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Post by kds on Oct 6, 2021 12:44:26 GMT
It's the Halloween Season, or the Spooky Season as I've recently heard it called. The ideal time to watch horror movies.
I've been a fan of horror movies since I was a kid. I'll admit, I've kinda dropped off on them lately. In 2012, I met my now wife, and she's not a horror fan. No big deal, as she's often in bed before me on weekends, so I'd just do my horror viewing then. But, since we had our son in 2017, it's rare for me to get motivated to watch a movie on those nights. Although, I do try to fit a few in this time of year.
So, I thought I'd start a thread about horror through the decades, and I'll keep it moving as the conversations go.
1920s
Hmmm, here's a problem. This is the only decade in which I've never seen any of the movies released. So, I really don't have much to add here, except......a short. When I was really little, I remember seeing this short, and I didn't really think about it much until I stumbled upon it on YouTube four years ago. And, you know what, it's pretty damn creepy....for a Mickey Mouse cartoon. It's the Disney short "The Haunted House." I wonder if seeing this at a very young age planted the seed in my brain for my love of the horror genre.
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Oct 6, 2021 13:17:07 GMT
I've seen that short once or twice before. As an aside, from the few cartoons I've seen from back then, it seems like they were slightly more adult oriented than they obviously are now. A long time ago I sat through Nosferatu and Phantom of the Opera. I remember thinking both were fine, but never had much of an inclination to re-watch. There's some others I've seen, but can't think of them off the top of my head. Probably due to silent films not piquing my interest very much.
One time I was curious what the first horror film was, and sure enough a movie pop's up that says "world's first horror movie" haha. I'm not sure of it's validity, though being made in 1896 seems like a reasonable claim. On the other hand, I'm not sure you can call a less than five minute short a movie.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 6, 2021 13:21:11 GMT
Can you imagine what it would have been like for a normal, working class, rural person to watch that film in 1896? Must have seemed like magic. Those effects (simple edits) to someone unsuspecting would have been miracles. Amazing, if not terrifying.
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Post by kds on Oct 6, 2021 13:39:00 GMT
I've seen that short once or twice before. As an aside, from the few cartoons I've seen from back then, it seems like they were slightly more adult oriented than they obviously are now. A long time ago I sat through Nosferatu and Phantom of the Opera. I remember thinking both were fine, but never had much of an inclination to re-watch. There's some others I've seen, but can't think of them off the top of my head. Probably due to silent films not piquing my interest very much. One time I was curious what the first horror film was, and sure enough a movie pop's up that says "world's first horror movie" haha. I'm not sure of it's validity, though being made in 1896 seems like a reasonable claim. On the other hand, I'm not sure you can call a less than five minute short a movie. I watched about half of Nosferatu on TCM several years ago, but have never watched the entire film. I remember in the early days of DVD, you could go to Best Buy, and the bargain section had all sorts of cheapo releases for movies which had seemingly fallen into public domain, and I had Nosferatu in my hands several times, but never did pull the trigger on that $4.99 purchase.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Oct 6, 2021 13:39:42 GMT
My grandmother used to tell the story of her seeing The Phantom Of The Opera (with Lon Chaney) in the movie theater in the 1920's, and when the part came when Christine took off the Phantom's mask, several people in the theater actually started screaming loudly, including her.
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Post by kds on Oct 6, 2021 13:45:21 GMT
My grandmother used to tell the story of her seeing The Phantom Of The Opera (with Lon Chaney) in the movie theater in the 1920's, and when the part came when Christine took off the Phantom's mask, several people in the theater actually started screaming loudly, including her.
While I've never seen the movie in full, it's pretty impressive that a movie that's almost 100 years old has such an iconic scene, not just for horror, but film in general. Unfortunately, when it comes to horror, I'm more familiar with Lon Chaney Jr's work.
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Oct 6, 2021 14:03:26 GMT
One of the things I remember from early on in grade school was a book called Lon Chaney: Man of a Thousand Faces. That really sparked my interest in old horror movies aside from the well known Dracula and Frankenstein stuff. I'd browse through that book every time we'd have library class.
This reminds me to mention that Peacock (the streaming service) has a ton of horror movies available for free this month. So far I've watched some of the Mummy sequels from the 40s and the very underrated Psycho sequels.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Oct 6, 2021 14:10:24 GMT
One of the things I remember from early on in grade school was a book called Lon Chaney: Man of a Thousand Faces. That really sparked my interest in old horror movies aside from the well known Dracula and Frankenstein stuff. I'd browse through that book every time we'd have library class. There's also a 1957 movie starring James Cagney called Man Of A Thousand Faces about the life of Lon Chaney. It's an excellent film and performance by Cagney.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 6, 2021 14:15:01 GMT
One of the things I remember from early on in grade school was a book called Lon Chaney: Man of a Thousand Faces. That really sparked my interest in old horror movies aside from the well known Dracula and Frankenstein stuff. I'd browse through that book every time we'd have library class. There's also a 1957 movie starring James Cagney called Man Of A Thousand Faces about the life of Lon Chaney. It's an excellent film and performance by Cagney. The Gene Simmons song of the same name reportedly was also originally a tribute to Lon Chaney, though the final lyrics don't really bear witness to that claim. (The only part of that original version that was kept is apparently the line "Man of 1,000 faces.")
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Post by kds on Oct 6, 2021 15:04:23 GMT
One of the things I remember from early on in grade school was a book called Lon Chaney: Man of a Thousand Faces. That really sparked my interest in old horror movies aside from the well known Dracula and Frankenstein stuff. I'd browse through that book every time we'd have library class. This reminds me to mention that Peacock (the streaming service) has a ton of horror movies available for free this month. So far I've watched some of the Mummy sequels from the 40s and the very underrated Psycho sequels. I've seen all of the 40s Mummy sequels, but have never watched any of the Psycho sequels. It's funny you mention those as AMC just premiered the first installment of the third season of Eli Roth's History of Horror. The first episode was called "Sequels That Don't Suck," and Psycho II got a segment.
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Post by kds on Oct 7, 2021 13:36:43 GMT
Unless anyone objects, I'm probably going to move through these early decades pretty quickly. There are ten decades of horror movies to go over, and Halloween's just over three weeks away. And, predictably, the 1920s discussions have gone.......silent.
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Post by kds on Oct 8, 2021 12:39:17 GMT
1930s
In terms of horror, the 1930s are best known for launching the classic Universal monsters. In 1931, both Tom Browning's Dracula and James Whale's Frankenstein were released. And, 90 years later, those are probably still the most iconic versions of the Dracula and Frankenstein characters. It's even more amazing that Bela Lugosi only played the character in two movies (Browning's movie and the comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein), but he pretty much set the standard for the look and accent of the Count.
After seeing The Monster Squad as a kid, I wanted to see more of Dracula, so we rented the 1931 movie at a local video store, and I've loved it ever since. I didn't see the other monster classics until my early 20s (not sure why). Quick note on Dracula, there's actually a Spanish version that was filmed using the same sets which fleshes out the story a little bit more. Definitely worth a watch.
Frankenstein is probably the better movie, and it launched one of the great horror sequels of all time - 1935's The Bride of Frankenstein, which gives a little more depth to the monster.
Boris Karloff also starred in The Mummy in 1932. Interestingly, the classic pop culture depiction of the Mummy wrapped in shrouds didn't pop up with the sequels in the 1940s.
Outside of the monster pictures, Tom Browning also directed the 1932 movie Freaks, a movie whose closing sequence is still quite chilling almost a century later.
Other notable releases include White Zombie (1932), which explores voodoo, and The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). The latter movie was one of the earliest attempts to release a movie in color. I'm jumping ahead, but it was also remade in 1951, as House of Wax.
Honorable mention, the 1939 masterpiece The Wizard of Oz. The scenes in the Haunted Forrest as well as the attack of the flying monkeys are terrifying moments for a family film. Horror director Eli Roth later quipped that the flying monkey attack on the Scarecrow is cinema's first ever disemboweling.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Oct 8, 2021 13:23:45 GMT
While there was an earlier version, this 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde won Frederic March an Academy Award for Best Actor:
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Oct 8, 2021 13:46:12 GMT
The 1930s are when the horror genre really came into it's own, with a surprising amount of movies still holding up well today. I'm a big fan of the Universal monsters. I pretty much grew up with that when they used to be on AMC every October. Now all we seemingly get from them are 80s slashers and some mediocre to average stuff from the 2000s. I can't recall the last time I saw Freaks, so I'll have to check that out again. No Spoilers! One movie that sticks out to me is The Most Dangerous Game. Not necessarily because of the movie itself, which is pretty good, but because we watched it in 8th grade. That's right around when I started to get into old movies (aside from stuff I'd watch with my parents) and I got a kick out of nearly everyone being on the edge of their seats for a movie from 1932.
Probably my favorite horror film from the 30s is The Invisible Man and its sequels. It's actually been a really long time since I watched it (hasn't been on TV in forever), but I plan to this weekend or the next since it's on Peacock. It has a few comedy bits that I used to think were hilarious when I was younger.
It's a shame that the recent reboot of the Mummy was a failure critically and commercially. Universal was planning to reboot the monster universe and I guess they cancelled all of their plans because of how poorly this one did.
Edit*- Actually, Universal still did a remake of The Invisible Man in 2020. I can't believe I forgot about it as I saw it and enjoyed it a lot. It was also the last new film I saw before covid hit.
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Oct 8, 2021 14:09:58 GMT
While there was an earlier version, this 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde won Frederic March an Academy Award for Best Actor: I go back and forth on whether I like this one more or the 1941 version with Spencer Tracy. Both great films.
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