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This month every day I'll recommend something horror-ish to you that I love (assuming I remember to do this). Maybe like me you are new to horror. These will be good ways to get your feet slimy if you want.
First, I'll recommend Émile Cohl's FANTASMAGORIE (1908). Historians consider it to be the first animated cartoon. It's all kinds of surreal and disturbing. What is it about animation that immediately makes people think, "Let's see how weird we can get?"
Today, I'll recommend Munau's NOSFERATU (1922). The production led to an important court case on fair use. The film includes a plague and quarantine subplot, the subtext is all about antisemitism and xenophobia, and the villain's plot involves a real estate scam. Terrifying!
A thing I love about NOSFERATU is the way Murnau uses different colored filters for different times of day. Yellow for day, blue for night, and red for dawn.
B/c of the way NOSFERATU survived underground (appropriately) after it was ordered destroyed for violating copyright, you'll find multiple versions out there. Many are black and white, but Murnau tinted the images originally and always intended them to be viewed that way.
Today, I offer you a two-for-one double-feature. Everyone thinks of Hitchcock’s THE BIRDS as a good if slightly goofy creature flick. It’s legit terrifying. Pair it w/ another misunderstood film - Shyamalan’s THE HAPPENING. Watch it after you watch THE BIRDS.
Hitchcock and Shyamalan were the way I got into horror. (Thanks to my mom, actually.) They are crowd pleasers, first and foremost, which makes the horror acceptable.
I have seen every Stanley Kubrick film but one - THE SHINING. I am hoping to remedy that this month. One of my favorite film-going experiences involves a documentary made about conspiracy theories about Kubrick's film, ROOM 237.
The doc is a trippy journey into The Shining alongside obsessives who see things hidden in the film , everything from occultic symbolism to Kubrick confessing to faking the moon landing. ROOM 237 doesn't judge the theories. It just presents them. We never even see the theorists.
Along the way, you find yourself start to question if what you are seeing through their eyes may be true. It is horrific to feel yourself being taken in by these conspiracy theories, like your mind is being slowly wrapped in spider's silk before being sucked dry.
It is useful to learn to reject conspiracy too. Conspiracy theories much more dangerous than those about a Kubrick film abound. They always have. Researcher that I am, I've long felt drawn to "hidden truths," and so I've always kept Isaiah 8:12-13 close. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%208:12-13&version=NIV
A movie like ROOM 237 is a safe place to get lost briefly in a maze of fear and paranoia so you can learn to find your way out.
Oh! Back to my experience of seeing that film at Sundance with seminary students. During the Q&A, an audience member commented, "It struck me that every theory depended on believing that everything Kubrick did was intentional. There could be no mistakes or accidents."
At that, the film's producer grabbed the mic and said, "Yes! It's just like people who believe in biblical literalism!" The four of us seminarians in the back row looked at each other in shock. Let the reader understand.
Speaking of THE SHINING, as part of my current book project, I recently saw LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, Alain Resnais's unsolvable film that directly influenced Kubrick's film. Imagine Malick made a horror movie. I love it. It's the "Can you eat this hot pepper?" of arthouse flicks.
Since I am on solo, daytime childcare duty right now, for today's horror recommendation, I will note one of only two David Lynch films I heartily love - ERASERHEAD. (The other is set in Victorian London, and I haven't seen the one involving a riding lawnmower.)
Prompted by @BRamseyJr's question, I'll add Robert Egger's two horrific folk tales to this thread: THE WITCH and THE LIGHTHOUSE. Horror is an essential part of folklore, and I don't think any contemporary filmmaker does folklore better than Eggers. https://twitter.com/BRamseyJr/status/1313904761108721668?s=20
You know, as with ROOM 237, my appreciation for Eggers is also because of Sundance. I saw that at a midnight screening w/ @LarsenOnFilm. It was an unforgettable night. Festivals have been key for me getting accustomed to Horror, b/c they foster a communal viewing experience.
I got caught up watching BLADE RUNNER 2049 tonight and almost forgot to continue this thread. BR2049 is better than its originator, though you can’t argue w/ its impact. In honor of Ridley Scott, I’ll recommend his greatest film - ALIEN. It’s perfect.
If you like ALIEN - who doesn’t? - you’re going to want to read @dodgyboffin’s upcoming book on the ALIEN series. She applies a feminist theological lens to the whole franchise, and makes observations no one has made before. Plus, it’s a fun read.
ALIEN was one of the first "proper" horror movies I watched when I decided I needed to get to know the genre. I was nervous! For many, it's the scariest film ever made. I instantly loved it, and it taught me something - when the filmmaking is that good, I can watch anything.
Today, I took my son to The Huntington Gardens. Lots of films have shot scenes there, so I wanted to recommend something that had been made there in honor of our outing.
Parts of HER were filmed there. HER isn't a horror movie, but Scarlett Johansson's other 2013 film about an entity who identifies as a woman gaining autonomy and reckoning with the consequences sure is. UNDER THE SKIN also happens to be my pick for the best film of the 2010s.
UNDER THE SKIN is one of the most unique and unsettling movie-going experiences you'll ever have. As with ALIEN, the production design, acting, concept, and direction especially are stellar, pun fully embraced. I can enjoy anything made as well as those two films.
Veering away from movies for the moment, a key work that got me more comfortable with horror was the Harry Potter books. Horror is a huge part of those books. Parts are can't-put-it-down scary.
If I had to pick a scariest moment, I think it's probably some of the odd things they encounter in the Ministry of Magic archives in The Order of the Phoenix. (We rewatched that film recently, and I was bummed they spent so little time on those rooms.)
Reckoning with death is a key part of maturing, so I think it's apt that Harry comes face-to-face with the Veil in that book, the one in which he is most on the cusp of adulthood.
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) is an incredible movie and one of the best stories about how the sins of one generation are welcomed on the next and, simultaneously, about how one generation tends to reenact the sins of the one before.
Today, I recommend that if you want to get into horror, read Catholic film critics, like @SrRoseMovies, @DecentFilms, and Peter Malone, MSH. Not only do Catholics tend to be more visually-literate than Protestants, they also have a well-developed theology of good and evil.
This article by @SrRoseMovies is one I was extra-proud to publish on @reeltweets a few years ago. I find it super helpful, and—BONUS—in it Sr. Rose lays out why she views THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST as a horror film. Brilliant! https://fullerstudio.fuller.edu/are-horror-films-ccatholic/
Speaking of Hillbilly Elegies, DELIVERANCE is reprehensible on a lot of levels especially re. issues of sexuality, but it is also a terrific horror film about what happens when we misread Genesis 1:26-28 as giving us the right to abuse creation instead of putting it in our care.
We could use more horror films on that subject.
I love remix culture. People think to do things I would never, ever think to do, which enlarges my view of the world. For example, "BUT it's a horror movie" versions of movie trailers. Here is one of my favorites: Mr. Rogers BUT it's a Horror Movie.
"Scary 'Mary Poppins'" is where this all began, I think, and it's still amazing. '
I’m looking forward to watching the new version of REBECCA on Netflix. The trailer reminded me of del Toro’s CRIMSON PEAK, a (poorly advertised) film most people slept on. It got me into gothic horror. Watch it.
We visited a pumpkin patch this morning, and while traipsing amongst the gourds I thought about my earliest memories of watching explicitly "horror" anything. As I said earlier, my mom didn't want us to be scared, so most scary things were off-limits.
Most Disney things were allowed though, so I have very early memories of watching the animated two-for THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD. I'd ask to watch "The Wind in the Willows," and then when "Sleepy Hollow" started afterwards, I felt like I was transgressing.
The feeling of "trangression" accompanies many of my early interactions with horror, b/c my mom didn't allow it, and b/c things secret and hidden are essential to most horror stories. I try to maintain some of that feeling today, a bit of that childlike trepidation and daring.
I've never read Washington Irving's short story. I need to remedy that this year.
A few years ago, I did a lot of research related to the films of Guillermo del Toro. I read interviews he's given and many he's facilitated; I read his own writings; I sought out long-form critical essays on his films; I read the things and watched the things he loves.
Of course, I watched all his films, listened to commentaries, enjoyed the special features. Near the end of my research, LACMA featured the "At Home with Guillermo del Toro" exhibition. We went. Amazing. All this research opened up all sorts of new horror worlds to me.
(My favorite of his films is THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE. PAN'S LABYRINTH probably is his best though.)
My favorite bit of del Toro ephemera is a book - Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections, and Other Obsessions. It's a look inside his idea notebooks that he carries around and works in.
It's also a long-form interview conducted by Marc Zicree, himself a noted science-fiction author and screenwriter. Since the interview works chronologically through del Toro's notebooks, it becomes a career retrospective too. Think Hitchcock/Truffaut but about myths and monsters.
I'd post a picture of the book, but I gave my copy away a few years ago to a student. If you like del Toro or just want a way into a host of horror things you might never encounter otherwise, I recommend picking the book up from your most local bookstore. https://www.vromansbookstore.com/book/9780062082848
Today is a cheat. I’m going to recommend FROM DUSK TIL DAWN, a bananas movie that features Quentin Tarantino, so that I can mention PIERROT LE FOU, a Godard film from 1965 that’s not a horror film but should be seen by everyone. It’s the kind of movie Tarantino is trying to make.
As I’ve previously mentioned, I started seeing movies at film festivals. It is a good environment, and I’m usually kinda tired by the time the night screening roll around. It dulls the scares. I saw THE GUEST at SXSW a few years ago. Loved it. 80s throw back. So fun.
A few years ago, @RevKevNye hosted a watch party for THE THING (1982) at his place as part of a weekend of first time watches. It was a first time for me too. I loved it. I've loved the 1951 original since seeing it on TCM in high school. Very different films. Both worthwhile.
Around the time of @RevKevNye's party, I began to understand that horror movies are often the movies that are most deliberately tuned so that a group of people has a great time watching them together. They are more like comedies in that way and less like dramas.
Last night a friend joined me for a never-seen-em-before horror double-feature - THE FLY (1986) and THE SHINING. I didn't love THE SHINING. I'm not sure I even think it's very good. I did love THE FLY though, an instant favorite, not nearly as gross I expected.
I wonder, would you count Cronenberg's THE FLY as cyberpunk? It only hints at any corporate overlords, but it does feature the media, computech, and body-mod conventions. I think one of the film's graces is its focus, but I do have fun imaging the wider story world.
I want to recommend a horror song in this thread. "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" maybe? There's always "Thriller." "The Remnant" by Josh Ritter is terrifying. I'll go with "From the Woods" by James Vincent McMorrow though. Do you have any favorite scary songs?
THE EXORCIST makes me feel good about the world. Good and evil are real in that film, good is Christ and the sacraments, Christ wins, and people gain faith by the end of the film. Every time I watch it, and I've watched it many times, I feel hopeful as it ends.
Another of my favorite horror film is another one of a lot of people's favorite horror films - NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968). The film created zombies as we know them (though they have their roots in African folklore).
It's tempting to assign allegorical meaning to Romero's "living dead." He does so in subsequent films. There are certainly things the movie can mean and things it cannot, but there isn't a tidy metaphor for the original film. That's the genius of it.
Romero awakened some primal fear in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. It consumes all sorts of existential needs. It is utterly brilliant and foundationally terrifying.
I only have today and tomorrow left in this thread. It's difficult to decide what to recommend today, because there's a few more horror things I absolutely love. I've known all month what I'd recommend on Halloween, and if you're a long-time follower, I bet you know too.
I think I'll recommend the most essential horror movie besides NOSFERATU, which I recommended long ago. James Whale's FRANKENSTEIN is a film you have seen referenced, sequelled, and parodied umpteen times, but if you've never watched the film itself, you are missing out.
Questions about purpose and personhood, sonship and the soul are at the heart of FRANKENSTIEN's mother-text, Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley’s ovarian work of science-fiction published over a hundred years before
this film was made.
Wollstonecraft Shelley’s ovarian work of science-fiction published over a hundred years before
this film was made.
Whale drains the source material of its complicated psychological and theological material and doubles down on its horrific elements leaving a void for your subconscious to fill. It's been inspiring filmmakers ever since.
The real monsters in the movie aren't created by the titular doctor (more mad scientist here). The real monsters are everyone else. I'm reminded when we see a monster, we should always ask who made it. The pallid hand reaching out of the darkness is likely pointing back at us.
