What's Your Favorite Scary Movie? - Introduction to the book

I’d like to begin by explaining the genesis of this book…

Earlier this year I had been idly browsing, as usual, on Facebook when I happened across one of those favorite lists that urges you to nominate your friends and share your answers so that everybody knows your favorite breed of dog, favorite color underwear, favorite body part to scratch, etc. I initially groaned at seeing yet another fad-challenge but found myself reading through all of the answers with an avid interest, clicking to expand the post to peruse every mundane detail of a total stranger’s life. But, the thing is, it wasn’t mundane. I was reading it after all, and I was completely fascinated by all of the answers, subconsciously comparing them to my own choices.

         A day or so later I was watching the first Scream movie again, having recently purchased it on Blu-ray, and Ghostface’s iconic question echoed through my mind. “What’s your favorite scary movie?” I scribbled down the following in my notebook… The Horror List – Same set of questions on horror to horror folk. Okay, so it was badly worded and devoid of any specifics (as my notes usually are), but over the next few weeks I intermittently jotted down a list of possible questions with a heavy focus upon positivity. From the onset I wanted it to be a list of favorites, I didn’t wish to enquire what horror films people didn’t like. I know from the various horror groups I belong to that plenty of folk love dissing particular horror films and spreading negativity about them. Sure, we can’t possibly enjoy every single horror movie ever made but we don’t have to keep whining on about the ones we don’t like. I wanted this to be a collection of the movies we do like. Whine-free.

         After much tweaking and adding and subtracting I finally settled upon thirteen questions that I felt could glean an interesting array of answers from the “horror folk” out there in the world, and so it was time to put them to the test on my first “victim”. Enter Warrington-born horror actor Mr. Nathan Head, someone I knew I could trust to not only give his honest opinion on both the project and the questions, but also provide me with his own answers. Once Nathan had offered me some kind advice I felt confident enough to start sending out the questions to people all over the globe. I didn’t want to solely focus upon people in the movie industry, I also wanted to approach the fans of the genre too because we are, after all, the people that help keep horror alive. If it weren’t for our collective passion for horror movies, fewer of them would ever get created.

I sent out the following pitch to hundreds and hundreds of fans and filmmakers from all over the world in the hope that they would be kind enough to take the time from their busy lives and schedules to answer the proposed questions…

Hi (name),

I’m currently working on a book in which I ask the same thirteen questions to horror fans and horror film personalities from all over the world regarding their favorite horror movies.

I’m not interested in the negatives (most hated films etc.) I want to capture the positives and chronicle the passion for the horror movies that we horror fans love the best.

It’s entirely up to you how much you want to elaborate on your answers. One-word answers are absolutely fine, but if you want to say a little more, well that’s groovy too!

If you wish to take part then please feel free to drop me a message and I will gladly send you the questions on here or via email.

Many thanks and my best wishes to you,

Killian

If the selected horror fan or filmmaker opted to respond I sent them the following thirteen questions…

1) What’s your favorite scary movie?

2) Who is your favorite horror movie director?

3) What’s your favorite type (sub-genre) of horror movie?                            

4) What’s your favorite “bad” horror movie?

5) What would be your favorite horror double feature drive-in choice?

6) Who is your favorite horror movie killer?

7) What is your favorite horror movie creature/monster?                               

8) What is your favorite horror movie franchise?                 

9) What’s your favorite horror movie sequel?                                   

10) What’s your favorite horror movie remake?

11) What’s your favorite horror television show?

12) What’s your favorite zombie movie?

13) What has been your favorite Halloween costume?

The book that follows is the full collection of everyone’s fantastic answers. Yes, some are short and some are long but I did state in my original pitch that I didn’t mind either way, so hopefully you won’t too. I think it’s a really great collection that showcases a huge range of horror film titles from the early days of cinema to the modern day, peppered throughout with tremendously entertaining anecdotes, insights, opinions and musings from a wonderful concoction of horror movie aficionados. Hopefully, like me, you’ll discover films in this book that you hadn’t heard of before and be compelled to seek them out. I’ve always found people’s passion for their favorite movies rather infectious and I love having movies recommended to me by likeminded “horror folk.”

So, turn the page (or click the button on your electronic reading device) and let’s see what those kind “horror folk” around the world had to say after they collectively chose to respond to my request with a generous, “Sure, send me the questions.”

Taken from What's Your Favorite Scary Movie?

Available to buy now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Killian Gore asks over 100 horror filmmakers and fans from all over the world the same 13 questions regarding their favorite scary movies. Includes interviews with such horror legends as Joe Dante (Gremlins), Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes), Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad), Marcus Nispel (Friday the 13th), Bill Johnson (Texas Chainsaw 2), Jack Sholder (Nightmare on Elm Street 2), Rob Schmidt (Wrong Turn), Mark Shostrom (Evil Dead II) Richard Stanley (Dust Devil), John A. Russo (Night of the Living Dead), William Malone (House on Haunted Hill), Greydon Clark (Wacko), Jeff Burr (Leatherface), Chuck Parello (Ed Gein), Adam Marcus (Jason Goes to Hell), Tom Sullivan (The Evil Dead), Michael A. Simpson (Sleepaway Camp 2 & 3), Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut), Victor Garcia (Hellraiser: Revelations) and Sean Clark (Horror's Hallowed Grounds). Plus lots more from the makers of the Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hellraiser, Evil Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Child's Play, Gremlins, Phantasm, Sleepaway Camp and the Wrong Turn movies, as well as some of the most hardcore horror fans on the planet! Mr. Gore asks questions about favorite horror films, directors, sequels, franchises, monsters, remakes, TV shows plus favorite "bad" horror movies and Halloween costumes! "A Very Entertaining Book!" - Tim Ritter (Truth or Dare?" A Critical Madness)