To bring in audiences, filmmakers must first grab their attention. While all genres benefit greatly from a catchy, no-nonsense title, there is no call to attention like those labels assigned to distribute the classic horror film. Even the moviegoer who attends only drama will never mistake Killer Clowns from Outer Space and Night of the Living Dead for anything other than gore fests. In fact, anything with “of the dead” in the title is a good indication of something terrible happening to a lot of people.

The holidays are a time of peace, love and joy, unless you live in the worlds of Silent Night, Deadly Night or Black Christmas. And everyone knows when the 13th falls on a Friday, it’s bad luck, but when the big screen shrieks: Friday the 13th, bad luck is the least of our worries.

The Mist, not to be confused with The Fog,, is currently rolling into our neighborhood theaters. Titles reveal themes and The Mist clues you that something serious is about to happen and it involves heavy precipitation. You don’t expect to walk into that theater and see children dancing around singing “Let’s go play in the mist!”

Movies with “The” titles are often really, really bad. Those aren’t just birds…they’re THE Birds. Yes, that ring is very lovely, but it’s nothing compared to THE Ring. THE Blob is not just your loveable, big-boned friend! And, has there ever been a good omen? Not for Robert Thorn in THE Omen. (Both of them!) Look out it’s The Grudge, The Hunger, The Ghoul, The Messengers, The Amityville Horror. These are all bad. Run. Now.

Posters sell movies when they carry the code words. Consider: Demons, Zombie Nation, Evil Dead, Dead Alive and Night of the Creeps -- not titles from the Merchant/Ivory collection. A Nightmare on Elm Street will not be pleasant. The list goes on and on.

If you open your local newspaper and find the show times for Gone Baby Gone, you might not know what to expect. But when you flip through the same paper and read Lake Dead is playing, you know it’s horror time and if you’re looking for some blood, guts, and scares…then welcome home - you’ve been expected.