Film Threat
Film Threat was an online site that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed DVDs of mainstream films and Hollywood movies in theaters. It first appeared as a photocopied zine in 1985, created by Wayne State University students Chris Gore and André Seewood. In 1997, Film Threat was converted to a solely online resource.
Beginning
The first initial issues of Film Threat combined pseudo-political ranting by Seewood and cinematic material and parody of mainstream film by Gore. In Gore’s own words, "I thought, Wouldn’t it be great to start a punk rock-attitude movie magazine—and then, the people from this magazine would eventually go off and make films. Wouldn’t it be great?"
In issue 9, Film Threat became a printed magazine, and it was also around this time that Seewood left the project to pursue independent filmmaking and to write seriously about the cinema. This second life of Film Threat included such classic moments as Gore and “Square Dance Instructor” Paul Zimmerman getting kicked out of the 1988 Toronto Film Festival, only to return the following year under fake names representing a fake publication, "Film Forum." In Issue 18 San Francisco State student David E. Williams wrote in, sparking a friendship with Gore that would lead to both of them relocating to Los Angeles in summer 1989 to work on the growing magazine.