Cloverfield [Matt Reeves, 2008]
New York City is invaded by really huge monsters and we watch the whole thing through the video camera of one of the young people we do not care about who are trying to escape. The special effects are first-rate. Here, one of the aliens looks into the camera.
Introduction[ Book Contents]
Godzilla [Roland Emmerich, 1998]
Godzilla sniffs Matthew Broderick in this misguided remake.
Introduction[ Book Contents]
Human monsters
History has given us too many examples of political leaders who can easily be classed as monsters. Hitler and Stalin are two of the more obvious examples of men whose actions led directly to destruction and murder on a vast scale.
This guide deals with human monsters that operate on a more intimate scale of death: the serial killers, cannibals, and pathologically insane, whose exploits have inspired so many truly disquieting movies. We will meet and discuss Norman Bates, Hannibal Lecter, and many other fiends that have populated the Hollywood sound stages. Criminals have always held a fascination for the public. But these criminals’ actions are so perverse that the films about them are no longer mere crime movies—they are horror films.
A number of the cinema’s human monsters are actually physically disfigured, either maliciously or by accident of birth. Others are profoundly damaged in the way they view the world. And some may appear completely normal. As Norman Bates says in Alfred Hitchcock’s extraordinary Psycho[1960], “We all go a little mad sometimes.”
Filmmakers Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter have made some of the most visceral and scariest movies in history. I asked them what monsters scared them. Both replied, “There are no such things as monsters. Monsters don’t scare me, peoplescare me.”
My wife, Deborah, is not bothered by most of the monsters in the following pages, but she refuses to see Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre[Tobe Hooper, 1974], or The Silence of the Lambs[Jonathan Demme, 1991], because these monsters, she says, “are real.”
Vampires, werewolves, dragons, ghosts, zombies, mummies, aliens, psychopaths, and more await you inside. Have fun. And, oh yes, tonight when you’re in bed and the lights are off and you hear an odd noise just outside your window… or was it just outside your door… or even insidethe room..? Please do not even think about the monsters you’ve seen in this guide. And whatever you do… DO NOT OPEN YOUR CLOSET!
Introduction[ Book Contents]
Psycho [Alfred Hitchcock, 1960]
The real Mrs. Bates, as discovered in the basement by Lila Crane (Vera Miles)—just before Norman, wearing his mother’s dress and wig, bursts in with his knife!
Introduction[ Book Contents]
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre [Tobe Hooper, 1974]
A relentless and brilliant movie about some college students who encounter a family of cannibals. Here Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) is swinging his chainsaw in anger and frustration at the end of the movie. For such a brutal film, there is hardly any blood or violence onscreen. With an intricate and crazy-making soundtrack. Tobe then directed a comedy sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2[1986], starring Dennis Hopper as Lefty, a Texas Ranger.
Introduction[ Book Contents]
The Silence of the Lambs [Jonathan Demme, 1991]
Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in this multi-Oscar winning film based on the Thomas Harris novel. The only horror film to ever win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Hopkins played Lecter twice more in uninteresting sequels.
Frances Dade as Lucy and Béla Lugosi as Count Dracula in Dracula[Tod Browning, 1931].
VAMPIRES
More films have been made featuring Dracula than almost any other fictional character. Tarzan is (forgive me) neck and neck.
Bram Stoker’s novel Draculaappeared in 1897 and was an instant success. It was influenced by J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novel Carmilla, about a lesbian vampire who preys on young women—later the inspiration for the trilogy of Hammer films, The Vampire Lovers[Roy Ward Baker, 1970], Twins of Evil[John Hough, 1971], and Lust for a Vampire[Jimmy Sangster, 1971].
Varney the Vampire, a penny-dreadful serial by James Malcolm Rymer, preceded Le Fanu’s Carmilla. And the first notion of the vampire as an aristocrat appeared in The Vampyre[1819], written by John Polidori on a holiday with Lord Byron and the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. On that same holiday, Shelley’s wife, Mary Shelley, wrote Frankenstein!
The first cinematic version of Stoker’s Draculawas the German silent Nosferatu[F. W. Murnau, 1922] with the unforgettable Max Schreck as “Count Orlock.” This beautiful film was, in fact, entirely ripped off from Stoker’s book and Stoker’s widow suppressed its release in the courts.
Bram Stoker’s novel was adapted into a play by Hamilton Deane that toured England for three years before it opened in London’s West End to tremendous acclaim. The play was heavily revised by John L. Balderston in 1927 for its debut on Broadway, where it was a sensation. Hungarian matinée idol Béla Lugosi played Dracula and veteran stage actor Edward Van Sloan portrayed Van Helsing. They reprised their roles in Dracula[Tod Browning, 1931], Universal Studios’ follow-up to their smash hit Frankenstein[James Whale, 1931]. Lugosi was actually offered the role of the Monster in Frankensteinon the strength of his success in the play Dracula, but he felt the role of a non-speaking brute beneath an actor of his talent. The lead in a Hollywood adaptation of Draculawas another matter, however. The movie version followed the plot of the Balderston/Deane play rather than the novel.
Sadly, Lugosi’s distinctive performance as the elegant Count typecast him for the rest of his career. Whenever movie work was scarce, Béla would go out on another theatrical tour of the play, eventually performing the role thousands of times.
Draculais an early “talkie.” Before sound dubbing, studios would often shoot different language versions of their movies on the same sets. Tod Browning shot during the day and a Spanish-language Dracula[George Melford, 1931], with Carlos Villarías as the vampire Count, shot on the same sound stages at night. Many believe this Spanish-language version to be superior to the English one.
Just as Universal capitalized on box-office powerhouse Frankensteinwith The Bride of Frankenstein[James Whale, 1935] and Son of Frankenstein[Rowland V. Lee, 1939], so they soon followed Draculawith Dracula’s Daughter[Lambert Hillyer, 1936]. Gloria Holden starred in the title role of a movie that is much better than it sounds. Keeping it in the family, the studio continued with Son of Dracula[Robert Siodmak, 1943], featuring a debonair Lon Chaney, Jr. as Count Alucard (Dracula spelled backwards).
Lugosi played a Count Dracula lookalike named Count Mora in Mark of the Vampire[1935], Tod Browning’s remake of his own London After Midnight[1927], the lost Lon Chaney silent. There is a nice twist at the end of Mark of the Vampire, which I will not spoil here.