Thoughts accumulated throughout the day:

Something that comes out of a deprived childhood in which we didn't even own a TV is that I've missed a lot of big stuff over the years. I've missed a lot of horror movies. I've missed a lot of regular movies. I just watched The Shawshank Redemption a couple of weeks ago for the first time. The problem is, I usually can't decide between a well-known horror movie (or movie in general) or one that no one has ever heard of that I read about in one of my obscure film books. Usually I pick the latter, with the thought that enough people have seen the more well-known horror movies and the amount of more obscure horror films I've seen will balance out the well-known ones I haven't seen. But in the end, when I'm chatting with horror-buff friends and have so far impressed them with my knowledge of obscure Italian gialli, etc. and they mention how something in some other movie is similar to The Fly and don't I agree? And I have to admit that I ... er, haven't.... seen it. On the other hand, I'm not a complete dodo when it comes to the big stuff. I've seen The Exorcist, Carrie, Psycho, Alien, The Thing, Rosemary's Baby, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Jaws, Silence of the Lambs, Night/Dawn/Return of the Living Dead, The Shining etc. But then there's the ones I've missed: Child's Play, The Fly, Carnival of Souls, etc. For those and many, many more, I am ashamed. I try to watch a new movie every day and I try to make it horror. The next three on my list are The Vanishing, Nattervagten, and The Stendhal Syndrome.

I just finished watching The Howling, which I've heard is terrific. As far as the horror sub-genres go, werewolf is not all that appealing to me. On the other hand, I liked An American Werewolf in London, so I gave this one a shot and I did enjoy it. Very raw, very grainy, and the ending was everything that I like in a horror twist: sad, yet horrific. For some reason, the end kind of reminded me of They Live - I don't know why. The one (slight) problem I had with this movie is that scene where Karen is in the doctor's office toward the end and that one guy comes in (dammit, I can't remember his name, but he was Marsha's brother) and starts transforming into a werewolf. The problem I have with this scene is that he seems really distracted with his transformation and she has a good three or four minutes to get away safely but just stands there screaming and yowling. Maybe she's in shock, but really - if I saw someone grow two feet of hair in ten seconds and grow about six inches worth of extra jawbone in another thirty, you can bet I'll be scampering out of there faster than a startled cat. There's time for shock later.

Lately, I've been trying to read more horror as well as watch it. I've read some Jack Ketchum and Stephen King, my dad got me hooked on Poe when I was in third grade, and I don't think I've forgotten a single ghost story I've heard since the age of five. I've also read some H.P. Lovecraft, but not as much as I would like. So this week I've read two short stories (I would have read more, but I've had young cousins over and they demand at least some attention throughout the day :D): "The Colour Out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft (I've missed huge chunks in the literary world as well) and "The Empty House" by Algernon Blackwood. "The Empty House" was really a straightforward ghost story (what else to expect from a book titled "Ghost Stories Chosen By Edward Gorey"?) about a man and his aunt who try to spend a night in a haunted house and basically just encounter ghosts. I sort of wanted and expected more of a twist, but the story did still hold my attention. I also got a book the other day, a collection of short stories titled "Outsiders" and it features work from Jack Ketchum, Clive Barker, etc. I read a couple of those, but I'm not sure how into it I am yet.

What I'm REALLY excited about is the six things I'm currently expecting in the mail (soon to be seven, I hope). Two of them are back issues of Rue Morgue. One is issue #37, the Haute Tension issue, and one is... I think it's 55, which deals with Jean Rollin/erotic horror, though I debated whether I should buy that or the Fulci Halloween issue. I'll get that one later, though, for sure. One is a book, Flowers In The Attic. Three are books that my aunt has ordered for me (I requested them) as a birthday present: "Bad Blood: The Illustrated Guide to Psycho Cinema," "Men, Women, and Chain Saws," (on gender roles in horror), and "A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herchell Gordon Lewis." The seventh is hesitant, I'm waiting for a reply, but it's a collection of short stories by Bentley Little. How exciting!! I'm slowly adding to my collection of horror books. Later I'll go into more detail, but I think I'm done for now. I don't know how to tag this post, since I mentioned so much stuff. I guess I'll just tag what I talked most about.

I'll leave with a rather depressing-cause-it's-true (though that's debatable): "The success of the horror genre has led to its downfall." -Dario Argento