Well, it’s time to draw the curtains and turn out the lights.
Despite some hiccups here and there, I managed to finish where I wanted, with the most recent major studio slasher release, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake.
Monthly Archives: October 2010
31 Days of Knife: One, Two, Freddy’s Comin’ For You
I’m going to make some people very happy – I’m going to praise Wes Craven for a moment. I ripped the guy pretty mercilessly when I looked at Last House on The Left. I stand by that rebuke because I don’t think Craven has the stomach for making a great exploitation movie, i.e. one that really challenges its audience’s sense of decency. I also believe he’s a film maker who is better at capturing specific moments of horror with clarity and acuity, but that generally his narrative chops are weak.
Interestingly, I think of the three big filmmakers we looked at from the exploitation era of the 70’s – Craven, Hooper, and Carpenter – Craven is stylistically the weakest of the bunch, yet both Hooper and Carpenter’s careers fizzled in the late 80’s. In contrast, Craven’s career has gone through highs and lows but it presents an interesting case study – Craven has been present at the birth of the Slasher film (Last House), the end of the Slasher film (Nightmare on Elm Street), and the re-birth of the Slasher film (Scream).
Now, you may be asking yourself, “How was ‘Nightmare’ the end of the Slasher film?”
31 Days of Knife: The Best There is At What He Does
Marcus Nispel gets a lot of shit for his 2003 Texas Chain Saw remake, some of it coming from your’s truly. That film really failed to capture what made Tobe Hooper’s film such a successful exercise in terror. Nispel tried to use washed out colors and abrasive textures to do most of the heavy lifting in that film, never quite getting that what made the original film click was its raw, unrepentant tone of almost documentary realism. In other words, the 2003 TCM was too much sizzle and not enough steak.
Yet, having said that, I’m here to tell you that Nispel’s 2009 Friday the 13th remake is a certifiable success in just about every way. Is it as fun as Friday the 13th The Final Chapter? Nope. Is it as weird as Friday the 13th Part II? No siree. It is, however, a pretty effective reinvigoration of an otherwise dopey franchise using the exact same tricks that made the Texas Chain Saw remake such a disappointment.
It all boils down to the strength (or lack thereof) of the source material.
31 Days of Knife: He wasn’t a very good swimmer
Pamela Voorhees: Did you know a young boy drowned the year before those two others were killed? The counselors weren’t paying any attention… They were making love while that young boy drowned. His name was Jason.
Netflix had the Friday the 13th series streaming for the month of September and I thought it might be fun to catch up with a series that made up a big chunk of my teenage cable viewing habits.
31 Days of Knife: See anything you like?
LOOMIS: Just try to understand what we’re dealing with here. Don’t underestimate it.
MARION: I think we should refer to ‘it’ as ’him.’
LOOMIS: If you say so.
MARION: Your compassion is overwhelming, Doctor.
Sometimes you’re just too close.
In the past 22 years, I’ve seen John Carpenter’s Halloween more times than I can count. I have a great memory of seeing it at the theater with John Carpenter himself sitting near-by. It’s a ridiculously effective film, and sometimes I take for granted all the myriad elements that make it such a rewarding movie for me because every scene is so ingrained in my headspace.
I have Rob Zombie to thank for giving me some much needed perspective.
31 Days of Knife: The Bogeyman
“Halloween was always designed as an exploitation movie, a Drive-In movie. A movie that’s going to show about a week or so and be gone.” – John Carpenter
Halloween’s simplicity is both its greatest strength as well as the thing that has made it so ripe for imitation. At the center of the film is Michael Myers, a figure that has gone on to become what I consider the first true horror icon since the Creature from The Black Lagoon, and certainly the first iconic slasher.
31 Days of Knife: Family Portraits
Here’s a selection of film posters showcasing Texas Chain Saw Massacre as well as some of the films that follow in its footsteps.
31 Days of Knife: Blood Relatives
In the last two installments of this series, I looked at Hooper’s Texas Chain Saw Massacre and offered my opinions on why that film is true landmark in horror film history. Today, I thought I would contrast that film with some other pictures that have either borrowed Hooper’s approach or paid homage to TCM’s central themes.
31 Days of Knife: Outsider Art
I’ll tell you ’bout Texas Radio and the Big Beat
Soft drivin’, slow and mad, like some new language
Now, listen to this, and I’ll tell you ’bout the Texas
I’ll tell you ’bout the Texas Radio
I’ll tell you ’bout the hopeless night
- The Doors, The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)
Texas Chain Saw Massacre really is a technical tour de force, but virtuoso technique only gets you so far. In the end, what makes TCM work so well as a horror film is also what ultimately what keeps it from having genuine pop-culture appeal.
Basically, I believe it comes down to a difference between horror as catharsis and horror as a source of unease. One approach seeks to induce a state of tension and then relieve that tension through the climax of the film (ahem). The other seeks to leave the audience feeling worried, disturbed, and anxious. Friday the 13th, despite its jump-scare Carrie moment at the end, is an example of the former.
Texas Chain Saw Massacre is an example of the latter.
31 Days of Knife: A Whole Family of Draculas!
Pam: Hey, listen to Franklin’s horoscope. “Travel in the country, long-range plans, and upsetting persons around you, could make this a disturbing and unpredictable day. The events in the world are not doing much either to cheer one up.”
Jerry: That’s just perfect. And now read Sally’s.
Pam: [reading from the American Astrology book] Oh, no. Capricorn’s ruled by Saturn. “There are moments when we cannot believe that what is happening is really true. Pinch yourself and you may find out that it is.”
- Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Texas Chain Saw Massacre. A title like that, you know whether this is a movie you want to see or not. It’s a title guaranteed to either grab you by the throat or shove you as far away from the theater as possible. No coy “Sisters” or “Last House on The Left” or “Halloween.” This is a movie that promises that there will be someone using a chain saw to massacre people.
Of course, the term massacre is a bit of hyperbole; although he does spend a lot of screentime chasing poor Marilyn Burns around with it, Leatherface only really kills one person with the chainsaw. Regardless, as far as selling your film, you’re really niche marketing to the extreme when you slap a title like that on a movie. You’re also creating an expectation in audiences that they’re going to see something truly shocking.
Hooper’s film is shocking, to be sure, but in all the ways you’d least expect in a film with the words Chainsaw and Massacre in the title. Most people likely went in thinking they were going to get Blood Feast, but I doubt they were disappointed by the lack of gore.
