I always find it amusing when I’m talking to acquaintances
and the subject of horror unity comes up. Most of the time what I get is “There
never has been horror unity and never will be because the community is full of
egotistical assholes who only care about themselves and their own agendas.” It
is then that I correct them on this. The truth is that there was a time when
the horror community had horror unity, or at least the closest thing to it. We had it back in 1994 when I was writing my Camp Crystal
Lake novels. This was a time when the nearest
thing to social networking was chat room and email. Distributed films were
strictly done on film and the average cost of an independent film was around
$100,000. During those days filmmakers had respect for each other because
making independent films was a work of love created by artist who gave their
all. There wasn’t the sabotaging of productions and the bullshit dick measuring
contests that we have these days. Also, we didn’t have the ego case “stars”
that go from film festival to film festivals getting drunk, mugging, and acting
like their shit don’t stink. We had serious, honorable, and humble filmmakers
like Lloyd Kaufman, Charles Band, Wes Craven, George Romero, John Carpenter, and
Tobe Hooper to name just a few. In those days you weren’t a legend or an icon,
you were a filmmaker. It was hard enough to get your stuff out that you didn’t
have time to get a big head. These filmmakers didn’t run around proclaiming
that they are “Fucking fabulous” and that you need to worship them. These
filmmakers were devoted to making films, not promoting themselves and starting
***********Army sites to stroke their egos. Also, during this time there wasn’t
the bullshit politics and double standards we see now. In those days there
weren’t any Horror Drux picketing theatres and telling people that anyone who
watches a remake is not a true horror fan. Nor did we have Women in Horror
Month screaming and whining that women get no respect in horror and how you
must place their members on pedestals simply based on their sex. Also,
publications like Fangoria were sources of news instead of being popularity
contests. I remember when Fangoria put out a full story on a man named Frank
Henelotter on a next to nothing budgeted film her was doing titled Basket Case.
The sad thing is if Frank Henelotter sent a press release on Basket Case today
Chris Alexander would say, “Who the fuck is this asshole?” and toss it with the
trash. He would rather promote Jen and Sylvia Soska or Brandon Slagle, because
they drink with him at conventions. Anyone else, fuck them.
So, in fact it is advances in technology and the internet
that has, instead of improving and allowing for better films and better opportunities
for our community, turned the horror community into a spoiled bunch of ego
cases with the mental maturity of grade schoolers.
Horror unity in some measure is still doable, but it will
take a change in the attitude of the horror community. People will need to put
away their egos and start to honestly care for horror rather than their own
agendas. Honestly, I’m starting to see this happen with filmmakers like Johnny
Johnson and my co-host Derek Young. These are filmmakers who are not in
filmmaking to make the big deals or to be worshiped, they are in it for their
passion to create stories and characters that say something and do honor to the
grand tradition of making horror films. The truth is it is time for the horror
community to grow up and become a family again, not the bunch of dysfunctional
gangs it has degenerated into. It is time for horror unity and the horror
social can scream and cry foul as much as they want, but their time is coming
to an end.
And here is some music to go with it....
And here is some music to go with it....
