What motivates us, those of us now firmly in middle age and some of us even getting those come-on letters from the AARP, to keep up an interest in horror and monster films made, in many cases, over a half a century ago? The fact that serious study of them brings to light information that makes at least some of these films more "worthy" of study? Or just fun…a fun that for many of us seems as eternal as the Frankenstein Monster?

For us here at HORROR-WOOD, it’s just plain fun.

Back in the "good old days," the late Fifties and early to mid-Sixties, the classic horror films that flickered so menacingly on our (largely) black-and-white TV screens were fun. Scary fun, but fun. Certainly, there was the age-old element of the younger generation happily engaging in something that parents and teachers in general didn’t approve of, but mostly we just had lots of fun watching the fright flicks when they showed up on TV (if there was a Horror Host to emcee, it was even better), building Aurora monster models, swapping Monster Card with those corny jokes and cool creature pictures on them, and perhaps even playing Ideal’s Haunted House and Monster Lab games with our friends.

As we grew up, many of us retained our interest, at least partially, with these fright films of yore, although it probably wasn’t until the videotape and later DVD boom that we were able to watch many of those films again and relive some of the harmless and innocent fun of our youth. We maintain that this fun is why most folks go to the Monster Bash and other horror conventions, buy all those scary films on video and DVD, and read print and on-line magazines like Scary Monsters and, of course, our little webzine.

However, some years ago, we became aware of folks who take all this very, very seriously, indeed. They either do serious scholarship on the classic horror films or research the genre for their own satisfaction, they discuss (and cuss) the genre on Message Boards and public forums at a few conventions…and some of them appear to be trying to convince themselves—and us—that all this interest in films about an animated corpse of many parts and a demonic fields who bites necks and a normal guy who sprouts fur and fangs with the full moon is serious stuff.

Maybe so…the classic horror and monster films are certainly worth of scholarship, and the printed works of David Skal, Tom Weaver, Mark Clark, and others are not only fine film history in their own right, but also provide fascinating information about our fave fright flicks for those of us who want to dig a bit deeper into those flicks. We salute them.

However, we’ve noticed that, over the years, a sort of clique has developed around the classic horror and monster film fandom, a clique that focuses so much on the "nuts and bolts" of the cinematic monster known as the horror film, that it seems to disdain the casual fans of those films, almost as if anyone who’s well past their youth and still has an interest in scary movies has to approach it seriously…or they’re found wanting. This clique has waged pretty nasty word wars against folks who disagree with them and sometimes seem determined to suck the fun out of classic horror film fandom more thoroughly than Dracula could suck A-positive through a lovely lady’s jugular vein.

Because of this, we have a modest proposal for all classic horror film fans, intense or casual…one that old Renfield has used himself in deciding whether to continue his own interest in vintage scare cinema: "As long as its still fun, I’m in." When it becomes some sort of obsession or an excuse to wage verbal battles or to create a "them versus us," attitude, it just ain’t fun. Simple as that.

Now, back to the fun…