13 years isn’t a curse to a horror fan.

I’m not one for self-celebration, which is why our 13th birthday came and went without so much as a whisper. But with us launching our latest version of Bloody Disgusting (full details here), I started to reflect back on the past and felt like vocalizing a bit.

I’m having a truly bizarre “full circle” kind of year, especially now that I’m back in Chicago. It caused a tidal wave of memories to flush over me.

First and foremost, I want to make it painfully clear that Bloody Disgusting’s mission statement has always been, and will always be, the same two things. The first is that we always appreciate our readers, because without you guys there is no Bloody Disgusting. Second, we do this for the love of the genre. I think we can all agree that we’re both here day in, day out because we would marry the horror genre if it were legal (in my case, I’d have to marry both horror and basketball, which I’m sure John Carpenter can appreciate).

Even though you guys put us on the map, and kept us as the top horror source in the world, there are a few people out there that deserve some love as well. While some sites spent their days attempting to sabotage us with fake scoops and/or sending out corporate memos dictating that the staff should “destroy Bloody Disgusting” (no joke), there were some who were kind, supportive and an absolute pleasure to work with over the years. So, a sincere and emotional “thank you” to Garth Franklin at Darkhorizons.com, Berge Garabedian at JoBlo.com, John Fallon at Arrowinthehead.com, Patrick Sauriol of Coming Attractions, among the many others who supported us when we needed it most. I love you guys.

Getting off track a bit, I passed my old college the other day. I seriously can’t believe I was 21 when Tom and myself launched the site. I remember that, at the time, we were building the site while I was working two jobs and going to school full time. I would sit in class and sneakily go on the Spawn.com forums to chat about toys, linking our site out to anyone who would pay attention. Hanging out in the AOL “chat rooms” was another great way to interact with genre fans and direct them to Bloody Disgusting to continue our conversation. It may sound like tedious work, but when you love something as much as we do, it isn’t work. If anything, Bloody Disgusting has been an extracurricular activity for most of the 13 years. While it may have transcended into a job, there’s nothing more special than having millions of horror fans to directly interact with on a daily basis (he addition of social media has only amplified this ability).

Tom and I couldn’t do it alone, though.

I really miss the simplicity of the 00’s. Because of social media, and the rise of the Web, I spend most of my day posting news stories. I miss when the glut of my day was spent hunting for and creating fresh content. Still, with indie cinema exploding, the introduction of crowd-sourcing platforms, as well as genre-themed games, comics, toys and music all being part of the horror lifestyle, there’s a lot to celebrate. And thank god for our hard working staff, because there’s no way in hell we could do this without them!

13 years. Wow. I still can’t wrap my head around it. We’re still here because of you guys. We have always tried to do right by you. Every decision we’ve made we personally have been proud of (while not everyone will like V/H/S or our BD Selects titles, we stand by them and believe them to be “quality”).

With this new site we forge towards 15 years, simplifying a chaotic glutton of news stories, and streamlining everything for mobile. Take us with you everywhere, because you’re always with us…

Bloody Disgusting. “Where Burning Flesh is the Smell of Success”