Category: It's a Horror to Know You!

It's a Horror to Know You: Burl of Ha Ha, it's Burl!

What is the first film that ever scared you?

Ha ha, well that would be an all-time classic of Kindertrauma I'd expect: Trilogy of Terror! I was three years old and snuck down to watch the Zuni doll segment from around a corner where my parents couldn't see me! Then later he appeared in my dreams, having grown to adult size, and was chasing me through the Maurice Sendak bedroom forest from Where the Wild Things Are! Ha ha, talk about traumatic!

What is the last film that scared you?

Like many of your respondents I don't get spooked all that often from movies anymore, but it happens now and again! Ha ha, [Rec] is probably the last such occurrence!

Name three horror movies that you believe are underrated.

Well, let's see! I watched one recently that I would call underrated: Ghost Dance! It's a ghost/possession/slasher movie from the early 80s set in the deserts of New Mexico, and it's not that great, but it has some good moments and a few dynamite images courtesy of future Freddy Vs. Jason cinematographer Fred Murphy! It's not so much underrated as simply not rated at all! Ha ha, except by me!

Maybe I'll put in a word here for Malpertuis, the Harry Kümel adaptation of the great Jean Ray book! It's a flawed picture for sure, but it looks great and has a heavy atmosphere of dread and weirdness! It's certainly got its fans, but not enough of them! And Orson Welles is in it, ha ha!

And then maybe I'll pick Supernatural, the witch-gore movie from 1982 or so! That one is a great example of how goopy low-budget 80s horror can sometimes be really, truly scary! Again, it's not a brilliant movie precisely, but it has a certain something that makes me feel it should get slightly more recognition than it seems to! But ha ha, ask me this same question in five minutes and I'd pick three completely different movies!

Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.

There are many, many of these! I'll have to pick three almost at random, so here it goes! The Power is one goofy movie, ha ha, but it really tries hard, and its almost completely shapeless narrative means you can watch any ten-minute sequence and be perfectly satisfied! Plus there's lots of silly makeup effects!

Primal Rage is a pretty good one! This is the story of a rage virus affecting test apes, college students and a ponytailed Bo Svenson! It has a great Halloween party climax and provides maximum entertainment while engaging not one single brain cell in your head!

And lastly, I'll pick The Devonsville Terror! There's nothing objectively good about this picture, but I really like the autumnal atmosphere and the fact that very little actually happens! I only saw this one for the first time last fall, but I could see it being a semi-regular fall tradition for me, ha ha!

Send us to five places on the internet!

I suppose you've been sent to Bleeding Skull many times before, but here you go again! I really enjoy reading those reviews, and so many of them are just exactly the obscure VHS non-classics that I enjoy so well myself!

Hollywood Gorilla Men is a fine blog about the guys who wore the gorilla suits in olde-tyme Hollywood to keep us all entertained, thrilled and on the edge of our seats!

Another informative blog is Matte Shot, which is about the marvelous matte paintings that have put us in crazy fantasy worlds over many years of movie watching! Great stuff, ha ha!

There's a young fellow named Raculfright_13 who reviews movies in a strangely charming way, and he certainly likes his mexi-trash! But I'm pretty partial to his enthusiastic if ungrammatical notices, and he provides plenty of pictures too!

Lastly I must point people towards Canuxploitation, the great website showcasing all the fine Canadian genre movies out there! There are lots of them, and this is the place to go if you want to learn about them! Which reminds me: it's June, so that means it's time to watch Funeral Home once again, the perfect summer movie! Ha ha!

It's a Horror to Know You: Paul Castiglia of Scared Silly: Classic Hollywood Horror-Comedies!

What is the first film that ever scared you?

It was a combination of movies and TV, really. I would run out of the room whenever Cesar Romero's Joker from Batman or Fred Gwynn's Herman from The Munsters appeared. If I caught a glimpse of a horror-show opening (whoever in New York was running an opening montage of Universal monsters as a lead-in to their horror movie broadcasts in the 1970s) I was really scared. I watched Abbott & Costello movies every Sunday, but would quickly find something else to do if Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein or one of the team's other horror-comedies came on (quite ironic considering I'm now writing a whole book on the horror-comedy genre)! Dan Curtis also had me going with his TV-movie vampires, Janos Skorzeny from The Night Stalker and Jack Palance as the title count in Dracula. At theaters? The "Pleasure Island" sequence from Pinocchio was probably my first big-screen scare.

What is the last film that scared you?

The Tree of Life. Hopefully you'll never have to watch it and be scared yourself!

3. Name three Horror movies that you believe are underrated.

Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) has charms that elude many… just not me and the growing legion of Sammy Petrillo fan(atics)! It's also an example of an unintentional spoof and if you look at it as a send-up of other horror-comedies and horror films (especially "mad doctor in the jungle films") it works beautifully. Almost as beautiful as Charlita playing a college-educated Island girl who looks like she just came from a beauty pageant. Beautiful too is Lugosi, starting to look rather shopworn here but pulling off an intense pseudo-science speech about evolution that could make a monkey out of Darwin! Also beautiful is watching 17 year old Sammy Petrillo's mind at work as he ponders what Jerry Lewis shtick to pilfer next. Petrillo's naïve audacity adds a compelling component to the film for me. (Read my review HERE.)

Bride of the Monster (1955) Old Bela again, paired with loopy Ed Wood again. Maybe it's just me but it seems like everyone else is watching a different movie. I can't honestly see how this can get lumped in with Plan 9 From Outer Space or Bride of the Monster's semi-sequel, Night of the Ghouls. It doesn't share those Ed Wood titles' ineptitudes. It is atmospheric, however cheap and while certainly unhinged story-wise (could Wood even write something that wasn't "out there?") it's much more coherent than practically anything else Ed did. And like Brooklyn Gorilla it provides Bela with a showcase of a speech ("Home… I have no home. Hunted. Despised. Living like an animal! The jungle is my home!") – we all know it well from Martin Landau's portrayal of Bela in Tim Burton's Ed Wood biopic. These speeches show that, age, sickness and substance dependency be durned, "that Dracula man" still had the chops.
(Read my essay on Lugosi as Dracula HERE.)

The ‘Burbs (1989) Joe Dante has always been amusingly inventive, and he's kind of the Don Rickles of horror. Rickles skewers his targets with acidic insults and then says he's only joking. Many of Dante's movies… like Piranha, The Howling and Gremlins… skewer the audience with unnerving scares… until the next scene, where Joe reminds everyone he's only joking! Joe has so many great credits but on the underrated side I have to single out The ‘Burbs – which I only saw for the first time recently – because it may be the only post-1967 project to successfully present an "old dark house" thriller in contemporary times without feeling like a throwback. (Read my essay, "The Old Dark Anachronism" HERE.)

4. Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.

Vampire's Kiss (1988) No plot to speak of, and what there is devolves into distasteful depths (it is difficult to watch Maria Conchita Alonzo's character being demeaned so) but if you're going to make a movie ambiguous over whether it's central character is actually turning into a vampire or simply delusional that he's becoming a bloodsucker, well, you can't get more (pun intended) bat-sh#! crazy than Nicolas Cage. It really all comes down to him being too broke to buy the good vampire teeth and having to settle for the cheap plastic fangs. That and some insane desk hopping, yelling "too late, too late!" And a disheveled lope through city sidewalks exclaiming in fang-muffled tones, "I'm a vampire!" Oh, yeah: Nic Cage also eats a live cockroach. On camera. For real. No CGI pixels were harmed during the making of this movie…

Jurassic Park 3 (2001). I saw the first and was among the few who didn't care for it. I had no interest in the second and never saw it. I'm not even sure why I saw the third one – either friends wanted to go or I had some time to kill. But this one had William H. Macy and Tea Leoni. And Sam Neill was back. Laura Dern put in a cameo but script-wise it was just by-the-numbers (especially the cameo). You don't watch this for plot or great writing. You watch it to see dinosaurs roll airplanes around as if they are the cardboard tube in the center of the toilet paper roll. You watch it because you can never get enough of the cliché of the annoying or nasty guy ticking everyone off only to meet a grisly end at the claws of the monster (a la such ‘70s schlock-fests as Empire of the Ants and Food of the Gods). You watch it because somehow a franchise that began with a Spielberg-Crichton pedigree has suddenly become every Godzilla movie, every knock-off of a Godzilla movie, Dino DeLaurentis' King Kong remake and Harryhausen's The Valley of Gwangi all rolled into one!

Resident Evil 3: Extinction (2007) Had to kill time between appointments and this was the only film at the theater screening at a convenient time. I hadn't seen the previous two entries and had written the series off as something that would never interest me. Wrong! This is not a great film by any stretch; in fact it's seriously flawed. But after seeing beautiful-and-tough Milla Jovovich in all her zombie-obliterating glory, not to mention the killer homage to Hitchcock's The Birds… the feathered fiends now zombie-fied – well, when the swift 95 minutes were up I found myself amazed over how entertained I was… I hadn't wasted my bucks after all!

GUILTY PLEASURE HORROR-ONABLE MENTION: Godzilla (1998 version with Matthew Broderick). Here's what I've always maintained: if we went back in time to before this film's release, changed its title to Komodo! and removed every reference to Godzilla there'd be a whole bigger batch of us that could appreciate this big, clunky but ultimately fun romp (anyone for basketballs and gumballs?)…

MORE GUILTY PLEAURE HORROR-ONABLE MENTIONS: Giant, irradiated bugs, rodents and assorted critters were well past their expiration date by the 1970s but that didn't stop the schlock-meisters from producing opuses like the afore-mentioned Empire of the Ants and Food of the Gods; not to mention Night of the Lepus, Frogs and Squirm! Although they did benefit from the overlay of mutton-chop sideburns, bellbottom jeans and Valley of the Dolls-style cheese that could only have come from the ‘70s.

SPECIAL BONUS COMBO MEAL: Here's one that I consider simultaneously underrated AND a guilty pleasure: Dead Heat (1988). I revisited the film for the first time in years recently and all the things I remembered were intact: the barrage of bad one-liners (not only the expected ones from SNL alum Joe Piscopo but also some from leading man Treat Williams), the classic (temporarily) "dead man walking" motif that served so many classic horror flicks of the '40s and '50s, the mix of cops and mad scientists. But what I hadn't recalled (or maybe it just didn't resonate with me back then was just how bombastic a film it was. It had an '80s "go-for-broke" attitude about it that was more akin to mavericks like Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2, Dave O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead and Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator than to the standard studio fare. It's horror/sci-fi elements were well-handled and just to see horror icons Vincent "the Crown Prince of Horror" Price and Darren "The Night Stalker" McGavin not only in the same film but actually in the same scene's during the film's climax instantly ratchets up the horror cred in my eyes. A fun surprise of a film!

5. Send us to five places on the Internet!

Trailers from Hell. Famous filmmakers from Joe Dante to Edgar Wright and everyone in-between give their commentaries on favorite films as the trailers play. Just go. Repeatedly.

Greenbriar Picture Shows. John McElwee offers insights into both his memories of seeing classic films as well as explorations of how films were marketed and promoted. He peppers each entry with photos you won't see anywhere else. Essential reading.

Frankensteinia. Pierre Fournier's blog's mission is stated right up front: "Tracking Frankenstein and all things related in the arts, media and popular culture." The very existence of this blog will be a revelation to some as Dr. Frankenstein and his monster are more pervasive and influential a force than many folks realize.

Zombo's Closet of Horror. You won't find a more amiable host than John Cozzoli, who guides his readers through entertaining views, reviews and interviews related to movies, TV, comics, literature, etc. within the horror realm.

Horror Digest. Andre Dumas is rewriting the book on movie criticism, particularly horror movie criticism. It's like having a personal conversation with a friend who's feeling the rush of facing her fears… and cracking you up in the process with all her witty, clever and relatable-to-real-life observations!

It's a Horror to Know You: Akesandra of Halloween Costumes.com!

1. What is the first film that ever scared you?

Apparently the late 1980s were a traumatizing time for my young imagination, since both of the films that come to mind were released within a year of one another! First, The Blob, the 1988 version. Watching a grown adult be sucked in his entirety into a kitchen sink by gelatinous pink ooze has stuck with me over the years.

To this very day I feel vulnerable washing my face- who KNOWS what is coming out of the faucet in those tense soapy-eyed minutes! Secondly, the 1989 film Little Monsters. How did this scoot by with a PG rating?? As if Howie Mandel's liver-spotted, devil-horned, mentally unstable character Maurice wasn't bad enough, there is the hunchbacked, snaggle-toothed, sickly blue terror that is Snik. Running and jumping into bed has become a nightly ritual so as best to avoid ankle- grabbage.


2. What is the last film that scared you?


Little did I know what Netflix had in store for me a few weeks ago while innocently perusing their horror selection. A little film called The Girl Next Door caught my eye and 91 minutes later I was hunched in a fetal ball on the couch. This film triggers the same "they wouldn't possibly…oh man they just did" reflex as reading the book A Child Called "It" did. I have the most loving and supportive family anyone could hope for, so the idea of rotting basement cots and unspeakable abuse being committed by the ones who should love you most is one of the most foreign and disturbing concepts to me. Give it a watch if you're feeling brave, but get ready to turn on some SpongeBob afterwards to clear your head. (SpongeBob is to the over-stimulated mind, what coffee beans are to the over-stimulated nostrils.)


3. Name three Horror movies that you believe are underrated.

The Mist (2007). I love Stephen King but have been burned by some of the film interpretations of his literature that were CG laden, low-budget let-downs like The Langoliers. I was shocked and pleasantly impressed with The Mist! The last few minutes of the film will rattle you. I'm not sure that everyone will end up soaked in tears shouting "it's not fair," like I always do, but you will certainly be unsettled.

Quarantine (2008). I am a huge supporter of Jennifer Carpenter's work, and a sucker for found footage film. Combine those elements with the jump out of your seat delights and peek through your fingers moments liberally peppered throughout Quarantine, and this cinematic adventure is one I'll always recommend taking!

High Tension (2003). Okay. I saw the rated R version with English dubbing. But apparently in its original French release as Haute Tension, the rating was NC-17 and it included some additional gore. I'd like to say that the rated R version is plenty grisly for my part. Choose either version, but DO choose one. This film is excellent and delivers exactly what the title promises.

Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.

Trilogy of Terror (1975). I'm so excited to mention this! Hopes are never high when the words "made for TV horror film" are involved, but it's so great! It's a three part series, each one starring Karen Black. The creepiest and most memorable is part three, "Amelia." It features a possessed Aboriginal warrior doll with sharp teeth and a miniature spear. Although the doll is no more than a few inches tall, the horror impact is anything but little! The sound of the doll's feet paddling across the carpet is such great foreshadowing, and the noises he emits when he attacks (which is often), are primal and chilling.

13 Ghosts (1960). Gimmicks and camp aren't generally attributes that I seek in a horror movie, but this William Castle classic gets a free pass. The communal experience and camaraderie fostered by the reoccurrence of flashing text that says "use viewer" or "remove viewer" leads to an utterly unique viewing experience. Audience members may use special red/blue glasses (aka hold a piece of cellophane up to your face) and look through the red filter at specified intervals to see ghosts. Alternately, if the scare is too intense you can look through the blue filter and erase the ghouls from site. Red all the way baby!!

Wolf Creek (2005). Someone tried to pitch me on watching this based on the villain being a murderous reincarnation of Crocodile Dundee. I was hesitant, not wanting to ruin the memory of one of my favorite film characters. Turns out, it's awesome!! Gritty, arresting cinematography, and wrought with creepy tension… Mick Taylor could definitely give Mick Dundee a run for his money!



5. Send us to five places on the Internet!

Live For Films.
Great, high-energy film site that will leave you lost in an internet rabbit hole for hours! They're constantly adding horror movie trailers and reviews, quirky film shorts, nerdy artwork, and great content to their video game and comic section.

Video World Made Flesh. The site title itself is a Videodrome reference, so you know you're in good hands. A high brow film blog that mostly focuses on indie films, classic films, and cult films. If you need something intelligent to share at your next film buff soiree, search no further.

Halloween Costumes.com . Well of course I'm biased towards thinking our blog is worth checking out, but feel free to explore and see for yourselves! We post movie reviews, costume how-to's, and makeup tutorials, as well as fun-spirited fare like a listing of this summer's hottest Comic Cons and geeky contests with great prizes.

Dude I Want That. Thanks to this site, I will never run out of gift ideas for anyone, for any occasion. No hyperbole. Their assortment of off-beat zombie themed paraphernalia is especially enjoyable.

HorrorMovies.ca. It's like someone possesses my fingers and makes me visit this site on a daily basis. Great industry news, great reviews, and witty horror lists. I've always wanted to be a scream queen, so their grouping of the hottest horror movie victims is one of my favorites!

It's a Horror to Know You: Josh Gregal of The Ungodly Warlocks Horror Podcast!

1. What is the first film that ever scared you?

This is kind of a tough one; I was exposed to a lot of horror films at a very early age that all made a pretty huge impact in traumatizing the hell out of me. An older cousin showed me The Texas Chainsaw Massacre while she was babysitting me when I was six and I had another babysitter who would set up a projector at her place and showed us Friday the 13th and Halloween II on film. Which is pretty friggin' cool. Honestly, though, the first real memory I have of any of those films is the title sequence from Friday the 13th. The way it comes flying at the screen, breaking the glass as the music starts shrieking…yeah, that's probably the one. It still makes me feel a little uneasy to this day.

2. What is the last film that scared you?

I'm going to have to sing the praise for Insidious (2010) along with everyone else. My friend and I went expecting very, very little, and both walked out in awe. Really fun, creepy movie with a great old-school vibe. That little "boy" they find in their new place after relocating… *shudder*

3. Name three Horror movies that you believe are underrated.

I Sell The Dead (2008) – I caught this at a film fest a few years ago and kept waiting for the rest of the world to freak out over it the way my friends and I did, but I still haven't heard much buzz. Extremely funny, clever, creepy and endearing, it's a perfect example of how to make a comedy deeply rooted in the genre without needing to get all meta.

The Prince of Darkness (1987) – People really love to hate this one, which is pretty unfair. Carpenter arguably created a few of the best horror films of all time, but as a result I think people judge some of his other offerings a little too harshly if they are a bit off-mark. The Prince of Darkness is possibly a bit more ambitious than its means, but it still delivers some of the creepiest, most original scares I've ever seen. The possessed, crying/laughing guy singing "Amazing Grace", the pizza-face anti-Mary, and the woman getting trapped on the other side of the mirror all give me the chills, no matter how many times I've watched them. Extremely solid cosmic horror, which isn't something you see very often in film.

Scarecrows (1988) – An eerie, nightmarishly freaky movie I've loved for years. Scarecrows is a perfect reason why I've always loved movies that take place over the course of a single night. It feels so claustrophobic and full of impending doom, and the building terror grows more and more palpable as time passes. Really great stuff.

4. Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.

I'm going to rephrase this question to "Name three horror movies you enjoy and nobody gets why", since I feel no shame in liking these gems.

Neon Maniacs (1986) – So inane, so poorly thought-out, so 80s, so full of monsters. I rented this so many times in my teenage years I more than likely bought it three times over. An evil zombie super-team wreaks havoc on Bay Area teens, and only some nice girl, a nerdy rocker, and a precocious horror-obsessed pre-teen can stop them from…killing more people, I guess. Which they kind of don't pull off. But so many questions remain: who made those awesome Neon Maniacs trading cards that guy finds in the beginning? How did the Maniacs come to be, and how did they all decide on their costumes? If water is their weakness, WHY DO THEY LIVE UNDER A BRIDGE? I am absolutely fascinated and delighted by this movie every time I put it on, and when I grow the stones to do so I plan on penning a sequel that answers these very questions.

Gang Wars (a.k.a. The Devil's Express) (1976) – Often a movie I mention in the same breath as Neon Maniacs. I have no idea how this 70's kung-fu/blaxploitation/horror epic actually got made, but the world would be a lot less cool if it hadn't. Extremely memorable (and poorly-delivered) dialogue, some of the sloppiest and most hilarious fight-scenes ever, lots of awesome 1970's New York City, a cameo from Brother Theodore (who you may remember from the classic, The Burbs, a climactic final battle that takes place in an almost entirely dark subway tunnel, and motherfucking Warhawk Tanzania. Seriously, this thing rules, and I don't get why more people aren't as nuts about it as me.

Nightmare City (1980) – Man, this movie rules. Absolutely absurd, non-stop insanity. Next to the classic Romero-style zombies, these guys (which I refer to as "meat-face zombies") are probably my favorite. They're just crazy-ass dudes running around with hamburger on their faces, they've got guns and knives, some of them (*ahem*) seem to have an affinity for boob-grabbing, they (maybe) fly planes, and they rule. This movie is packed with so many weird little moments my brain keeps coming back to—the zombies pouring off the plane, the scalpel-throwing doctor, the exploding television, the knife-stabbed statue, the way that one zombie kind of flourishes the knife in front of him when the protagonists escape by automobile. Brilliant.

5. Send us to five places on the Internet!

Marble Hornets – An awesome web-series scarier than about 95% of the horror films coming out these days, in my opinion. Really great, nightmare-inducing stuff.

The HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast – Two smart, funny guys reviewing Lovecraft's fiction, story by story. I'm a huge Lovecraft fan, and this is the first podcast I ever really listened to. Great, great stuff. Be prepared to marathon the shit out of it, Lovecraft nerds!

Teleport City – Great review site, and it played an integral role in my discovery of non-Euro foreign horror way back when. Lots of humor and insight, and I am forever in Teleport City's debt for introducing me to Wild Zero.

WTF, D&D? (http://www.somethingawful.com/d/dungeons-and-dragons/) –A side-splitting retrospective on the hilarity of old gaming manuals of all genres.

The SCP Foundation – The archives of a fictional group that secures, contains, and protects the world from paranormal objects and entities. I get lost for days reading entries on this site. There's some truly eerie, brilliant stuff on here.

Too Much Horror Fiction – It's been mentioned on here already, but another massive shout-out for Too Much Horror Fiction, too!

And, of course, check out The Ungodly Warlocks Horror Podcast , where Issac Williams and I do in-depth discussions about some of our favorite films!

It's a Horror to Know You: Cindy Auer!

What is the first film that ever scared you?

The first film that ever scared me was probably Nightmare on Elm Street. My parents did not take great care to shelter me from horror movies (they just sent me to the other side of the room to play) so I probably would have seen it when I was five or six. After that, I was deathly afraid that Freddy could pop out of MY bed or out of the toilet and drag me in or something. It certainly didn't help matters that I grew up in a Victorian house that was previously a funeral home for 100 years.

What is the last film that scared you?

The last film to REALLY scare me is actually 28 Weeks Later. I'm incredibly freaked out by the idea of anything tearing me apart and eating me and the beginning sequence of that movie just disturbs me like no other. The infected move SO quickly and kill people so swiftly and violently. I love traditional zombies, but the infected actually freak me out. A lot. Honorable mention goes to Hannibal. I watched it again recently and, while it is probably more of a thriller, that hideously deformed guy and the wild man-eating boars make it pretty terrifying.

Name three Horror movies that you believe are underrated.

Ravenous — I'm going to echo many people and say Ravenous is definitely at the top of the list. I worked at a small video/porn store in the sticks for a couple years while finishing my degree and brought home many horror movies. I discovered Ravenous on VHS completely by mistake. It was in our thriller/drama section instead of with the horror movies and I had not heard of the movie before despite it being a big-budget movie with some fairly big names (coincidentally, it also stars 28 Weeks Later's Robert Carlyle). I took it home and watched it and fell in love. The soundtrack is awesome, the acting was great, the characters were quirky, and the bloody showdown at the end is nothing short of fantastic. I now preach the gospel of Ravenous to everyone I know.

Black Christmas – The horror community seems to always be hatin' on this movie for some reason. I find that it is usually the gore hounds though. I love me some gore, but it is not a necessity for me. Black Christmas, while light on the gore, delivers in so many other areas. The killer doesn't have a motive (unless you watch the craptastic remake which you should NOT do) and we don't even see him, except for an eye behind a door. And I LOVE that it happens during the Christmas season.

Event Horizon –Great big-budget horror movie. It's like Hellraiser in outer space.

Honorable Mentions: My Bloody Valentine (original) and The Fog (original).

Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.

Cabin Fever – all the characters are easily hated and the flesh-eating virus they get is pretty sick. Oh yeah, and some guy swallows a harmonica and chokes on it. It's horror with a dash of humor.

Dolls – the dolls seriously freak me out. The acting is a little bit cheesy, but I still dig it. I think this movie strikes a chord with me since in the same ex-funeral home I grew up in (see above), my father kept a collection of antique dolls in the hallway on the way to the bathroom. So, yeah, I have been pretty much traumatized since birth.

City of the Living Dead – I think we can all admit that Fulci movies have their charm and also their fair share of downfalls. This one has an ending I still can't completely figure out. I like it anyway.

Honorable Mentions: Hello, Mary Lou: Prom Night II, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark.

Send us to five places on the Internet!

The Unknown Movies Page – obscure movies of all kinds.

Night of the Creeps – someone else brought up this now-defunct site. It was my go-to site for laughs and recommendations back in college. Not for those easily offended.

Arrow in the Head – I don't always agree with the reviews, but it's still good stuff.

Jabbotu's Bad Movie Dimension – bad movies for days…

And now for the palate cleanser: Cute Overload.

It's a Horror to Know You: Joanna Wilson of Christmas TV History!

1. What is the first film that ever scared you?

I can easily point to Jaws (1975) and tell you that that movie scared me so bad, decades later I still live with the consequences! I'm horrified of natural stuff in the water. Since I'm a triathlete, I need to regularly swim in lakes to compete and my heart rate maxes out before I even step into the dark water. That movie changed my life. I can't tell myself sharks only live in salt water–my fear is beyond reason. I'm terrified of sea weed, minnows, turtles, and whatever floats. Don't tease me about it because it's not funny.

2. What is the last film that scared you?

Communion (1989) I grew up frightened by Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), TV episodes of Project UFO and late night viewings of the TV movie The UFO Incident (1975). So when I finally saw Communion, it just took me over the top. I tried to get over that movie by watching it over and over–it didn't work. Then I read the book but that didn't help. Next, I read all of Whitley Strieber's books–then I had trouble sleeping. Mostly, I've resigned myself to welcoming the aliens when they eventually come for me.

More recently, I saw 2007's No Country for Old Men and Javier Bardem's character–a monster, really–gave me nightmares. Some of my friends have suggested I read the book, and I have responded the same way to all of them: "F*ck YOU!"

3. Name three Horror movies that you believe are underrated.

Night of the Hunter (1955)–Robert Mitchum is so macho and hot (I'm thinking 1958's Thunder Road) but here, he's a child stalker hiding behind a minister's collar. His fire and brimstone, anger and self-righteousness really frightens me. I always shout out loud at the two adorable children on screen to keep running! I can't help it.

Elephant Man (1980) I begged my mom to take me to see this at the theater when it came out. I was clearly too young because it haunted me. It was hard for me to bear how much pain and isolation this man endured. Years later, Blue Velvet became my favorite film and I learned David Lynch directed Elephant Man as well. I actually became proud of my earlier psychological trauma.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) This movie is especially terrifying because it was inspired by an actual person. Actor Michael Rooker was a little too convincing.

4. Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.

Poltergeist (1982) I've seen this movie so many times it shouldn't have any effect on me but it still does. I hate it when I can hear stuff move or fall in another room. Another movie that changes your life.

Pet Semetary (1989) I read the book before I saw the movie so I remember the terror from the book. The movie isn't nearly as scary to me as the book but I'm still entertained by it. Actor Fred Gwynne is the icing on that cake.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 5 (1991) Yes, you read that right. I've debated this movie's merits at parties so many times, I think I've talked myself into loving it. Mickey Rooney is such a Hollywood institution–he has seen it all. I love him for being in this ridiculous movie.

5. Send us to two places on the Internet!

Made for TV Mayhem — Amanda By Night knows it all when it comes to TV movies.

Awful Library Books — library discards make up at least half of my personal collection.

It's a Horror to Know You: W.S. Smith!

What is the first film that ever scared you?

Beyond the old Universal classics and a small handful of Hammer (and Vincent Price) films, horror was pretty much frowned upon in my house as a kid. Neither of my parents were horror fans. As far as I know, my father went to his grave that way and my mother still is. What really opened my world to horror was late night cable TV. On weekends, I would stay up late, watching reruns of Monty Python or Benny Hill on PBS until my parents were asleep and then switch over to HBO or the like to see what grand displays of fear they were showing. The first movie that ever really scared me deep down was William Friedkin's THE EXORCIST. I saw the full, uncut version of this late one night when I was 9 years old. Nowadays, the idea of possession by the devil (or anything else) seems silly and, although, the movie no longer scares me, it's still a very well made example of the craft. Creepy shots devoid of any warmth or comfort, phenomenal performances by the cast, etc. But, as a small child, it was the most terrifying thing I'd ever encountered.

What is the last film that scared you?

These days, being scared by a film is a rarity. I don't consider the occasional "shock" to be true fear. Lots of movies offer little shocking moments here and there, but they lack the pervasive feeling of dread that horror movies used to provide. Now, when I think of a movie scaring me, I think about the overall feel of the film, not specific instances within it. Most recently, the most uncomfortable I've felt during a movie was Takashi Miike's GOZU. Miike's work has always given me a sense of being "off" whether that's a girl hacking a man's legs off with wire while sticking him with acupuncture needles, a man killing another man by shoving his fist down his throat, or someone being drowned in a kiddie pool full of feces. He's insane. And, it would seem that GOZU, a film about a Yakuza hitman descending into madness after being ordered to kill his best friend, is nothing more than Miike's personal insanity put to film. An incredibly uncomfortable watch that must still be seen!

Name three horror films that you believe are underrated.

1. Tony Maylam's THE BURNING. It's easy to dismiss this film as a knockoff of Friday the 13th and its killer, Cropsy, as a knockoff of Jason Voorhees, but it and he are so much more than that. Despite the fact that Friday the 13th became the world-famous series of films, I think that The Burning is far superior to the first Friday in many ways. Even the lack of Kevin Bacon doesn't hurt the movie in comparisons (joke).

2. Stuart Gordon's FROM BEYOND. As great as The Re-Animator series of movies is, it was From Beyond that cemented Jeffrey Combs as my favorite B-movie actor. His performance is completely tortured and frail in his otherworld-induced madness. Not exactly a faithful adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story, but what can you expect when you turn a 3 page story into an hour and a half long movie? And, if we're being honest, the inclusion of Ken Foree in the cast can only help a film, not hurt it.

3. John Carpenter's IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. Another Lovecraft-inspired story although not based on any of his works directly. Jurgen Prochnow's character of Sutter Kane is exactly what Lovecraft fans would like to think Lovecraft was actually like. Reality, unfortunately, shows us the truth of the situation. Nonetheless, this movie is creepy all the way through and contains one of Sam Neill's best performances of his career. Would it be too bold of me to suggest that In the Mouth of Madness is John Carpenter's second best film after The Thing? I don't think so.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Sergio Martino's TORSO. As much as I love Dario Argento's work, Martino very likely gave us the best representation of "grand guignol" or "giallo" films ever made with Torso.

2. David Cronenberg's THE BROOD. The master of "body horror" shows us his chops with this 1979 masterpiece starring Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar as a psychologist and his patient whose misplaced rage gives birth to a whole brood of little rage entities.

3. Scott Reynolds' THE UGLY. A New Zealand film about a serial killer turning the tables completely around on his psychologist through a course of interviews. This is a rarely seen gem that I found only because I spent a few months on New Zealand around the time of its release.

4. Pieter Van Hees' LEFT BANK. All I really have to say about Pieter Van Hees is that he is very likely the Belgian answer to Canada for David Cronenberg and if you haven't yet seen Left Bank, you're not doing yourself any favors.

5. Stefan Ruzowitzki's ANATOMIE. Technically, this might be more of a thriller than a horror, but what the hell? A German medical student played by Franka Potenta discloses a frightening conspiracy within her medical school that includes grisly murders and an old secret Nazi society.

6. Frank De Felitta's DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW. So what if it's a made-for-TV movie? This classic, family-friendly scarefest still holds up after all these years. Great performances from a lot of actors whose names you might not know, but their faces will all be familiar.

Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgement.

1. Tom Six's THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE. I can't tell you how much I wanted to hate this movie when I heard about it. But, upon watching it, I discovered that it's much more than just gross. It's sincerely creepy. The performance of Dieter Laser as the insane doctor is over-the-top, but exactly what it needed to be.

2. Chris Angel's WISHMASTER 3: BEYOND THE GATES OF HELL. While this film definitely suffers from the absence of Andrew Divoff as the djinn, it's still thoroughly watchable. We even get a pleasant (and rare) good performance from Jason Connery.

3. Krishna Shah's HARD ROCK ZOMBIES. It's just so ridiculous. I mean, a glam-metal band turned into zombies by an old curse put in place by an in-hiding Hitler who comes out of hiding once his zombies come to be. Seriously? Yeah, seriously.

Send us to five places on the internet.

1. 48 Hour Film Project. The official website for the 48 Hour Film Project; a competition for anyone and everyone who wants to make a 4-7 short film in a weekend. It's stressful but loads of fun.

2. The Richard Dawkins Foundation. The website for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Enough said.

3. Kickstarter. A great site for people seeking funding for creative endeavors from music to movies to tech.

4.Lucas Faust. A shameless plug for my brother's website (named after my nephew) which showcases his music and art.

5. Movielic.com. A great source for anyone who has the inclination to show movies for free to their community.

It's a Horror to Know You: Spooky Sean of Spooky Bloggery!

1. What is the first film that ever scared you?

The first film that ever scared me? Hmm. This is going to be tough to answer, as I was always one of those twitchy kids, who was perpetually jumpy. Real life scared me so much, that for many years I actively avoided horror movies. I've got a few, can't remember which came first.

I've had a Traumafession about one of the earliest films I can remember that scared me. Believe it or not The Christmas Toy, a 1986 made for TV movie by Jim Henson. I had a VHS copy of it. I loved the film, but the concept of toys coming to life creeped me out. The Peanut Butter Solution scared me too, which came out in 1985. Now, much like The Christmas Toy, most of the film is not very frightening. However, there is one scene I remember, where the main character is walking into a house, which is what causes him to get scared and lose all his hair. (Just google it, don't have time for a synopsis.) Also, what kid isn't afraid of going bald, haha. Lastly, near the beginning of Flight of the Navigator, when the main character (again, too lazy to imdb this) is transported forward in time and goes to his house and finds a new family there. That terrified me. Imagine it, being like 9 or 10, and you go outside to play, trip and fall, hit your head, and wake up. You go back to your house, and your family is gone, and a new family is there. A new family that yells at you, and calls the cops on you, I might add.

2. What is the last film that scared you?

I haven't been scared by a film in a while. Gross out, yes, but scared, not really. I think the last film that scared me was The Innkeepers, but only parts near the middle. I'd say Marble Hornets and good old Slender Man have been scaring me far more than any film I've watched recently. It's so amateurish at times, what with all the text during each short, but you have to hand it to those dudes, they know how to drag something out, and keep it scary. Lake Mungo really creeped me out, but I saw that a year or more ago.

3. Name three Horror movies that you believe are underrated.

Lake Mungo
The Mist (this borders on being a science fiction film as well)
Stir of Echoes

I'm not sure if Stir of Echoes is underrated, I just don't hear many people talking about it. I can watch Stir of Echoes over and over, and somehow, I never get tired of it. I hear all sorts of people talk shit about The Mist, and I don't get it, I thought it was really great, and the monsters were superb (save for the tentacle). Not many people have heard of Lake Mungo, so that's probably why it's underrated. Honorable mention for The Ninth Gate, but I'd say it's more of a drama/ horror film.

4. Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.

Deep Blue Sea (my hat is like a shark's fin!)
A Serbian Film
The Human Centipede 2

I have a soft spot for excessive nastiness sheerly for its own sake. I have no excuse for Deep Blue Sea. I love shark films, and shark books. Anything to do with monsters in water, I'm there.

5. Send us to five places on the Internet!

The Horror Digest. I love the layout. Sites with black backgrounds and white font just do it for me. Also, she always gets great screenshots, and keeps me entertained. She funny. And she has a crazy amount of horror films reviewed. I haven't been brave enough to try to read even half the reviews she has posted. She must have a caffeine drip IV or something.

Warning Signs. He's reading through every Stephen King book for the interest of his site. People read his fucking site, that's so many pages this man is reading, all for you!

Can I link to your site, or is that kind of stupid? I mean, they are already here. Eh, why not.

All Things Horror. We reppin' fah Bahston harrah! I may or may not contribute to the site on occasion. Shameless, i know, but I read them even before I wrote for them, so suck it.

PositivelyBLEAK. If you're interested in heavy metal, or fashion, this site will rip your face off, and wear it with a lovely ensemble to match the dripping bloody skin mask. And my name might pop up on here from time to time. Now it's like a guessing game! Why does his name pop up. Read and find out!

It's A Horror To Know You: Jeff Allard of Dinner With Max Jenke!

What is the first film that ever scared you?

I can't remember the exact first film – something random on TV most likely – but I do vividly remember seeing both Food of the Gods (1976) and Empire of the Ants (1977) in the theater within what felt like mere months of each other and being seriously traumatized by each of those early excursions into big screen terror. The laughably chintzy (even by mid-‘70s standards) FX didn't put any kind of dent in the experience for me. Neither film came across as corny or cheap to my eyes. For older horror fans, the ‘70s were about having their minds blown by the likes of Romero or Carpenter or Hooper or Craven but as a kid being unaware of (or not allowed to view) the more seismic genre events happening at the time, Bert I. Gordon became – for awhile, at least – the #1 horror god of my childhood.

What was the last film that scared you?

I'd have to go with I Saw The Devil, even though I don't know if "scared" is the right word to describe my reaction to that movie – it made me feel more disturbed and unsettled than frightened per se. Whatever the case, it was the most all-around impressive horror movie in recent memory for me. On a very different level I also really enjoyed the old-fashioned chills of The Woman in Black. I get the impression that it wasn't so well received by a lot of fans but I thought that for what it intended it hit the mark just fine.

Name three horror movies that you believe are underrated.

Hands down the best killer rat movie ever made is Deadly Eyes (1982). It's the absolute last word in rodent rampages.

For whatever reason, Pete Walker's grim cannibal tale Frightmare (1974) doesn't get mentioned that much but I think it's one of the most upsetting horror movies of the ‘70s – which means it's one of the most upsetting horror movies ever. The big horror heavyweights like Michael Myers, Jason, and Freddy look benign next to the batshit old lady played by Sheila Keith here.

The snarling killer poodle with a pink bow in its hair that's featured on the box art might have understandably caused many horror fans to pass on The Boneyard (1991) over the years, encouraging prospective viewers to assume it to be a goofy waste of time but this is a movie that deserves more notoriety. Writer/director James Cummins (who passed away in 2010) crafted an energetic – and at times emotional – creature feature and I love that he bucked convention by having his female lead not be the usual nubile young thing favored by horror fans but instead be an overweight, middle aged, depressive woman living in squalor (excellently portrayed by Deborah Rose).

Name three horror movies that you enjoy against your better judgment.

I can't say I enjoy any of these movies against my better judgment because I really do like them and don't feel like it's a mistake to do so but I know that they're questionable choices to most fans so here you go:

The Mangler (1995)
Tobe Hooper's latter-day films get trashed by a lot of fans and while I agree that not all of them are winners, I will stubbornly, shamelessly defend The Mangler. What I most love about it is the total conviction that Hooper brings to the material. Most directors, if tasked with making a movie about a possessed laundry presser, would have made it very tongue in cheek but Hooper plays it as seriously as if he were making The Exorcist and I love that. This is a bleak, nasty little movie (with Robert Englund chewing more scenery than he's ever chewed before or since) and it's clear that Hooper was trying to make something special out of the slim source material. So yeah, I dig The Mangler. In fact, I liked it so much that I saw it twice in the theaters and would've probably gone again if it hadn't vanished so quickly.

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)
The Americanization of the Hellraiser franchise didn't strike many people as an especially great development but I hold an enduring affection for this entry in the series. I think there were so few horror movies released to theaters in the early ‘90s that I tended to greet the ones that did come out with more warmth than they may have deserved. That said I like that director Anthony Hickox went for a popcorn-styled entertainment here, making Hell on Earth bigger, slicker, and more action-orientated. Prior to Hell on Earth, you wouldn't turn to the Hellraiser films to see stuff blow up but Hickox brought it there. It lacks the seriousness of the previous two films but the sight of Pinhead and his newly assembled Cenobite gang boldly striding down a city street, causing destruction and taking on an outmatched police force is just too fun. This may be a disparaged movie in most quarters of fandom but Hell on Earth remains a small slice of Heaven for me.

Brainscan (1994)
I have an irrational soft spot for failed attempts to create new horror franchises (don't get me started on Dr. Giggles or Shocker) and Brainscan is a true hall of famer in that regard. It's hard to imagine anyone with the least bit of sense ever thinking that the madcap ghoul known as The Trickster had the potential to be the next Freddy Krueger but I'm forever grateful that all involved with this film's inception followed through on their every misbegotten impulse because if they hadn't, I wouldn't have Brainscan to enjoy. I only hope that one day Fright Rags will decide to immortalize this movie with a T-shirt.

Send us to five places on the internet.

Arbogast on Film . The mystery man known as Arbogast may have closed shop back in December of last year but the back catalog of five years worth of insightful posts means it's still the most indispensible horror blog out there.

Chuck Norris Ate My Baby. Matt House doesn't update as frequently as he once did – a real epidemic around the blogosphere these days – but it remains a great, good humored blog, well worth checking in on.

Heart In A Jar. Steve Senski doesn't post often but when he does, it's always with a degree of knowledge, literacy and critical insight not commonly found in horror bloggers.

Mr. Peel's Sardine Liquor. Like Arbogast on Film, Mr. Peel's Sardine Liquor is also headed up by a mystery man. Unlike Arbogast, Mr. Peel is thankfully still active, continuing to sharing his thoughts on a wide range of movies. As with Arbogast on Film, every post makes me wish I could write so well. Mr. Peel has a knack for making every review read like a window into his personal thoughts (without being self-indulgent) as well as being an astute analysis of the film in question (without being overly academic).

Radiator Heaven. J.D. Lafrance's blog is one of the most enthusiastic and informed sources of film criticism out there. He covers all genres equally well but has a clear and frequently demonstrated affection for horror, fantasy and sci-fi. And if that doesn't make someone a good egg, I don't know what does.

It's a Horror to Know You: Ross Tipograph of Camp Blood!

1. What is the first film that ever scared you?

"The Ring" remake was actually the first anything that made me throw my hands in front of my face in sheer resitant terror, along with another 2002 candy, the awful "Darkness Falls" starring Buffy's Emma Caufield. But actually, "Candyman" ruined my youth. That scene where he stalks Virginia Madsen in the parking garage… "Helennn…"

2. What is the last film that scared you?

I'll admit "Insidious" was a hot little slice of surprises that had grown men shrieking in shock, the endings of "The Woman" and "Inside" nearly made me vomit, and "Black Swan," upon second viewing, was less camp and more me questioning my own skin.

3. Name 3 horror movies that you believe are underrated.

Apartment Zero (1988) Combines a bunch of Hitchcock movies into a series of queerly twisted sequences between two great looking men.

The Faculty (1998) Slick, seamless, subversive, and addictive. Killer soundtrack, and Bebe Neuwirth gets wrapped in a volleyball net and shot in the head.

Kairo (Pulse) (2001) The first Japanese horror film where I correctly predicted someone would jump off a high point and die, and I still gasped. Also, the ghosts move crazily!

4. Name 3 horror movies you enjoy against your better judgment.

Lady in a Cage (1964) HELP! Olivia de Havilland is TRAPPED! In a PERSONAL, PRIVATE ELEVATOR!

Wicked (1998) A pre-teen suburban girl wants to boink her dad (seriously) so she kills her mom (yes).

Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire (2000) A kids' horror fave. Caroline Rhea in a Disney Channel Original Movie "Fright Night" rip-off? Sign me up!

Honorable mention: "Troll 2" because of Holly's graceful boombox dance, "Final Destination 3" because tanning booth death is my kryptonite, and "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" …because tanning booth death is my kryptonite.

One more! "Hello MaryLou: Prom Night 2"!

5. Send us to five places on the Internet!

Blogger Beware: One blogger's hilarious and total exploration of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps books and their wonderfully awful idiosyncrasies.

Gay of the Dead: Sean Abley's Fangoria column showcasing gay movie news and interviews, all around pleasant as punch.

Dark Horizons: My personal go-to site for up-to-date release lists.

The October Country: The Justin Graves-led blog, an intimidatingly knowledgeable forum for all horror multimedia and editorials. He's also great on Facebook, too.

Are You Afraid of the 90s: Shameless self-promo plug. A side project for all things scary and children-y from the Nineties, movies, television, and movies on television included. Please, let yourself hate it!