M. E. Franco, Author: #Horror Movies - Fabulous to Just Say No

My love of horror started at an early age. From the moment I read Dracula in junior high school, I became fascinated with all things creepy. Maybe it's the allure of danger or the amped up shot of adrenaline. Whatever it is, I love it!

The first horror movie I saw was the original Halloween. Because of the rating, I was too young to see it in the theater, so I had to wait until it came out on television. My mom wouldn't let me watch it, so I had to be sneaky. That movie scared the bajeebees out of me! I remember wanting to look away, but I just couldn't. I had the blanket pulled up to my nose, peering over, wide-eyed.

I couldn't get enough. I was addicted. I watched every horror movie I could find. Eventually, I came up with three horror categories: "Fabulous!" "Fun/Funny/Campy" and "I want that time in my life back."

Some of the original movies I put in the Fabulous category in no particular order (and this list is by no means complete): The Shining, Scream, The Omen, Psycho, Carrie, Black Christmas, When a Stranger Calls, Halloween, No Vacancy, The Exorcist, The Silence of the Lambs, Let Me In, Misery, The Ring (Spoiler Alert! Loved the suspense right up until the goofy thing crawled out of the television, which made me laugh).

Fun/Funny/Campy movies are horror flicks that are fun to watch, but don't really scare me (my daughter says there is something wrong with me, could be...). For me, these include the low budget horror movies, campy horror, and most of the slasher movies. Some of the flicks in this category include: Zombieland (super fun!), Evil Dead 2 and 3, Stake Land, Nightmare on Elm Street series, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Sean of the Dead, An American Werewolf in London, Grindhouse, From Dusk Til Dawn, Fright Night, House on Haunted Hill, The Legend of Hell House, Dawn of the Dead, Drag Me to Hell, The Cabin in the Woods, House of Wax, and the original monster movies like Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein, The Blob, The Wolf Man, etc.

Bwahaha! "Yer dead and you don't even know it!" (remake line)

The "I want that time in my life back" AKA "Movies I can't unsee" are neither fabulous nor entertaining. These movies usually include all the gore with no humor or suspense and rely on cheap gimmicks to "startle" viewers, which is not the same as scary. Some movies in this category include The Hills Have Eyes (all of them, just gross), the Paranormal Activities movies (snooze fest), Bubba Ho-Tep (great premise, but even the great Bruce Campbell couldn't save this stinker), Shock Wave (a movie that almost turned me off low budget horror movies, with genetically altered underwater WWII German soldiers we fondly named Gemermen), Christine (I know, John Carpenter. I just couldn't get into a killer car), Leprechaun, the Chucky movies, and I could go on...