Inspiring Scares (Day 5): Chris Moore (Director of PERVERSION): “House of Wax”/”Night of the Living Dead”

As we start our slasher filled weekend, we have a brand new inspiring horror tale from another independent horror filmmaker. Chris Moore, writer and director of PERVERSION, shares the films that molded him into the horror filmmaker he is today. Are you ready for a blast from the past because both of these films are sure to bring back memories for just about any horror fan.

“I was always really scared of horror movies as a kid. All I had to do was walk into a Party City around Halloween and look at the tall, cardboard standees of Freddy Krueger or walk into the horror section of a video store (remember those?) and take a look at a few of the boxes to have nightmares for weeks.

Perhaps the most influential horror films that I saw growing up would have to be House of Wax and Night of the Living Dead. I’m fairly certain that they were some of the first ones I saw. I can remember the whole thing as if it were yesterday. It was a Sunday morning and my Dad saw that House of Wax was playing on A&E. I don’t know why he brought me in the room and I don’t know why I stayed, but I did. I was transfixed.

House of Wax tells the story of a brilliant, disfigured wax sculptor (played by the always reliable Vincent Price) who begins murdering people and encasing their bodies in wax. Macabre stuff, right?

I was so proud of myself for making it through the whole movie. I think my Dad was proud of me, too. I started looking for horror movies in the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday paper.

Later on, my Dad thought I could handle George Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead. We rented it and I was doing okay until the part where the little girl murders her mother with the garden tool. Yikes! I ran out of the room screaming and refused to go back in until he turned it off. That day, I learned a very valuable lesson – just because a film is not rated, old, or in black and white doesn’t mean it can’t scare the hell out of you.

Despite that minor setback, my Dad and I would stay up late and watch just about anything USA, TNT, or TBS had to offer. I remember seeing Nightmare on Elm Street 2 & 5, Friday the 13th 7 & 8, The Fly (both versions), and all kinds of other gems.

Strangely enough, once I started watching horror films, all those terrifying nightmares that had plagued me for so long slowly but surely went away. Now, hopefully, it’s my turn to give little nuggets like myself some nightmares!”

Check out the two trailers before for Chris Moore’s Horror film PERVERSION:

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