if you have ghosts: shared cinematic experiences

I asked If You Have Ghosts to share some of his horror favorites. (They are all favorites of mine as well!).

Many of the films that impacted me at an early age were introduced by older cousins who did an amazing job not only in selecting which to introduce to an impressionable young person but made each viewing an event as well. Not all of those films were horror, but I was asked to write a list for Halloween / October so these are.

The theme of this list--aside from every film being great to watch at any time of year--is shared cinematic experiences. Whenever I show people these movies, they are usually accompanied by a story of the first time I saw them.

These are fairly obvious selections, but they hold up and I'm not trying to be hip about it. Also, not a “top” anything, just what I thought of first.

Dawn of the Dead (1978):

I could only hope to have somebody as badass and resourceful as Peter Washington (Ken Foree) around in an apocalyptic-survival scenario. Romero's zombie films attempt to make a cultural statement (this one on consumer culture making us all zombies) but are successful beyond that due to their quality. Horror, humor, a great score by Goblin--no question this would be on the list.

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935):

I love the original as well, but Bride is my favorite of the two. The atmosphere of the original Universal horror films was beautiful and holds up wonderfully. To think that there was a time when a movie could be marketed and fill theater seats simply by hinting that the "monster" would speak...

The Shining (1980):

One could watch this during a snowstorm at any time of the year and be horrified. I wonder if the audience is truly supposed to sympathize with the Torrance family, as I did not. For me, the saddest character death was that of Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers). He just went to the hotel to check up on everybody.

The Thing (1982):

Many consider Halloween to be John Carpenter's masterpiece, but I have never held it in such high regard. Certainly, it introduced an iconic mask and score, but as a horror film in its entirety, it is not so significant for me.

The true masterpiece in his career would come just a few years later with The Thing. Location, amazing practical effects, a cast interacting perfectly and absolutely convincingly given the story's scenario and a great score by Ennio Morricone. Not to mention Carpenter's films with Kurt Russell were his best. The blood-test scene still features one of the greatest uses of tension I have seen in any film, horror or otherwise.

An American Werewolf in London (1981):

I can only name two truly great werewolf movies and though I love the original The Wolf Man, I prefer this one. Great use of practical effects, intelligently selected and placed music cues and humor. The nightmare sequences and victim visits still have the ability to inspire a "What the Fuck!?" moment from new viewers.

Night of the Living Dead (1968):

Some things, you don't have to explain. This one is truly horrific and aside from films such as White Zombie, which introduced the Voodoo Zombie, was the first to introduce the type of zombie we all know today, the Living Dead, to a broad audience.

That's it for now. Time to load up on pumpkins, candy and head to the crafts store to make some hanging ghosts for the balcony.

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zombies

Check out my poem "Zombies" on Gloom Cupboard.

night of the living dead - unintentionally subversive

In the mood for Halloween, I re-watched Romero's film. It's still an unsettling, bleak film--tightly edited and shot in crisp black & white. The no-name, but talented cast and shoestring budget add to the creepy atmosphere.

It's watershed horror, the peak of drive-in cinema, with a nod to films like Hitchcock's The Birds. In comparison to other horror movies, like the Universal monster series, Dead is grimier and grittier. Instead of lavish designs, the farmhouse was furnished with items from Goodwill. One of the actresses, Barbra Eastman, contributed to the make-up. Throughout the shoot, the cast helped carry equipment and lights.

In recent years, zombies have become more comic. They are played straight here with some comic effect, but each one, slowly creeping about the front yard, has a memorable uniqueness.

Two performers whose lives were cut at a young age haunt the film. Duane Jones is effective as the film's hero. Merely a truck driver passing through (a la Lilies of the Field), he fights for his own life but also for the group of strangers he's stuck with. Jones's Ben is a complicated character, originally written--as Romero terms it--as "colorless." The nihilistic ending has given rise to subtext about racial politics and violence in America (Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in the year of the film's release). Jones distanced himself from the film's acclaim and popularity, devoting his life to theatre and teaching. I wonder about (and secretly sort of understand) the reasons for his aloofness. In a supporting role as Tom, Keith Wayne has become a sort of a cult film figure. It's his lone film role.

Perhaps why this film has lasted so long as a horror touchstone, is the subtext that historians and audiences have applied to the film. It's still difficult not to compare the grim news footage of Vietnam with some of the scenes in Dead. And despite Romero's intentions, the racial issues that one could apply to the film, is hard to ignore, especially since Dead was released during an era of social pictures (In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner). Romero seemed to force sociological issues in his subsequent works, especially Dawn of the Dead. By being unintentionally subversive, Living Dead remains one of the most remarkably unique films of its time.

-Jeffery Berg