Name an experience, successful or disasterous, where you tried to introduce someone to Horror, a particular sub-genre of Horror, or a specific film.

Rony

I tried to get one of my friends to watch a zombie movie “night of the living dead” and when I told them that it was b&w and that the zombies didn’t run fast like in 28 days later (only zombie type film they’ve seen), they got upset and told me to screw myself, so I slapped them and made them watch the movie. They ended up liking the movie.

Brainbug - The Celluloid Cesspool

One of my disastrous attempts was back in high school when I showed my girlfriend Craven’s Last House on the Left. She was the kind of girl who grew up with Saved by the Bell and Full House, so seeing two girls degraded, raped, carved up and forced to piss their pants was kind of a shock to her entire sheltered world. Interestingly enough, it’s ten years later and she’s now studying to become a psychologist and we’re celebrating our one year wedding anniversary next week. Her attempts to analyze my mental state have proven futile throughout the years. I will never forget the bewildered look she gave me when she walked into the room during the giant human sandwich scene in Microwave Massacre. I doubt they covered that in her classes.

Warren - 150 Days of Sodom

I got my ex into Italian horror movies and European horror movies which pretty much made our relationship work since she turned out to be someone who liked to stay in at night and I would settle for that as long as we could watch something that I’d be into.

It was not a hard sell really, she pretty much enjoyed the movies from the get-go, particularly Dario Argento, Paul Naschy, and Mario Bava stuff. She always enjoyed horror movies, but I think she was captivated by the fashion (and hairstyles!) and the music (dance scenes in clubs!) in these older European movies, and of course the beautiful girls - they were all perfect 10’s back then.

Don’t laugh, I enjoy some of the non-horror elements in these movies as well, such as the sets and locations, which are all very exotic to me.

Now that I’m single I don’t watch nearly as many movies, maybe a 10th as many as before, that’s a shame I guess.

Don May, Jr. - Synapse

I remember taking a date (a girl I REALLY, REALLY liked) to see Romero’s DAY OF THE DEAD. She’d never seen ANYTHING like that before… she was repulsed, disgusted and totally offended by the gore. She was fascinated that I was such a horror film fan and really wanted to see what all the fuss was about… evidently, she didn’t “get” it! LOL!

Needless to say, we never went out on a date EVER again.

Jeff O’Brien

I had a friend who bragged that she was open to new and obscure films, art films, edgy stuff. So I told her about MAN BITES DOG, which fits all the above descriptions. She was pretty appalled by it and to this day, years later, has not forgotten it.

Dave - Rue Morgue’s The Abbatoir

Co-programming our monthly movie nights means that I get to help introduce a whole whack of people to a particular movie, which is really satisfying sometimes. My personal favourites so far have been Rock ‘N’ Roll Nightmare (we brought in Thor and the crowd ate it up — lots of
laughs), Monster Squad, which many seemed to have heard about and were seeing on film for the first time (big applause on that one) and, for a more serious pick, the Canuck survival horror gem Rituals, which has never been on DVD, so the majority of the crowd hadn’t seen it, some had never heard of it, and most seemed to really dig it. Plus, we had a cast and crew Q&A afterwards, which took the whole night to another level.

In terms of a bad experience, one time I had a date with this girl who said she liked horror films and wanted to watch one. I figured Evil Dead was a safe choice, but she didn’t seem to get it. It was kinda awkward and, really, if she hadn’t already seen Evil Dead, I shouldn’t have bothered with her in the first place. She nearly swallowed my soul.

Bill Cunningham - DisContent

I gave someone a copy of ICHI THE KILLER… they haven’t looked at me the same way since. It’s always in the back of their mind that I watched and recommended this movie…

Oh well.

Nathan - MicroHorror

It was my junior prom. A double date. After dinner, but before going to the school dance, the four of us went to see “From Dusk Till Dawn.” That didn’t work at all.

Kimberly - Cinebeats

Disastrous moments seem to stand out more than the good ones. One of the worst experiences I can remember was when I made the mistake of showing one of my old roommates Argento’s Opera after it just came out on video. I didn’t know at the time that he hated eyeball horror/gore. For some reason any eyeball gore deeply disturbed him (maybe he saw Fulci’s Zombi 2 when he was a kid? Who knows…). If you’ve seen Opera, you probably know that the film has lots of eyeball related moments and when the first scene started where the girl gets tied up and has needles put under her eyes my roommate went nuts. He yelled a bit, called me a sicko, left the room and refused to watch the rest of the movie. It was awkward to say the least.

Tim - Mondo Schlocko

I don’t know if I ever had much of a experience or any anecdote to offer, but it seems that I can never get anyone I know in my home state to watch and enjoy indie “backyard” b-movies.

Only two people from last week’s roundtable participated in this one. Are you guys taking turns? If you’d like to share your own awkward tales of horror proselytization in the comments below, we’d like to hear them.

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