The darkest day of horror the Internet has ever known... well maybe not.

• On this page I will express many opinions about the state of the horror genre, past and present. I am by no means an expert on anything, merely a fan with a fairly large knowledge base.



• First off, in my opinion the modern horror genre is declining at an alarming rate. With the exception of a few dependable masters of cinema, the theatre of horror is steadily reaching an all time low. And in my opinion the decline was started by the movie Scream. Now I'm sure that I'll get a lot of hassle about this but bear with me for just a minute. Now first off, Scream itself was a great movie, its what it has spawned that has been less than endearing. Now mind you I like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend as much as the next guy, BUT I still think this trend towards the Gen-X slasher flick is going too far. How many truly great horror movies do you remember in the last 5 years? Which leads us to the next topic I am going to tackle.



• I have narrowed down, in no particular order, what I consider to be the top 4 horror films of the '90s, why four you ask, well just because I enjoy being different. These four films represent the very best things the horror genre had to offer us this decade in terms of characterization, mood setting and pure horror. I love hearing the opinions of others, especially if they conflict with my own opinions. So if you feel the need to correspond with me and share your own personal opinion you can do so by e-mail. Without any further dilly dally I present you with 88keyz's 90's Horror Top 4! Once again, in no particular order.



• Have you ever considered compiling a list of the greatest horror movies ever made. Sure, we all have our favorites, but an actual ranking of the greats. One fan had such a vision. The end result was a list entitled The Top 100 Horror Movies Ever Made. I present this list here to you so that you may view it and discuss it among your friends. I would also be more than happy to discuss with anyone the merits of this list and any movies on it or not on it.



• Also should anyone be interested, an unknown length of time ago E! Online made up a list of what it considered to be the Top 10 Horror Films. This list is reprinted here, again please feel free to e-mail me should you wish to discuss this list or anything else about my site.



• Here I discuss some of my favorite classic horror movies of all time. No logic or reason to it I just want to share my feelings on what I think are the greatest horror movies ever filmed. I hope that by reading some of my opinions and recollections that it reminds someone of a story that they care to share with me and that I in turn can share with everyone. Should this be the case please e-mail me with your thoughts. And now I present your with my Classic Horror Movie Reviews.



• One of the most disturbing things that I have noticed in the past half dozen years or so is the movement away from actual hands on special effects. The wonderful wizardry of people such as Rick Baker and Rob Bottin is being lost due to the influx of computer generated imaging. The days of seeing a makeup effects laden masterpiece is over, never again will we see a makeup gorefest like John Carpenter's The Thing. Today almost all special effects are done after the fact. The future of horror looks bleak when you consider that the best horror films of all time are so because of the incredible attention to detail and authenticity that went into the films makeup. Consider Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th and other great horror classics. Would their impact have been reduced if the blood and guts had been done on a computer, I think so. I myself would prefer to see a trend of getting back to basics and away from relying on computers so much for our special makeup effects.



• The lack of good monster movies lately has been alarming. Sure there has been a few, albeit lame, attempts at making a successful monster movie. Take The Relic and Mimic for example, both were alright movies, but where they went wrong was that they tried to be smarter than the viewer. They had these utterly fantastical scientific explanations for the creature of the day. It just irks me that a monster movie can't simply be just that. The best recent example of a monster movie was Deep Rising. No big explanation, no overbearing scientist types, just a mean ass monster and lots of dead bodies. Where's the Deep Star Six and Critters of today? When is someone going to invent the next great movie monster? All of you future film creators, take note, the world needs to be scared again. Create the next Alien/Predator, make a monster movie that will have people screaming, not yawning.



• Something that has impressed me as of late is the tendancy to produce a good movie instead of something that is just nice to look at. For years movie producers and directors thought that all they had to do was throw in some fancy special effects and that would satisfy the movie going crowd. And for a while it did, but once the shine wore off of that idea the people started to realize there was more to a movie than a shiny package. This thinking was highly visible when the people stayed away in droves from the new Godzilla movie released by Columbia-TriStar. The fact that the studios seem to be paying more and more attention to what the public wants impresses me to no end. Keep your ear to the ground studios and you can't go wrong as long as you listen to the people.



• The Internet Movie Database recently changed its format again and when it did so it added some interesting new ranking features for the movies in its database. You can now view the rankings of films by male or female vote, by genre or by decade. To check this out for yourself please visit the IMDb Vote Charts. And for you horror fans of particular interest should be the IMDb's ranking of The Top 50 Horror Films of all time by fan vote. Check it out and vote now and often for the films that really deserve to be on this most definitive of lists.



• Lately the big Hollywood studios have been producing some fantastic horror films. Just some of the great films to grace the silver screen of late include The Blair Witch Project, The Sixth Sense, Stigmata, Stir of Echoes and The House on Haunted Hill. Now, the big difference between these movies and others released recently is that the directors have been building atmosphere and that makes all the difference in a horror film. You can have the greatest ghost story of all time, but if you don't build up the atmosphere around the story then it won't scare a little old lady. So bravo to the new breed of horror director, continue on the path to the promised land and you will go down in history as a man of vision.



• The Origin of Sci-Fi by Forrest J. Ackerman: Some of you younger generation may not realize that "sci-fi" hasn't ALWAYS been a part of the American language. That we haven't always been on the Moon, that we haven't always had television and taperecorders. You probably remember the advent of faxes, VCRs and computers but-- I'm amazed when, during one of my open houses chez Ackermansion, some fan casually mentions "sci-fi" and I ask them, "Do you know who coined that term?" Neither they nor any other fans present do. "In 1954, that word was first heard in this world," and I go on to explain: I was riding around in my car with the radio on and some mention was made of "hi-fi." Since "science fiction" had been on the tip of my tongue since Hugo Gernsback introduced it in 1929 (in his sf mag "Science Wonder Stories"), I looked in the rearview mirror, stuck out my tongue and there, tattooed on the end of it was . . . SCI-FI! I thought fans who had embraced the portmanteau word "scientifiction" and its abbreviation "stf" (pronounced "stef") would be the first to latch onto sci-fi. Indeed many automatically did. (The preceding story was taken from Forrest J Ackerman's Wide Webbed World.) This is a story that I learned about just recently and I decided to reprint it here because every fan of horror all over the world deserves to know the real roots of SCI-FI.



• I was recently re-watching the giant-shark-eats-man-whole movie Deep Blue Sea on video and it occurred to me after the movie was over that something extraordinary had happened in this film, there was no female survivor! This is the first movie that I remember, in what seems like eons, where there was no female character left when the smoke cleared. To the best of my knowledge this trend of having strong leading female characters started with the Ridley Scott classic Alien. This was not the first action/horror oriented movie to have a woman as the sole survivor but it was certainly the most successful, and it created a model for success that would be followed for years to come. Now I am not by any means a sexist, but I must say that it was kind of refreshing to see all of the female characters go the way of the Dodo in Deep Blue Sea. Hopefully this will set off a new trend in Hollywood where they realize that no one is safe in the horror genre and that neither gender has to have a surviving member left over when all is said and done.



• This past weekend I set out with one of my friends to see the highly anticipated sci-fi thriller Pitch Black, and I must say that I was far from disappointed. Easily the best part of this movie was the intense performance by newcomer Vin Diesel. Diesel delivers what is sure to become a classic performance in the horror genre. But this is also something to be feared. Actors such as Scott Bakula and Julian Sands also delivered unforgettable performances, in such horror fare as Lord of Illusions and Warlock, but never went on to do anything of substance past those roles. Though I would have to say that the same fate does not await Mr. Diesel. After first gaining praise for his role in Saving Private Ryan, for which he was hand picked by Steven Spielberg, it was on to Pitch Black and Boiler Room (which was released the same day as Pitch Black). Diesel is receiving praise in the press for his strong portrayal of the convict Riddick in Pitch Black and is said to give another good performance as an immoral stock broker in Boiler Room. After making such an impression in Pitch Black I hope the future isn't all dark for one mister Vin Diesel.



• 25 years ago in the summer of '75 there was a beast laying waste to its box office competition all over the world. That movie was Jaws. Everyone remembers where they were the first time they saw Jaws, most people will also remember their reluctance to go swimming after they watched it. No movie has ever changed the way so many people felt about anything, let alone one of the world's most popular activities. Read The Origin of the Box Office Beasts and find out how it changed the movie industry just as much as it changed the face of your local beach.



• Most of the people on the planet are aware of the recent theatrical re-release of The Exorcist. And for any fans of the horror genre this is a landmark event. For many horror fans, including myself, it is a chance to see this classic on "the big screen" for the first time. This version has been dubbed The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen because it restores some footage that was cut from the original theatrical release. Among these scenes is the infamous spider-walk sequence! Along with the re-release of Lucio Fulci's masterpiece The Beyond a few years back this represents a great starting off point for new horror fans. There is no better way to get new blood into the genre than by exposing it to some of the fields most revered work. Hopefully after seeing classics such as The Beyond and The Exorcist again the modern horror masters will feel nostalgic and decide to give us some of the good old time horror that every true horror fan craves.



• I know that this may seem to be a point that I harp on a lot but I feel that it is an important one and that if I can influence in any distant sort of way any modern film maker then it will be worth it, but we need more old style horror! I realize the temptation to do less work on the set and more work in post production is a strong one, but for god sakes the results of the extra time spent on the set are well worth it. No one is a bigger fan of such films as Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Jurassic Park but the computer animation in those films set off a wild fire in the movie industry where all of a sudden everyone believed that for their movie to be successful they had to use CGI effects. So I say to every potential horror film director out there, "Please, for the love of god, true horror fans prefer latex, fake blood and pig intestines to a computer generated beheading!" Please note, I am not totally knocking the use of CGI, but I feel that its use in the horror genre has gotten out of hand. Even the recent re-release of The Exorcist had a few scenes that were "spruced up" through the use of some CGI effects. Just remember, men like Tom Savini, Rick Baker and Rob Bottin didn't earn the respect they have in the industry by sitting down at a computer and plunking away on a keyboard. On a final note, how many of the animators names do you know that work at Industrial Light & Magic? That's right, and their considered the best. Kind of sad isn't it.

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