This documentary pretty much puts an end to the idea that horror is a throw away genre. This film sets out to show how the horror genre can reflect and comment on the real world events happening at the time. It does this by interviewing various horror film directors and creators, and showing clips from a plethora of horror films. I really enjoyed hearing these horror legends give their input on their own creations. This behind the scenes look helped me to better appreciate the films they were talking about. For example, it was great to hear Romero talk about Night of the Living Dead. I liked seeing how the film fed on real world fears, such as the assassination of MLK and Vietnam.
Horror films can also represent aspects of humanity and comment on them. Wes Craven's Last House on the Left is a good example of this. This film demonstrates how all humans are capable of committing terrible acts. In the film a girl is raped by these strangers, after some unforeseen circumstances, end up staying at the girl's house. Her parents learn about what their guests have done and kill them. However, it is the nature of these deaths that is shocking. Pictured above is the girl's father about to kill a man with a chainsaw. This film examined the human psyche and suggested that we are all sadistic if given the opportunity.
My personal favorite example from the film was Romero's sequel to Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead. The film takes place in a zombie infested shopping mall, where humans are trying to survive. They find comfort in taking things from the mall, which includes not only food, but merchandise as well. Romero suggests that the comfort we find in consumer culture ultimately makes us "zombies." Romero himself said during the documentary, "we're the living dead." This is the sort of social commentary that is showcased in horror films at their finest.
This film did a great job of showing just how deep and sophisticated horror films can be. However, all of the films used were pretty old. I understand they wanted to use the classics, but a few modern examples would have been nice. Overall though I thoroughly enjoyed the film and was fascinated by it. One of the closing comments of the film was that the apocalypse is always. I think that is true and that describes the culture of fear perfectly.
I was also struck by the comment that "Apocalypse isn't now, apocalypse is always". Obviously when these films were made, it was in a social-historical context that was tumultuous: the threat of nuclear war, Cold War politics, Vietnam, rejection of 50s culture, sexual revolutions, civil rights movement, etc. So it makes sense that these directors would attempt to connect these cultural events to the narratives and themes in their horror films. I wonder, then, why we see less of this today? Some recent films have attempted to do this, although they seem to have much less of a lasting impact on us than films like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Night of the Living Dead, "classics". Even the remakes of these films or their abundance of sequels move away from cultural commentary, and scare more by gore than content and context.
Hi Paul, I, too, was struck by Craven's interview regarding "Last House on the Left." I had never seen the film and thought I'd never be able to sit through it. But, after seeing his interviews and learning more about the "monsters" in it, I felt that I should see it at some point in my lifetime, looking past the gruesome scenes. I think it's important that Craven suggests that humans are really capable of anything. We are the only species that is, really. I think it's important to emphasis this and make people aware of it, which is what Craven does in his film. Its seems like an intriguing text where the monster really is one of our own.
I was also struck by the comment that "Apocalypse isn't now, apocalypse is always". Obviously when these films were made, it was in a social-historical context that was tumultuous: the threat of nuclear war, Cold War politics, Vietnam, rejection of 50s culture, sexual revolutions, civil rights movement, etc. So it makes sense that these directors would attempt to connect these cultural events to the narratives and themes in their horror films. I wonder, then, why we see less of this today? Some recent films have attempted to do this, although they seem to have much less of a lasting impact on us than films like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Night of the Living Dead, "classics". Even the remakes of these films or their abundance of sequels move away from cultural commentary, and scare more by gore than content and context.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul,
ReplyDeleteI, too, was struck by Craven's interview regarding "Last House on the Left." I had never seen the film and thought I'd never be able to sit through it. But, after seeing his interviews and learning more about the "monsters" in it, I felt that I should see it at some point in my lifetime, looking past the gruesome scenes. I think it's important that Craven suggests that humans are really capable of anything. We are the only species that is, really. I think it's important to emphasis this and make people aware of it, which is what Craven does in his film. Its seems like an intriguing text where the monster really is one of our own.