My coming out party!

No, I'm not gay! Although my grandmother (God rest her soul) probably still has her doubts. But you know what, there's still time for that revelation. This time, however, I'm here to announce that I'm writing a book. Y'all already know about The Novel. This new project is called NEHF or The New European Horror Film book. I don't actually have a title for it yet but my goal is to watch and review every single European horror movie released between 2000 and 2010. Key films of the genre will get special treatment and there will be a ton of capsule reviews. I might even have a NEHF moviethon which will be documented for the book. Maybe even some interviews, who knows?

This whole idea came to life sometime in December of 2008 when it occurred to me that European horror movies were getting good again. Really, really good, actually and I wanted to explore the reasons why and most importantly: watch them all. My friend Eric, who wrote this fine book, who contributes to Doomed Moviethon, and who is an ardent fan of horror movies, has been giving me advice on putting NEHF together. He will also be writing reviews and other pieces for the book as well. So far his best pieces of advice are to keep on keepin' on, don't worry about other similar books people are doing or have done, and find your audience. Hmm, that last one might be tough. Hopefully, somebody out there will be my audience.

Where will this experience will take me? I have no idea. I've already seen some of the worst of the decade in my explorations but I've also had my mind blown and my teeth kicked in by some friggin' great films. My whole motivation is to get a handle on a decade and hopefully find the best stuff I can find. You see, I was only a tot in the 70s (horror's golden age), a kid in the 80s (horror's silver age), and then the 90s happened (i don't know, the tin age?) and so I feel like I missed out on something big. I didn't have a clue about Fulci, Argento, Jean Rollin, Jörg Buttgereit, etc. until somewhere around 2002. My biggest fear is missing out on the good stuff again. But what about American horror? Weren't there good things produced and released in the US of A? Well yeah. And what about Asian horror? I know! But those are other books, damn it. My heart says "go Euro" and so I go.

The easiest thing for folks to do is get discouraged. Access to horror movies in the last 10 years has become insanely easy thanks to cheap DVDs and the internet and there is a great deal of terrible shit out there. And that is partly why I'm doing this. I don't know if it is my upbringing or if it has something to do with all that Mountain Dew I've consumed in the last 20 years or so but I am an enthusiastic bastard. Hopefully, I can sort through all the crap, sing the praises of all the good stuff that has slipped through the cracks, and get people fired up about European horror movies.

I want to foster in others that excitement for the genre that other writers have given me. I also want to encourage distributors to keep taking chances on good foreign horror movies and get them in the theaters. In 2007, I was blessed enough to get to see Nacho Cerdà's The Abandoned on the big screen at my local Muvico and it changed everything. Hmm, maybe that's when the seed for this book was planted in my dumb brain.

So anyway, if you're out there reading this and you want to recommend some obscure Euro horror titles or just want to ridicule my endeavor, by all means, drop me a line, duders. I promise to keep all of y'all updated on the progress of NEHF and would love your imput on what you'd like to see in its pages. Happy new year and stuff.