FORREST J. ACKERMAN
"Imagine yourself in another time. It's the late 50s-early 60s. There is no internet. There are no DVDs, no VHS or Betamax tapes. You happen to catch a late Saturday night showing of The Son of Frankenstein on the local TV station's equivalent of Creature Feature. Or perhaps you go with your family to see Whatver Happened to Baby Jane at the drive-in. You're instantly HOOKED. You LOVE horror movies. The time in between is spent avidly searching newspapers and tv guides for opportunities to see something, ANYTHING that might feed your need to be scared. You wonder if you might be a little bit odd for your desire to partake of these dark thrills...
Then, one day, at the local drug store you see a magazine with a garish painting of Vincent Price on the cover, and the huge word MONSTERS at the top. You grab it and stare feverishly at the picture. You've just seen your first issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland, edited by Forrest J Ackerman. 35 cents... for that price you could buy three comic books... But that cover! You buy it- because you HAVE to, You take it home and sequestered in your bedroom you pour through the pages. You read about some guy who was in monster movies forty years ago, before movies even had SOUND.
There are articles about your favorites, Boris & Bela. There are pictures of those new Dracula & Frankenstein movies coming over from England. There's a roundup of UPCOMING movies that makes your heart pound. And there are LETTERS. LETTERS! There are actually other people, LIKE YOU, all across the country, THAT LOVE HORROR MOVIES TOO! Holy mother- this is an unexpected revelation that opens your eyes. You're not weird for liking horror movies- in fact, you're part of a community! From that day on you buy every issue of Famous Monsters. You even write to a few names in the penpals column and make friends with other horror fans far away.
This was the influence Famous Monsters of Filmland editor Forrest J Ackerman, the "Ackermonster," had. He educated us. In a time before information was available to everyone instantly he taught us the history of horror filmmaking, from the silent days to the modern era. He informed us. FM was THE place to go for news of upcoming horror movies of all types. He didn't just tell you about the major studio offerings- low budget and no-budget films got equal billing in FM. He even told us about foreign films! He kept us connected. Through the letters to the editor and penpal columns we learned what others thought. Young readers who had letters printed included John Carpenter, George Lucas, John Landis, and Joe Dante.
And then there were the advertisements! Through his magazine you could order what was then the ONLY way to watch horror films at your leisure in your home- on 8mm film. You could also buy records of old radio shows, back issues of his magazines, life size standups of classic monsters, monster masks, and the greatest thing ever- Dick Smith's Do It Yourself Monster Make-Up Book.
FJA was, to put it simply, a visionary. He maintained the largest collection of horror and sci-fi memorabilia in the world and if you knocked on his door in "Hollyweird" he would give you a personalized guided tour through it. His influence can't be overestimated. He CREATED horror fandom. He inspired a who's who of horror writers, actors, directors and technicians. FM directly inspired other publications like Castle of Frankenstein, Fangoria, Rue Morgue and others. Without Forry it's quite possible the horror industry simply wouldn't exist as we know it today." -
NeverEnding
FRANZ KAFKA
"Horror is often used to awaken us to the dysfunctions in our society. With books like the Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby, author Ira Levin revealed that both urban and suburban America are infected, that nobody is safe and that conformity reigns triumphant. These bureaucratic nightmares reinvigorated the horror genre on the shelves during the sixties and seventies and with the help of Roman Polanski, changed it on the screen.
But, before Levin's tales of Satanic brownstone cults and cybernetic housewives, Franz Kafka reinvented paranoia and used surrealism and dread to alert readers of the perils of modern life. Gregor Samsa of Kafka's the Metamorphosis, like Levin's Stepford Wives was conformed and dehumanized, turned into a cockroach instead of a human being. Like Peter Lorre in Fritz Lang's M, Joseph K of the Trial flees persecution, though K's persecution is all the more gutwrenching because his crime is never revealed.
Though looked upon by many as an author of literary fiction, Kafka changed horror by daring to reveal things about the world that other writers only dared to hint at. His gospels of alienation and terror are still topical and inspiring to this day, his work paving the way for Cronenberg' s tales of dwindling humanity, Polanski's urban horror and Lynch's hallucinatory odysseys. Kafka once wrote "a book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us" and with his breed of horror, Kafka's work does just that." -
Doc Faustus
FRITZ LANG
GEORGE A. ROMERO
GOBLIN
