my son hits 5, the cycle will be renewed...

My birthday is on Halloween, so early on, well, a few years after it came out, putting me about six years old, my older sister made me watch it. Halloween, that is. Scared the Snickers out of me. Actually, it traumatized me pretty good for a couple of years, so it wasn't until I was about ten or eleven that we got a VCR and I started going on a horror renting rampage. Everything that I could get my hands on, most notably Night of the Living Dead, which I think has as much to do with my ongoing love of the horror genre than anything else. Got to give some love to Fangoria, though, for educating me about some of the things I otherwise wouldn't have known about, like Argento, Bava, Fulci, and others less Italian.

I was introduced to my local Saturday afternoon Creature Double Feature show when I was 5. Took an instant liking to the B&W and Hammer classics (Particularly Universal's "House of..." films and Hammer's "Brides of Dracula").

Does that redeem me for not having seen From Beyond?

Speaking of kids and horror- I've been trying to get my little cousins on the right track. I used to sit them down and watch Army of Darkness and other movies when they were 7 or 8, and used to get physically beaten by my aunts for giving them nightmares. I'll still throw on a good horror movie whenever they come over though... and a couple years ago I got my 10 year old cousin hooked on Monster Squad, much to the distress of his mother, who found out that there's nowhere you can pick up a copy of that easily. They must've rented it like 20 times....

My parents were late to the VHS party, about 1988/9, so I guess Jonathan Ross' Incredibly Strange Film Show and Fangoria did it for me initally. I made a list about 4 sides of A4 long and over the years of 13-15 slowly worked my way through it with - eventually - local video stores and luckless TV schedules.

The Fangoria A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 4: Dream Master special issue was pretty formative. I recall my first, fully blown nightmare involving Krueger slashing some old man at the beach's chest.

And the lurid, tacky sleeve for Squirm made a lasting impression, which I only got round to seeing for the first time last year, 16 years after the fact and it still didn't disappoint.

By the summer of 1990, I was at the 3 for £3 video store working my way through the Friday 13th series in a day or so, Retribution, Stepfather 1,2, 3, The Vindicator, Booby Trap, The Attic, The Unborn, Stagefright, The Boogeyman and all manner of formative shite.

Good times.

My story is similar to everyone else's. I always enjoyed scary stories as a child like Where the Wild Things Are and The Teeny Tiny Woman. And when I got older I used to read some pretty horrific tales in Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

My parents were very permissive when it came to movie and t.v. viewing. I remember watching Them!, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Fly, and the Hammer Films during Sunday dinner. Between the Creature Feature at the local drive-in and the wonder of cable t.v., I saw such classics as Inframan, Piranha, Food of the Gods, and The Shining before junior high. And, of course, being a teenager in the 80's I viewed a bootleg copy of Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 almost every weekend.

The tradition lives on...my daughter is very interested in scary movies too. We are taking it slow though. No Jaws screenings just yet.

Frankenstien. The original King Kong. The Creature From The Black Lagoon. All the classics with Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Sr. & Jr. and the Hammer films when I was really little, around 4-7 or so. I'd say all these and more formed the foundation for the interest initially.

Carpenter's Halloween, and Fulci's Zombie were the first two R rated horror films that I successfully snuck into, and they were both scary as fucking hell to me at that age. Halloween with it's suspense and well timed scares, and Zombie with it's ultraviolent gore and bleak tone were definitely the films that opened my eyes to the world of "adult" horror at that time, and it has to this day remained my favorite genre.

I was a big pussy growing up... At age 5 ('81) E.T. scared me (my mom had me sit through the first chase through the woods scene, while i cried under the seat). After i survived the beginning, i loved the movie.

Freddy & zombies scared me more than anything so i avoided at all costs. It was the classic monster flicks (Universal, Godzilla, Kong, Harryhausen, classic sci-fi flicks), ALien & Predator series, Spielberg's Temple o' Doom & Jaws, cheesy Full Moon flicks (Terrorvision, Troll), horror tv (Tales from the Darkside & Crypt), 80's vampire/werewolf movies (Amer WW in London, Fright Night, Howling, Lost Boys), ghost movies (original Haunting, Poltergeist, Shining) and ESPECIALLY Horror/Comedy (Gremlins, Ghostbusters) that trained me for the hard-core stuff.

2 things happened in college (10-12 years ago) to turn me onto zombie flicks:
1. Resident Evil on PSX
2. Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy
I felt empowered by either a shotgun my character weilded in RE or by my hero/champion, ASH, that this breed of Undead (yeah, i know the Deadites are tech. not zombies) was defeatable... I've since been able to appreciate Romero and other entries in the Genre (ESPECIALLY zom-coms like Dead Alive & Shaun o' Dead).

To this day, i will always prefer the Creature Feature flicks (Slither), Lost World/rampaging dinosuars (Jurassic Park), Horror/Action (Blade, UnderWorld, RE) or the haunted house stories (Ring, Sixth Sense). Slasher/serial killer flicks do nothing for me unless the storytelling/script really interests me (Hannibal Lecter films, Seven). I was never a fan of Halloween, Elm Street, or Friday 13th series, although I enjoyed watching Freddy duke it out with Jason...

I've read part of it. Odd thing.

Anyways, I had a gradual slide into horror in comparatively recent years. Started with the Sixth Sense, followed up with Shaun of the Dead.
Then I watched Ringu.
I still hold it to be the most frightening film ever made. Once I'd got over the not sleeping, I was decidedly hooked. Raided the Asian horror stuff to start with, then moved on to the more classic western stuff...
Own over 100 horror DVDs now, only 3 years later.

It's hard to pinpoint really. A combination of late night monster movies.
I'd try to stay up for RODAN, SON OF GODZILLA, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, They showed them every Friday night.

The best thing was my local rec center would show movies in 16mm. Projected onto the wall!
This was where I saw the Hammer Horror movies (Christopher Lee will always be my Dracula) and some Classic Universal, Creature From The Black Lagoon, etc. But the catch was I'd have to ride my bike home down a wooded trail, in the dark!! SCARY!

The lack of cable TV when between ages 6-8 meant many trips to the video store. My mom felt it was OK for me to watch horror films (read violence) so long as it wasn't full of sex (Hellraiser is the only film I can recall that she actually turned off). Among the many, many movies I watched then, the ones that stand out the most are Sleepaway Camp, Twice Dead (!?), and although I wouldn't realize exactly what I was watching until years later, The Evil Dead. I remember watching The Evil Dead several years down the road (when I was older and really into the genre) and thinking, damn, I've watched this before - the camera-work is unforgettable.

Once I had cable I never missed Captain USA or Saturday Nightmares on USA.

I saw most of this when I was about 6 (maybe 7, tops). I had no idea what the fuck I was watching, but loved it.

Shortly afterwards, Fox broadcast THE FLY '86. From that point on, I was all geek and gore.

I'm not sure if this is an imagined memory or the real thing, but I distinctly recall the image from Squirm of the worms coming out of the shower head. For the longest time I revered that flick as one of the greats...I have since been informed otherwise.

I saw Halloween on television when I was 7 or 8. In those formative years of HBO (when it cost $4.95 a month by the by). No film before or since freaked me out as much. WHen MM dons the sheet and PJ thinks he's Bob....Crreeeeeepppy. I had never been caught up in a films mood before, but I felt it's evil. For many years I was afraid of windows without curtains or blinds, thinking someone was outside ready to kill me. To this day, I won't go into a room at night without some type of coverage on the windows.

A few months later I saw Body Snatchers and yes ,the dog got me too!

For years, I remember my parents talking about Chainsaw in these hushed, disgusted tones. Apparently, I was fast asleep in the backseat when they frist saw it. My parents hate that stuff so the film was writen off as trash. I tried many years to rent it, but the parents vetoed it everytime. I didn't get around to see it again until my teens and then I didn't really get to appreciate it until my early 20's. It is now my favorite horror film of all time.

The Exorcist was not seen until my teenage years and thankfully so. It was disturbing as hell and today still makes me uncomfortable watching it. A great film, but way too intense.

In between the slasher stuff came my love for the monster movies. Especially Frankenstein's monster, who I always identified with on some level.

There used to be a great station out of Kansas City that aired a Creature Feature on saturday Nights allowing me to catch up on the rest of the Universal classics and the Hammer flicks as well. I remember one werewolf film, not sure what studio made it, that I can't find anywhere called The Boy Who Cried Werewolf. I loved it as a kid, prolly shit though, but I wish I could find it. SSSSSSSS was seen for the first time too, trying to capitalize on Dirk Benedict's brief Starbuck fame.

Them! was another favorite to watch on sunday afternoon. This was a movie so good, my dad even liked it and he hated the monster, goofy shit.

As a result, I am currently trying to write a werewolf centric screenplay.

Has anyone ever gone to Horror Con? The closest any have ever been to me is Chicago.

Saturday nights in St Louis meant Chiller Theatre for years. That was my oasis growing up. The good, the bad, the cheezy...didn't matter. I watched it.

But what really set the hook on me for horror was PBS showing Lon Chaney's "Phantom of the Opera" and Shreck's "Nosteratu" on the same weekend. All of a sudden, I started to understand the 'vocabulary' of horror a lot better.

Since then....hooooooboy. Fortunately, my wife is as big a horror fan as I am. Now if the stepkids would just stop being little wusses we could get this party started.

I think I always had some sort of weird connection to the horror genre but the earliest meaningful memories I have are reading those spooky speculative books about bigfoot, vampires and werewolves by Daniel Cohen. I used to check them out from the library by the armload. Even now, I can remember the way the paper and glue smelled.
Movie-wise, it was the original "Night of the Livind Dead". My parents rented the first three "dead" movies one summer night when I was a kid. They scared the hell out of me. It didn't help that there was a raging summer storm over head and the electricity kept going out.