Remakes, Ripoffs and Reminiscent Youth.

 First, let me start by saying, "I LOVE HORROR MOVIES!!!" Always have always will! Anyone who knows me, I mean really knows me, understands my passion for the macabre and even respects the lengths I will go to to obtain only the choicest of "Cuts" for my collection(yes I really did that, hang on, there will be more). True at times I have been a bit of an Elitist or Über Nazi in regard to the films I will spend good money to see and own. Must be Original, Must be Blood, Must be Fresh… Now, this is not to say that I won't check out a low budget Slasher or Splatter Film from time to time or even a B-Movie "T n' A" Grinder. But where I have always known you can't go wrong, is in the big guys! Hooper, Romero, Craven, Cronenberg, Hitchcock, King and Carpenter. I left out Sam Raimi only to give distinction to his "Evil Dead" series(I love these movies), cause the Spiderman movies are good, but not horror! See, I also would have listed Ridley Scott, but… "Aliens" is Sci-Fi and though I do enjoy the merging of the two(Sci-Fi and Horror, for those of you not keeping up) I wanted to list the reflect "Horror" Writers, Directors and Producers.

 NOW… Time to rip threw the meat, dig in and really pull out the guts of this posting! To me, over the last 10 plus years it seems my beloved genre has been plagued by a virus on an epic scale… REMAKES!!! Nothing and I mean nothing has been pissing me off more than the serious desecration of bodies of work by these cheap knock offs! And now, to top it off… as if they hadn't worked over some of my absolute favorites. I'll give you a list, "My Bloody Valentine", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Halloween", "Prom Night" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street". These are only a few, there are soooo many more. But now… they are coming out with, "The Thing"!!! AAAARRGGGGHHHH!!! Why!?!?! Why must you take nearly every one of my favorite movies of my youth and shit on them!?!?

 Here's the thing… I'm gonna go see this movie. Why? Because, I want to see how good or bad it can be. Thing is, some of these remakes have been ok(can't believe I just said that, but it's true). Like if I had never seen the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", I would like the new one. It was dark and creepy and had good special effects, pretty good acting and a few new added twists. Not bad. But, why couldn't it have been a "New Body" of work!?!? Why a remake?

 I really like Rob Zombie, I have respect for him and his love of horror. But he took almost every move he grew up on and ripped them off! "House of 1000 Corpses" was not original it was a throw back to films of the 70's and 80's. Did it pay tribute, perhaps. Did it turn on a few new fans, maybe… was it original, No. His remakes of "Halloween" and "Halloween II" have made allot of money… still I have refused to see them, perhaps someday, but not anytime soon. I enjoyed "House of 1000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects", they were fun, but didn't really pull me in and capture my interest or imagination. They were just kinda there...

 Ok, why I am so upset about the remake of "The Thing". The Thing was the first horror movie I watched in it's entirety as a child late at night in a very dark room. AND I LOVED IT!!! It scared the crap out of me and I fell in love with the genre of Horror. After watching this film I searched out everything(at the time) by John Carpenter! All the "Halloween's", "The Fog" and "Christine"(without which I would have never gotten into Stephen King). I then branched out and started watching Hitchcock films. "Psycho", "The Birds", "Vertigo" and Alfred Hitchcock presents. Wes Craven was next, I started with the "Hills Have Eyes" and moved right into the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series. Wes Craven's movies would dominate my Horror viewing pleasure during the 80's and 90's along side Tobe Hooper "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Part one and two", "Salem's Lot", "Poltergeist" and "Invaders from Mars" to name a few… and of course, The Man… George A. Romero, without whom I would not have, nor would America have such an obsession with Zombies!

 To my favorite creators of Horror: Thank you all for your contributions to this beloved genre, you opened a door and I ran in gobbling and gulping everything I can find! Classic, Foreign, Cult, Splatter, Slasher, Grindhouse Drive-in, B Movie, Bollywood Horror, German Underground, Vampire, Monster, Zombie, Psychological and let's not forget Blacksploitation Horror(Scream Blackula Scream). Oh yeah!!! Love's me the Horror!!!

 Some of you may or may not know. I used to head up a local chapter of Horror Fanatic's called "The Central Valley Horror Drunx". Where we used to get together drink beers and watch Horror Movies. "Friday Night Frights" were our big get togethers. It was fun, but fell apart when the prevailing Chapter(from Hollywood California) wanted to lay down a bunch of rules and off the wall garbage. Like spamming "Fangoria" and sending "hate mail" to various companies. Yea, I couldn't get onboard and drag my friends into it. So we shut it down and walked away. I would love to start up "Friday Night Frights" again, just as more of a friendly social gathering to enjoy our favorite genre of film.

Our Flyer/Poster

 You see it all started with that one movie… Without "The Thing" I may have avoided the genre of Horror all together, probably not… but it could have happened. The first time I tried to watch "Cujo" and "Poltergeist", I was like seven or eight. They gave me nightmares and I avoided being scared for the next two years. Then one night, during the month of October(in 1986). KTVU Channel 2 was showing scary movies every friday night in preparation for Halloween. I made it a point to stay up and conquer my fears! With a can of Dr. Pepper to keep me awake and a snickers to nibble on, I curled up in my Papa san chair and watched with eyes glued to our giant 24" TV screen. That night changed my life forever… 25 years ago I saw "The Thing" for the very first time, I've since seen it well over a dozen times and still love it as much as the first time.

 Now, 25 years later the remake comes to theaters… I have to see it. Who's with me?