I’m sure it’s pretty much totally obvious to everyone here but, just in case you didn’t realize this, horror is a huge and incredibly important part of my life. I love watching horror movies, I read horror novels, I study critical essays on various related topics, I listen to the scores, I play the games, etc… It’s a lifelong passion that I’ve had for as long as I can remember. I honestly can’t think of a time when I wasn’t deeply connected to the genre and all that it had to offer.

However, not all of us start that way. Some get into the genre a little later in life, finding their own way and making their own path that leads them into the dark, foggy forest that holds our favorite tales. And we welcome them with open arms, accepting them into our fold, nurturing them and educating them so that they can further venture down the rabbit hole, experiencing titles that they never would’ve heard of otherwise.

In Judaism, there is a belief that those who convert are given great leeway with their thoughts and sayings. The idea is that they could not know otherwise until they have been educated, so why berate them for making a mistake? In fact, applaud their interest and encourage their curiosity so that they feel embraced and welcomed. In a way, that’s what I want to do.

Starting this week, I will be posting a piece that explains, in my opinion, how one can start getting into horror. I will be offering titles that I believe are gateways into the genre, allowing non-horror fans the opportunity to dip their toes in safely, relatively speaking.

What I will not be doing is throwing you into the deep end. The worst thing one can do is hit you with the complex, terrifying, most intense titles that the genre has to offer. After all, what would that accomplish? Were I to do this, it would destroy the very purpose of this series.

To the Bloody-Disgusting readers, take these posts as a way to introduce your friends and family who hate horror to the genre. They may not love it as much as you do but in the end they will hopefully have a greater understanding of why you hold this passion so near and dear to your heart.

Now, let’s get started, shall we?

To begin this journey, I recommend starting on the outskirts, the films that genre fans, such as myself, don’t really regard as being part of the horror world. However, these are films that have elements, little tastes and teases, which will hopefully draw your interest, igniting that spark that has burned in us for so long.

It is because I believe this is the best way to begin that I recommend films such as The Mummy, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Van Helsing, Underworld, and the like.

These are films that are fun, they’re exciting, and the scares and tension are easily handled because they’re not meant to really be scary, just something to make you squirm for a moment before the action continues. And really, the “scares” are on par with many summer blockbuster “tension moments”. If you can stand seeing the big explosive summer films, you’ll do just fine here.

Let’s take as an example 1999’s The Mummy, with Brendan Frasier and Rachel Weisz. The film is a loose pseudo-remake of 1932 film that starred Boris Karloff, who played the title character.

This is a great start, okay? It’s got the earmarks of a horror film, such as a seemingly unstoppable villain and a “haunted housed” in the form of Hamunaptra, the city of the dead. But it’s also got likable characters, plenty of fun action, and loads of lighthearted comedy. It gives little bursts of horror but that’s not the focus, which makes it a great choice when you want someone to, as I stated before, dip their toes in.

Or how about The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen? While it’s far more in the realm of adventure, the presence of Mina Harker and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde allows for a bit of interest, a little peek into classic horror characters. Additionally, the practical FX when Jekyll transforms into Hyde, and vice versa, can be a talking point for how horror fans appreciate realism over CGI, specifically the craft of actually making something that isn’t real actually appear, well…real!

What it boils down to is that introducing someone to horror shouldn’t be about scaring the pants off of them right away. Watching someone grow to love horror is an amazing experience because we get to see that passion, the same one within us all, ignite within them.