“One cannot quarrel without an opponent” -Japanese Proverb 

It has been an interesting week or two for some parts of the horror community at large. Our own site, Horrormoviefans.com has certainly seen a few high-profile members of other sites come on and talk to us about things we’ve written about in the past and perhaps things we’ve just said to our friends, most of it biased, a lot of it in the spirit of good banter and possibly decent journalism. One thing that has come from all this, is a thing I have often been interested in writing a piece on, yet never really had the right frame of mind for. That is the concept of the horror forum. Being an avid user of forums since quite a while back, I’ve always seen them as a way to give my days a bit of extra excitement, and to have an outlet for good discussions among people who have views that at least relate to my favourite topics, even if they don’t have my views. Quite frankly, I am more disappointed when people agree with me than disagree with me. However the events of the past few days have lead me to wonder just what sort of solidarity it really is that we’re talking about when we talk about a horror community and the solidarity of message boards. Do we expect any solidarity at all? Or are all horror film lovers our brothers and sisters trapped in distant places.

I should preface this whole article with the fact that I have my own preferred message board, but I am happy to see people on any forum, and that when I join a forum I am happy to discuss anything with anyone for any amount of time. I am not judging any forums on their merits or drawbacks. So what exactly do I want to discuss? First of all, I wonder what it means to join a forum and to be a member of one. To me, this signifies a commitment of nothing more than wanting to talk horror. On the forums I’ve been on, I’ve talked to 58 year old canadian guys, 16 year old girls who loved I Know What You Did Last Summer, and guys who think that Jason X is a marketing ploy for laxative. I’ve seen them all, and they all go onto horror forums because “they love horror” and want to talk about it. Every forum I’ve been to has many many topics and debates about horror, which different fans reply to in different ways. I am quite fond of the lengthy discussion about themes and creative niches within horror. Some are fond of “lol, Halloween rox lol” and that is fine as well. A forum is what its posters make of it. There seems to be a commitment to talking horror and from there to shoot the breeze about whatever tickles ones fancy. Many forums see themselves as communities which can form real friendships with the members therein, to the point where they’ll defend their fellow posters to death from outside attacks. Something we’ve all seen in our home forums, no doubt. So we have a certain will to discuss horror, and occasionally to form decent bonds with people across the world. Not all of us care for those friendships mind, but they are there to be seized if someone wants them.

My confusion is always where my meeting some cool people at one forum suddenly commits me to being a friend of everything and everyone in the genre. I love coca-cola, does that mean that anyone with an affinity for a good soft-drink is suddenly supposed to honor and respect everything I say? Because a few people have given me this impression that “We are all in this together” when it comes to horror, and I say that it is pure nonsense. It is not a commitment to form a big horror community to be a part of a message board, any message board. You can go on there and try to make friends, have a bit of a debate, and you can stay away if that is how you feel. If they don’t like you, all you can do is quit and go elsewhere. Someone out there will love you, I guarantee it. I say this because one of our most respected voices in horror, Mr. Disgusting has recently come to the place I post the most and talked about the need to build up horror movie fan solidarity and that we should all respect eachother for the love of the genre. I actually do respect Mr. Disgusting, and I respect any horror fan (or any human being) as my default setting. It takes a lot for me to actually think of someone as dirt. But I just don’t see why we are supposed to build up some sort of solidarity, why we owe every person who likes horror a spot in paradise. What is it that makes horror fans so much more ‘united’ than say comic-book fans? I say nothing. I see no reason for everyone who loves horror to be my buddy, because quite frankly there are some real assholes out there who just happen to share my enjoyment of Uwe Boll films. I don’t owe them any devotion or admiration, and they don’t owe me any. This myth of the love of horror fans for horror somehow creating a tangible bond between every horror fan is as false as it is absurd. What has this lead to? Nothing good, I say. That is not to discredit forums, they have their place in our lives.

For a start, I think that it’s good for people to be involved in forums for their own education and benefit. All rational debate is good rational debate, even against the most blatantly false opinions. Our truths, even those we hold the most dear and which we assume are self-evident, are kept from becoming stale dogma when we force them to meet with challenged conceptions. My love of Jason X is only affirmed by people constantly pointing out its flaws and short-comings, so that I can either try and incorporate such shortcomings into a valid opinion of my own, or by proving that such things are not flaws, they are strokes of pure genius. It is that rather age-old idea that I can learn as much from that which is false as that which is the truth. It’s what forums are really good for, spreading around your ideas and having them enhanced by meeting with people of similar and different opinions. It’s the beauty of forums. The forums lose a lot of their purpose when rational debate ceases in either direction, if we’re honest. I’ve found that if you become overly friend-driven and loving, you stop arguing and contesting eachothers opinions and thus start to lend yourself to accepting certain facts as pure dogmatic fact, with no real shimmer of truth. When you go in the other direction, and get a group-mob style hatred of adverse opinions debate ceases as well. At that point an assumption of infallibility creeps into the forums and no good debate can be started. Such has been my recent experience.

In all of that process, however, there is no commitment to being loving friends who agree not to dissent because we have an over-arching love of horror. I think there should be a healthy amount of respect and that debate is a good thing even among enemies. However I don’t see why I’m committed to not asking questions or posing problems because I like the same films as some other guys. I also don’t feel that I have to try and find my soulmate online at forums left and right. Hell, I don’t even feel like because I’m a part of a horror forum that suddenly entitles me to some golden pass to talk badly about anyone, nor do I think that everyone should agree with me. As I said from the start, I like it more when good rational debate can take me further. Even better if others can become more knowledgable alongside me.

It’s perplexing, to say the least, to hear people talking about how we need to all have this massive amount of mutual respect which extends to not questioning or inquiring about things, on both sides. I don’t see what respect comes with a silencing order. Someone quoted the brilliant song ‘R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me’ to me, saying that some of my remarks and inquiries had been disrespectful. I respectfully disagree, I think that raising issues and discussing things on forums is the sign of intellect. Trying to keep things off the table and avoiding public scrutiny is the language of cowardice. At what point I’ve signed up to a journey of mutual love and affection because I bought the special edition of Hellraiser is a total mystery to me.

I suppose it may sound like my editorial this time around amounts to me saying ‘talk more, love less’ but quite frankly I’m sick of being told I should love my fellow horror fan because he has a few of the same films as I do. If he’s a nice man, I’ll happily break bread with him. If he’s being a dick, I’ll break my foot up his ass. If he’s in the wrong, I don’t feel I should avoid telling him that. What kind of forums are we building if we all need to agree, and we all need to be in it together. What happened to good old-fashioned going it alone and trying to stand out? Or indeed, of just trying to have a good argument with people. I am not saying rudeness is good, it isn’t. But I am saying that enforced placation, and a muting of debate in favour of some solidarity nobody really wants is not the answer.

We all joined forums to talk horror, and above all to talk. I hope that everyone treats the people who ask questions well, but I hope that treating them well does not mean you can’t discuss things. I also hope that nobody joins any forum thinking they owe every horror fan their allegiance and their love. Let each person decide for himself who is to his liking, and who is not, and then let them try and talk to people about the subjects they feel they should, and happily bow out of the ones they feel they shouldn’t. We can have good civil discourse without creating bonds of everlasting friendship with every guy who owns a horror film. We really can.

 I end this editorial with the encouragement that you all find the place you feel most at home in, and cultivate your horror knowledge there, but let nobody ever tell you that you must be friends with all of us, because believe me, some of us are assholes. Find your friends, and treat the rest with the respect you feel they deserve. That is what makes forums worthwhile, that is all that horror forums can purposefully be said to do.

“The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour” -Japanese proverb