Kirk Hammett from METALLICA has his ‘Go-To’ horror films that he enjoys watching for Halloween
With the Halloween season upon us, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett has revealed his favorite, “go-to” horror movies for the spooky season with with Gibson TV’s “Metal and Monsters” series.
When asked by host Count D (Matthew Montgomery aka Piggy D from Rob Zombie‘s band) if there was one horror movie that really scared him when he was young, Hammett replied with director Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, saying it “truly frightened” him, saying “There hadn’t been a film like that up to that point that was so graphic and violent in its brutality.” He also remembers leaving the theater with his friends, wondering, “Did we just see that? … It was a real experience.”
Hammett also mentioned the 1973 William Friedkin directed “The Exorcist“, saying “I thought the perpetrators of that film were coming after me next … it was an honest fear when we were kids,” especially, he said, since he was a Catholic school kid. “For the next four months I slept with the lights on every single night.”
Kirk was then asked if he had one particular film that he would consider his Halloween “go-to” that he would watch every year to get into the spirit of the season.
Deciding on two films, the METALLICA guitarist started off with the 1922 German classic “Nosferatu“. “I never get tired of watching that, it’s so moody, so atmospheric and I love it. It seems like every two to three years a better print shows up and you can see more of it or a print shows up with tints … or with a full [orchestral] score.” He also mentioned the film’s lead actor Max Schreck, saying “Even his name sounds evil. You see pictures of that guy and it wasn’t that much of a stretch. All they had to do was put pointy ears on him and some fangs.”
Kirk also mentioned the 2000 movie “Shadow of the Vampire” which actually features Willem Dafoe playing Max Schrek in the story behind the making of “Nosferatu“. “I thought it was really great as well as a concept … that’s informative in its own way,” Kirk says.
You can check out the full interview below.