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History of Horror
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11-10-2010 9:19pm#1
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selfbuildkk wrote: »I thought it was so interesting the stories behind the actors, and like you said, the limitations placed upon them by their work in the horror genre.
Yeah, the actors' lives add an interesting dimension to what would otherwise be just an armful of old horror movies that happened to set the precedent for the movies that followed.
It's hard to believe that Karloff was English - probably because he's heavily etched in my mind as Frankenstein, and because his actor's alias 'Boris Karloff' is so far removed from his real identity... The reason why he was always so stooped in movies was due to back problems he had suffered from doing hard manual labour when he was trying to establish his career in acting. Karloff drove a cement truck and dug ditches to make a living at that time. It was a far cry from what was to follow later, so fair play to him.selfbuildkk wrote: »Looking forward to next weeks episode I must say.Completely random how i came across it but glad I did. Reminder set for next week already. Looking forward to the John Carpenter section.
Yeah, same. Halloween is a classic (the very first one especially), but I thought they really milked the cow dry with all the feckin' sequels and prequels that followed it. It was the same crap with Nightmare On Elm Street - the last straw was when they pitted Freddie Kreuger versus Jason from Friday The 13th a few years ago. Bloody farce. I'm concerned they'll go down the same worn-out road with 'Paranormal Activity'...
But the original Halloween took the genre to a whole new level. I think it was originally supposed to be a movie about babysitters being murdered but then Carpenter suggested that the story be set around Halloween, and they altered the story a little.
The things I like most about Halloween are:- Young child (Michael Myers) goes bad. Real bad. Murders parents. But I think it's good how they don't make that scene a prolonged gore fest; you just see young Myers wielding a knife and approaching his parents via the eyeholes of his ghost Halloween costume. I like that because it leaves something to the imagination, sort of in accordance with the naivete of a typical child.
- Donald Pleasance, the old guy who plays Dr. Sam Loomis, young Myers' psychiatrist after Myers is placed in a psychatric unit after the murders he commits, is fantastic. He brings a lot of serious credibility to the story, especially with the way his eyes sort of glaze over in a spooked way whenever he recalls his experience of treating Michael Myers as a child.
- The story is mostly set in a very ordinary, comfortable, safe-looking neighbourhood. What could ever go wrong in quiet, leafy suburbia?
- There's an effective 'chill factor' in how Myers cruises by in his station wagon, slowly turning his head to stare thoroughly at his 'targets'. Same thing when he appears, disappears, and reappears by the hedging when Jamie Lee Curtis is making her way home from school through the neighbourhood.
Actually, one of the best scenes, IMO, is when Lee Curtis is sitting in one of her classes at school, she becomes distracted from the lesson, and looks out the window only to see Michael Myers out in his station wagon by the school staring at her. Then the teacher asks Lee Curtis a question, so she looks away for those couple of seconds but when she looks out the window again, there isn't a trace of Myers to be seen. I love that. It's the subtle stuff and the implied threat of ordinary physical actions that hit the mark for me.
- A leading lady (Jamie Lee Curtis) who actually seems intelligent and can get inside the head of the character she's playing. She just comes at it from exactly the right angle almost effortlessly.
selfbuildkk wrote: »Tuned in thinking I would laugh a lot of the way through at how bad the movies were but I must say some clips were genuinely frightening. Fingers crossed next week delivers.
Yeah, it's easy to look at the old movies and spit your disdain at them, until you refrain from comparing them to the current standard and just try to see them with fresh eyes. In fairness, the motion picture houses had a hell of a lot less money to make movies years ago but they had plenty of common sense to do something worthwhile with what they had. They capture the imagination and genuinely stir your emotions a bit.
I liked the scene in 'Bride Of Frankenstein' where Frankenstein follows the sound of music he likes when he's alone in the woods and enters the home of a blind monk (who's playing the music on his violin). Frankenstein doesn't realise that the monk is blind at first and he expects him to attack him due to his unsightly appearance like the whole town already has. But the monk takes him in and feels grateful that he finally has a potential friend, and Frankenstein feels the same way. It's a good scene. Not scary, but good.
By the way, what number of the 'Saw' films are they on now? 'Saw 11', is it? Such f**king sh!te.
Next week's John Carpenter feature should be great anyway.
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jassmine12 wrote: »i really want to be a part of horror stories community.
Well, you're in the right neck of the woods! There are plenty of horror-inducing stories and topics around here year-round.
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