That was my first scary film and I went, in that moment, from having absolutely no experience at watching scary movies to having the bejaysus scared out of me – and I liked it! Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Of course my father knew none of this when he picked it off a shelf, he just saw a cartoon about unicorns and thought bingo, instant afternoon filler! He probably wondered what all the wet beds were about for a fortnight after. It was the first time I remember a film scaring me silly as The Last Unicorn is a very dark film, full of demons and skeletons and evil kings and absolutely not for children.

To say we were traumatised after watching it would be an understatement my sister and myself still talk about it today. My dad rented a film for my sister and I called The Last Unicorn (if you are unfamiliar with this film then count your blessings). This all changed one wet Saturday afternoon when I was about six or seven years old. Of course none of these ever made it off the shelf and into my hand, and I spent many a Friday evening wondering why my parent’s put considerable effort into making me more familiar with Fievel than with Chucky. On Friday evenings (Fridays were the film night in my household) I would walk with my Dad down to the video store and while he would always try steer me around to the kid friendly movies, I would inevitably end up in the horror section eyeing up the sleeves for films like Leviathan, Fright Night, Critters, Child’s Play, The Amityville Horror etc.

To a budding film enthusiast their complete absence from my growing viewing inventory only stoked my curiosity to find out what was so special about these movies. When I was growing up I was not allowed watch horror films.

Dracula ford coppola