The 90s were a cultural reaction to the 80s: Nelson Mandela strode out of prison with a clenched fist and ended apartheid. Boris Yeltsin rode a tank to the Kremlin and ended the Cold War. The Americans voted Democrat. The British ruling Conservative Party succeeded in a putsch to oust Margaret Thatcher.
Hollywood stopped making horror films.
It was due to the success of Scream1996 that the industry decided to resurrect the genre. While Hollywood was busy greenlighting a new wave of horror movies the Japanese were watching Ringu1998.
First word arrived from journalists at foreign film festivals; they had never seen anything like it. The solitary art house in my hometown booked it. Film 4 broadcast it. By the time Hollywood had announced its intent to remake the wonders of J-Horror were in full bloom. Ringu had earned its legend.
Horror works best when based in reality and the reality of horror is mythology. These are the stories of old – the stories told to children to keep them in check. They are The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood. Ringu is based on the eponymous novel inspired by (Japanese) folklore1.
This is a film about an invented legend a la Candyman1992. Where the latter uses the curtain raiser to introduce the legend Ringu uses it to both introduce legend and serve as catalyst to kick start the plot:
Teenager Masami is over at Tomoko’s house. The girls are alone – no parents. Masami tells Tomoko the story of a cursed videotape. It turns out Masami has seen said tape. As soon as Masami leaves the room the curse comes to claim Tomoko.
Every story needs a hero. In horror it is invariably the final girl2. This character is germane to the successful telling of any horror film thus the casting is critical. Wes Craven said of Nancy Thompson in A Nightmare on Elm Street1984 “I wanted to cast someone intelligent looking”3.
Quick wits, fortitude and attractiveness (as opposed to beauty) are traits fundamental in the horror hero for this is the character the male audience has to empathise with. It has to be played by an actor the audience will desire and also respect.
Actress Nanako Matsushima was in her mid 20s during filming. She towers like an elder above the schoolgirls in the cast. Her character Reiko is a working woman so the teens respect her. Her attire throughout the movie is professional and modest. No cleavage. The audience can accept her without her flicking her hair.
To raise the stakes she’s also a (single) mother. She has a straight forward relationship with her ex-husband. She’s very feminine. So much so that when an infatuated student of her ex meets her Reiko is amused at the young girl’s suspicion. For the latter half of the film Reiko is trying to save her son from the monster.
The worker seeks employment for a pay cheque and the audience seeks out horror films for their monsters. This monster is called Sadako. She is a ghost – a ghoul. She was once of the living but not quite one of us. Now she is of the dead and is full of hatred for us. She is mute in her malice. She is unforgiving. She will not be resolved. Her reveal is the most dramatic moment in horror of the decade.
The bonus of this story is the slow build and detail. Reiko and her ex investigate the folklore and the audience discover the resonance of the curse as they do. The viewer is bathed in eerie narrative flux and the dutiful payoff defies morality to the point of disbelief.
original Japanese one-sheet
Ringu went on to become Japan’s most successful horror film4. It inspired a multitude of copycats in Japan and Korea and is solely responsible for the J-Horror phenomenon late of last decade. Don’t blame it for the risible remakes. The Ring2002 was incomprehensible nonsense but a box office smash5. There is irony in Sadako’s use of video technology: Paramount has announced The Ring 3D coming soon6.
Disregard the cynicism of the marketplace and the unfortunate legacy of cinematic success. Surrender to the story telling of Ringu. It does what every horror film is supposed to do – it creeps into the memory.
Cinema is the art of storytelling through motion pictures. Thrill Fiction™ recognises that the movies are mass entertainment storytelling. This in and of itself is not an attempt at art. Then cinema is the art of motion picture storytelling as mass entertainment. Examples are The Watchmen2009The Godfather1972All Quiet on the Western Front1930. To wit; movies are entertainment, film is art, cinema is art as entertainment.
Dawn of the Dead1978 is cinema with all its faults in widescreen. Cineastes with low tolerance for low budget may be resistant to its visuals. Dawn’s stunts, special effects and jump cuts were dated on release; three years prior Jaws1975 was convincing and one year later Aliens 1979was mesmeric. Dawn succeeds through narrative. Its story is the star. Its location is its genius.
Due to the nature of this beautiful beast Dawn is episodic in structure yet doesn’t suffer for it. In 1978 the behemoth indoor shopping mall was an American experiment. It was so unfamiliar one of the characters had to ask what it (the Monroeville Mall1) was. This film is divided into two parts; the shopping mall and before the shopping mall.
Gaylen Ross2
“We’re blowing it ourselves.”
Francine
Come the apocalypse and people won’t believe it until they are dead. That mass delusion will be fed by a hysterical mass media. In (England) 1978 I had not seen an American news broadcast whereas in 2010 I can watch Fox News 24 hours a day. What was once a noble profession – the fourth estate – is now a distributor of lies to a gullible audience.
Perhaps this type of television journalism was the norm in 1978 America – if not nationally then perhaps regionally. What George A Romero does is predict the Fox News style badgering of expert witnesses and the downplaying of their salient testimony. This is where Romero recreates his zombie myth; Dr Foster states that the dead are come back to life: all dead – not just those bitten. The journalists erupt in outrage. They need to pander to the dwindling gallery. They insist on false hope. Their audience (American/human) is not mature enough for life and death truths.
This is the start of the film. This is three weeks into the apocalypse.
David Emge3
The film’s first encounter with the zombies is during a police siege. The cops are after Martinez and his crew who have taken refuge in a tenement populated by black and Hispanic citizens. The police attack with zest and glee and impunity.
“Shit man, this is better than what I’ve got.”
Woolley
The massacre is reminiscent of the Symbionese Liberation Army siege4.There are echoes from the ghosts of Attica5. Romero knew this law-enforcement tactic would be used again. In 1993 eigthy-four men women and children were killed in Waco6. 22 of them were British.
Rest in peace.
The siege introduces the two (good) cops – Roger and Peter. They meet on the job. Roger offers Peter a way out; his buddy Stephen has a helicopter. Francine, the journalist, is Stephen’s girlfriend. As befits horror not one of the actors was (or became) a star. The audience doesn’t know which characters will live or die. The two cops rendezvous with the couple at the docks – bang in the middle of a hijack.
In foreshadow of the second trilogy actor Joseph Pilato plays Skipper, the leader of the hijackers – a bunch of renegade cops. Pilato went on to star in the sequel Day of the Dead 1985 as army Captain Rhodes. In the second trilogy actor Allan Van Sprang played Sarge/Captain – the leader of a band of rouge soldiers (as well as Brubaker in Land of the Dead2005).
Animals in the wild do not fight unless necessary. Skipper calls off the hijacking. It would make no sense for both parties to shoot each other up. The two groups become friendly but in a display of sardonic humour our heroes don’t share their cigarettes. Sans cash that’s the universal currency. The cops head out in a boat for an island – “any island”. The foursome fly off for Canada.
Scott H. Reiniger7
On the ground below rednecks, aided by the army, go on a zombie killing spree. This is a rehash of the climax of Night of the Living Dead 1968. In real life this is the militia in Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Nazi Europe, Columbia, name a country. In the United States during Hurricane Katrina the militia8 were so brazen they displayed signs with racist epithets9.
“You are stronger than us. But soon I think we be stronger than you.”
Old Priest
Dawn of the Dead reads more like prophecy than history. This amongst other things lends it to repeated viewings and the discovery of hidden gems. Fans of The Walking Dead would do well to revisit this film and see where their beloved TV show stole its ideas from; plot points such as a lead character being pregnant and fine detail such as the division of labour between the sexes.
The Dead Trilogy is legendary. It is the best trilogy in horror. It is the best trilogy ever filmed. The series consists not of narrative sequels but of thematic ones. There is time and distance between each movie – it’s what makes the trilogy more powerful than all others. Dawn is to be purchased and kept forever in the family library like a copy of Animal Farm. It is the best zombie film ever made.
It is American cinema.
Ken Foree10
“When there is no more room in hell the dead shall walk the earth.”
Thrill Fiction is proud to present guest blogger Ross Tipograph. His contribution is welcome because Gore Vidal won’t speak to me. The following are Ross’ views and all hate mail should be directed to him.
Or just leave a comment.
A Nightmare on Elm Street1984 is the definition of ghoulish.
Let’s begin by first discarding the recent remake, released April 2010, a plague to cinemas around the globe. It was poorly written, with acting performances to make even the least movie-savvy watcher cringe and a script that attempted to rewrite history – the history of a man named Fred, who knows only one true creator: Wes Craven.
In 1984, the first Elm Street came out and started a revolution. Nancy, Glen, Tina, Rod, and the poor Springwood parents: the gang was all here. These unsuspecting victims played prey to a child-killer: Freddy Krueger – more evil than Jason more mysterious than Michael and wittier than Chucky could ever dream of being. Freddy is menace and cinematic legend.
He kills you in your dreams. That was the thought I had to wrap my head around upon my first viewing. It was amazing and impossible and horrifying. By this time, I was already obsessed with Scream 1996and I knew most of the ‘50s-‘70s classics like the back of my DVD binders. Elm Street was the cherry on top of the cake and oh what a cherry.
It opens with the black and red flickering New Line Cinema logo. It’s also eerily silent until the first moment of Charles Bernstein’s masterful score sets the chilling and original mood. It is an ambient electronic pulse like an alien invasion accompanied by a growing growl and a woman’s choral vocals. Then the image: the Man’s dusty boots, his bag of knives, the shrill piercing sounds of the score grow louder. The sharpening of a knife, the booming title card, a jump in the opening credits with a mock childhood theme that is both crude and scary. Here a movie and a legend are born in the span of one minute. That’s all we need to know what we’re in for.
It’s genius. Throw a bunch of ‘80s (cliché) high school students into the midst of what would be the most harrowing experience of any young (or grown) person’s life – a dream killer. A Nightmare. The students are plucky but deaths are more entertaining. We begin with Tina then Rod then they all start to drop like flies until it’s all up to Nancy Thompson to save the day – after her friends and boyfriend are viciously slashed.
The dream sequences most definitely hold up to today – and to think, it was all without CGI. It was Craven’s brilliant direction that keeps us teetering insanely between dreams and reality, cutting quick to the knifed glove slashing through a sheet, set to the sound of a girl’s scream, or the mechanically over-stretched arms of the villain in a dark alley, or a tongue popping out of a phone’s receiver. There are almost no explanations – except that there is nowhere to hide. It’s very surreal and very unprecedented.
It’s interesting: the sequels came in truckloads, and yet Freddy remained an icon. With the exception of Dream Warriors1987 the sequels were abysmal. Freddy evolved into comedy and the filmmaking devolved into a poor excuse for stale popcorn. Even Craven’s return to the series, his own New Nightmare1994(more of a re-vamp than a sequel, really), poked fun at the Freddy phenomena. There’s no getting around the fact that this character is forever cemented in gold.
For fans of the series, seek out and find Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, a horror-comedy mockumentary about serial killers from 2006, featuring a cameo from our own dear Robert Englund.
This article was going to be a review of The Wolfman2010 DVD. It was going to be a Re/Made compare and contrast against the original The Wolf Man1941. However the former is so bad I refuse to waste time watching it to credits let alone writing about it. Like every independent blogger I don’t get paid for this. Read and see that there are no Google Ads on this site. Thrill Fiction is a labour of love for the genre and for writing. I would rather write about films I love though I will write about any that makes an effort.
Previously on Thrill Fiction I’ve listed the top 20 films in over a hundred years of horror. The top 30 is to come. I’ve decided to concurrently review every film on the list in descending order. If you haven’t seen a given movie on this chart I’ll tell you why you should. If you don’t like a given film on this list I’ll tell you why I do. These reviews will be intermittent as I continue to script A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Return. The reviews will be detailed. They may well influence you to take another look at a forgotten flicker in your childhood memory. They may invoke remembrance of the jolt of a first screening.
I love these films. I love horror. So do you.
United Kingdom: In 1988 Warner Home Video withdrew The Exorcist1973 in anticipation of it being banned. The film would not receive certification for home viewing until 1999. During those banned years the film exploded in legend. It was during those years that William Peter Blatty wrote and directed The Exorcist III1990. The first sequel directed by John Boorman in 1977 has been dismissed (by Blatty himself amongst others). This film has been declared ‘the first true sequel to The Exorcist’.
The Exorcist IIIis adapted from Blatty’s own novel Legion (pub.1983). The book itself became a quest for me during the 90s. It was out of print and no second-hand bookshop in Manchester or London stocked it or could order it for me. Then along came Amazon: problem solved. The film differs from the novel. The film is better.
It is 15 years after Father Damien Karras threw himself to suicide down those steps and a serial killer begins his work in Georgetown. His work is copycat of an executed serial killer ‘The Gemini’. Lt Kinderman is led to an asylum where a lunatic claims responsibility. Patient X knows details about the Gemini killings that weren’t leaked to the press. He also knows details about one Reagan McNeil and an exorcism performed by Father Karras. He promises to help Kinderman’s unbelief.
I am a Pentecostal Christian albeit lapsed. I believe.
A college campus is an oasis of calm shielded from the fury of the world. It is an educated fool’s paradise. Blatty invokes the tranquillity of GeorgetownUniversity and provokes the spirit of the original film. The famous steps are introduced pre credit as are two of the main characters – Lt Kinderman and Father Dyer. Both characters were part-players in the original. In this film both characters are played by different actors. It didn’t bother me as it might have done – in 1990 I had not seen the original. Actors George C Scott and Ed Flanders respectively immediately command both roles as their own.
This is acting that has to be witnessed. In a film full of great performances Brad Dourif delivers a searing cacophony to which Jason Miller is a symphony of malevolence. Scott and Flanders ground the picture while actors Scott Wilson and Nancy Fish imbue idiosyncratic impetus. Even the bit parts by Samuel L Jackson, Tyra Ferrell and Fabio have resonance. The dialogue is stylised almost to the point of film noir. It is at times pithy at others resplendent and at its best tsunami-like. This is the rage of a writer.
The story unfolds at slow boil. As Kinderman connects the riddle of Reagan McNeil’s exorcism the serial killing continues. Urgency outpaces the characters – and the audience. The details of the set designs and locations are always in the foreground. Not only is there the sense of Georgetown but also of the hospital, Temple’s office and the Disturbed Ward. Blatty then uses the frame to magnificent perfection not only to invoke a sense of place but also a sense of doom.
It is not often film of any genre casually addresses police racism as a matter of fact. This occurs at the first murder – that of an African-American boy. Kinderman uncovers a connection between the boy and Reagan McNeil. This film is a test of faith; why does God allow such evil upon his beloved? Lt Kinderman will face his fear. It will test his faith.
The ending of the film is disputed and is the result of reshoots. The critic Mark Kermode denounces it whereas I applaud it. Not since The Wicker Man1973 has a dénouement enrapt and engrossed in genuine terror. I went to see this picture three times in the spanking new multiplex – one of the first in England and the first in my city. Other than horror only comedy conjoins an audience. There is nothing comedic about the terror jolt from the hospital scene. It is unfailing. The audience has succumbed.
Others have taken their appreciation further. It has now been adapted into a stage play.
The Exorcist III is the best film I’ve ever seen never mind the best horror film.
In celebration of today's much anticpated release I'm sharing my thoughts on the movies that make hair stand on my skin.
Gen-Xers like myself know director Sam Raimi from the Evil Dead 80s. In the 90s he went Hollywood and turned his back on horror. Those 90s that were bereft of scares until Scream remade the genre fashionable profitable and eventually respectable. Now Raimi’s back with the trailer tagline announcing ‘the return of true horror’.
I’m excited.
The Drag Me To Hell storyline is Hammer House of Horror by way of Faust. Entertainment is more the telling than the story. Otherwise James Bond would be dead. The trailer looks crisp and compelling. No bait and switch here.
A bad horror film – they’re aplenty – is always better than a bad drama (like that fantasy wishful-thinking claptrap Juno). A bad comedy is intolerable. A bad action film stars Steven Seagal and all romantic comedies are bad; Anne Hathaway for Julia Roberts? Kate Hudson for Meg Ryan?
I like horror because it holds my attention. When done well there’s dread throughout every frame. The following 10 movies are examples of genre excellence. They walk with you out of the cinema into your bedroom and into your sleep.
This recent gem rewrites conventional wisdom; it’s a remake that is better than the original.
Like everyone in Britain I grew up on American movies and television. I can close my eyes point at the screen and predict what will happen in the next scene. Foreign movies follow a different template. Ergo they receive my acute attention.
The source movie A Tale of Two Sisters (Korea) is baffling. If a viewer laughs at a horror film it’s a disaster. If the viewer scratches his head, it’s still a disaster.
The Uninvited is streamlined: there is no subplot. There is Emily Browning and David Strathairn who carry the heart soul and anchor of this movie. I’ve never seen Strathairn give a bad performance. I had never seen Browning before this.
Hers is the lead role and she carries the whole picture. Her face communicates. As does her diction, her gait, her body language. There is a contract between cinema and audience ie the suspension of disbelief.
I believed you Emily.
Once this film is over you remember you’ve been told this story before. Two obvious pictures starring A-listers come to mind.
Neither of them is as talented as Emily Browning.
9) The OrphanageSpain 2007
A catholic sensibility in the afterlife makes this ghost story both horrifying and poignant. Belén Rueda carries the movie in the role of nature’s most ferocious: the (adoptive) mother.
Which begs the question which is more maternal – birth mother or adoptive mother?
Watching her mental fragility as she battles the supernatural for her child is poetic heart wrenching and frightening. It elicits an investment from the audience of familia pitch. The resolution is shattering.
And worthy.
New Line Cinema is to remake it for American audiences. The remake of A Tale of Two Sisters worked because the original is flawed. Perhaps they’ll adopt a scene for scene approach as in the [REC•] remake Quarantine. Perhaps they’ll hire decent actors too.
8) FrankensteinUS 1931
1931 was a good year for horror and Boris Karloff as ‘?’ is more famous than author Mary Shelly. Make up artist Jack Pierce deserves mention for creating the most enduring monster in horror movie mythology. This is horror as melodrama; the monster as victim. He begs for and receives our sympathy.
When the hulking Karloff tosses the little girl into the river into her death and he laughs with discovered joy because he thought it was a game they were playing. This is horror.
Bride of Frankenstein to my knowledge is the very first sequel worthy of its predecessor. Watch them back to back for the complete story and privilege.
7) CandymanUS 1992
It was an oasis in the horror barren 90s. It is modern gothic - this love story between a post-grad student and urban myth. It is a diabolical revenge story. The Candyman has Dracula’s raison d’etre.
The film is based on Clive Barker’s short story ‘the Forbidden’. Good story, good directing and good performances will make any film. What propels Candyman into memorable is the chemistry between actors Virginia Marsden and Tony Todd. The latter captured the (supernatural) serial killer more so than Anthony Hopkins captured his. It’s still Todd’s most famous role – note the wry homage in the Final Destination franchise. The score served to sear the story into UK audiences. Word of mouth made it a hit over here.
I had heard about J-Horror in the late 90s but ignored it. Probably because I signed up for the John Woo led Hong Kong action thrillers and signed off after I’d seen Hard Boiled. I like action. I like thrillers. I don’t like the wallowing in violence of the Far Eastern flicks.
My first experience was through television watching the much trumpeted Battle Royale. I was hooked.
Ring was preceded by its reputation. It did not disappoint. The Japanese have a different way of story telling. Slow. Subtle. Cerebral. This accentuates the horror. The curse of the videotape – this was when DVD’s were taking over – and a new monster to be awed by. She had no dialogue. There was no love story. Just hate. Hate that led to the desperation of the protagonist’s final act. It is horror itself.
Best watched back to back with Ring 2. If you have the nerve.
TFi: Ring 0 the second sequel is backstory tosh that should be avoided. The US versions are bad beyond design.
5) Dr Jekyll and Mr HydeUS 1931
I first saw this as a child. The imprint memory I have is of the metamorphosis. That and Miriam Hopkins celebrating her freedom - then begging for her life.
The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a novella written by Robert Louis Stevenson. Yes, he who wrote the boys own adventure Kidnapped. Surely other than Dracula no story has been filmed as much and has more cultural value. The latest version is the 2008 BBC TV mini-series.
I rediscovered the film in my 20s as an aspiring screenwriter. I was able to marvel at Frederic March’s all encompassing dual performance. The movie’s love triangle is a supreme example of a man’s dichotomy.
I love my wife. I will not feed my perversions on her.
The story is tragic stressful and horrifying. Of course it ends in death.
(sobbing) “Dr Jekyll.”
Free at last.
4) Ju-On: The GrudgeJapan 2003
Take someone else’s idea (Ring), improve on it and you end up with Ju-On.
The horror film works better when the characters are in the dark and realisation slow dawns on them that death is coming. It becomes a survival of wits. This is where Ju-On beats Ring because the latter starts as an investigative venture. Ju-On is catch as catch can.
This film has its own canon. Ju-On 1 and 2 were made twice in Japan: The first couple were direct-to-video then due to their success were remade as features. The American remake The Grudge starring Sarah Michelle Gellar is good enough to be included in the canon. Ignore the exploitative Grudge 2 and 3. These are American films that go off on their own tangents. The good news is two more Japanese sequels are coming soon.
Satire as horror. Its doomsday scenario kicks the movie off as a TV news broadcast descends into panic and anarchy. From there a paramilitary police unit invade an African American housing project and fire at will. With malice. With glee. The terror did not end (there).
The abiding cultural image of this movie is the zombie horde in the shopping mall. It’s something that occurs to me every time I go into my local Asda Walmart. They wander aimlessly. I know what they’re capable of.
Like Orwell before him director George A Romero got it spot on.
One of few horror films not to focus on the female as victim actor Gaylen Ross declared she would not serve as ‘den mother’ to the men.
The sheer simplicity of your dreams coming true is something every human being can relate to.
Nightmares can come true.
How can you stop them? Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep.
Director Wes Craven was inspired to write the script after reading in the LA Times the story of a Cambodian kid who refused to sleep after suffering nightmares. He was adamant they would kill him. The boy’s family watched him disintegrating and did everything they could to make him sleep.
It’ll all be better in the morning.
Finally they got him to bed. They heard him scream. By the time they got to his bedroom he was dead. Afterwards they found the coffee and pills he had stashed to prevent him sleeping. It turned out he wasn’t the only one. There were more. Cambodian boys. Dying. In their sleep.
Heather Lagenkamp carried the picture but unlike Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloweenit did not make her a star. That prize went to the director due mainly to the monster he created. Only one sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriorsis a worthy companion piece. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare was a disappointing failure. A remake is incoming. The backstory I believe. I’m not holding my breath.
Based on the novel Legion by William Peter Blatty, directed by Blatty, screenplay by Blatty. It’s all his fault.
A film should not have to follow its source novel scene for chapter. What it should do is retain the spirit of the book. In Hollywood with millions of dollars at risk this does not always happen. Blatty had to reshoot the ending and a better film was made for it.
The movie is highly stylised with every shaft of light and angle of frame; the background, the foreground, the foreboding. Blatty elicited virtuoso performances from Brad Dourif and Jason Miller. Everyone else is just as good in subtlety. Most of all it’s the dialogue.
It mesmerises.
Bombastic and rollicking, eminently quotable, plagiarised in American History X. This is weaving of words into poetic grandeur.
When we were children they told us ‘words will never hurt (me)’.
Another lie.
The 10 Best Horror Films could have been expanded to the 20 best. There are gems not included. There are certainly sub-genre flicks not included. The listed are films that cross over into the mainstream. That in itself is not a criteria but it is an indication of a story well made. I like ‘em better than good.
Approve/disapprove/agree/disagree? Did I miss out your favourite horror? Let me see your thought in words.
