Just for fun...

[Pamela Voorhees]

What first peaked your interest in the horror genre? For me, it was watching Canadian kids shows like Hilarious House of Frightenstein and Are You Afraid of the Dark.

[J-Rod]

Scariest Places on Earth.

Zelda Rubinstein's voice still creeps me out.

[UncannyDerek]

It started off as watching it because of peer pressure.

Then I worked at a video store and gave some movies a try.

The rest is history.

[alegratis]

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge.

that is probably the first film I have memories of... That kind of explains why I'm all messed up.

[Uncle Squid]

A Nightmare On Elm Street, and Goosebumps books

[UncannyDerek]

Now that you mention it, it definitely was Goosebumps books. I also got some horror packages from Schoolastic when I was younger, teaching me about Vampires, Mummies, and Ghosts.

[Pamela Voorhees]

Ah, yes, Goosebumps. R. L. Stine books were the second thing in the horror genre to pique my interest. Then as I grew up I graduated to reading Poe, King and Lovecraft.

[Matthew T.]

I don't know exactly what it was, but I just always loved monsters and horror as far back as I can remember. My dad used to rent all the slasher films that were coming out in the early 80s, so I remember many nights sitting as a youngster in the back of our car, being completely fascinated with the VHS boxes as we drove home from the store. I wanted to know everything about Freddy and Jason, and even though I hadn't watched the films, my mind had created enough stories about them to fill up another 30 sequels, haha. The first horror film I saw was NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD '68... and the ending shocked me. I loved the zombies, but the bleak conclusion left me honestly disturbed. I was pretty young, haha. After that, I moved through the Universal monster movies (thought, at the time, DRACULA was unbelievably slow-paced, but wound up loving BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN), and then moved through the modern classics: HALLOWEEN, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, FRIDAY the 13TH, THE THING, etc.

Haven't looked back since!   

[Uncle Squid]

And these of course

[Matthew T.]

You know it!

[Pamela Voorhees]

Oh, wow! I haven't seen those books in years! Memories...

The illustrations used to scare the hell out of me when I was a kid.

[Ames]

One of my first memories of life was with the Friday the 13th series, which might explain why I never camped 'til my young 20's. I had an older brother and older male cousins who would always play horror movies during sleepovers during the winter and summer breaks. As far back as I can remember, horror has always been in my life (age 4, probably younger, as they did record teaching me how to swear at age 1-2). I quickly learned that pretending I wasn't scared proved my badassery and I could "be like the boys". Even in non-horror, I still was fascinated with villains. I always thought the Wicked Witch of the West was a wonderful “bad guy”, anticipating her next scene. From then til now, always heading straight for the horror section in a video store was the first option. My love of horror would also lead me into reading books like Goosebumps and eventually dabble in Ouija boards. The Hallowe'en series I always rented myself and for some reason is a place I always felt “at home with”.

[Uncle Squid]

I remember my one and only Ouija board. My mother made me throw it away even though it was a store bought, glow in the dark cheese fest lol. She said she had a bad experience involving her and her friends listening to the Jesus Christ Superstar Score while using a Ouija board, and the record player apparenttly blew up. Apparenttly...

[alegratis]

I had two different experiences with ouija boards and none of them were really pleasant.

[Pamela Voorhees]

I had two different experiences with ouija boards and none of them were really pleasant

Now you've piqued my interest. Care to share your stories?