A Bloody Good Time 11.1.07: Horror History Lessons, Part 7
Posted by Joseph Lee on 11.01.2007
I'm a little late to the Halloween party, but I brought Halloween!
Another week passes, and it's time for another bloody good time. I wish this had been on Halloween, considering I'll be talking about Halloween, but I suppose it's not happening this year.
Let's recap from last week. Horror films in general have entered the mainstream and are highly popular. Around the same time, an underground movement of exploitation films was creating some terrible films meant mainly to shock and offend audiences. This movement did only a little damage, as most of the films were ignored and have either been forgotten or relegated to cult status. As a side note, I actually watched Cannibal Holocaust after writing last week's column and agree with the decision to ban it. Maybe not so much for its content (although the animal cruelty was unacceptable) but it was just a bad movie. It's one of those films that had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
But enough about that group of movies, we are here today to talk about slasher films. I'm going to go ahead and tell you due to the huge impact the slasher genre had and still has on horror it's going to have to be a two-parter. This week I'll talk about what a slasher is, it's origins and the three films that gave it a such a surge of popularity it almost dominated the genre, effects of which are still felt today.
The slasher film is a sub-genre of horror in which a group of people are hunted down by one psychopathic killer, who may or may not be wearing a mask. They've also been referred to as bodycount films, or as Roger Ebert once famously called them, "dead teenager films". Usually there's no motive or reasoning behind killing them (although sometimes there could be); the killer in question usually comes upon a group of people and begins to slaughter them one by one. Usually the murders would be in a fairly graphic fashion but not always. The kills usually leave it down to one or two, which will be a couple or just one "final girl" who ends up defeating the killer and surviving the attack.
In a slasher film, you can expect there to be no use of guns. It has happened, but it's really rare. There will usually be blunt objects or anything sharp. A backstory is sometimes given to explain who the killer is, but not exactly why they are killing this group of teenagers or young adults. The killer will end up on the receiving end of a variety of attacks before finally succumbing to their injuries, and sometimes they may spring up for one final scare or kill. Of course this leaves the story open for a sequel, of which there were many for a lot of the different slasher movies that were released.
The grandfather of the slasher film, in the sense that it debuted at least fifteen years before the boom began, was Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho(1960). Psychowas based on the novel by Robert Bloch and Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. It features Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, a quiet man under the influence of his mother. When "mother" takes over, Norman begins to kill people. This movie features the infamous shower scene that many have heard of in which Janet Leigh is killed early in the movie to the shrieking violins in a score by Bernard Herrmann.
Psycho broke box office records for its time. Initial critical reviews were mixed, but the public obviously loved it. Crictics who hated it did so because they felt it was a gimmick. The critics who loved it loved the performance of Perkins. Critics later changed their opinions and Psycho has been loved since. It's considered one of the all time greats and has had much influence over the genre. It was even nominated for four Academy Awards, but it did not win any. Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece rightfully ranks among the best.
Other early slashers include Dementia 13(1963), Blood and Black Lace(1964), and Twitch of the Death Nerve(1971). There were two other early ones, and I'm about to talk about those two now.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre(1974), directed by Tobe Hooper, is regarded as a classic of the genre. Although the title implies lots of graphic gore and violence, Chainsaw relies on its stalk scenes and general madness to scare audiences. There is surprisingly little gore to be had in this movie. A group of kids travel through Texas, where they pick up a crazy hitchhiker, then ditch him and become victims of the maniacal Leatherface, who wears human skin for a mask. This was also inspired by Ed Gein.
Chainsaw has become a cult classic since it's release spawning several sequels and two remakes (which we'll discuss in future columns). It was at one time the highest-grossing independent film ever, until another slasher film made more money in 1978. It was falsely marketed as a "true story" in order to gain a bigger audience. Critics enjoyed the performances, intense moments and overall gritty, realistic feel, but not the gory special effects. Some people wanted it to be banned, but the saw lives on even today.
Another film released in 1974 was Bob Clark's Black Christmas. This movie, starring Olivia Hussey and featuring Margot Kidder (before she was famous) and genre veteran John Saxon, has been a little forgotten by genre fans. Bigger name movies such as Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are credited with starting the slasher sub-genre but Christmas has held up over the years and helped bring it along as well. Black Christmas was the first film to use the "the calls are coming from inside the house" plotline. A sorority house receives disturbing calls and one by one the girls are killed off.
The film didn't rely on gore, but dark corners, camera angles and a score. It also used a series of increasingly unsettling phone calls that featured screaming, multiple voices and questions about what had been done with "the baby". It also features a scene of a girl suffocated by plastic and placed in a rocking chair in a particularly disturbing image.
Now we cover the big three. These three movies I'm about to mention all had early debuts and in addition to their predecessors, were the primary cause of the slasher boom.
First up is John Carpenter's classic, Halloween. This film is regarded by many as the best of the sub-genre, and one of the best horror films, ever. It's my personal favorite and there are plenty of reasons as to why this as critically applauded as it is. Everything about Halloween comes together to form a well-crafted masterpiece. This film featured the basic format that slasher films have been known for, of a masked maniac stalking and killing teens. Everything about this has been emulated so many times by others that it could be seen as clichéd. But Halloween is able to overcome all of that and remain a timeless film. How good is Halloween? Let's examine it's success.
This movie was the one that dethroned The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for highest-grossing independent film. Although it was filmed on a budget of 325,000, it went on to make 55 million overall (47 domestically, 8 million internationally). It's also critically acclaimed and was nominated for the Saturn award for Best Horror Film in 1979, but lost to The Wicker Man(1973). It's spawned seven sequels and a remake. There have also been countless documentaries, re-releases, merchandise and even comic books.
Next is Friday the 13th(1980), directed by Sean S. Cunningham. It was this series of films that gave birth to Jason Voorhees, the hockey-masked, machete-wielding, undead psychopath. However in the original, it's Jason's mother that does the killing, and Jason makes only a cameo, and doesn't really show up until the sequel. The plot is simple. A group of teens try to open Camp Crystal Lake and soon become dispatched in gruesome ways. Fun fact: this film features Kevin Bacon, before he was famous, receiving an arrow through the throat.
This film wasn't critically acclaimed like previous slasher films. In fact, critics hated it. Audiences loved it, however and it went on to produce a total of ten sequels, countless rip-offs, novels, comic books and spoofs. Jason will be around for quite some time because of his immense popularity, and this movie didn't even feature him!
Finally, we discuss a film that introduced a new aspect to slasher films. A Nightmare on Elm Street, directed by Wes Craven, added a supernatural element to slasher films. This one is about a group of teens who are haunted in their dreams by Freddy Kruger (played by Robert Englund). Like other slasher films, this features a very famous actor years before he was famous. Johnny Depp is famously sucked into a bed from which gallons of blood erupt onto the ceiling. It always makes me laugh knowing such a big name actor got his start in horror.
The film went on to gross 25.5 million, which was considered successful as it only had a budget of two million. The original Nightmare was also well-liked by audience and critics alike. They felt that it pushed the boundaries "between the imaginary and real" and loved the special effects. The movie itself gave way to seven sequels, one of which is a crossover with Friday the 13th. There was also a television series, a comic book series and novels. Freddy Krueger has become one of the most popular villains in cinema history, along with Jason, Michael, Leatherface, and some others that we will get to next week.
And what about next week? Most of these horror films were highly successful and critically acclaimed. But what about the ones that tried to capitalize and failed? Next week I'll get into the countless rip-offs and sequels that weren't as well liked when they ditched the story and went for upping the body count as well as some later series that were popular. These sequels and imitators nearly killed the slasher genre, and certainly put a dent in the horror genre. See you next week.
