As a fan of Horror, Science Fiction and mystery movies, especially of the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and early 60’s, I would scour websites that provided me enough monsters, dinosaurs and flying saucers that would sate my addiction. In doing so I would read reviews by others on movies that I thought I might want to add to my collection. In reading these reviews I felt that sometimes they were lacking in what I was looking for in a review.
First: A lot of them were too long. I just want one page or so with information on the movie. Perhaps a little background or something interesting about the movie, or the actors, or the director, or maybe a nugget of information on the subject of the movie. A little humor can make it fun, or a reason why this movie might be something I’m interested in.
Second: I’m also not a fan of having to give a movie “stars”. Yes I may absolutely detest a particular movie, but there is still an audience out there that may be a big fan for their own reasons and it’s not fair for me to tell them a particular movie is total crap if they may not agree. I have my guilty pleasures, others do too.
I started writing reviews because when I was reading them on Amazon I found that there was confusion on one particular movie I was interested in. To try to help clear up the confusion I wrote one of my own and posted it on Amazon. It was fun. I did another, and another, and now I have another addiction.
I also found out a few things about Amazon.
First: If you did not buy your movie from Amazon, it went to the bottom of the pile. It didn’t matter how well your review was crafted or what you said. If you did not purchase the movie from them then it went after all the reviews from anyone that did. So if there are 1000 reviews out there yours came after the guy whose review said. “Cool movie” or “Hated it. Don’t waste your time.” or even the highly valuable “It came on time and as advertised.” Succinct perhaps, but I need just a touch more information to determine if it might be a movie for me.
Second: You need to spend a certain amount of money each year on Amazon or they will not take your reviews. Granted it’s a small amount that I would spend easily on Amazon, but to be required to just struck me as a ploy to extract money out of me.
Third: Everything Amazon does or says is geared to sell you more crap.
Fourth: Amazon says that it uses an algorithm to determine how to rank reviews. I’m not fond of having a robot determine if what I say is useful or not to another human being.
Fifth: There are some obscure science fiction, mystery and horror movies that I liked and wanted to do a review on, however, Amazon does not sell them. Since these movies are not on their website there is no way for me to relate that they may be interesting for others.
Sixth: If someone wants to read all your reviews they can go out to your profile and read them all. The only problem is that they are listed in the order you submitted them to Amazon. You can’t sort them in any other way. Also, when you click on one after you are done and exit out you are thrown back to the top of the list and must scroll down to get back to where you left off. Not exactly user friendly.
Due to all these issues I decided that, even if no one reads them, I wanted to have a place to put my views on these movies that I love, or that someone else may love. To that end I asked my boyfriend to set up a website for me where I could write to my heart’s content. And with my brother’s valuable input “The Silver Scream” was born.
Also, I wanted to add a section for lists, essays or other cool stuff that may be of interest. For example, if you are a fan of movies with giant monsters, or movies with aliens in them and you want to know what’s out there. Maybe you need to know how to survive a horror movie. I will be adding essays and lists of information that I have either put together myself or have culled from the vast reaches of the internet.
Spotlights is a newer idea. It is a section that has very brief bios of some of my favorite actors from science fiction and horror. Like all the other sections of the website more will be added from time to time.
Block Busters is a list of the feature movies done by the actors highlighted in spotlights. Just in case someone is interested in what else they have done.
Quotes is a section that contains various quotes on different themes that I found interesting or amusing.
The Cat’s Meow section is for facts and information that I’ve run across that pertains to the feline species. I find cats to be mysterious, interesting and as entertaining as some of my favorite movies. And at times just as spooky.
I reserve the right to add any other topic that I feel is either appropriate, or that just strikes my fancy.
As my collection of reviews started to grow, I began putting them in sections. For example, movies produced by Hammer Films, movie serials and movies either made by or in cooperation with Japanese film makers and producers. I will add more when I find topics that I believe merit their own section.
Also, Charlie suggested that I add movies or trailers to the end of my reviews so that others could see a little more information about a movie and not have to hunt it down. I thought that was a good suggestion and made him president of trailers and movies. Any movies that we couldn't find we put the trailer up. We continue to look for commercial-less trailers and movies since I hate commercials.
One other note: Although the main focus of the website is reviews of science fiction, horror and mystery movies (especially of the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and early 60’s) I will be reviewing other movies that I find of interest. There are some fantasies, and thrillers that I have either loved from the past or have recently discovered. Or any other movie that I just damn well feel like reviewing.
This website is a growing, breathing entity. You are invited to come in and look around, but please, do not feed it after midnight.
A note for parents: This website will contain a few swear words here and there, and and/or movies with nudity. I may point out some things about these movies that may be inappropriate for delicate sensibilities. Forage at your own risk.