Now entering October, and it’s officially the “spooky season”. Movies and I have always had a rich relationship, and of all the genres of films I’ve gravitated toward over the years, none were as significant as the horror film.
There are certainly reasons for this, though some likely swim beneath the surface of my understanding, and I can focus only on the principle points.
For starters, horror is generally clear-cut. You have the monster/villain, and the victims. Depending on the type, maybe the victims are a massive group – think Tokyo in Japan’s Godzilla films. Or it’s more individualist – as in the mother and son of The Babadook or the Jewish shomer in The Vigil.
From this group of possible victims, one will likely emerge as the hero. Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie Strode in Halloween and Adrienne King’s Alice in Friday the 13th; perhaps Winona Ryder’s Mina in Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Jason Patric’s Michael in The Lost Boys; and of course, that’s just scratching the surface.
If you Google search “horror movies” you’ll get suggestions like: “200 Best Horror Movies of All Time” and “Essential Horror Flicks”.
The history of horror is closely tied to the history of morality storytelling and cautionary tales.
Little Red Riding Hood? A thinly veiled warning about what you’d probably call stranger danger, but that grew out of an older fable regarding young women protecting their innocence.
Or the tale of Frog and Scorpion. The moral most clearly expressed is that vicious people will act viciously, even if not in their best interests.
We know that the villain in horror is going to lose (though that trope is always certain in modern filmmaking). But we watch hoping that the hero will come through relatively unscathed.
There is a plethora of horror films, and many ways to make them. This month, I’ll be diving into little bits and pieces of the horror film, and many things Halloween, just to satisfy my own curiosity. I hope you enjoy coming along with me.
Michael's Musings 