Horror on Film, part 1: the classics

Welcome. Come inside. Stand beside the fire and warm yourself. Go into the adjacent room if you'd like a refreshment. This, my friends, is the virtual museum of horror films. There are no pictures to be found, no theatrical posters. Only you and me and your imagination. If you have one. If I've written well enough to encourage you to be imaginative. Well, before I destroy the grand illusion, step inside. Don't be afraid. Have a drink if you'd like. And when you're down, we'll take a walk. Our first exhibit, this curtain and cobweb infested corner with a blazing hearth, is dedicated to classic horror films.

Long before Hitchcock's Psycho happened along--let alone The Exorcist, Carpenter's Halloween, or the Saw series, heaven help us--there were classic films that established roots in the genre. The earliest of these were the German Expressionist films such as The Golem and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) deserves special notice, IMO, because it was a groundbreaking film. A silent classic, Caligari established a tone of surreal horror and perhaps the first twist ending recorded on film. Caligari predates sound on film. I know, I know. You hate silent films. They're boring. Well, I'm proud to inform you that Caligari isn't boring. It clocks in at just over an hour, and is an exercise in surreal horror. Caligari himself is a doctor who arrives at a local fair and applies for a permit to put on his own exhibit: a somnambulist he controls. That somnambulist, I tell you, is one of the creepiest critters, human or otherwise, I've ever seen on film. In addition to his terminal sleep, the somnambulist can wake by command of Caligari and predict the future. If you think his predictions are ominous, then you've hit the nail on the head.

The sets for Caligari, designed by artists and looking nothing like reality, help to paint an atmosphere of dread. Caligari is the closest thing to a nightmare I've ever seen on film. Reality ends long before the opening credits roll.

A history of horror wouldn't be complete, though, if we didn't also mention Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, released the same year, 1920, as the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This was the film film version of the Robert Louis Stevenson Classic, and a Tour de Force for actor John Barrymore, who didn't have the benefit of sound to augment his performance. Both the Barrymore and Frederic March version (1931) are excellent, and you should see both. Unquestionably.

As the Germans were spinning their surreal, expressionist tales, the horror film had established itself in the United States in 1923, with The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring pioneering makeup/performance artist Lon Chaney in the title role. Hunchback was so popular that in 1925, Chaney was given another title role, that of The Phantom of the Opera. Phantom, like Caligari, is one of my favorite horror films. Just a stunning work of genius. Another gem from this period is The Man Who Laughs (1928), especially notable for the lead performance by Conrad Veidt.

Universal, the studio behind these three American films, wouldn't really get its wheels fully turning until the 1930's. Universal featured classic monsters, and actors who quickly became staples in the horror genre: Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff. Lon Chaney, unfortunately, died in 1930. Universal made some notable films in this period, including Dracula and Frankenstein, both released in 1931. My favorite Universal films from this period:

• The Old, Dark House (1932)
• The Black Cat (1934)
• The Raven (1935)
• Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
• Dracula's Daughter (1936)

The Black Cat was directed by Edgar Ulmer, who did the expressionist set designs for The Golem, Fritz Lang's outstanding Metropolis (more sci-fi than horror, though) and M (1931), an early vehicle for Peter Lorre, playing a madman of the worst kind. Black Cat has a decidedly different atmosphere from most other Universal films of the period. Its noirish in its texture, and the story itself is an unusual and sublime vehicle for both Karloff and Lugosi.

By the 1940's, Universal were turning out sequels and remakes. 1941 also saw the highly regarded Wolf Man, featuring Lon Chaney, Jr. in the title role. My favorite Universal films from this period are The Wolf Man (1941) and--believe it or not--the excellent comedy, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), which featured Lugosi as Dracula and Chaney, Jr. as the Wolf Man. Glenn Strange as Frankenstein's Monster (Okay, I have to say this. If you've been calling this creature "Frankenstein"--and you know who you are--then you've been doing it all wrong. Frankenstein, you see, was the doctor. His creation was Frankenstein's Monster. So, writer's, if you use the Frankenstein anology, do it correctly, please. Don't write they've created a Frankenstein. No. They've created a Frankenstein's Monster. End rant. So, if you tell me you're coming to my house dressed like "Frankenstein", I'll expect you to look like a mad scientist. You should not have bolts in your neck. Have I made my point yet?).

The 1950's, called a revival for Universal, featured Abbott and Costello in three different monster films, and it also produced the excellent Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) and it's not-so-excellent sequels. By this time, however, two things had happened. England's Hammer Studios began releasing its own versions of the monster films--Dracula, the mummy and Frankenstein's monster (yes, those films are about the creature. The doctor is cool as well, but everyone just wanted to see the creature). And in the U.S., everyone was drunk on the notion of oversized bugs and alien invaders. The 1950's become the sci-fi, drive-in era.

So, that concludes the first part of our tour. Have some more refreshments. Cranberry juice and chicken wings. Has anyone tried the wings? Oh, go ahead, they're only meant to appear as severed human fingers. They're really chicken wings. I promise.