Absolute Horror Film Forum

OK. So what scare's a psycho-killer-alien-clown. That's easy. As a kid, from the age of four or five upwards, good old Ma' used to let me stay up and watch the black and white Twilight Zone and Outer Limits series. Then came the classic Bella Lugosi "Dracula" and Boris Karloff's "Frankenstein", along with hundreds of scary movies. None of which dented my psyche, until Steve McQueen and the rolling giant glob of man-eating tomato ketchup. That was it. Every night I checked beneath my bed. If there was a strange sound, I delved deeper under my covers. God forbid should I need the toilet in the middle of the night. It was so bad that I had to beg Mum to let me keep staying up to watch the films, saying it had been only that one that scared the crap outta me.

In later times the one that's had an effect on me is Clive Barker's "Candyman". It was a great story, one of my favourites from The Books of Blood. The direction is spot on. All the way through the film there's an underlying uneasiness. Then Tony Todd's deep, rich, silky smooth tones saying "Be My Victim." Goosebumps BABY. Still can only say "Candyman" four times in the mirror.

Last year I caught an Film commissioned on this side of the pond, good old England, called Descent. It's made by the people that brought out Dog Soldiers. It's about pot-holing women (that ain't rude). It's about a group of women that like to go down into tight damp and wet crevices (god, that's worse ). They like to explore caves underground, whose only means of entry is usually a very small opening (I give up). Anyway while underground they encounter something strange - I won't say anymore and give it away, go rent it, better yet buy it. Now I love to see other people jump as the scares come, but this has to be the only film, in the last 15 years that has made me jump so much.

So, WHAT SCARES YOU.

Come join me - We ALL float down here.

Pennywise.