A Personal Journey Through Horror Movies – Part I

When thinking of Halloween, the mind automatically turns to guts, grim and gore galore. Probably thanks to the array of cinema productions we have at our finger tips. Which provide all the thrills and chills of being chased, murdered or haunted, without any of the messy, psychological issues that follow. Or costly funeral costs, in the case of a successful murder.

Being “scared” is a relatively personal feeling, depending on a wealth of factors. So I decided to have a think about which horror films first came to mind as being the most impactful I had seen – spanning over the past century. Naturally, I started at the beginning.

To kick us off nicely into the golden era of the 1920s. And although not the first horror movie ever made, we have what has been dubbed the first true horror story: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Directed by Robert Wiene and written by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz, the wonderful silent film stars Werner Krauss as Dr. Caligari, Conrad Veidt as Cesare and Friedrich Feher as Francis. And it truly is a fantastic starting point!

Film Road to Halloween: Horror In Silent Cinema – Part 1

The first thing that struck me about this movie was the surrealism featured heavily throughout. Evocative of much of Tim Burton’s work in fact, which continued through the set, the makeup, the colouring of each scene. Which I later learned was dye added to the film reel to emphasis day, night and the odd emotion. Dr Caligari reminding me a lot of Danny DeVito’s rendition of The Penguin in Tim’s 1992 Batman Returns – who is more than scary enough!

This was very impressive from the era, not to mention the immense power of the score. It pays homage to just how powerful music really is in dictating the mood of any film, let alone horror. Something perhaps taken for granted a lot in modern productions.

The story takes many twists and turns, clever uses of perspective, “travelling” through time, as it were, to tell the story from the perspective of Francis (our apparent hero), shadow, lighting and finally plots twists. All of these make for an incredible way of story-telling, especially for 100 years ago.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari won its first and sadly only award this year, 2020, for OFTA Film Hall of Fame, Motion Picture. And was most certainly deserved! Still within 1920s, how could anyone bypass the opportunity to rewatch one of the most iconic horror films in history? Everybody knows the reference to the Nosferatu vampire, creeping up to a sleeping maiden. But that’s not all this infamous fiend did for our image of vampires. Oh no!

Film Road to Halloween: Horror In Silent Cinema – Part 2

Released in 1922, director F.W. Murnau was inspired to make his film based on Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, but was unable to secure the rights. Evidently undeterred, himself and writer Henrik Galeen, set about creating their own telling of the tale. The story is essentially the same as we’ve seen throughout the wealth of Dracula adaptations over the years. However, changing the title from Dracula to Nosferatu, the location from London to Germany, the count was renamed Count Orlok were all attempts to avoid copyright infringement.

Not only this, but Murnau also changed how we would see Vampire weaknesses forever. Vampires being killed by sunlight, I assumed was a fairly standard thing (especially growing up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer), but no. In fact, this movie took the original concept which stated that Dracula could be weakened by sunlight, and took it one step further and destroyed him with it. This goes to show how powerful and influential this piece of cinema actually was and still is. Its also pretty damn creepy!

We are so used to thrills and spills involving walls painted with blood and guts these days, that we sometimes forget the power of a quality slow walk by a sinister character, of whom we know nothing. This movie serves as a good reminder! It won its first award in 2010 Online Film & Television Association, and 2 other nominations in 2002 and 2014.

Gatiss and Moffat’s Dracula v Bram Stoker’s Vampire lore: A Re-examination

Taking a rather grand leap forward to the 1970’s now. The decade in which the horror genre really hit the fan and enveloped our screens with some truly incomparable movies. Some of which have lived in relative infamy through until today. I genuinely struggled to go through my own list of horror favourites and choose those that weren’t just from the 1970s.

With classic gems like Carrie, Jaws, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Alien (an absolute favourite of mine) – just to name a few – its no wonder my choice was pretty challenging. However, I had to settle eventually, and my choice was The Exorcist. This 1973 powerhouse, directed by William Friedkin, genuinely surprised me with its slow burning, yet steady evolution. Not what I would call particularly scary nowadays, but shock value was definitely to be had, and I can only imagine how terrifying it might have bee when it was first released.

Although the essence of religion is a strong theme, it hasn’t been overplayed, which I think adds more realness to it. As it is in fact based on true events in the writings of William Peter Blatty’s novel, who also wrote the screen adaptation. As per the director’s later documentary work on the same subject of exorcism.

Film Road to Halloween: The Horror Masterpiece that is The Exorcist (1973)

If there is one thing I struggle to understand as a viewer: why was the ouija board not mentioned again at any stage? It may have aided with conclusions a little earlier on perhaps? I also felt there was a lot of unnecessary dialogue. Understandably, some was needed to draw background for the characters, but I feel there was at half an hour that could have been shaved off (what with the walking, talking, standing, staring, thinking etc,). But again, in terms of cinema, the effects and certainly the performances were incredible.

Nothing was overdone, which I feel is a crime committed by many movies in the horror genre. Making it harder to believe for obvious reasons, but this seemed to take a relative step away from over-dramatisation, which served it well. Did it give me chills? No. Was I somewhat horrified by the ‘demonic’ acts poor young Regan was forced to perform? Yes. Am I disturbed by how calm Chris McNeil was to walk in to find all of her lights flickering uncontrollably? Yes, yes I am. Nevertheless, the film won 2 Oscars, another 14 wins and 17 nominations, which I firmly believe were well deserved!

PART II >>> PART III >>>