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kestrellAlexx and I have a friend who is a scholar of horror film and literature, and he recently posted this list
A Horror Film Education
http://www.listchallenges.com/a-horror-film-education
At the time Alexx read this to me, i've had watched 83 of the 152 films, which, as a horror fangirl, left me sadly disappointed in myself.
How could this happen? Where did I go wrong?
Upon further study of the list, I realized that I had been somewhat thrown by the use of the word "education" in the title because I still think of the word "education" as denoting a certain degree of neutrality, but, in reality, any formation of a canon, any syllabus or other form of list, is based upon personal choices, and personal choices are never neutral. For instance, by looking at this list, I can tell that the list author really loves his monster movies. Being about the same age as the list author, I suspect he was as much of a fan of the Saturday TV show, "Creature Double Feature," as I was. (Explanation for anyone who was born after the Internet: Once upon a time, there was no cable TV, no Internet, not even a video store, and so about the only source little horror fangirls and fanboys had was the "Creature Double Feature," which showed old monster movies and Hammer horror and other dark delights, and we hugged every shiver and jump scare to our wildly-pounding little hearts.)
Again, the list author and I are about the same age, and I can see a lot of 1980s horror films that I would qualify more as nostalgic favorites of the 1980s (Gremlins, Fright Night) rather than classics.
I have my nostalgic favorites also, although mine tend more toward supernatural and occult horror of the 1960s and 1970s, so I'm including those, because it's my list and I can.
I also think the original list helps to highlight how horror, as a genre, still has a lot of gender bias built into it. (Note: I know the list author personally, and any further discussion I make about gender bias is not aimed at him personally--it's just built into the genre itself.)
How does gender bias sneak into the list?
First of all, horror films have a built-in bias in that so many of them feature a woman in peril being stalked, physically threatened, abducted and/or killed. A woman screaming is one of the iconic images of the horror film. At the same time, the screaming woman is still rarely the protagonist of the film, and even in many contemporary horror films the female is there to be passively terrorized without showing any agency on her part. If you want me to love a horror movie, give me a final girl protagonists. Note:
"final" girl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_girl
is a phrase coined by Carol Clover in her book _Men, Women, and Chainsaws_ (1992), to describe the female character who fights and defeats the monster/killer, surviving to tell the tale (or star again in the sequel).
What this means to me: I don't watch movies where I feel the only objective is to show the victimization of a screaming terrified woman; I try to find movies with a strong female protagonist who saves herself. I also don't watch movies where women and children exist solely to be victims to be abused. More to the point, I don't watch movies which feature prolonged physical or emotional abuse or torture of anybody, including the monster.
So while I agree that Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, and a lot of J- and k-horror are classics, I have never watched these films. The latter is also influenced by the fact that I don't watch a lot of films in foreign languages, because its usually boring for me as a blind person to have to rely on Alexx to read out all the dialogue.
Perhaps the most subtle way that gender bias sneaks into a horror movie is for male viewers to dismiss films with female protagonists as just not as good as those featuring male protagonists, or even dismissing the film as being not "real" horror. I'm working on an essay that explores my definition of horror but, for now, I will just say that my definition of horror is probably more inclusive than a lot of male critics, including as it does the female gothic and the dark fairytale.
So, in an attempt to salvage the sad, tattered scraps of my reputation as a horror fangirl, I offer the following suggestions. Note: I include a couple of films which already appeared on the original, but I wanted to say some things about why I recommend the films.
A Horror Film Education, A horror fangirl's version
My list looks pretty much like Jack's through the horror of the 1930s, but I would add:
The Old Dark House (Dir. James Whale, 1932)
I have three reasons for including this film on my list:
1. It's directed by James Whale, who also directed "Bride of Frankenstein," which also benefited from Whale's genius for quirky characters and witty dialogue.
2. Based on J. B. Priestley's novel, _Benighted_ (1927), the movie parodies the trope of a group of strangers having to take refuge in a spooky old house with a creepy family living in it. Horror films remain fertile ground for parody.
3. Whale's movies often have a certain queer element, and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in particular got its setting and set-up from this film. (For more on this aspect of Whale's work, read Christopher Bram's _Gods and Monsters_ or see the movie based on the book.)
"night on Bald Mountain" segment of Disney's Fantasia (1940)
Dark classical music melded with fantasmagorical images: what's not to love? And the marching mops in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" are pretty creepy, too. This entry and the next one are my homage to animated films which have scared the heck out of me.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949)
Seriously, flaming pumpkin heads: what's not scary about that?
The Curse of the Cat People (Dir. Val Lewton, 1944),
Speaking of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," one of the spookiest scenes in this movie occurs when an old woman tells a little girl the story as a straight-up ghost story. A lot of the tension of this film comes, however, from its portrayal of the emotional isolation the little girl, Amy, experiences due to being an imaginative child. When she acquires a (perhaps) imaginary friend who was the first wife of Amy's disapproving father, we wait for disaster to strike. This beautiful film is shown from Amy's point of view, and the creeping sense of menace arises through Amy's interactions with adults whose true feelings and motivations Amy is too young to understand.
The Spiral Staircase (Dir. Robert Siodmak, 1947)
Based on the mystery novel by Ethel Lina White, this film is set in 1916 and stars Dorothy McGuire as Helen, a mute young woman caring for an elderly woman in a large gothic mansion. After a series of murders occur, each involving a disabled woman as victim, Helen attempts to solve the crimes before she becomes the next victim.
Some people refer to this film as film noir, but I would qualify it as female gothic, keeping in mind how often Hitchcock borrowed female gothic stories for his films. Also, look at those stuffed heads of birds of prey and tell me Hitch didn't "borrow" that image for Psycho.
Night of the Hunter (Dir. Charles Laughton, 1955
This film, starring Robert Mitchum as a sociopath who is pursuing two young children who know the secret location of stolen bank money, pushes at my boundary for films that feature children being terrified. However, Laughton made an amazing movie, and a lot of it has a dark fairytale feel to it. Even Mitchum becomes something more like the monster in a fairytale, and the scene which features his prolonged howl of rage at being frustrated in his pursuit of his prey is truly unnerving.
I would also add:
Cape Fear (Dir. J. Lee Thompson, 1962)
Another Robert Mitchum film. Mitchum gives the character of Max Cady an animalistic speed and ferocity. The remake featuring Robert De Niro pales in comparison because there is nothing supernatural about Mitchum's character: he's just bilt as a very fast, very relentless, predator. This film also serves as an example of the subgenre of horror noir.
City of the Dead aka Horror Hotel (Dir. John Moxey, 1960)
I love witch movies, and this one establishes what would become many of the tropes of witch films, most notably that of the reincarnated witch. Christopher Lee plays the professor of occult studies (yes, I would totally be his Hermione), while Patricia Jessel comes off as the dominatrix of witches. It also has lots of atmosphere and at times an almost dream-like quality.
Night of the Eagle aka Burn Witch Burn (Dir. Sidney Hayers, 1964),
There have been a number of movie adaptations of Fritz Leiber's novel _Conjure Wife_, but this one, with a screenplay written by Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, and George Baxt (who also wrote the screenplay for "City of the Dead"), is the best.
According to the Wikipedia entry for this movie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Eagle#Background_info
"Film prints for the U.S. release were preceded by a narrated prologue in which the voice of Paul Frees was heard to intone a spell to protect the audience members from evil (listen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTkaxyK9YGs ). For protection, American theater audiences were given a special pack of salt and words to an ancient incantation."
I may do that for my next party.
The story: Professor Norman Taylor is a professor of psychology who, while lecturing on the subject of belief systems and superstition, is openly mocking of witchcraft in particular, using it as an opener to give a diatribe about women's hysteria in particular. When he finds that his wife has been using conjure magic (Jamaican obeah), he gives her a condescending lecture and throws away all of her magic items, despite her pleas that her magic is protecting him from those who wish him harm.
There is this character I refer to as the "fatal boy," as a sort of male complement to the final girl. You can tell a fatal boy because he delivers condescending comments to the females, dismisses their warnings as hysteria, and insists that what is happening is not happening because we live in a rational world. Of course, one of the themes of horror films is that we do not live in a rational world, and if you are wondering how this typically fares for our man, let me point out that I used the word "fatal" for a reason.
Ballad of Tam Lin, The (Dir. Roddy McDowall, 1971)
Folk ballads can be pretty scary, and this film combines the folk ballad with the succubus story. Eva Gardner plays an aging Queen of the Fey who allows a pack of flower children to run riot through her lavish mansion while she preserves her beauty by living off the lifeforce of pretty young men. There are beautiful sets and scenery, Pentangle provides the soundtrack, and I really want the Queen of the Dark Court's wardrobe.
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (Dir. John Hancock, 1971)
The lurid title sounds as if this is a slasher film but the title does the film a disservice. In truth, it is a beautiful movie, and the script complements the dreamlike natural setting. Is this a ghost story? A vampire story? A female gothic? However you end up interpreting this film, few horror films have equaled it for beauty and atmosphere.
Ganja and Hess (Dir. Bill Gunn, 1973)
Originally contracted to make some easy money off the
blacksploitation films,
http://the-black-glove.blogspot.com/2009/11/top-13-best-of-blaxploitation-horror.html
this film starring Duane Jones of "Night of the Living Dead" fame, resists categorization. It's not really a vampire movie, though there is a vampire in it. It's smart, beautiful, and thoughtful. The soundtrack is amazing, featuring gospel, blues, and African music. Yes, there was at least one classic black horror film before Get Out's recent appearance.
Halloween (Dir. John Carpenter, 1978)
This film typically gets labelled a slasher film, and it is, but it also possesses elements of the female gothic, and ultimately it's a story about how young women have a different sort of bogeyman to fear than the one they feared in childhood. Screenwriter/producer Debra Hill doesn't get enough credit for writing all the female dialogue in this film, and for her other creative input.
Aliens (Dir. James Cameron, 1986)
I actually like this movie more than Alien. As if Sigourney Weaver's character of Ripley is not enough, it has Newt, a tough young final girl. I'm also a sucker for any horror movie that has Lance Henriksen in it (see Pumpkinhead in the original list). It's an excellent example of science fiction horror, it has lots of witty dialogue, and it gets referenced in Scream 2.
Angel Heart (Dir. Alan Parker, 1987)
Reasons I love this movie:
1. It's the iconic horror noir film.
2. It stars Mickey Rourke, who is shabby and disreputable enough to do the role justice.
3. It's set in New Orleans.
4. The soundtrack features lots of amazing blues music, including songs by Bessie Smith, La Verne Baker, Irma Thomas, Lillian Boutte, John Lee Hooker, Dr. John, and Brownie McGhee, who has a cameo in the nightclub scene. How could you not love a movie that has a live performance of this song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnN1tUZkXbs
5. It includes one of my guilty pleasures, Hollywood voodoo. I use the phrase "Hollywood voodoo" because it has absolutely nothing to do with the voudon religion.
The Silence of the Lambs (Dir. Jonathan Demme, 1991)
I love the gothic feel of this movie: all those dark twisted hallways and claustrophobic rooms, the sense of Clarice's emotional isolation, the way she is often framed as surrounded by predatory men, even those who are her fellow agents. I also like the way she is given two father-figures, her boss, Jack Crawford, and Hannibal Lector, but the question of which one is the "good" father is ambiguous, because Crawford uses her as bait to tempt Hannibal into providing information, while hannibal gives her the clues--and the mental toughness--to find and defeat the monster.
Instead of Pet Semetery,
The Dark Half (Dir. George A. Romero, 1993)
Based on the Stephen King novel, Timothy Hutton plays author Thad Beaumont, who had written a series of violent crime novels under the pseudonym George Stark. When Beaumont decides to kill not just the character, but his pseudonym, the character has something to say about it. I love the two supporting actresses in this film: Amy Madigan, playing Beaumont's wife, and Julie Harris as Reggie Delesseps, an anthropologist (I also want Reggie's wardrobe).
This movie also features psychopomps, and I do love my psychopomps.
Cemetery Man Dellamorte Dellamore (Dir. Michele Soavi, 1994)
I'm including this film as an example of how you can take a well-worn subgenre--the zombie comedy--and turn it into something completely unique. This Italian film creates an entire world in a cemetary, and it is probably the prettiest zombie movie ever (Rupert Everett helps).
The Prophecy (Dir. Gregory Widen, 1995)
This movie features the grubbiest, shabbiest angels you will ever see, and how I adore it. Christopher Walken as Gabriel (don't miss the bit with the horn) chews up the scenery in this darkly witty film that also features Eric Stolz as a gently doomed Simon and Viggo Mortensen as a magnetic but disturbing Lucifer.
Snow White: A Tale of Terror (Dir. Michael Cohn, 1997)
This is my favorite example of a horror film based on a fairy tale, and it is definitely not for kids. It has a dark fantasy medieval setting, and when Snow White flees into the forest, she finds not a neat little cottage of domesticated dwarves, but a hovel occupied by men who have been scarred, emotionally and physically, by the cruelty of the rich and powerful. The wicked witch, played by Sigourney Weaver, gets punished in the end, but seeing the authenticly Grimm ending to this Grimms's fairytale in visual images is even more disturbing than reading the story.
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Dir. Scott Glosserman, 2006)
A dark horror comedy which explores some of the major tropes of horror films by having a college journalism student interview a young man who is planning his entry into slasher stardom, one trope at a time. The fact that the would-be slasher is such a nerdy fanboy provides a lot of the humor...until it's time to don the mask.
Instead of Whispering Corridors (1998), I recommend
The Woods (Dir. Lucky McKee, 2006)
Set in an isolated girls' school in 1965, I like the way the wildness and nonconformity of the girls can be compared with the way the trees and vines grow out of control. Is it only coincidence that Heather, the protagonist, shares her name with that of a plant that grows wild? It seems particularly unlikely to be mere coincidence when her mother's parting words to her daughter are "Don't let your nails get out of control."
I love spooky trees, and this movie features some of the spookiest plantlife ever as it slowly invades and engulfs the school.
The Dead One (El Muerto) (Dir. Brian Cox, 2007)
There are a lot of Mexican horror movies featuring witches and evil mirrors, but this American movie, based on a graphic novel by Javier Hernandez, does a good job of including the traditional tropes, and it possesses some uncanny segments without a lot of gore. One reason I like it is that it makes use of Mexican mythology, which doesn't get used enough, imo. I recommend it for the next Day of the Dead.
Trick 'R' Treat (Dir. Michael Dougherty, 2007)
An anthology film perfect for watching on Halloween. It has a creepy little masked kid named Sam (for Samhain). Possibly my favorite segment features some kickass females and a twist on the losing one's virginity trope.
Instead of the J-horror The Eye or its American version, I recommend
Julia's Eyes (Dir. Guillem Morales, 2010)
Horror movies featuring blind female protagonists practically count as a subgenre but, aside from Wait Until Dark (can I count Susy Hendrix as the first final girl?), this one is probably my favorite. It uses the protagonist's failing vision to create some unique camerawork and it also adds an additional layer of suspense, as even her limited vision seems to be failing.
Byzantium (Dir. Neil Jordan, 2012)
The screenplay and original play were written by Moira Buffini, and this movie combines the vampire film with the mother-daughter film to create something with lots of psychological layers.
The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Lee (Dir. Rodrigo Gudiño, 2012)
Another psychological horror film about a mother and child relationship, but this one features a male antiques dealer who is visiting the house of his recently deceased mother, who seems to have been involved with a strange cult. This could also count as a haunted house movie: the house has a seriously creepy presence, as it is filled with layers and layers of angel iconography in just about every medium imaginable, so it's spooky enough having all those angels staring at you, let alone when the house begins to respond to the protagonist's memories and increasing sense of peril with progressively more threatening sounds and almost imperceivably moved objects. This movie also shows what one can do with one actor and a single setting. Trivia: if the house doesn't seem spooky enough, it was discovered by the director, just as it appears in the film, while he drove around his hometown of Toronto.
The Guest Dir. Adam Wingard, 2014)
Actress Maika Monroe (who also starred in "It Follows") plays the final girl in this fun example of the cross-genre movie which combines the thriller, the science fiction film, and the horror movie into a well-blended whole. It's also my favorite of the retro-'80s horror movies.
Instead of Sinister, I recommend
Darling (Dir. Mickey Keating, 2015)
A black-and-white psychological horror film featuring a lonely young woman who is hired to be the caretaker of an old Manhattan mansion.
Final Girls (2015)
When Max (Taissa Farmiga) and her friends attend a showing of a screening of a eighties slasher film starring Max's deceased mother, they become sucked into the movie quite literally. It's a trope that has been done before but this version has a lot to say about female relationships with both friends and mothers, and cultural attitudes toward female sexuality. Even the large-breasted sex bomb character gets a personality in this movie, and I love her.
He Never Died (Dir. Jason Krawczyk, 2015)
Henry Rollins plays a vampire who might be considered amoral, except that even being amoral implies giving way more of a fuck than this guy does. He seems like a completely dislikeable character, and yet you still get caught up in his struggle to stay outside the control of those more corrupt than he.
Hush (Dir. Mike Flanagan, 2015)
By the director of Oculus (2013) and Before I Wake (2016), this film features a deaf female writer who is living in an isolated cabin and is terrorized by a masked killer. Another final girl with a disability who kicks ass, yes!
A Horror Film Education
http://www.listchallenges.com/a-horror-film-education
At the time Alexx read this to me, i've had watched 83 of the 152 films, which, as a horror fangirl, left me sadly disappointed in myself.
How could this happen? Where did I go wrong?
Upon further study of the list, I realized that I had been somewhat thrown by the use of the word "education" in the title because I still think of the word "education" as denoting a certain degree of neutrality, but, in reality, any formation of a canon, any syllabus or other form of list, is based upon personal choices, and personal choices are never neutral. For instance, by looking at this list, I can tell that the list author really loves his monster movies. Being about the same age as the list author, I suspect he was as much of a fan of the Saturday TV show, "Creature Double Feature," as I was. (Explanation for anyone who was born after the Internet: Once upon a time, there was no cable TV, no Internet, not even a video store, and so about the only source little horror fangirls and fanboys had was the "Creature Double Feature," which showed old monster movies and Hammer horror and other dark delights, and we hugged every shiver and jump scare to our wildly-pounding little hearts.)
Again, the list author and I are about the same age, and I can see a lot of 1980s horror films that I would qualify more as nostalgic favorites of the 1980s (Gremlins, Fright Night) rather than classics.
I have my nostalgic favorites also, although mine tend more toward supernatural and occult horror of the 1960s and 1970s, so I'm including those, because it's my list and I can.
I also think the original list helps to highlight how horror, as a genre, still has a lot of gender bias built into it. (Note: I know the list author personally, and any further discussion I make about gender bias is not aimed at him personally--it's just built into the genre itself.)
How does gender bias sneak into the list?
First of all, horror films have a built-in bias in that so many of them feature a woman in peril being stalked, physically threatened, abducted and/or killed. A woman screaming is one of the iconic images of the horror film. At the same time, the screaming woman is still rarely the protagonist of the film, and even in many contemporary horror films the female is there to be passively terrorized without showing any agency on her part. If you want me to love a horror movie, give me a final girl protagonists. Note:
"final" girl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_girl
is a phrase coined by Carol Clover in her book _Men, Women, and Chainsaws_ (1992), to describe the female character who fights and defeats the monster/killer, surviving to tell the tale (or star again in the sequel).
What this means to me: I don't watch movies where I feel the only objective is to show the victimization of a screaming terrified woman; I try to find movies with a strong female protagonist who saves herself. I also don't watch movies where women and children exist solely to be victims to be abused. More to the point, I don't watch movies which feature prolonged physical or emotional abuse or torture of anybody, including the monster.
So while I agree that Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, and a lot of J- and k-horror are classics, I have never watched these films. The latter is also influenced by the fact that I don't watch a lot of films in foreign languages, because its usually boring for me as a blind person to have to rely on Alexx to read out all the dialogue.
Perhaps the most subtle way that gender bias sneaks into a horror movie is for male viewers to dismiss films with female protagonists as just not as good as those featuring male protagonists, or even dismissing the film as being not "real" horror. I'm working on an essay that explores my definition of horror but, for now, I will just say that my definition of horror is probably more inclusive than a lot of male critics, including as it does the female gothic and the dark fairytale.
So, in an attempt to salvage the sad, tattered scraps of my reputation as a horror fangirl, I offer the following suggestions. Note: I include a couple of films which already appeared on the original, but I wanted to say some things about why I recommend the films.
A Horror Film Education, A horror fangirl's version
My list looks pretty much like Jack's through the horror of the 1930s, but I would add:
The Old Dark House (Dir. James Whale, 1932)
I have three reasons for including this film on my list:
1. It's directed by James Whale, who also directed "Bride of Frankenstein," which also benefited from Whale's genius for quirky characters and witty dialogue.
2. Based on J. B. Priestley's novel, _Benighted_ (1927), the movie parodies the trope of a group of strangers having to take refuge in a spooky old house with a creepy family living in it. Horror films remain fertile ground for parody.
3. Whale's movies often have a certain queer element, and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in particular got its setting and set-up from this film. (For more on this aspect of Whale's work, read Christopher Bram's _Gods and Monsters_ or see the movie based on the book.)
"night on Bald Mountain" segment of Disney's Fantasia (1940)
Dark classical music melded with fantasmagorical images: what's not to love? And the marching mops in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" are pretty creepy, too. This entry and the next one are my homage to animated films which have scared the heck out of me.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949)
Seriously, flaming pumpkin heads: what's not scary about that?
The Curse of the Cat People (Dir. Val Lewton, 1944),
Speaking of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," one of the spookiest scenes in this movie occurs when an old woman tells a little girl the story as a straight-up ghost story. A lot of the tension of this film comes, however, from its portrayal of the emotional isolation the little girl, Amy, experiences due to being an imaginative child. When she acquires a (perhaps) imaginary friend who was the first wife of Amy's disapproving father, we wait for disaster to strike. This beautiful film is shown from Amy's point of view, and the creeping sense of menace arises through Amy's interactions with adults whose true feelings and motivations Amy is too young to understand.
The Spiral Staircase (Dir. Robert Siodmak, 1947)
Based on the mystery novel by Ethel Lina White, this film is set in 1916 and stars Dorothy McGuire as Helen, a mute young woman caring for an elderly woman in a large gothic mansion. After a series of murders occur, each involving a disabled woman as victim, Helen attempts to solve the crimes before she becomes the next victim.
Some people refer to this film as film noir, but I would qualify it as female gothic, keeping in mind how often Hitchcock borrowed female gothic stories for his films. Also, look at those stuffed heads of birds of prey and tell me Hitch didn't "borrow" that image for Psycho.
Night of the Hunter (Dir. Charles Laughton, 1955
This film, starring Robert Mitchum as a sociopath who is pursuing two young children who know the secret location of stolen bank money, pushes at my boundary for films that feature children being terrified. However, Laughton made an amazing movie, and a lot of it has a dark fairytale feel to it. Even Mitchum becomes something more like the monster in a fairytale, and the scene which features his prolonged howl of rage at being frustrated in his pursuit of his prey is truly unnerving.
I would also add:
Cape Fear (Dir. J. Lee Thompson, 1962)
Another Robert Mitchum film. Mitchum gives the character of Max Cady an animalistic speed and ferocity. The remake featuring Robert De Niro pales in comparison because there is nothing supernatural about Mitchum's character: he's just bilt as a very fast, very relentless, predator. This film also serves as an example of the subgenre of horror noir.
City of the Dead aka Horror Hotel (Dir. John Moxey, 1960)
I love witch movies, and this one establishes what would become many of the tropes of witch films, most notably that of the reincarnated witch. Christopher Lee plays the professor of occult studies (yes, I would totally be his Hermione), while Patricia Jessel comes off as the dominatrix of witches. It also has lots of atmosphere and at times an almost dream-like quality.
Night of the Eagle aka Burn Witch Burn (Dir. Sidney Hayers, 1964),
There have been a number of movie adaptations of Fritz Leiber's novel _Conjure Wife_, but this one, with a screenplay written by Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, and George Baxt (who also wrote the screenplay for "City of the Dead"), is the best.
According to the Wikipedia entry for this movie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Eagle#Background_info
"Film prints for the U.S. release were preceded by a narrated prologue in which the voice of Paul Frees was heard to intone a spell to protect the audience members from evil (listen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTkaxyK9YGs ). For protection, American theater audiences were given a special pack of salt and words to an ancient incantation."
I may do that for my next party.
The story: Professor Norman Taylor is a professor of psychology who, while lecturing on the subject of belief systems and superstition, is openly mocking of witchcraft in particular, using it as an opener to give a diatribe about women's hysteria in particular. When he finds that his wife has been using conjure magic (Jamaican obeah), he gives her a condescending lecture and throws away all of her magic items, despite her pleas that her magic is protecting him from those who wish him harm.
There is this character I refer to as the "fatal boy," as a sort of male complement to the final girl. You can tell a fatal boy because he delivers condescending comments to the females, dismisses their warnings as hysteria, and insists that what is happening is not happening because we live in a rational world. Of course, one of the themes of horror films is that we do not live in a rational world, and if you are wondering how this typically fares for our man, let me point out that I used the word "fatal" for a reason.
Ballad of Tam Lin, The (Dir. Roddy McDowall, 1971)
Folk ballads can be pretty scary, and this film combines the folk ballad with the succubus story. Eva Gardner plays an aging Queen of the Fey who allows a pack of flower children to run riot through her lavish mansion while she preserves her beauty by living off the lifeforce of pretty young men. There are beautiful sets and scenery, Pentangle provides the soundtrack, and I really want the Queen of the Dark Court's wardrobe.
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (Dir. John Hancock, 1971)
The lurid title sounds as if this is a slasher film but the title does the film a disservice. In truth, it is a beautiful movie, and the script complements the dreamlike natural setting. Is this a ghost story? A vampire story? A female gothic? However you end up interpreting this film, few horror films have equaled it for beauty and atmosphere.
Ganja and Hess (Dir. Bill Gunn, 1973)
Originally contracted to make some easy money off the
blacksploitation films,
http://the-black-glove.blogspot.com/2009/11/top-13-best-of-blaxploitation-horror.html
this film starring Duane Jones of "Night of the Living Dead" fame, resists categorization. It's not really a vampire movie, though there is a vampire in it. It's smart, beautiful, and thoughtful. The soundtrack is amazing, featuring gospel, blues, and African music. Yes, there was at least one classic black horror film before Get Out's recent appearance.
Halloween (Dir. John Carpenter, 1978)
This film typically gets labelled a slasher film, and it is, but it also possesses elements of the female gothic, and ultimately it's a story about how young women have a different sort of bogeyman to fear than the one they feared in childhood. Screenwriter/producer Debra Hill doesn't get enough credit for writing all the female dialogue in this film, and for her other creative input.
Aliens (Dir. James Cameron, 1986)
I actually like this movie more than Alien. As if Sigourney Weaver's character of Ripley is not enough, it has Newt, a tough young final girl. I'm also a sucker for any horror movie that has Lance Henriksen in it (see Pumpkinhead in the original list). It's an excellent example of science fiction horror, it has lots of witty dialogue, and it gets referenced in Scream 2.
Angel Heart (Dir. Alan Parker, 1987)
Reasons I love this movie:
1. It's the iconic horror noir film.
2. It stars Mickey Rourke, who is shabby and disreputable enough to do the role justice.
3. It's set in New Orleans.
4. The soundtrack features lots of amazing blues music, including songs by Bessie Smith, La Verne Baker, Irma Thomas, Lillian Boutte, John Lee Hooker, Dr. John, and Brownie McGhee, who has a cameo in the nightclub scene. How could you not love a movie that has a live performance of this song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnN1tUZkXbs
5. It includes one of my guilty pleasures, Hollywood voodoo. I use the phrase "Hollywood voodoo" because it has absolutely nothing to do with the voudon religion.
The Silence of the Lambs (Dir. Jonathan Demme, 1991)
I love the gothic feel of this movie: all those dark twisted hallways and claustrophobic rooms, the sense of Clarice's emotional isolation, the way she is often framed as surrounded by predatory men, even those who are her fellow agents. I also like the way she is given two father-figures, her boss, Jack Crawford, and Hannibal Lector, but the question of which one is the "good" father is ambiguous, because Crawford uses her as bait to tempt Hannibal into providing information, while hannibal gives her the clues--and the mental toughness--to find and defeat the monster.
Instead of Pet Semetery,
The Dark Half (Dir. George A. Romero, 1993)
Based on the Stephen King novel, Timothy Hutton plays author Thad Beaumont, who had written a series of violent crime novels under the pseudonym George Stark. When Beaumont decides to kill not just the character, but his pseudonym, the character has something to say about it. I love the two supporting actresses in this film: Amy Madigan, playing Beaumont's wife, and Julie Harris as Reggie Delesseps, an anthropologist (I also want Reggie's wardrobe).
This movie also features psychopomps, and I do love my psychopomps.
Cemetery Man Dellamorte Dellamore (Dir. Michele Soavi, 1994)
I'm including this film as an example of how you can take a well-worn subgenre--the zombie comedy--and turn it into something completely unique. This Italian film creates an entire world in a cemetary, and it is probably the prettiest zombie movie ever (Rupert Everett helps).
The Prophecy (Dir. Gregory Widen, 1995)
This movie features the grubbiest, shabbiest angels you will ever see, and how I adore it. Christopher Walken as Gabriel (don't miss the bit with the horn) chews up the scenery in this darkly witty film that also features Eric Stolz as a gently doomed Simon and Viggo Mortensen as a magnetic but disturbing Lucifer.
Snow White: A Tale of Terror (Dir. Michael Cohn, 1997)
This is my favorite example of a horror film based on a fairy tale, and it is definitely not for kids. It has a dark fantasy medieval setting, and when Snow White flees into the forest, she finds not a neat little cottage of domesticated dwarves, but a hovel occupied by men who have been scarred, emotionally and physically, by the cruelty of the rich and powerful. The wicked witch, played by Sigourney Weaver, gets punished in the end, but seeing the authenticly Grimm ending to this Grimms's fairytale in visual images is even more disturbing than reading the story.
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Dir. Scott Glosserman, 2006)
A dark horror comedy which explores some of the major tropes of horror films by having a college journalism student interview a young man who is planning his entry into slasher stardom, one trope at a time. The fact that the would-be slasher is such a nerdy fanboy provides a lot of the humor...until it's time to don the mask.
Instead of Whispering Corridors (1998), I recommend
The Woods (Dir. Lucky McKee, 2006)
Set in an isolated girls' school in 1965, I like the way the wildness and nonconformity of the girls can be compared with the way the trees and vines grow out of control. Is it only coincidence that Heather, the protagonist, shares her name with that of a plant that grows wild? It seems particularly unlikely to be mere coincidence when her mother's parting words to her daughter are "Don't let your nails get out of control."
I love spooky trees, and this movie features some of the spookiest plantlife ever as it slowly invades and engulfs the school.
The Dead One (El Muerto) (Dir. Brian Cox, 2007)
There are a lot of Mexican horror movies featuring witches and evil mirrors, but this American movie, based on a graphic novel by Javier Hernandez, does a good job of including the traditional tropes, and it possesses some uncanny segments without a lot of gore. One reason I like it is that it makes use of Mexican mythology, which doesn't get used enough, imo. I recommend it for the next Day of the Dead.
Trick 'R' Treat (Dir. Michael Dougherty, 2007)
An anthology film perfect for watching on Halloween. It has a creepy little masked kid named Sam (for Samhain). Possibly my favorite segment features some kickass females and a twist on the losing one's virginity trope.
Instead of the J-horror The Eye or its American version, I recommend
Julia's Eyes (Dir. Guillem Morales, 2010)
Horror movies featuring blind female protagonists practically count as a subgenre but, aside from Wait Until Dark (can I count Susy Hendrix as the first final girl?), this one is probably my favorite. It uses the protagonist's failing vision to create some unique camerawork and it also adds an additional layer of suspense, as even her limited vision seems to be failing.
Byzantium (Dir. Neil Jordan, 2012)
The screenplay and original play were written by Moira Buffini, and this movie combines the vampire film with the mother-daughter film to create something with lots of psychological layers.
The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Lee (Dir. Rodrigo Gudiño, 2012)
Another psychological horror film about a mother and child relationship, but this one features a male antiques dealer who is visiting the house of his recently deceased mother, who seems to have been involved with a strange cult. This could also count as a haunted house movie: the house has a seriously creepy presence, as it is filled with layers and layers of angel iconography in just about every medium imaginable, so it's spooky enough having all those angels staring at you, let alone when the house begins to respond to the protagonist's memories and increasing sense of peril with progressively more threatening sounds and almost imperceivably moved objects. This movie also shows what one can do with one actor and a single setting. Trivia: if the house doesn't seem spooky enough, it was discovered by the director, just as it appears in the film, while he drove around his hometown of Toronto.
The Guest Dir. Adam Wingard, 2014)
Actress Maika Monroe (who also starred in "It Follows") plays the final girl in this fun example of the cross-genre movie which combines the thriller, the science fiction film, and the horror movie into a well-blended whole. It's also my favorite of the retro-'80s horror movies.
Instead of Sinister, I recommend
Darling (Dir. Mickey Keating, 2015)
A black-and-white psychological horror film featuring a lonely young woman who is hired to be the caretaker of an old Manhattan mansion.
Final Girls (2015)
When Max (Taissa Farmiga) and her friends attend a showing of a screening of a eighties slasher film starring Max's deceased mother, they become sucked into the movie quite literally. It's a trope that has been done before but this version has a lot to say about female relationships with both friends and mothers, and cultural attitudes toward female sexuality. Even the large-breasted sex bomb character gets a personality in this movie, and I love her.
He Never Died (Dir. Jason Krawczyk, 2015)
Henry Rollins plays a vampire who might be considered amoral, except that even being amoral implies giving way more of a fuck than this guy does. He seems like a completely dislikeable character, and yet you still get caught up in his struggle to stay outside the control of those more corrupt than he.
Hush (Dir. Mike Flanagan, 2015)
By the director of Oculus (2013) and Before I Wake (2016), this film features a deaf female writer who is living in an isolated cabin and is terrorized by a masked killer. Another final girl with a disability who kicks ass, yes!
