A Bloody Good Time 10.18.2007: Horror History Lessons, Part 5
Posted by Joseph Lee on 10.18.2007
People enter haunted houses and the horror genre enters the mainstream.
Last week we discussed the monster movies the US unleashed on the masses. Now it gets a little tricky because there were so many different sub-genres gaining prominence that it'll be hard to focus on one. I've chosen the ones that I feel were big for the time. So while Psycho came out in 1960, I'll save it for the slasher column, as they were bigger in the eighties. I just wanted to clarify before I get started. No feedback this week, so let's get right to it.
There have been supernatural elements in movies before and even a few horror films prior to the 1960's. Many of the movies with ghosts or other supernatural fare were light-hearted and the ghosts were not menacing. However in the 1940's there were a few malevolent ghost movies such as The Uninvited(1944). This featured a couple being haunted in their home with different means of terrorizing the audience. Instead of shocks and gore like today's ghost horror, this one relied on the viewer's imagination, using noises and odd occurrences to haunt the people in the home.
Other early supernatural films include Dead of Night, which is a British anthology that featured a demonic ventriloquist dummy. There was also The Picture of Dorian Gray(1945) and Cat People(1942).
However, it seems as though the late fifties and beyond is when supernatural horror really hit it's stride. This may have been in part to several early films that were successful (and still considered classic today). One of these is the 1958 Vincent Price film House on Haunted Hill. Vincent Price is a sort of master of horror in his own right. The young kids may not recognize the name, but he's provided the starring role in many a horror film. Usually he'd play a slightly creepy, charismatic bad guy. In this one, he was the host to a group of people in a haunted house. Whoever stays all night gets ten thousand dollars (that's a lot in 1958 dollars). Naturally spooky things happen. The director, William Castle, also gave us 13 Ghosts in 1960.
This gave way to other horror films in the sixties. One of my all-time favorites is 1963's The Haunting. Don't confuse the two previous films with the lesser remakes in the late nineties. These were both classics, even if they may feel dated to some. The Haunting is about a group of people entering a haunted house (a staple of early supernatural horror, it seems) to investigate. The house slowly drives a woman insane. Soon she wants to be one with the forces in the house. Other classic ghost stories of the sixties include The Innocents and Carnival of Souls.
One of the all time classics (that I unfortunately have not seen) is 1968's Rosemary's Baby. This movie concerns a woman who soon becomes pregnant with what she believes is the Devil's child. The film was very popular, and even won an Academy Award (for Best Supporting Actress Ruth Gordon). This is part of a triumvirate of demonic supernatural horror that were released in a short period of time that were all highly successful and still are popular to this day. These would be 1973's The Exorcist and 1976's The Omen.
The Exorcist is arguably one of the greatest horror films ever made. I of course say arguably because there will be some who do not feel this way. (I myself prefer John Carpenter's Halloween, but that's for later). Regardless of your personal opinion, you can't deny the impact and success Exorcist has been a part of over the years. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won two for Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay. It's also grossed a lifetime total of $402,500,000. It made Linda Blair an icon with just one movie. She will be forever known as the little possessed girl in this movie, who screams vulgarities and terrorizes everyone.
The last part of this group is The Omen. Don't mistake this with the 2006 remake. This one was thirty years prior and stars Academy Award winner Gregory Peck (of To Kill a Mockingbird fame, among others) as a man who realizes his five year old son is really the Antichrist. This movie featured a frightening little boy playing Damien, who somehow managed to look both innocent and demonic at the same time. In my opinion, it's the best casting decision in the entire movie. This film also was very popular, although not as much as it'd predecessors.
Other supernatural horror was released in this time period, and big-name talent were involved. Stephen King had arrived. He gave us Brian De Palma's 1976 film Carrie and Stanley Kubrik's 1980 film The Shining. Carrie won awards and made a large amount of money, in addition to a large amount of critical acclaim. The Shining is another one of the films in this sub-genre that is considered one of the greatest ever. It could be due to Jack Nicholson's manic performance as Jack Torrence, or the direction of Kubrik.
The reason I mention the awards and talent caliber for these movies is that horror began to take a new turn. It was officially mainstream. Horror was becoming A-list itself. Award-winning actors and directors were taking the helm of horror movies that to this day remain popular. Horror has always been popular, but it was just in the seventies beginning to be more than just popcorn entertainment for the masses. It was becoming apparent that horror could be considered an art form like any other genre.
Then as the next two columns will show, horror could just as easily hit the lows of B-movies once again. Grindhouse and exploitation horror is next week. We'll cover everything from zombie horror to shock-gore.
