I think for me it started when I was about 5 or 6 and saw the full version of Michael Jackson's Thriller video with my sister and her friends (which got her into trouble for allowing me to watch it), after that was when I started drawing page after page of monsters etc. Fast forward 3 years, I was given the Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller on VHS, which featured Rick Baker showing how he created the awesome FX work on the video, and John Landis talking about the original werewolf films from Universal in the 40's. After seeing this, I wanted to see the films they were talking about, but due to the lack of them in any of the rental shops near me, I had to "make do" with whatever films were shown on TV, these just happened to be films by a little known production company from the UK called Hammer
Fast forward again to August 1991, I'm shopping in town with my parents when I spot a magazine in the newsagent where I used to buy Metal Hammer magazine, that magazine was issue number 11 of the Dark Side (which I still have). The cover was a painting of a scene from Bava's Black Sunday and inside were interviews with the stars from TCM like Gunnar Hansen, Edwin Neal etc. After seeing the pics and reading the interviews, I was desperate to see this film, but it would be a further 9 years before I was able to due to it's banned status, same goes for the Exorcist, (which had it's own DS special issue in October 1991, also in my loft) that I'd read about in a book called the Modern Horror Film, a book I constantly borrowed from the library (I managed to buy a copy cheap from eBay a couple of years ago), it wasn't until it's 1999 cinema re-release that I got to see "the scariest film of all time".
Over the years from about 1990-91, my obsession grew and grew, from reading the novels by Stephen King (first one being Pet Sematary), to watching the late night double bills on the BBC, to collecting Horror books and videos, reading any magazine with a Horror theme, collecting Movie Maniacs figures, right up to the present day where I only collect DVD's and BD's now, reading the Dark Side on occasion.
Incidently, my 9 year old son is forever asking me why I love Horror films so much, my usual response is this:
"I dunno, I just do"
Truth is, I have no real answer for his question, I don't know why I love Horror films so much, I just do
