The Yank-Lime Pie Story |
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Limey Origins: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 |
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31/10/2008 Limey Origins By Limey |
There have been times in the development of this website when a concept that sounded easy in the embryonic stage has turned out to be much more of a challenge in reality. There have been times when the task at hand felt next to impossible and even times when it felt like it would be easier if we were to just give up. This is not one of those times. The first entry in a three part series known as ‘The Limey Origins’, this articles raison d'être is to explain how I first became a horror fan, which is a task that I have found surprisingly easy. However, in writing I have also come to realise that the stars were always aligned for me to have some interest in the genre. You see, at various stages during my formative years ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ was the top show on television; ‘Goosebumps’ dominated the bookshelves; and ‘Mortal Kombat’ was busy making waves and broadening our young minds. There was, though, one event that pushed my interest beyond the cartoon ghosts of my well adjusted peers, and it is thanks to the fact that I am the youngest sibling in my family by a good ten years. This age gap not only meant that I could be left in the care of my brothers and sisters from time to time but also that their own formative years had seen the cinematic rise of Michael, Jason and Freddy. And it is presumably this familiarity with horror that convinced my then fifteen year old brother that the night he was looking after my five year old self was the perfect time to sit down, relax and watch an episode or two of ‘Freddy’s Nightmares’. I still have one or two vague memories that may have been from those episodes or from the nightmares I had that night. The first is of someone been flattened beneath a printing press and the second is of Krueger appearing besides someones hospital bed and proceeding to drill the patients jaw off. I was terrified. I was hooked. After that I was constantly on the look out for more opportunities to watch the horror movies I could see perched upon the top shelf. The problem was that in the hysteria following one of the nightmares I had told my Mum about what I had seen, with the end result being that the portal to horror – otherwise known as to the door to my brothers bedroom – was shut tight from that time onwards. At least when it came to horror movies. They had apparently forgotten about his horror novels but they certainly hadn’t slipped the notice of my keen eye. I was particularly obsessed with snatching any chance I could to sneak in and read Stephen King’s It. I had found the book on an earlier recce of the area, and the balloon and glowing yellow eyes on the front cover had been enough to capture my imagination. I must have read the blurb as well, as I had the dimmest understanding of what the story was about, and while not scared of clowns I loved the idea of one that killed people. I quickly built it up as the scariest novel ever written. Sadly, as voracious a reader as I was, Stephen King proved to be somewhat beyond me at the time. I managed maybe two pages before denouncing it as the single most disappointing novel ever published, which of course had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the thousand plus page tome was slightly too advanced for a five year old. So it was that Freddy remained my one true taste of horror for the next few years. My first break came when I managed to nag my Dad into allowing me to watch ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘The Terminator’ with him forwarding through the oddest of moments – apparently Schwarzenegger’s bare behind was a greater threat to me than the violence throughout the rest of the film. And then it happened. One day, out of the blue, when I was about ten years old, my family suddenly decided it was time to start my formal horror education. I can only assume it was because my parents figured it would be better to quench my thirst for horror while they still had some control over what I watched. Whatever the reason, they were now in league with my brother to officially acquaint me with the horror genre. He would go through his collection, pick out what he thought to be the best films for the job, and that night we would sit down and watch them – though my mother now denies ever having seen them. His very first choice? The ‘Halloween 1 + 2’ double feature release. If I wasn’t hooked before, I was now. I only remember two of the other movies that I watched during this period. The first was the remake of ‘Psycho’ which in hindsight seems an odd choice, but at the time I just watched whatever they gave me. I certainly remember liking it, which I suppose isn’t a surprise given it is a shot-for-shot recreation of a classic. The second film that I recall being shown, however, was a disappointment on a par with ‘Stephen King’s It’. It was ‘The Fog’. A movie highly thought of by many including my relatives. I still remember the day we were to watch it, the hype my brother gave it and my visiting sister saying to my Mum that “if you are going to let him watch that, you may as well let him watch anything.” The level of anticipation was tremendous. Needless to say I was less than impressed. However, much like ‘It’ had failed to dampen my desire for more horror, so did ‘The Fog’ fail to extinquish the flame that ‘Freddy’s Nightmares’ had lit and ‘Halloween’ had fanned into an all consuming passion for the genre. I was now choosing my own movies and quickly worked my way through everything from ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and ‘Friday the 13th’ to ‘The Stepfather’ and ‘Maniac Cop’. That was a very long time ago now, but in looking back at my horror history I have realised that not very much has changed in the ensuing years. I am still just as passionate about the genre and I am still just as eager to get my hands on anything that I have yet to see, and you know what? I don’t see that changing anytime soon. |
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©2009, 2008 Yank-Lime Pie. All rights reserved. |
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