Sam Whitaker
“Like my religion, horror often deals with the concept of Good vs Evil. Films like Hellraiser (Barker, 1987) would literally show images of creatures and worlds from my deepest darkest nightmares – worlds and creatures I thought I would experience if I embraced my true self. ”
What is your favourite genre of horror?
Probably my favourite genre of horror is teen horror. I especially love the teen horror movies from the ’90s. There’s something very satisfying about watching these caricatures of young people up against malevolent evil. I especially love how the stories - with some exceptions - follow the same rules - something 90’s teen horror movies became self-aware of. There’s nothing I love more than sitting with some popcorn and watching these films with friends and making our predictions on the order of deaths and who might be the secret killer.
What movies would you recommend in that genre?
A lot of the appeal of these films is that they’re mainstream movies with a relatively big-budget (for horror), so you will most likely already know of these films unless you’ve been living under a rock. The big ones that come to mind are Scream (1996), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), and Final Destination (2000). I would also definitely recommend some more recent twists on this subgenre with films like It Follows (2014), Fear Street (2021), and The Babysitter (2017).
What are your favourite horror movies?
This is such a difficult question so I am going to try and give you a range of horror genres to make this shortlist:
Alien (1979)
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
The Witch (2015)
Ready or Not (2019)
Halloween (1978)
What was the last horror movie that actually scared you?
I think the last horror movie that actually scared me was Gerald’s Game (2017). Like many horror fans, I don’t scare too easily watching horror these days but every now and again something creeps under my skin and makes my eyes water. Without giving too much away for those who have not read or watched Gerald’s game, the majority of the story revolves around a woman being stuck tied to a bed and as the nights roll in she thinks someone is standing watching her from the darkest part of the room. Even writing about that makes me uneasy.
What is your favourite moment from a horror movie?
One of my favourite horror movie moments is in Alien (1979) (spoilers ahead - but you should really have seen it by now!) when Ripley thinks it’s all over and she is getting ready to go into the cryo chamber. As Ripley prepares for her slumber we see the machinery of the ship all around the walls and suddenly we see movement in the background as the Xenomorph climbs out of its hiding spot. Even after the first viewing when you know the Xenomorph has been cleverly camouflaged throughout the whole scene I still have this giddy excitement for the reveal and always find myself cheering this brilliant cinematic moment.
Why is horror special for you?
Horror is special to me for many reasons but I think something that I really love about horror is how it’s often seen as this rebellious genre. Horror for me was rebellion - I talk more about this in my chapter in the book but basically, I grew up feeling like I would be in a lot of trouble if I watched horror. Something I didn’t explore in the essay is how when my dad left and it was suddenly me and my mum alone, I felt like we were both able to explore things that had previously seemed rebellious whilst my mum was married to my dad. One of the things she eventually encouraged was for me to watch horror movies with her. She used to watch classic horror movies when she was a teenager and before she met my dad. Horror was like a tiny rebellion.
What character in a horror do you relate to most and why?
I’ve never really thought about this before but whilst I have been thinking about this question I realised that when I was younger and watched The Sixth Sense (1999) I really related to Cole Sear, the young boy haunted with this ability to see dead people whilst nobody around him fully believes him. There are many similar stories in horror about young people witnessing terrible things and adults either not believing them, rejecting them or getting frustrated - sometimes they even lash out in violence because they are so annoyed with the child and their ‘stories’. I definitely related to that when I was younger.
How do your friends and family feel about your horror obsession?
Most of my friends are horror fans so they totally get it. As for my friends and work colleagues who aren’t fans of the genre, they support my work and my passion for horror but they don’t claim to understand it and would never consume anything horror related which I might recommend to them.
When did you fall head over heels in love with the horror genre?
In my chapter, I talk a lot about being scared of horror for a long time because I thought something really bad might happen to me for consuming it. I think I finally embraced horror and fell head over heels in love with the genre once I finally learnt to embrace my true self. Through the act of loving and embracing my authentic self, I became pretty fearless and then I began to embrace horror and learnt to love it for all its imperfections.
Do you have any Halloween traditions?
Growing up the only vaguely horror-related movie I was allowed to watch was Hocus Pocus (1993). I remember we had it on a blank VHS tape so my parents must have recorded it whilst it was on TV one time. Every year on or around Halloween we would watch it as a family and eat traditional northern English autumn snacks including toffee apples, Yorkshire Parkin, bonfire toffee and treacle tarts. As an adult, I have many traditions I like to practice around Halloween but I always try to fit in some time to watch Hocus Pocus. I’m also vegan and live in the south of England now so many of those traditional treats I would have as a kid are either hard to come by or not vegan so I try to make vegan versions of them for me and my southern friends to enjoy.
If you could go back in time and experience the midnight premiere of any horror movie, what would you choose?
I would choose Psycho (1960) because it must have been so shocking to audiences at the time. From that iconic shower scene; to the first-ever flushing toilet shown in a movie, to the lead actress being killed off early in the film, to that big reveal at the end. It must have been an amazing film to watch at that time.
What's the spookiest place you've ever visited?
I think the spookiest place I’ve ever visited has to be a place called RAF Upwood. RAF Upwood is an abandoned Royal Air Force station where I filmed some scenes for a horror sci-fi movie I once made. The whole place has been heavily graffitied, windows are all smashed and parts of buildings burnt down and amongst all of this visual chaos, there is deafening silence. There are even some old tanks still there which is a terrifying image in and of itself.