Halloween and my refound love for all things horror.

I used to love horror movies. It all started with the 'Scream' movies when I was about 13 years old. I saw the first one in the movie theatre, got hooked and rented a whole lot of VHS tapes and later on dvd's. I saw a lot of great movies and a lot of bad ones. One of them that has always stuck with me was the original 'Halloween' movie by John Carpenter.

Fast forward to 2018. I haven't seen a horror movie in a while. I barely watch tv and go to movie theatres anymore. Besides that, my girlfriend isn't fond of horror movies. Being home alone and with some time to kill I watched 'Halloween' again. How I love and missed this! The suspense created by the genius that is John Carpenter, the young Jamie Lee Curtis, the awesome soundtrack,... I love it! Part of what moved me to watch this masterpiece again is the Instagram posts of Tim McMahon (singer of Search, Mouthpiece, Hands Tied,...). He recently posted some pictures of his visits to some of the original locations of the movie.  The Myers house, the Laurie Strode house, the sidewalks and streets where John Carpenter shot the movie, the gates to Smith's Grove Sanitarium that Mike Myers escaped,... Great pictures and it must have been great visiting these locations. Makes me a bit jealous.
I also found out he has an Instagram account dedicated to horror movies. Go look for 'Curatedhorror' on Instagram and enjoy all sorts of horror movie ephemera.

Being the nerd and art lover I am I also spotted the James Ensor (probably Belgian's most famous artist ever) poster in Laurie's bed room. Couldn't resist taking a screenshot.

I've got a lot of catching up and (re)watching to do. Maybe it's time to buy a second tv set and dvd player so I can enjoy some classics and new horror movies again. Get in touch if you got recommendations, although I think I'm all set for now with the Curated Horror page. And I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the 2018 Halloween movie in the theatre soon!

Lyle Preslar in Samhain / Eerie Von's 'Misery Obscura' book.

Last year I got Eerie Von's book 'Misery Obscura'. My local distro had a copy on the shelves of this book that was published in 2009. It's packed with awesome pictures and full of great stories. Eerie Von played in Samhain, Danzig and Rosemary's Babies and he took the very first Misfits pictures so you can imagine he has a lot to show and tell. From those first Misfits photo shoots to starting up Samhain to touring the world and recording with Rick Rubin with Danzig. This book is totally recommended!

One of my favorite stories of the book starts in one of the forewords. It's written by Lyle Preslar, legendary guitar player of Minor Threat and one of the original Samhain members. He writes about Samhain's first show. He took an Amtrack train from DC to New York City together with his girlfriend and Brian Baker to play this show. He was carrying his trusted Gibson Les Paul with him and had asked the venue (Rock Hotel) to provide a Marshall JCM stack. Upon arriving he found out they only had two Fender Twin Reverb amps. As guitarplayers probably know, these aren't exactly the same soundwise. Luckily he had brought a distortion pedal so he decided the Twin Reverbs would do and was planning on trying to make the best of the whole situation. Next to this Glenn Danzing turned up with a horrible cold, barely able to sing. After soundcheck Preslar went out to eat something together with his girlfriend and Brian Baker.
Here comes the funniest part of the story. Preslar had been told that Samhain wouldn't be a Misfits II. No makeup, no black armbands, no 'devilocks'. No sign of this during soundcheck so he was feeling comfortable wearing his grey Minor Threat sweatshirt (how much would this be going on Ebay for today...?), his regular attire during those days.

Lyle Preslar

Upon returning from his pre-show meal he was in shock. The whole band was in full on Misfits devilock mode. Eerie Von even had a homemade black spiderman outfit on and the whole dressing room was filled with hairspray and black make up. Luckily he was wearing black jeans and a black shirt underneath his Minor Threat sweatshirt but still he felt very out of place. Funny story and unfortunately there are no pictures of this show in the book. By then Eerie Von was holding a bass guitar instead of a camera. I looked for pictures on the internet but haven't found any. The Lyle Preslar/Samhain combination already is a strange one and this story only adds to this.

As said before: this book is awesome. Try to get a hold of a copy. You won't regret it! I flip through it regularly to check out the pictures but last week I took some time to read Eerie Von's stories and look at the pictures thoroughly while listening to my Misfits, Samhain and Danzig records. No need to tell you I had a great night! Below are some pictures of the book.