October. The month in which our deepest, darkest fears come alive. Movie geeks especially love this time of year because of all the movies that makes us afraid of the things that go bump in the night. I was a movie geek from the start. Some of my best childhood memories are of going to the movies and sitting there awestruck at the things I was watching on the big screen. From Luke being taught by Yoda how to control the force on Degobah, to Indiana Jones knowing that staring in to the Ark of the Covenant would kill him and you were almost convinced that you should look away too to trying your best to fight away the tears when E.T. has to leave Elliot behind and go home.

Horror movies have very much been a huge part in my development as a movie fan and no better month to celebrate these classics than in October when creatures and monsters and ghouls and witches and even creepy clowns roam the streets and strike that most primal chord in our soul of fear.

I remember my first experience watching a horror movie. I was around 7 or 8 years old and some kid that lived down the way from us was babysitting me. Apparently he thought it was appropriate to watch Friday the 13th with me. Yeah not so much. Honestly though I don’t remember having nightmares or anything but I do remember being afraid while I watched as Kevin Bacon was stabbed in the throat. Even my mother has her own horror movie story. Her and my dad were on their way to go see The Exorcist and their car broke down. Not too bad so far right? Well as my dad is checking the engine to see what the hell is going on and all of the sudden the engine catches on fire. Do they let that detour them? Absolutely not. The catch a cab and go to the movies and watch as Linda Blair’s head spins around and ends up projectile vomiting and humping one of her bed posts. Yep my parent’s were troopers.

 

My all time favorite horror movies are not the gory ones but the ones that could happen, that seem real and don’t need to rely on gore and blood to scare you but the ones that make you afraid of someone turning the corner and walking into your protagonist and they don’t even end up being there. Better yet the ones that make you afraid to do something. I saw Jaws and let me tell you, it took all I had to go swimming in a pool much less the ocean. The Omen and Rosemary’s Baby made it so I didn’t want to have children. Even the first Saw movie was more of a suspenseful thriller than the gratuitous gore and shock fest that it became. Even though he tends to get shit on by many, I am a huge Rob Zombie fan, The House of a 1000 Corpses was excellent and the sequel, while more of a throw back to 70’s grind house action movie, still a fun movie and yes I think his reinvention of Michael Meyers was quite good, a strong Taste It in my humble opinion.

 

This leads me to why I am writing this. My all time favorite horror movie and and why and a little story behind it. As you can tell I am definitely not a stranger to horror movies. I even remember watching A Nightmare on Elm St and immediately having to watch it again because of how good my 11 year old self thought it was. Shortly after watching it a friend of mine said to me, you should watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it’s based on a true story and it is messed up. Well I didn’t know it was based on Ed Gein, a serial killer who made a mask out of the people he killed, I learned that later. Hey I didn’t grow up with the internet, give me a break. It might have been a year or two later so I was about 12 or 13 and I made my first attempt as watching this movie and I got to where they got to the farm house and I don’t know why but I couldn’t watch anymore. A year later I feel as though my movie watching experience has trained me to be able to handle another stab (pun intended) at watching this most horrific movie. Well I made it to where Leather Face makes his first appearance and blammo, off goes the t.v. and I am off to watch The Smurfs to get me into my happy place. Okay maybe not The Smurfs but something far happier and cheerier. I have resigned myself to the fact that maybe there are just somethings a person doesn’t need to watch, although I need to tell you that as a 13 year old I watch Faces of Death with no issues.

Fast forward to me being 18 and living in the middle of nowhere in Petosky Michigan. The northern part of the the lower peninsula which is basically a woodsy less populated part of the state. I get home from work late one night and turn on HBO and see that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is about to start and I figure I am 18 and have grown up and remind myself that this is just a movie. The little voice inside my head is actually saying, “Don’t forget that this shit happened in real life to someone and it could very well happen to you.” I do what any normal kid my age would do…turn on all the lights, grab a baseball bat and curl up in the opposite corner from my door so I have enough time to swing the bat at any would be intruders. Well ladies and gentlemen, you would be proud of your hero in this tale. I finally made it though it, the whole thing and much to my surprise it has now become one of my all time favorite movies. Wes Craven pulled off making one of the greatest horror movies of all time, not but grossing you out with over the top kills or excessive amounts of blood splattered across the screen, although it did have a few shocking kill moments. It succeeded by not letting you know what was going to happen next and using that anticipation fused with that there very well could be and actually was and probably still is someone out there that could do something like this. Leather Face wasn’t some supernatural killer who seemed to be able to be anywhere and everywhere like Jason, he was slow and methodical and knew his surroundings and he didn’t visit you in your dreams, but he was a very real person who felt pain when his chainsaw cut into his own meaty flesh and then eventually got killed by getting run over by a 18 wheeler.

I know the Pop Culture Leftover boys are doing a segment on this and asked us all on Facebook, but I think that it would be a great idea if we all wrote a little something on this subject as it is the perfect season for all of to reconnect with the horror geekiness that lives in all of us and share something with Brian and Jake and yes even Frank, even though he is not a Leftover. Give back to the guys and give them some entertainment for a change and even to let the rest of the Army know a little about yourself and what makes you shiver on these chilly, fall nights that make us all cringe a little more easily and strike a little more fear into our hearts.

As  always I welcome any feed back, critiques, niceties you wish to lavish upon me, but most of all I hope you enjoyed and I entertained you in one way or another.

by David Isaac