Category Archives: Ramblings

How I Found Horror

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I’ve been doing some horror movie articles and reviews on my blog, and while I don’t do them as often as I’d like to (too many other projects to work on) I want to continue the process, and attempt to regulate it so that there’s some consistency to when I post them. That got me thinking about why I write them, how I discovered horror movies in the first place, and where and when I was exposed to some of my favorites.

Before setting a plan to post these articles I wanted to go back to the beginning, remember where it started, and how my obsession with horror grew. I wanted to know how and why I became a horror writer.

Exploring the past is difficult. Memories are faded, distorted, untrustworthy. But some clear pictures can be retrieved.

The first horror movie I ever saw was The Amityville Horror on TV when I was no older than 8 or so. There was one scene in particular that frightened me—the part when there are eyes staring in the window from outside in the darkness. I’ll always remember that first feeling of dread seeing that scene as a child. After that I saw The Exorcist. From then on, I was hooked.

Every time my parents took me to the grocery store they’d let me rent a movie (This was back when supermarkets still had video rental sections). I’d go for whatever had a cool picture or a horrible title. I had no idea which movies were good and which weren’t. I’d only seen the two, so I was dosed with random movies on a weekly basis. Some of the first movies I can remember renting were Dead Alive, The Ice Cream Man, The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, Psycho Cop, Night of the Comet, Night of the Living Dead, The Fly, The Fly 2, The Gate, and many more.

None of those movies frightened me. I laughed through most of Evil Dead.

The only movie that scared me other than that one scene in The Amityville Horror was Fire in the Sky. I know it’s not technically a horror movie, but nothing before or since has ever actually scared me in a horror movie. When I saw that as a kid I slept with the lights and TV on for almost two weeks. Monsters, demons, killers; none of that bothered me. But aliens scared the hell out of me.

My love of horror led me to discover a book I’m sure most are familiar with. ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ by Alvin Schwartz. The artwork on the cover was what drew me to it. I read all three of those books with great enjoyment. And I even read them to my own kid as bedtime stories (Horror runs in my family—4 generations now). That led me to reading more horror, which ultimately brought me to the realization that I wanted to write things I hoped would be terrifying.

Feel free to comment. I’d love to hear what horror movies have scared you the most!

 

Happy Halloween! Part 2

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Halloween 2017 was amazing! Had just enough candy, made some awesome Halloween themed treats, and the outdoor display was a real success!

Here are some of the treats we enjoyed this year.

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But the real highlight of the snack table was the glass skull drink dispenser. We used dry ice to create the smoke effect pouring out from the top.

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Here are some photos of the display in front of the house. People were stopping and taking pictures all evening!

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I’ve got some much better photos coming in from a photographer, which I’ll be posting soon. Follow my blog for all things Halloween and horror!

You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter

Thanks for reading!

∼ Lee A. Forman

Happy Halloween! Part 1

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Happy Halloween everyone!

It’s my favorite time of year, my most loved holiday. And I just happen to live in the perfect neighborhood to let my obsession go wild. Last year I got around 1,500 trick or treaters at my door. Having grown up here, it’s the neighborhood I went to for hunting candy throughout my childhood. I even took my own child here every year. Everyone in town comes to this neighborhood, and some even from neighboring towns with less dense residential areas. It’s the go-to spot in town for Halloween.

Thanks to a good friend, I had enough stuff to make a pretty good display not only outside, but in the house as well. Below is most of the Halloween decorations before unpacking them. (But this wasn’t all of it).

 

I also made some of my own decorations this year. I wanted to get creative, see what I could do. I wanted to make a graveyard and realized it would be a bit expensive to buy a bunch of those foam gravestones from a store. So I made a whole bunch for under $30.

I engraved the lettering and cracks with the tip of the handle of various sizes of paint brushes. Then, painted the whole thing with gray latex paint. I filled in the details with black acrylic paint, and finally gave it the worn and tarnished look using a damp sponge and black acrylic paint.

I also made some skeletons and eyeballs in glass jars. I got the skeletons from a garland Halloween decoration, glued their heads to the back of the jar so they wouldn’t move around, and used mixtures of fake blood, food coloring, and water to fill them with.

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My new kitten, Ting Ting had a little too much fun getting into everything she could.

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This little guy in a wheelchair will end up on the front porch for sure.

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Here are a few shots of the indoor decorations.

Considering how many people trick or treat here I had to buy a hell of a lot of candy!

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Follow my blog to get an update on my next post, which will include photos of the outdoor display I’ve set up as well as the Halloween themed foods and drinks I’ve prepared for the best holiday there is!

Halloween 2017

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It’s that time of year when the full moon is most beautiful, and the trees dance in a cool autumn breeze, dressed in tones of coming winter. Darkness falls and zombies rise from their graves. Ghouls and ghosts roam the streets. Fear molds the imagination into an embrace of humanity’s love of being afraid.

Also, candy. People love candy.

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. Ever since I was G.I. Joe back in the 80s (that’s the first costume I can remember wearing), I’ve adored the night of mischievous fun. It spawned my love for horror movies, which later grew into literature and all things one might call horrid and repulsive.

By a stroke of luck I ended up living back in the neighborhood I grew up in. In this area, it’s the hotspot for trick or treating every year. People travel from nearby towns just to come to this particular collection of streets. One is lined with huge Victorian homes. There’s even a funeral home that gives out candy. As kids we used to joke that they made the candy out of the cadavers.

Last year I got over 1,500 kids at my door. That’s a lot of candy to give out! But it makes the elaborate decorating outside of my house worthwhile. Last year the house across the street had a bit better display. But unless they worked some magic and had the determination of a 3rd generation horror fanatic I’m going to blow them out of the water this year.

And I have even bigger plans for next year! That will top the best house in the neighborhood. And because I grew up here, took my own child trick or treating here every year, I know exactly which house that is and how good their display is.

But enough maniacal babble about my Halloween pride.

Or maybe… More of it…

This year I decided to make some of my own decorations. I made my own tombstones because I want to turn the entire front yard into a cemetery. The ones you can buy at the store would add up to quite a bit compared to the number I can make for the cost of materials. I just bought some cheap foam from the hardware store, gray latex paint, and black acrylic paint.

And turned this, into this…

I cut the foam with a hobby knife and wrote the inscription in permanent marker. Then I used the tip of a paintbrush handle and a pen to engrave the words, cracks in the stone, and the skull on the bottom. After that I painted the whole thing in gray latex outdoor paint. After letting the paint dry, I used black acrylic paint to fill in the engraved letters and designs. I then used a slightly wet kitchen sponge with black acrylic paint to add the grainy look and darken areas around the edges and engraving.

To place the gravestones in the ground I’m using some one foot yard stakes I bought at a hardware store (and since I’m being Dracula for Halloween I may want to stay away from them). I hammered the stakes in the ground and used duct tape to attack the foam gravestone.

It took some time to do all of this, and I plan to make as many as I can. But it’s a great solution if you want to turn your front yard into a cemetery on a budget!

 

This idea I came up with out of nowhere. And all from stuff I already had around the house. Didn’t have to buy a thing to make these ‘Jars of Oddities’.

 

For the red one on the left I used some plastic cement to glue the back of the skeleton’s head to the inside of the jar to keep him from floating. I filled the jar with a mixture of water and a little fake blood. I painted the lid with matte black spray paint.

The one in the middle I used eyeballs I got at a dollar store, some food coloring, and water.

For the one on the right, I followed the same steps as the first one, but put only fake blood in without any water.

The skeletons were from a skeleton garland. But I had to take their legs off for them to fit. But a torso in a jar is cool so it works!

I’m going to be making all sorts of Halloween themed foods as well! Including a graveyard cake, Jim Jones punch, jello brains, and lotion for the basket (vanilla pudding).

Thank you for reading!

Follow my blog to get an update on the next Halloween post!

Halloween is Coming…

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Happy Halloween!

If you’re a fan of horror, then you probably love this holiday as much as I do (well maybe not because I’m slightly fanatical. Each Halloween has become a bit of a competition with a house across the street). But the amount of gushing you do for the unholiest of celebrations matters not. If you love Halloween, I love you. Well, maybe not. But I probably like you at least.

The unboxing of the Halloween decorations has begun…

It’s no easy task. I have to use an a hand truck and make about 6 trips from the basement door at the back of the house to the front door. Sometimes I wonder if I have too many decorations. But then I realize there’s no such thing, and I even have a list of things I’d like to add to the collection this year. (Summer yard sales are the best for getting lots of stuff real cheap, by the way).

Halloween is especially fun where I live. I counted last year and had over 1,500 trick-or-treaters at my door. No, I’m not joking. There really were that many. The neighborhood I live in has been the trick-or-treat ‘place to go’ even since I was a kid. People come from all the nearby smaller towns just to come to this neighborhood. So it adds up to a lot of freaking people.

So I really love to get scary, deck out the house as much as possible, and make at least one child cry with my costume. (I swear I don’t do it on purpose, but still consider it an achievement.)

Follow my blog for more updates on Halloween madness!

A Writer’s Bucket List

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I was inspired by a few authors who recently wrote bucket lists for what they want to achieve as writers. I enjoyed reading about their goals and aspirations, many of which matched my own. So I decided to jump on the bandwagon and do one myself.

  1. Publish my first novel

I’ve had a lot of work published since I decided to take writing seriously. But it’s all been short fiction. I have a novel which is so close to being finished it often surprises me how far I’ve gotten. But I always felt like it was taking too long to complete. The possibility that I might never finish it plagued my thoughts daily. And to make this fit my bucket list even more, I was literally afraid that I would die before it ever saw the light of day. But with it being so close to completion, I feel like I might just live to see it happen!

2. Have a table at a horror or book convention

This comes second, as I need to actually have something to sell at my table. I see authors selling their books at conventions, their table set up nicely with posters and themes that go with their book. I’d imagine myself in that situation, dream of doing that very thing for my own book. I kind of romanticized it in a way. The prospect of doing that for myself seems invigorating and even if I didn’t sell too many books, I’d go home happy just for having been there.

3. Write something amazing

I’m a horror writer. It’s what I’m best at. I’ve been obsessed with the genre for as long as I can remember. And I love writing it. But I hope to produce something that somehow transcends the creatures and gore. And while many of my stories do have a message or serious element behind the story, I want to write something where that aspect stands out and the piece is recognized for that quality.

4. Create a successful writing blog

Yes, I have a website, and I do write a blog post every now and then. My most successful ones are mostly about horror movies and other things about the genre in general. But I’d love to start creating posts about writing, offering tips and advice for new writers. I suppose I worry that I’m not qualified to give advice to new writers. What do I know? I’m not some hot-shot success story. But as I’ve traveled the path of a writer, I’ve come a long way and learned quite a bit. Maybe someday I’ll build the confidence to start giving advice to others.

5. Write an autobiography

I’d love to write about the journey that led me to where I am. The path I’ve followed in life has been arduous to say the least. It’s been full of tragedy and hardship. But I don’t complain. It’s brought me here, typing these very words you’re reading. And I wouldn’t trade that for anything. The difficult life I’ve lived more than likely adds a quality to my work that probably wouldn’t be there otherwise. So I’m thankful for the good experiences as well as the bad.

6. Write a book about my family history

I’m a descendant of survivors of the Armenian Genocide. My family history is appalling and tragic, and would make a damn interesting story. I’ve been gathering information about it for years, putting all in a file in the hopes that I’ll eventually get around to putting it together. It’s amazing that I’m even here after the events of the Genocide, considering my ancestors survived by a fine thread.

7. Have a novel in my local library

Doesn’t seem like a huge deal, and it’s probably not. But my love for reading was born in my local library, taking out three books at a time and plowing through them like there was no tomorrow. I’d love to have something of my own on their shelves. I want to be one of the names on the spine of one of those many books. To contribute to the huge number of titles for readers to discover.

9. Write Poetry

I recently had my first piece of poetry published. I’d never written a good poem before, and certainly never tried to have any published. But I was so satisfied with the results, it made me want to write more, and try to get them out into the world.

I guess that’s all for now. Who knows what the future will add or take away from this list. Only the words I produce will tell. I hope you enjoyed this little trip into my mind. If so, please like this post and follow my blog! It’s greatly appreciated!

 

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The Ironic Fear of a Horror Writer

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The Ironic Fear of a Horror Writer

by Lee A. Forman

As a writer of horror, I often create disturbing material and describe it in great detail. I come up with some pretty abnormal things sometimes, and my Google search history is not so savory… This is something all of us who’ve taken the journey into this genre have in common. But there are ironies in being a horror writer. Things that just don’t add up.

For me, it’s clowns.

Yes, clowns.

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Movies and books are fine. Killer Clowns from Outer Space is a movie I enjoy. I love Pennywise the Clown. And my favorite zombie in Zombieland is the clown at the end.

But real clowns? Get them the hell away from me. No offense to those who’ve worked hard to graduate from clown college (yes, that’s a real thing, you have to go to college to be a clown), but the mere sight of one chills me to the bone. Every time I took my kid to the circus, I made sure to stay far away from them. County fairs? Nope, I look the other way and walk quickly by before they try to make some kind of balloon animal for me that will haunt my dreams forever. I’m terrified of them. And I have no idea why.

What ironic thing frightens you as a writer? Feel free to leave a comment below! I’d love to see what fears other writers of the genre contend with!

Birdemic: Shock and Terror

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This week I watched Birdemic: Shock and Terror. I’m not really sure what to say about it. It’s either intentionally the worst movie ever made, or… I don’t know. I just don’t know. Most of the movie just follows the main character’s boring life. He eats breakfast. He leaves the house for work. He stops for gas. He gets stuck in traffic. He spends his day at work. And it goes on and on like that for quite some time, showing every little thing he does throughout his day.

Then, suddenly, birds! Birds in the sky, dive bombing gas stations with airplane sound effects and explosions. Airplane sound effects? Yes, that’s right. The movie just gets worse from there.

Why are birds dive bombing gas stations like airplanes and exploding on impact? That’s explained by some guy standing on a random bridge who goes on a ten minute rant about global warming. This happens again later in the movie when they meet some guy who lives in a tree house. He goes on a rant about how global warming is killing the forests and he lives there to protect the trees.

The whole movie seems like a failed attempt at sending a message about global warming. I don’t know what else to say about it, other than the fact that Birdemic: Shock and Terror has the worst special effects in history. Plan 9 From Outer Space is a work of art in comparison.

In the Mouth of Madness

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In the 1994 film, “In the Mouth of Madness,” directed by John Carpenter, there is one scene that I’ve never stopped thinking about. If you haven’t seen the movie, go watch it, then finish reading this.

The scene I’m talking about is when Sam Neil and Julie Carmen are in the car together, on their way to Hobbs End. She’s sleeping in the passenger seat. He opens the glove box, takes out a horn, and honks it in her ear to wake her up. Anything seem odd about that?

After seeing the movie a number of times I said to myself, why the hell does he have a horn in his car? Who carries around a horn in the glove box?

This scene confirms and reveals the true nature of what’s going on in the story in such a subtle way that you don’t notice it until you think about it.

The only explanation for why he had a horn in his car is that Sutter Cane wrote it that way.