Horror Movies and the like

I have always been different than other girls. As a teen in the boy band era, one would think I would be listening to something pop oriented but when a friend loaned me NIN: The Downward Spiral and then another friend, Marilyn Manson: Antichrist Superstar, there was no way I was going to buy that disposable crap. My parents listened to a lot of classic rock so I'm slightly burned out on Van Halen, Santana and The Eagles. I do find that if “Hot For Teacher” comes on I can't help but roll the windows down and turn it up, no matter how many times my dad blasted that album. So, basically, it didn't take much to encourage me to find my way into darker music. We were coming off of the grunge peak and we were depressed. We just wanted music that represented that and there was plenty under that corporate mucous crust.
I also found that I could not be satisfied by the so called “norm” of other media. Horror movies were my poison and I was swimming in them. Not necessarily the popular ones but “The Howling V” or “Waxwork”. I watched those movies a gazillion times. My best friend and I often went to a video store in the next town over called Bestway. It was a video rental/laundromat combination that had some of the most obscure horror movies ever. With titles like “Redneck Zombies” and Cannibal Hookers” what more could one ask for?
While I never had the chance to watch these films, I did get to watch “The Graveyard Shift”. I have to admit, I stifle a sigh as I type this title. “The Graveyard Shift” is a very graphic vampire movie about a taxi driver who takes sanguine and sometimes a little more than sanguine advantage of his passengers. I watched this movie so so so much and the blue, rock-n-roll 80's lighting never got old.
Perhaps I should say that my love of vampires began in the fourth grade. My best friend loaned me a book simply titled “Vampire” by Richie Tankersley Cusick (Thank you Haley and your Mommy who worked at Heritage Bookstore and brought home all sorts of fun books that you shared with me.) It was along the lines of the Fear Street books in which, holding hands is taboo and kissing equates to some sort of baseball analogy. Over time, my interest grew and in high school, it seemed only natural for the evolution of my interests to effect my appearance. Then came the JNCO jeans, of which I had but one pair because I was P-O-O-R. Next, a spiked dog collar and then the unfortunate pantyhose-on-the-arms phase. My Dad was not pleased and I couldn't care less. He wanted me to wear sweater sets and be a lady and I wanted to sit in my room writing gloomy poems about suicide and playing make believe vampires with my friend. He also cursed my existence when he caught me watching “Strangeland” and “The Crow, which I never understood because neither one were scary. They were maybe a little dark but not that disturbing. Well, not that disturbing to me at least.
However, I believe that some responsibility has to be taken. Was it my fault someone rented the entire “Friday the 13th” collection and left it lying around for me to find and watch all by myself? Or that the only non horror movie I watched all summer one year was “The Big Lebowski” only to be book ended by Stephen Kings “The Stand”? The first time I saw “Poltergeist” both of my parents were in the room and as I sat on the arm of the couch nervously sweating in my jammies, I was the one who quietly spoke up to say I didn't think I wanted to finish it. But did they stop me from seeing it? No. They simply sent me to bed. Does that make them bad parents? I don't think so. When I finally snap and start grocery shopping wearing only a cat tail and ears then maybe someone will have a chat with them. Besides, they were involved with me in other ways. They jumped right on it that one time I choked on a cherry Lifesaver. I didn't get to eat Lifesavers again until I moved out.
Anyway, I am now a 25 year old woman who is unemployed, writing on Office Writer because my laptop sucks standing, and I have no horror movie t-shirts because they don't come in my size. Apparently, horror movie apparel is reserved for only the jolliest of viewers. The bottom line is I love horror movies. I want to see more of them. My standards have definitely changed but I am the proud owner two of those DVD's that you can buy at the Dollar Tree around Halloween time. They have two horror movies on each of them and were made by the same 6 people no matter which one you watch. That's right people, I have seen “The Screaming Skull” and “Vampire Bat” and I'm proud of it. Also, a special thanks to Melissa for introducing me to “Night of the Creeps” (which I have yet to finish) and also “Basket Case” which features a guy that carries around a basket with him. Inside said basket is a lump of flesh that is his Siamese twin brother!!!! This film also features dudity in a dream sequence and a disturbing rape scene involving brother lump-o-flesh and an idiotic blond girl. So, yeah. You should see it.