Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
In praise of the Horror film, a strange and wonderful thing.
Having just sat here watching the latest news update on the Liverpool situation, and now watching images of Wayne Rooney warming up on the Wembley pitch, coupled with images of Adrian Childs presenting the pre-game coverage, my mind has inexplicably wandered onto the subject of my favourite horror films.
Yeah, sure, you might be thinking that Halloween being just around the corner might have something to do with it too, but in comparison with the aforementioned horror shows, only partially.
When I get right down to it, the horror genre might be my favourite of film genres. It is coincidentally also the hardest to get right. For every ten horror films you watch, you might, if your lucky, see one good film. And every once in awhile you'll see a great one. But the bad horror films are generally capital B Bad.
All half joking aside, October is traditionally the season for watching and celebrating horror films. Last night I watched the first part of a three part documentary on the history of the horror film. It was fantastic and got me warmed up and in the mood to watch my old favourites. Films like John Carpenters The Thing, starring the brilliant Kurt Russell, and of course his seminal Halloween. A film I still struggle to watch by myself. I got the urge to watch all the classic Vincent Price films. The Pit and the Pendulum, Fall of the House of Usher, The Raven,House on Haunted Hill, House of Wax, Masque of the Red Death, and The Last Man on Earth.
I started thinking about the Evil Dead trilogy. Starring the iconic Bruce Campbell, and the brilliant kinetic camera work of Sam Raimi. I got the urge to watch Rosemary's Baby, and The Exorcist. And the original and greatest vampire film, Todd Browns Dracula. Starring Bela Legosi in one of the most memorable performances of all time. My mind wandered to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, still possibly the most disturbing horror film I've seen. The list goes on and on. James Whales Frankenstein. The 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, starring the legendary Donald Sutherland. And while on the subject of Sutherland, you can't not think about Nicholas Roags brilliant and disturbing Don't Look Back.
And that's not even getting into the modern french horror films like Martyrs, L'Interior, Switchblade Romance,or Ils. Or Brad Anderson's Session Nine. And I've skipped over the films of Dario Argento. The list, when you get your brain going, really is stupendously long. Peter Jackson's sensationally gory classic Brain Dead. The Friday the 13th films, though only good for their comic value now. Or the recent Paranormal Activity and Rec.
Horror films if nothing else, are easily the most fun. The other night I watched a couple of Lucio Fulci films. He was an infamous and legendary Italian filmmaker famous for his graphic violence and realistic special effects, who frequently combined extreme gore with religious themes. I watched The Beyond, and The House By The Cemetery. His films definitely aren't for everybody, especially if judged by today's standards, and both the films I watched, featured laughable (badly dubbed)over-acting, and both plots were a bit weak to say the least. But the effects were ingenious and even by today's standards oddly disturbing. And the weird melodramatic music added strange, sinister, otherworldly overtones to the whole thing.
Its a weird thing about horror films, in particular with horror film buffs, that unlike most other film genres, bad acting and silly plots and even cheesy special effects doesn't necessarily equal a bad film. It's why critical reviews of horror films are often misleading or even miss the point completely. You can't really judge a horror film the way you would a drama or a thriller, where good acting and writing, and a strong plot are essential to keep the viewers attention from beginning to end. A horror film might be awful but if you watch it in the right circumstances, it can still be a fun experience.
Take the Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film festival. Midnight Madness is a program of films shown at midnight through out the festival, purposely made up of the weird, terrible, horrifying, and hilarious. Plenty of great films have played this program, alongside many a terrible film. And oddly, the best experience is often watching the terrible film. The audience laughs together at all the bad dialogue and groans together at all the ridiculous plot twists.
That experience doesn't really exist with other film genres.A horror film can have less than good dialogue, and wooden acting but can still disturb you so much that you struggle getting it out of your head.
Of course, in the end, the great ones, the truly great horror films, stand tall against any of the classic films from other genres. Its a rare thing to get the story, the acting, the dialogue, the effects, and most importantly, the pacing right in a horror film. And when it works, it is something to behold.
Of course, in recent years, great horror films have become even rarer. Especially in America. Mainstream American horror films have been embarrassingly exposed by groundbreaking French, Spanish and Korean horror films. International filmmakers seem genuinely interested in subverting the genre. In raising the bar and testing the limits of the horror film. Where as mainstream American horror films seem startlingly uninspired. Content to rehash old ideas. To remake old or foreign horror films(films often loved and celebrated), and turn them into empty vessels made as generic as possible, presumably to ensure the largest possible audience. Hollywood seems afraid to take risks now.
Fortunately we can turn to the classics. To the great American horror films of the seventies and eighties. And all the rest.
It is a strange thing, that it could be so much fun trying to scare the shit out of yourself.
Yeah, sure, you might be thinking that Halloween being just around the corner might have something to do with it too, but in comparison with the aforementioned horror shows, only partially.
When I get right down to it, the horror genre might be my favourite of film genres. It is coincidentally also the hardest to get right. For every ten horror films you watch, you might, if your lucky, see one good film. And every once in awhile you'll see a great one. But the bad horror films are generally capital B Bad.
All half joking aside, October is traditionally the season for watching and celebrating horror films. Last night I watched the first part of a three part documentary on the history of the horror film. It was fantastic and got me warmed up and in the mood to watch my old favourites. Films like John Carpenters The Thing, starring the brilliant Kurt Russell, and of course his seminal Halloween. A film I still struggle to watch by myself. I got the urge to watch all the classic Vincent Price films. The Pit and the Pendulum, Fall of the House of Usher, The Raven,House on Haunted Hill, House of Wax, Masque of the Red Death, and The Last Man on Earth.
I started thinking about the Evil Dead trilogy. Starring the iconic Bruce Campbell, and the brilliant kinetic camera work of Sam Raimi. I got the urge to watch Rosemary's Baby, and The Exorcist. And the original and greatest vampire film, Todd Browns Dracula. Starring Bela Legosi in one of the most memorable performances of all time. My mind wandered to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, still possibly the most disturbing horror film I've seen. The list goes on and on. James Whales Frankenstein. The 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, starring the legendary Donald Sutherland. And while on the subject of Sutherland, you can't not think about Nicholas Roags brilliant and disturbing Don't Look Back.
And that's not even getting into the modern french horror films like Martyrs, L'Interior, Switchblade Romance,or Ils. Or Brad Anderson's Session Nine. And I've skipped over the films of Dario Argento. The list, when you get your brain going, really is stupendously long. Peter Jackson's sensationally gory classic Brain Dead. The Friday the 13th films, though only good for their comic value now. Or the recent Paranormal Activity and Rec.
Horror films if nothing else, are easily the most fun. The other night I watched a couple of Lucio Fulci films. He was an infamous and legendary Italian filmmaker famous for his graphic violence and realistic special effects, who frequently combined extreme gore with religious themes. I watched The Beyond, and The House By The Cemetery. His films definitely aren't for everybody, especially if judged by today's standards, and both the films I watched, featured laughable (badly dubbed)over-acting, and both plots were a bit weak to say the least. But the effects were ingenious and even by today's standards oddly disturbing. And the weird melodramatic music added strange, sinister, otherworldly overtones to the whole thing.
Its a weird thing about horror films, in particular with horror film buffs, that unlike most other film genres, bad acting and silly plots and even cheesy special effects doesn't necessarily equal a bad film. It's why critical reviews of horror films are often misleading or even miss the point completely. You can't really judge a horror film the way you would a drama or a thriller, where good acting and writing, and a strong plot are essential to keep the viewers attention from beginning to end. A horror film might be awful but if you watch it in the right circumstances, it can still be a fun experience.
Take the Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film festival. Midnight Madness is a program of films shown at midnight through out the festival, purposely made up of the weird, terrible, horrifying, and hilarious. Plenty of great films have played this program, alongside many a terrible film. And oddly, the best experience is often watching the terrible film. The audience laughs together at all the bad dialogue and groans together at all the ridiculous plot twists.
That experience doesn't really exist with other film genres.A horror film can have less than good dialogue, and wooden acting but can still disturb you so much that you struggle getting it out of your head.
Of course, in the end, the great ones, the truly great horror films, stand tall against any of the classic films from other genres. Its a rare thing to get the story, the acting, the dialogue, the effects, and most importantly, the pacing right in a horror film. And when it works, it is something to behold.
Of course, in recent years, great horror films have become even rarer. Especially in America. Mainstream American horror films have been embarrassingly exposed by groundbreaking French, Spanish and Korean horror films. International filmmakers seem genuinely interested in subverting the genre. In raising the bar and testing the limits of the horror film. Where as mainstream American horror films seem startlingly uninspired. Content to rehash old ideas. To remake old or foreign horror films(films often loved and celebrated), and turn them into empty vessels made as generic as possible, presumably to ensure the largest possible audience. Hollywood seems afraid to take risks now.
Fortunately we can turn to the classics. To the great American horror films of the seventies and eighties. And all the rest.
It is a strange thing, that it could be so much fun trying to scare the shit out of yourself.
Friday, October 08, 2010
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