Horror Documentaries and Buttholes (full disclosure; there are no buttholes in this post)

For the horror fan, simply watching horror movies is never enough, you always need more more more. So when I'm in a horror movie lull or can't make up my mind - I like to pull up a chair and watch how my favorites were made, or watch the history of this amazing genre. Here's a few classics that I watch frequently:
(and "His name was Jason" isn't on here because... I HAVEN'T WATCH IT YET OMG I KNOWWWW - i'm terrible, but I found a copy on youtube soooo....[you can actually find all these docs on youtube])

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Silence of the Lambs - the inside story

I think this was made for the E! network before it played nothing but reality shows, i'm not sure, but it has that feel to it. But regardless it's a well made interesting look into the movie that almost didn't get made but ended up winning the top 5 Oscars of that year. The doc explains how Gene Hackman originally bought the rights but backed out, and how Anthony Hopkin's was convinced his role in Hollywood was over until this ground breaking role came along.

It's quite an intimate look at the goings on with the studio at the time and what seems to be everyone having zero faith this movie would ever be made.

Well, Clarice - have the lambs stopped screaming?

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Never Sleep Again: the elm street legacy

If you're a Freddy fan - you've already seen this a few times. A great, in depth look at the franchise itself, the creators, director, actors/actresses, and everything in between. It has some great behind the scene footage and photos.
And this guy is FOUR HOURS LONG and hosted by our main queen Nancy (Heather Langenkamp). I mean, horror documentaries always deliver, and this is almost too much, you're basically like WE'RE NOT WORTHY.
It starts with the original film and finishes with my all time fav Freddy vs. Jason, covering each film with enough time and respect.

When I was alive, I might have been a little naughty, but after they killed me, I became something much, much worse. The stuff nightmares are made of.

Scream Still Screaming: the ultimate scary movie retrospective

I'm a massive massive MASSIVE fan of the Scream series and this doc really does it justice. It talks about the history of the script, how it was originally called Scary Movie, and how it became a trilogy (obviously made before the fourth was released). It also touches on the backlash that came with it because of the teen violence and how Wes Craven realllly didn't want to do it.
I mean, this whole movie was doomed from the get go, especially being released during the Christmas season, but it kicked ass and continues to. YES, EVEN SCREAM 4 YOU JERKS.
Everyone is in this film from Neve Campbell to Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy and Parker Posey etc.
And try and get to the end without turning on Scream.
 
Now Sid, don't you blame the movies. Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative!

A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (three part series)

This is a documentary on horror movies in general, starting from the very first and ending with Halloween. It was a three part series made for the BBC by writer and actor Mark Gatiss (from Sherlock and an avid horror fan himself) where he takes a personal exploration through the history of horror movies. Each episode is an hour long. Episode one "Frankenstein Goes to Hollywood", Episode two "Home Counties Horror" and ending with Episode three "The American Scream".
This is a really wonderful doc to watch if you're a huge horror fan, and Mark does justice to the horror genre by treating it respectfully and fairly. I remember the first time watching this one I ended up with a two page list of movies I NEEDED to watch or re-watch. 
Mark also sits down with some of horror's legends and shares old footage that I'd never seen before.

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The American Nightmare 

This is a hella dark documentary that pairs horror movies with the horror going on in the world. It includes some of the biggest names in horror like Romero, Cronenberg, Carpenter, Hooper, Craven etc and they share the very honest inspirations that came for their films. While showing some of the more gruesome scenes from the movies, they cut it with gruesome scenes from every day life, specifically the Vietnam war which inspired many directors and the civil rights movement. It's definitely not for the faint of heart, and is quite graphic, but I'm not sure why I'm even telling you that considering you wouldn't be reading this blog or seeking out this doc unless you had that sick mind all of us horror fans cherish.
This one is honestly just fascinating to watch for someone who wasn't born when all of this happened, and it gives me a chance to start to understand the true darkness of these films.