Through a Window, Darkly
Murder, mayhem, and blood by the bucketful. In any other
context, our fascination with horror would get many of the genre's
legions of fans locked up with keys no where to be found.
What's up with that?
In preparation for this publication, I asked several of horror's faithful
this very question. Their answers were as varied as the things that
go bump in the night.
Some alluded to the moment we as child conquer being afraid of
the dark. We dare ourselves to be subjected to that which scared
the bejeepers out of us. For your truly, it was the flying monkeys in
The Wizard of Oz. For a friend of mine, clowns still make his
bladder unstable.
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Perhaps for many of us, horror is a release valve, like punching a
pillow when we are angry. Our real life fears become afterthoughts
when fantastical bloodbathing burns the adrenaline out of us. We
leave the theater (or living room) happily exhausted. Somehow,
everything pales after watching chainsaws rip through someone's
flesh, right?
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Need proof? While interest in westerns and period films wax and
wane, horror movies have never really gone out of style.
Generations of movie goers have pushed their endurance to the
limit with everything from the the silent version of Nosferatu to this
year's Candyman. While they don't tend to be the box office
champs, they usually always pull a profit. The original Halloween
by John Carpenter was made for just $325K, and put $47 million
worth of butts in seats.
Rubber masks and blood are cheap, and fans are happy to
let that go.
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Doug Jones tells us in our exclusive interview his
favorites are the classics like The Creature From the Black
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And it's all in good fun. As you will see in our story about the
Horrorhound convention, there was more camp than in a
national KOA directory.
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Nowhere is that more apparent than Chris Dettone's look back at
the life and cinema of the late Midwest horror schlockmeister
Mark Burchett, whose Vamps series proved heartland indie
filmmakers could stab out a piece of blood pie.
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I ask that you indulge me as I reminisce about my Uncle Paul
Wegener's horror classic The Golem from 1920, and its influence
on my own Emmy winning feature film interpretation in 2000.
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And don't miss former child actor Butch Patrick, who played Eddie
Munster in the '60's TV series The Munsters, as well as several
other local filmmakers talk about the horror film craze in a special
interactive collage of Horrorhound!
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I hope you will pull up to a screen (the bigger the better) and enjoy
our horrific digital offering to all of the bloodthirsty fans of the
Genre That Won't Die!
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