One of the major sections for fanedits are horror movies. And there is a good reason for that. It is one of the most fascinatingmovie genres, where hardly any movie was created as a huge blockbuster, but rather as B movie, often not featuring any of the grand names of film business.

People love to be scared, it’s a solo sensation as well as a team or even mating event. The scary ones have a major impact, which can result in being frightened, having nightmares, being truly affected by the fearful things happening on the screen. Yet causing fear is a very difficult business, especially when an audience is used to this genre. And this is where so manyhorror movies often fail. A movie like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY proved to us that it does not require huge amounts of gore or blood to scare people. It depends on the plot, on the presentation and very much on the pacing. Scares are a rather primitive emotion and many directors tend to over-complicate things in their movies.

That’s when the faneditors enter to correct what usually was too much, did not work or just begged for deletion.

In the history of fanedits horror movies play an important part. They recieve a lot of downloads and major attention. The reasonfor that is that so many people were disappointed by horror movies, but also able to catch a glimpse of what could have actually been interesting to watch. Horror movies are often perfect candidates to watch for a second time in a different version.

A history of horror fanedits:

Two of the first truly successful horror fanedits were based on the movie HANNIBAL by Ridley Scott. The original suffered fromlong and boring scenes, bad pacing and not enough “SILENCE OF THE LAMBS”. It was a very successful movie though, because of the great character of Hannibal Lecter. The 2 fanedits were an extended edition and a true fanedit, namely Hannibal: Desserts Served With Your Main Course by ADigitalMan and Hannibal – Special Hannibalized Edition by CBB. Both of them included various of the deleted scenes, but only Hannibalized cut scenes from the original movie. MAIN COURSE was praised for its deeper characters and Hannibalized for an overall way more interesting plot. People wanted an improved version and the faneditors delivered, where the studios did not and let the audience endure, what they had created, as if a movie was something solid. Well, since the Star Wars Special Editions we all know, this is not true. There can be so many versions of a movie and each of them can attract a very different audience for very different reasons.That’s the great thing about fanedits. As for the Hannibal fanedits both of them had one importnat thing in common: they both used the alternate ending, where Hannibal does not chop off his own hand. And the entire audience agrees that this ending is indeed the more bleievable and better one.
And this brings us to another very interesting and also a bit genre specific theme: freshness.

Now why did Ridley Scott use the ending he used? Why do directors and studios make the decisions they make, even if they can besometimes so obviously wrong? Blindness is the answer. Not being able to see a movie anymore from a fresh perspective. It takes months to create a movie, the same scenes are watched over and over again, which steals any kind of impact they had in the first place. So in the end the ones in charge are not really able anymore to decide what is working, what is good and what is not.

Mr.Scott probably thought something was missing in the alternate ending and he is nto wrong there, because the alternate scene is indeed a bit flat, yet the alternative he chose makes thigns worse not better, by letting the lead actor do something he was not likely to.

The faneditors main advantage is to see the final version from a fresh perspective and judge just that, but also withthe incredible option and possibility to change that.

The next horror movie to cause attention as a fanedit was Dawn of the dead. The fanedit was named: Dawn Of The Dead: The Extended Mall Hours Cut by OfficiallyUnofficial and was an ultimate version created from all 3 available vesions of the original, featuring about ANY scene available. This time the audience wanted the super-extended version of a cult movie and the faneditors were the ones to create and deliver it.

Army of Darkness — Primitive Screwhead Edition by Ridgeshark went into the very same direction, but also left it to the audience to decide themselves through seamless branching, which version with which alternate scenes they wanted to watch. AOD won for good reason and with no real competition the prize for best extended edition in 2008 on Fanedit.org.

Hellblazer remixed by Jorge was a daring take on what many consider not even a horror movie: the mess CONSTANTINE. The original disappointed both fans of the graphic novels and horror film fans. With his smart editing, Jorge took care of this movie and turned it into an enjoyable horror ride. And the audience applauded and loved it.

These few example from the almost old times of fanedits (yes, we are still abrand new genre) show what the desires of theaudience are. Less and More. If it’s a cult movie they want more. And if it’s a flawed one they want less, but with much more impact.

The audience (and faneditors come directly from that audience) is the one to endure the movie, to live through them. And it seemsthat for such a genre like horror they have a better knowledge of what works in many cases than the directors, producers, studios, who tend to release superficial and lame horror crap, but with enough scenes in it for the fans to step in and improve on it.

Here is a list of the 10 most successful horror fanedits of all time:
	The Terminator – Extended Edition by ADigitalMan With a great understanding for the original movie (and,yes, Terminator 1 was indeed a horror movie) ADM added some great deleted scenes to the movie that really make the watching experience a more complete one. The additional scenes are of great quality and perfectly inserted. The audience said thank you with comments and ratings and an awesome amount of downloads through Bittorrent, Newsgroups and Rapidshare. >>>>MORE
	Blade 3 – Behead The King Edition by CBB The original movie is considered by about EVERYONE not just as the worst of the series but also as a major turd overall. Fixing it into something not just enjoyable but also in the true spirit of the Blade series was a great undertaking. The fanbase received it with pleasure and made it a true fanedit of the month on Fanedit.org. It still is one of the most downloaded and talked about fanedits. >>>>MORE
	Dawn Of The Dead: The Extended Mall Hours Cut by OfficiallyUnofficial DAWN OF THE DEAD is THE cult zombie movie and has a huge fanbase even today. The movie is available in 3 different versions, but OU created a 4th and final one, including EVERY scene that was in one of the cuts, but not the others, to create the ultimate DOTD movie. And he was VERY successful. With great skill he managed to create wonderful audio transitions that made the 3 versions flow perfectly into each other. This very famous fanedit has been downloaded and commented on worldwide thousands of times. >>>>MORE
	Army Of Darkness: Prmitive Screwhead Edition by Ridgeshark This beautiful fanedit DVD leaves the watcher with the option to watch ARMY OF DARKNESS in several different versions, achieved through seamless branching. This way peopel can select their favorite version before just watching it. Ridgeshark included with a lot of editing knowledge several deleted and alternate scenes, presenting this very movie in a finally worthy version. He won the FE award for best extended edition 2008 for this one. It is a very famous and much talked about fanedit. >>>>MORE
	Romero’s Land Of The Dead: Unrated FanCut by Mollo This is another almost incredible proof of turning a huge disappointment into a truly great horror movie. The original was superficial, dumb and boring, but Mollo’s fine eye for the heart and soul of horror saved it by removing a lot of scenes and adding some from other movies to create an all new take. The audience saw and sees it as one of the best ever created fanedits, especially for horror. It has gained a mass of responses and downloads. >>>>MORE
	Doom – The Posessed Re-Cut by CBB What originally was a dumb action packed horror movie became all of a sudden a much deeper and way more thrilling watching experience. CBB managed to save this turd from being hopelessly bad. This is a re-make of a similar fanedit by Scaperat, highly improved though. It still is a dumb action packed horror movie, but a highly entertaining one now. Viewers have lots of time expressed their gratitude over watching this fanedit and it still gains a lot of attention on the world wide web. >>>>MORE
	Event Horizon: Slashed aka Killer Horizon by Mollo EVENT HORIZON left a lot to be desired, yet it had such great moments that it even though being an overall bad movie gained a fanbase and cult status. Mollo saw the potential and with the precision of a surgeon took what was great and what worked and put it together with his own vision to create a truly impressive piece of horror movie art. The reactions were outstanding all over the globe. THIS is how people wanted to watch EVENT HORIZION. As a result this fanedit received the true fanedit of the month award on fanedit.org. >>>>MORE
	Azazel by CBB FALLEN was not a big hit, yet it gained a small kind of cult status, because it was unique, cool and had some unforgettable scenes and a great theme song. Yet it seemed somethign was missing to make it a truly great movie. With the rather simple trick of removing some over-the-top scenes and the voice over explanations (and of course a new ending) CBB managed to improve on this already good movie a lot. The result: true fanedit of the month award on fanedit.org and a lot of  excited viewers. >>>>MORE
	Dead Set Serious by CBB The UK series combining Big Brother and Zombies was a huge hit there and easily managed to gain fans all over the globe. CBB took the chance to create from teh great zombie material a less funny, less Big Brother centered horror movie, which viewers have stated to be highly superior to the TV show and one of the best horror movies in the 2000s. It recieved the true fanedit of the month award on fanedit.org and still gains a lot of attention. The original creator (CHarlie Brooker) is aware of the fanedit, yet does not like it at all that what he considers great has been partly cut. >>>>MORE
	JAWS The Sharksploitation Edit by TMBTM With the new and unique idea to NOT EVEN TRY to improve on a masterpiece like JAWS, but turn it into an all surprising cheap 70s horror flick, TMBTM gatecrashed into the world of movies and earned nothing but respect and applause for his masterful and truly funny take on one of the best movies ever created. Of course it got the best true fanedit of the month award on Fanedit.org, thousands of downloads and attention everywhere. One of the most outstanding fanedit projects ever created. >>>>MORE

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