The Corpse Collective » Horror Origin Story

Horror Origin Story – Darien from Reno

Mike Cadaver March 13, 2015 0 comments

My name is Darien, i’m 36 years old and live in Reno NV. What I do for a living is rather complicated and to be honest the boss doesn’t like me talking about it (its kind of a high risk thing). My favorite horror film of all time is the original George Romero classic Night of the Living Dead (although the 1992 Tom Savini version wasn’t bad either). Other notable horror influences include the works of Stephen King, Joe Hill, Clive Barker and Chuck Palahniuk. My favorite horror musical groups are the Insane Clown Posse (yes, I’m one of THOSE people), DieMonster and Blitzkid. I also have my own podcast, The Padded Room (paddedroom.podbean.com), where my co hosts and I discuss all things horror and make a lot of fart jokes and cock and ball humor.

How I came to sell my soul to the horror gods has more to do with my father than anything else. I didn’t grow up religious, but he sure did. Being a teenager in the late 50’s early 60’s he was right square in the middle of the drive in movie, creature feature craze. Unfortunately for him, he’d have to forgo that experience, as his parents (my grandparents) saw the films as blasphemous and hedonistic. He recounted to me on various occasions the jealousy of listening to his friends describe these cinematic thrill rides on a Monday morning, knowing that he would probably never get to experience.

Fast forward about 20 years or so and my family becomes the first family in our neighborhood to own a VCR. Now, like most people my age, I grew up in a house with one TV and one VCR, and there was no mystery as to what it was we where going to be watching. The old man ran the show with an iron fist and if we didn’t like what he was watching we should find something else to do. Anyone wanna guess what dads film genre of choice was. . . . . ?

You got it! Horror movies! He had a lot of catching up to do and he wasn’t going to waste any time. We quickly became regulars at our local Warehouse Records and Tapes (which also rented movies), and he powered his way through the entire “horror section” in no time. Starting first with the old black and white stuff, which didn’t really bother me, and making his way up to the slashers of the 80’s, which scared the living crap out of me. At first they where nightmare inducing, but as time went on I realized that there was a direct correlation between bloody slasher horror films and female nudity. I simply wasn’t going to get anywhere near the nipple count with my moms Woody Allen, Alan Alda romantic comedies as I would with my dads forays to Camp Crystal Lake.

Later on as I got older the old man and I kind of grew apart, as is the case with most teenagers I suppose. But, horror films where always the one thing that we had that we could put our differences aside for. No matter what the fight was over or how much I hated him for whatever bullshit was going on around the house or in my own head. We could always put our differences aside for a few hours on s Sunday afternoon and go check out the latest offering from John Carpenter or Wes Craven. Unfortunately my father passed away in 2009, after a long and hard fought battle with various cancers and heart disease. The last film he and I where able to see together in the theaters (before he began to lose his faculties) was the first installment of Paranormal Activity.

Every now and then on a lazy Sunday afternoon, when my wife and son are out of the house I’ll bust out the PA boxed set and throw the original in the BluRay player with fondness and reverence.

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