Miguel Rodriguez, one of the co-founders of the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival, is just like us, a very passionate fan of horror cinema. In fact, so much so that he started this film fest to help highlight films that he felt needed more attention. And has been doing so since 2009. So we decided to take a few minutes before this year’s festival started and pick his brain about the genre and what makes it so special to him.

Kitley’s Krypt: Let’s start at the beginning. How long have you been a fan of the horror genre, and what does it mean to you being a serious follower?

Miguel Rodriguez: Horror grew up with me. Most people say they grew up with horror, but I feel like we grew up together. My grandmother used to tell me extremely terrifying stories growing up, as did others in my family. She loved scary movies, and we would often watch them together. We didn’t speak easily because of language barriers (I was not taught Spanish growing up), but horror movies were a way to relate. 

As far as what it means to me to be a serious follower, that can be a bit challenging. It is funny to try to answer this question now, because I was just having a discussion with some friends who were talking about relationships, and they were complaining about people who needed to have all the same pop culture loves as their partners. I found it interesting and nodded with a lot of their points about two people loving all the same things being boring, and people having their own personalities. The thing I had to realize for myself, though, was that an understanding and love for horror is so integral to my worldview that any partner of mine would HAVE to share it.