A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film from the 1950S to the 21St Century
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Dark Dreams 2.0 ALSO BY CHARLES DERRY The Suspense Thriller: Films in the Shadow of Alfred Hitchcock (McFarland, 1988; paperback 2001) Dark Dreams 2.0 A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film from the 1950s to the 21st Century CHARLES DERRY Foreword by JOHN RUSSELL TAYLOR McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Derry, Charles, 1951– Dark dreams 2.0 : a psychological history of the modern horror film from the 1950s to the 21st century / Charles Derry ; foreword by John Russell Taylor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-3397-1 illustrated case binding : 50# alkaline paper 1. Horror films—History and criticism. 2. Motion pictures— Psychological aspects. I. Title. PN1995.9.H6D38 2009 791.43'6164—dc22 2009025183 British Library cataloguing data are available ©2009 Charles Derry. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. On the cover: Ralph Fiennes in a scene from the 2002 film Spider. Front cover design by Chase Whiteside Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com To Thomas G. Kohn and again to the memory of Charles Homer Derry, my father, who loved a good story This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction to Dark Dreams 2.0 1 PART ONE: DARK DREAMS (1977) Foreword to the Original Edition, by John Russell Taylor 15 Introduction 19 1—The Horror of Personality 21 2—The Horror of Armageddon 55 3—The Horror of the Demonic 88 PART TWO: MILLENNIAL NIGHTMARES (2009) 4—A Context; and Why What’s Not Happening in American Horror Isn’t 109 5—The Horror of Personality, Revisited 112 6—Sequels and Insincerity 200 7—The Horror of the Demonic, Revisited 203 8—The Horror of Armageddon, Revisited 231 9—Asian Millennial Horror 284 10—Postmodern Remakes, the Averted Gaze, and Some Glimmerings of the New 305 11—Guillermo Del Toro 315 12—David Cronenberg 330 13—9/11 and Beyond 342 Appendix I: A Proposed Canon of Modern Horror 347 Appendix II: Interviews with Horror Directors: Aldrich, Castle, Harrington, Romero, Friedkin (1977) 349 Appendix III: Filmographies (Compiled by Thomas G. Kohn) 365 Notes 409 Bibliography 413 Index 415 vii This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge those who have been instrumental in preparing Dark Dreams 2.0: research associates Kyle Forquer, Scott Bowers, and Michael Collins, whose contributions over many years were invaluable and central, with special kudos to Kyle for his extraordinary work helping compile frame grabs; my current students Michael Ward, Chase Whiteside, Matt Mulcahey, Andrew Grigiss, Erick Stoll, and Joe Lurie, who located errors and offered suggestions, with particular gratitude to Chase for providing the strik- ing cover design; my colleagues Mark Lyons, who helped amass the perfect collection of horror DVDs, Russ Johnson, a horror enthusiast who devised a great system for capturing high-quality frame grabs, and Julia Reichert, whose work influenced and inspired me; Vic- toria Oleen, who lent her problem-solving skills and support; the estimable organization the Ohio Arts Council, along with Wright State University administrators Stuart McDow- ell and Mary Ellen Mazey, who provided financial support; my friend Ben Putman, who offered film titles, graphic design ideas, and notable insights; my friend Ben Grossberg, who volunteered his discerning editor’s eye; my film school colleague from long ago, Susan Pisoni Tavernetti, an extraordinary critic, teacher, and friend who was never far from my mind as I wrote; all those at McFarland Publishing, who were both encouraging and patient; and above all, my friend Bob Pardi, who knows more about horror film than anyone I know and who has provided me thirty years of cinematic companionship despite our always liv- ing hundreds, if not thousands of miles apart. And of course, as I did when the earlier version of Dark Dreams was published, I would like to thank the prodigiously talented Stuart Kaminsky for his encouragement, friendship, and service as my mentor; the Northwestern University film faculty of the early seventies, including Jack Ellis and Paddy Whannel, for their part in instilling in the author an approach to film study; the gracious and generous John Russell Taylor for his Foreword and his life- long commitment to the highest standards of criticism; the late Frederick S. Clarke, the visionary founding editor of Cinefantastique, for access to his personal archives; and Dan R. Scapperotti, Dale Winogura, Tony Scott, and Bill Crouch for the interview material on William Castle, Curtis Harrington, George A. Romero, and William Friedkin respectively. Finally, I thank and acknowledge my life partner and not-yet-legal husband of twenty- nine years plus, Thomas G. Kohn, who provided research assistance as well as more under- standing and support than this obsessive writer could have ever hoped for. ix This page intentionally left blank Introduction to Dark Dreams 2.0 Is it odd to begin Dark Dreams 2.0 by admitting that I don’t like horror films as much as I used to? I know I once so loved the genre that I would stay up till 4 A.M. to catch a local TV broadcast of a low-budget horror film like Joseph Cates’ Who Killed Teddy Bear? Unfortunately, today’s suburban multiplex filled with teens flocking to see Paris Hilton (!) in a remake of House of Wax does not seem similarly compelling. Yet I feel nostalgia still for the time I dragged my friend Bob Pardi to downtown Los Angeles to see What’s the Matter with Helen? The seedy, 24-hour theatre ran triple features, which meant it did dou- ble duty as a flophouse for the homeless and the addicted; the environment was at times scarier than the movie. Of course one might argue that personalities like Sal Mineo and Elaine Stritch (the stars of Who Killed Teddy Bear?) or Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Win- ters (the stars of What’s the Matter with Helen?) are inherently more complex and intrigu- ing than a PR-hyped personality like Paris Hilton, who is more famous for being famous than for having talent. Perhaps another reason for my diminished interest is that the hor- ror film—a genre never accused of subtlety—has always particularly appealed to adoles- cents and young adults peering for the first time into the forbidden components of the id: sex and violence. Today, over thirty years after Dark Dreams’ original publication, I am even further from adolescence. If the sensational aspects of horror interest me less and less, what horror films mean and what horror films are trying to tell us about ourselves and our fears, fascinate me even more. I am grateful for the opportunity to publish this new, revised, and greatly enlarged edition of Dark Dreams, virtually four times the length of the original, which until now has been out-of-print for thirty years. Yet as I was preparing the reissue, it became evident that the last thirty years—not only in terms of horror film, but in terms of cultural history— required its very own companion volume. Americans have experienced the Reagan Revo- lution, the rise of the religious right, AIDS, the culture wars over abortion and gay rights, 9/11, the “War on Terror,” the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and George W. Bush institut- ing torture in the name of democracy. Indeed, consideration of these tumultuous decades prompted not only some reconsideration of my original text, but wide-ranging examina- tion of a great number of films. The ideas I put forward in the 1977 volume, which feels written by some distant version of myself, have held up well: my basic premise that the hor- ror film underwent a radical transformation in the sixties, developing three subgenres (the horror of personality, of Armageddon, and the demonic), seems from today’s perspective to be fairly obvious. It is worth remembering that my initial ideas broke some new ground— primarily because the horror films like Psycho and The Birds that I discussed with such 1 2INTRODUCTION enthusiasm were very different from the classic Universal films like Frankenstein and Dracula which were so commonly under- stood as the very definition of horror. Indeed, it is hard to believe there was ever a time when Psycho was considered nei- ther a horror film, nor a univer- sally-acclaimed work of art. The most glaring error in my original edition was its pre- In Psycho, Hitchcock takes us on a new horror journey; and as diction that the future horror Marion Crane, played by Janet Leigh, discovers, danger can be genre might include “an occa- anywhere. sional reworking of Psycho.” What an understatement! There have been three Psycho sequels, an unusually interesting frame-by-frame remake, and literally dozens of films inspired directly which include quo- tation or hommage. On the scholarly front, the Hitchcock industry (which I, too, have con- tributed to with my book The Suspense Thriller: Films in the Shadow of Alfred Hitchcock) has been so busy for the last three decades, that now, one rather wishes for a moratorium! Of the seminal films I wrote about in Dark Dreams’ original edition, Psycho, The Birds, Rose- mary’s Baby, and Night of the Living Dead seem increasingly secure in any pantheon of American film classics. The irony is that in their own time, these films were largely conde- scended to as shallow sensation (if not disdained), but in comparison to the violent spe- cial-effects excesses of today, they appear to be virtually philosophical.