Chris Gore, Founder/Owner of FilmThreat/Author/Filmmaker: I’ve got one
more? See now this is like a Sophie's Choice of Horror. You've put me in this position.
Film Courage: Chris, why do you love Halloween?
Chris: Oh my God! First of all Halloween is the best holiday of the year. It involves
no relatives, it is the stress-free holiday. I generally get my decorations on in September.
Party City's has always got the costumes out in August. There's no competition. Halloween is
the best holiday because it's such low stress. In addition it is an excuse to revisit every
horror film that you love and it's also when the studios say Hey, have we got some horror films we
should release them in October but now it's like I feel like that calendar has been pushed into
September. For me it's more than a month-long celebration so I love Halloween. I don't dress
up as much as I used to dress up but the holiday is great because it's sort of top of
mind for everybody of like oh yeah that's I'm going to go see the new whatever horror film
but yeah absolutely my favorite personal holiday. Film Courage: What was your costume of choice?
Chis: Oh man let's see I once dressed as Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi in high school
that was in my senior year in my junior year I dressed as Alex from Clockwork Orange.
I literally had the white jock strap on the outside the Jack Boots, the bowler hat,
the single eyelash and eyeball on my shirt collar my anyways or on the on the anyways
it was a very accurate costume for A Clockwork Orange and no one knew who I was. Not one single
person in my high school knew who I was and there were a couple teachers that looked at me and said
“How do you even know that movie?” So yeah…
More recently I dressed as like Logan from Logan's Run but I was Logan after he went to the New
You [Shop] I just think that Halloween is not just an opportunity to enjoy parties, it's stress-free
because it doesn't involve family or travel. Family and travel can be stressful during certain
holidays and it's just non-stop parties and then it's also enjoying horror movies and getting to
dress up like an adult without judgment and and so what's not to love about Halloween you even theme
parks make it a month-long celebration everything from Universal Horror Nights not scary farm
Disneyland even does their their own Halloween events so I love Halloween you're not ever
going to convince me and plus I I it's I'll always discover new horror films I haven't seen during
Halloween what are your top five go-to horror films oh wow well first off Night of the Living
Dead the Original 1968 George Romero is absolutely one of my favorites frightened me beyond belief
that one John Carpenter's The Thing horrific I saw that when I was a teenager and it was the
last time I ever remember sleeping with the light on because I was so terrified
the original Halloween the very first Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis blew my mind
I would say Alien 1979 Ridley Scott original Alien is a horror film that I mean yes people sort of
put that in the science fiction category but it that's a horror film that holds up to today and
I got one more choice I got one more
see now this is like a Sophie's choice of Horror you've put me in this position
I'm going to say Poultrygeist: [Night of the Chicken Dead] because I love Lloyd Kaufman
it's weird it's more of a horror comedy and it's it's about fast food
and then honorable mention to Evil Dead 2 and Bruce Campbell in that movie
see I got six out of it which Halloween movies do you watch every year Night of
Living Dead I'll watch at least once a year I used to own so Night of the Living Dead I would
watch not just once a year I used to when I was a kid I had a Super 8 sound projector
I had a full print of Night of the Living Dead okay and it was the way I found out like because
I'd only ever seen Night of the Living Dead on some Chiller theater or late night horror host
so I'd seen it then I didn't realize the movie was cut when I finally got the Super 8 version
all the kids in in the neighborhood where I grew up in Royal Oak, Michigan we'd put a sheet on
the side of the garage and we'd get popcorn and I would project Night of the Living Dead full
unedited there's like full frontal nudity in that movie there's gory stuff with guts and intestines
I mean it's a graphic movie that George Romero really made for the drive-in but at the time
when I was a kid didn't realize probably probably an R-rated movie and only got to see it because I
had a Super 8 projector and with money I saved for my paper route got the complete feature
but yeah that's one that I like to watch every year is Night of the Living Dead it's just it's
just it's so inspiring because it's such a simple story it's low budget and most of the action I
mean everybody says the zombies are the villains in that movie I think the zombies are a catalyst
for all the tensions between the people that are in the bordered up house that's where the real
conflict lies and that's I think the Brilliance of George Romero was to focus on that aspect so
that's that's a Halloween movie I watch every year of course Halloween without watching Halloween
it's just it just doesn't feel like Halloween the John Carpenter original with Jamie Lee Curtis is
just I mean just the sound of that score right you just hear that score and it's fantastic
so yeah those are those are those are ones that I revisit
can you recommend any independent films that are Halloween based
indie horror films yeah the very first Evil Dead which I think when you watch that film what I love
about watching that movie is just what little resources Sam Raimi had to make the first Evil
Dead film he used like stop-motion animation a lot of other techniques one of my favorite
techniques that he used and he used this not just for the first evil dead but the second one as well
he called it a shaky cam and it's sort of a it's what he what he did was he would take a camera he
would mount it on a two by four and run with it or ride a bicycle and it's sort of a the shaky
cam is a low budget version of a Steadicam he literally just took a camera put it in the center
of the board right so it's weighted it's in the center you have like a seesaw the center of the
Seesaw is the camera and when you run with it it gives it a smooth look so Sam Raimi used
that for at least the early Evil Dead films I'm not sure if he used it in Evil Dead 3 but they
would call it the shaky camera and I just love that that it's like well we've got no money we
can't afford to rent a Steadicam but we're going to just create one and they used a two by four
as a kid what was your favorite Halloween candy that you would always go back to that house every
year oh well it's going to be a tie for me it's malted milk balls because I love the taste of
malted milk and Raisinets. Raisinets because it's kind of the healthy candy it's got chocolates but
then recently I just found out there's tons of sugar in raisins and I was very disappointed to
learn this but I'm still I'm a Raisinets, popcorn and soda guy at the movies because of that.