Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet
the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.
In this installment, League of Tana Tea Drinkers’ member Casey Criswell of Cinema Fromage shares his nerd love for cheesy horror. Bring the crackers.
Horror wasn’t the driving force to my movie watching ways back in the day, but it was definitely a factor. I watched movies, period, and was happy to do so. When the VCR became an affordable venture and mom and pop video stores started to run rental deals to lure you away from the new chain stores cropping up, this led to countless hours spent wandering the stacks and being overcome by the wonderment of the
gruesome scenes depicted in ink upon the old cardboard canvases that was the VHS box. More than anything, it was the artwork that lured me in every time. They say never judge a book by its cover but that is what I did. If the cover looked amazing, I had to see the movie.
My mother wasn’t a horror aficionado by any means and dad tried to be when he could, but one thing they were fans of was keeping an open mind and letting their young son explore and to let him have a healthy imagination.
One of my earliest memories of horror was a night spent upon the floor of our living room, buried under a pile of stuffed animals. Occasionally working up the nerve to peak out through the cracks, I took in my first viewing of “Poltergeist” in spurts at the young age of around ten. Though I didn’t sleep much for the following week for my near obsessive recollection of that film, the one thing
that remained was the thrill and excitement of such a scare and over time, it grew addictive.
Dad was the true fan of fantasy and horror and with that comes my own fascination. Early memories tell the tales of he and I watching countless gore fests on weekends and taking in dusk till dawn “Friday the 13th” marathons at the local drive in. With nothing but fond memories of togetherness and fun, my love of the genre grew. Early on, horror movies meant hanging out with Dad. Over the years, this grew into hanging out with friends as the addition of said friends had similar tastes. The early days of excitement and news hunting began with Saturday nights spent pouring over “Fangoria”
magazines in a friends basement, “Return of the Living Dead” playing on the TV, both of us wondering from time to time if that was just the water heater or was it, in fact, something else.
When the time came for me to decide to actually be a writer as opposed to talking about wanting to be one, I was faced with the one most important question such a person faces; what do I write about. Time and again I had read that it is best to write what you know. I
took a catalog of what I knew at the time and what I thought people would care to read about. I still felt excitement at the mention of horror movies, the cheesier the better. I still loved sitting with old friends and talking about said movies as well. Though I wasn’t an expert by any means, I knew what I liked and Cinema Fromage was born.
Not meant to be a expert’s view, not meant to be scholarly or overly serious. Cinema Fromage is dedicated to one nerd’s love of bad cinema and the hopes of pointing out that no matter how bad any particular movie is, there is always something there to enjoy.