Fred Burdsall
Fred Burdsall is an amusement park junkie living with his better half, Allison, and their 4 cats. You can find him in the Center City Borders looking for Doctor Who and zombie books.
Fred's Posts
Fred Burdsall | FanFare Guests
My first glimpse into the world of European horror was, as usual, my mother’s fault. I came in after playing baseball and she told me “Put on 17.” I did, and was treated to the last 10 minutes of The Deep Red Hatchet Murders (Profondo Rosso). I had no idea what I was watching, but I liked what I saw and made a mental note of the title and director. Now, I am not a big fan of change, so I may have been the last guy in the city to get a VCR, but once I did it was not long before I remembered that little snippet from Deep Red. Unfortunately, it was not on the shelf, but Suspiria was—and things would never be the same for me.
Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) is an American Ballet student coming to Freiburg, Germany, to study at the famed Tanz Academy. Her arrival is met with a terrified girl at the door yelling something to someone inside before she runs off. Suzy is refused entrance and goes into town to stay the night. The frightened girl, Pat (Eva Axén), goes to a friend’s where she is stabbed brutally several times before being hung when she crashes through a stained glass ceiling. Falling glass and metal also kill her friend.
Fred Burdsall | FanFare Guests
I told you about The Brainiac and The Deadly Mantis from my childhood. Now, I’ll tell you about my favorite movie. The one movie that started my absolute love of horror and sci-fi… The Ridley Scott masterpiece… Alien.
By the time I finally got around to seeing it at the movies it was already on its last legs and playing down the street for a dollar. (Does anyone else remember the days of neighborhood theaters?) My friend Brian asked me if I had seen it yet and when I said no he told me, “I’ll meet you there because you HAVE to see this.” (A personal pet peeve is people telling me what I have to see, because it usually sucks). So with my dollar in hand I went in and was told I should sit in the front row of a fairly empty theater, but he refused to tell me why. This turned out to be the best dollar I EVER spent.
Fred Burdsall | FanFare Guests
What makes you a fan?
Whatever your interests, there’s always something specific that gets your attention and won’t let go.
For me, it was movies—horror movies—and the scarier the better. I liked that nervous feeling we all get when something makes us uncomfortable. I liked sitting there and wondering if this is the one that finally makes me turn my head away. To me, it’s the greatest feeling in the world and I owe it all to four specific films.
My mother loves watching horror movies, so it was early on in life I got introduced to Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, the Wolf Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Soon after I discovered the joys of Corman, Price and Poe, but in the midst of all that there were two that grabbed me like no other.
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