Shocktober Director of the Day: William Friedkin

William Friedkin has really only made one Horror movie. But what a Horror movie it was (even if I personally consider it one of the most overrated movies of all time)! And I'll get to it in a moment.

Friedkin's first film was 1967's Good Times, Sonny and Cher's attempt to cash in on what the Beatles had already been doing for a while. The following year he made two films, the practically forgotten The Birthday Party and the hilarious burlesque comedy The Night They Raided Minskey's.  It would be three years before his next film, an adaptation of Mart Crowley's seminal gay play The Boys in the Band. Exceptionally frank for it's time, The Boys in the Band is now widely considered a stereotypical view of what it meant to be gay at the time. I've always found both the play and the movie to be a rather sad comment on how gay men were perceived 40 years ago, even among themselves.

Of course, Friedkin's big break came in 1971 with the Gene Hackman drug-drama The French Connection. Friedkin won a Golden Globe, a DGA Award and an Oscar for Best Director and was at the height of his career. 

Then came what many people still consider to be 'the scariest movie ever made,' 1973's The Exorcist. Based on the novel by William Peter Blatty, Friedkin's film about a little girl possessed by a demon named Pazzuzu had audiences puking, fainting and lining up for blocks. It turned actress Linda Blair into a household name and galvanized religious leaders across the globe in their fight against Satan. The special makeup effects by Dick Smith were revolutionary at the time and stories abound about the production being plagued by a host of unexplained problems. Still, it was critically hailed. Even my devoutly Catholic grandmother announced it a "wonderful picture... but not for children." I desperately wanted to see it, but at 12 years-old (there I go, giving my age away again), I was too young. I did get to see it six years later upon it's 1979 re-release, by which time I had already formed my opinions about God, the devil and religion, and the film's impact was greatly reduced.

In 2000, The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Scene was released, featuring this rather infamous scene cut from the original 1973 version:

Friedkin never again saw the kind of success that The Exorcist brought him, though 1980's Cruising courted controversy once again as Friedkin made his second foray into the 'gay experience." Al Pacino stars as a cop assigned to find a killer who is targeting gay men. Denounced as homophobic by the gay community and perverse by the so-called Religious Right, Cruising is probably best observed as a comment on the free-wheeling days before AIDS, while still managing to be a not particularly good movie. Set in leather bars, porn shops and dark alleys, Cruising also stars Karen Allen (who would shortly go on to gain movie immortality in a little film called Raiders of the Lost Ark) and Paul Sorvino. Personally, I never understood the disdain for this movie, other than it's not really very good. Lately, there has been a push for a "Director's Cut" version, though I for one, hardly think it's necessary (unless of course, it redeems the whole mess and makes for an actually good film).

Friedkin's most recent film, 2007's Bug, based on the Tracy Letts play of the same name, is a psychological thriller about two people sharing psychoses in a motel room. While the play itself works as a disturbing look into the minds of two very disturbed people, Friedkin's rather literal film is less than successful. Truth be told, Uncle P was very disappointed to find himself falling asleep while watching the movie version of a play he'd found so electrifying on stage.

Friedkin has never matched the success of The Exorcist and based on the films he's made since, I doubt he ever will. 

More, anon.
Prospero

True Horror

I'm interrupting the Shocktober posts tonight, because its happened again. That's 19 year-old Zach Harrington of Norman, OK. Towleroad is reporting that Zach took his life this week after attending "a hate-filled recent City Council meeting" on September 28th, during which adults his parents' age shouted epithets and sentiments similar to those expressed by children and teens in other recent suicide events.

I am sickened and distraught by what's happening in America, right now. Why do people still hate our community in the 21st Century? And how can anyone still say that being a member of the single most hated minority on the planet is a "choice?" Why would anyone deliberately choose to be taunted, vilified, hated and labeled as 'sick' and 'evil?' Does that make any sense to any one? I thought not.

Yes, I'm going to name the actual villain here: Religion. Blinded by what they've been told for centuries, religious leaders around the world have expounded on the 'sin' of homosexuality. Preachers, Priests, Imams and Rabbis have taught against homosexuality for centuries. Why? Because homosexual relationships (until recently) produced no children to give money and power to their cause. Of course the Pope wants you to refrain from birth control. That's that many less people to tithe. At least Lenin got one thing right when he said "Religion is the opiate of the masses."

Now I know there are plenty of LGBT people out there who still believe. And there are a few churches out there who teach acceptance. But as long as groups like Exodus continue to lie to people about being able to change their sexuality; and as long as the Catholics, Mormons, Baptists and Muslims tell their followers that being gay equals being evil; young people like Zach Harrington will continue to be hated simply for being for who they are. And they will continue to take their lives in desperation. And that is simply NOT acceptable.

This has to stop. I am asking all of my readers and my fellow bloggers to join the "It Gets Better" campaign. We have to let our young people know that they are loved, valued and needed and that their lives are worth living. 

And if you are a young LGBT person reading this, please do not give up hope. If you are considering suicide, please, please call the Trevor Project, 24/7 at 866-488-7386. You are not alone. Again, I've been there. I know how difficult it cane be. It really does get better. I promise.

More, anon.
A heartbroken Prospero

Shocktober Director of the Day: James Wan

With only a few films under their belts, James Wan and his writing partner Leigh Whannell have produced some of the most original horror movies of the past decade. Say what you will about the degradation of the franchise as it lumbers towards it's sixth sequel, Saw was a sensation at Sundance in 2003 and started an entirely new sub-genre of horror, which would be later expolited by director Eli Roth in the Hostel films. 

Two men, a doctor (Cary Elwes) and a photographer (Whannell) wake up to find themselves chained by the ankle to opposite sides of a filthy bathroom, a corpse and a tape recorder just out reach between them. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that they are latest victims of a serial killer known as Jigsaw, who places his victims in deadly contraptions which require the solving of various puzzles to escape. Dina Meyer, Ken Leung and Danny Glover are the cops hot on Jigsaw's trail, while "Lost" alum Micheal Emerson plays a suspicious orderly; "Parenthood" star Monica Potter is Elwes' wife and Shawnee Smith is the only known survivor of Jigsaw's monstrous contraptions. Startling, grim and highly original at the time, Saw was the first movie in a long time whose twist ending actually surprised this jaded Horror fan.

Wan and Whannell created a creepy and original film on a limited budget, while managing to lure some exceptionally talented actors to take part in what was a risky venture, at best. And despite the increasingly lame sequels (the latest, due in just a few week is in what I call 'The GD3D'), genre fans must admit that the the original Saw is quite a ride.

The duo's next film, 2007's Dead Silence (originally titled Silence) was a take on one of Horror's classic tropes, the evil ventriloquist. Explored in dozens of films (including the excellent Richard Attenborough's Magic, starring a young Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret), the creepy/evil ventriloquist has been the cause of almost as many nightmares as the Evil-You-Know-What.

Ryan Kwanten ("True Blood") is Jamie, who receives a mysterious package containing a ventriloquist's dummy. When he goes out for Chinese, his wife (Mia Farrow look-alike Amber Valetta) is murdered and Jaimie returns to his hometown of Raven's Fair to bury her. Detective Lipton (Donnie Wahlberg) is suspicious and follows Jamie home, sure the young man had something to do with his wife's death. Jamie's cold father ("24" alum Bob Gunton) and his young wife welcome Jamie home, but there is something amiss. It turns out that Raven's Fair was once home to the celebrated Mary Shaw, a ventriloquist who was killed by vigilantes after the death of a young man who called her out during a performance. As the bodies pile up, Jamie and Lipton become convinced that something sinister is going on and a climactic battle between good and evil ensues in the rotting ruins of Mary Shaw's mansion/theater. 

Atmospheric and surprisingly creepy, Dead Silence is an under-appreciated throwback to the ghost stories of the 30's and 40's, where what what the audience doesn't see is often scarier than what we do.If you've never seen it, you should.

That same year, Wan directed the rather formulaic revenge actioner, Death Sentence, starring Kevin Bacon (Friday the 13th) as a man bent on getting back at the men who murdered his son. Both director and star deserved better material, and I suspect contractual obligations led to this mess more than anything. Kelly Preston, John Goodman and Aisha Tyler all should have known better, too.

Wan reunites with Whannell for the upcoming Insidious, starring Patrick Wilson (X-Men) and Rose Byrne (28 Weeks Later; "Damages") as parents trying to rescue their comatose from evil spirits:

Uncle P is looking forward to whatever horror this young Aussie filmmaker has in store in for us, including his scheduled 2012 take on vampires, Nightfall. Let's hope his future holds horrors as original and creepy as his first two films. 

More, anon.
Prospero

Shocktober Director of the Day: David Cronenberg

Canadian director David Cronenberg has always been fascinated by horrors of the flesh and has never been shy about expressing that fascination. He made several shorts, features and Canadian television movies before his first widely distributed film, They Came from Within in 1975.

The story of mad scientist (is there any other kind) experimenting on his neighbors in a high-rise apartment complex, They Came from Within concerns a genetically engineered parasite that drives its host to a sexual (and murderous) frenzy. Using British scream queen Barbara Steele and a host of unknowns, Cronenberg's cheapie was derided as vile exploitation (which it certainly was) when it was originally released. But it had a certain style about it and the young director's potential was certainly on display:

In 1977, he made the similarly themed Rage (known in the U.S. as Rabid) starring former porn star Marilyn Chambers as a young woman whose experimental plastic surgery results in a phallic organ in her throat which drains the blood of her victims, turning them into blood-thirsty zombies, resulting in a Montreal epidemic:

For his next film, 1979's The Brood, Cronenberg managed to get two rather well-known British actors, Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar. Reed was known for several high-profile roles in films like Oliver!; Tommy; and Women in Love (where he shares a sweaty, naked wrestling match with Alan Bates*) and Eggar was he genteel Emma Fairfax in Dr. Doolittle. So it was a bit of a coup for Cronenberg when they agreed to appear as a deranged psychiatrist and his patient who somehow manages to manifest her feelings of hatred into physical creatures who kill those she feels have wronged her. 

The final image of Eggar licking the blood off her latest "child" may well be one of the disturbing in modern horror.

But it wouldn't be until 1981's Scanners that Cronenberg's films really began to garner notice among genre fans. Starring former super model Jennifer O'Neill, Patrick McGoohan ("The Prisoner") and genre powerhouse Michael Ironside, Scanners is a story about psychic espionage and is the first movie I can think of where this happens:

Yikes!

Next came 1983's Videodrome, the first Cronenberg film Uncle P saw in a theatre. James Woods and Blondie vocalist Debbie Harry star in this tale of a television producer looking for the next big thing. When he stumbles upon a pirate S&M TV show called 'Vidoedrome,' he thinks he's found it. Of course, in typical Cronenberg fashion, nothing is really what it seems and Videodrome is little more than a front for a bizarre cult. Playing on a common Sci-Fi theme (the marriage of flesh and electronics), Videodrome is the first of several times Cronenberg explores this topic. And of course, disturbing images abound:

Next came Cronenberg's 1983 adaptation of Stephen King's The Dead Zone, one of the few movies that is actually better than than King's source material, but which still left me feeling uninvolved despite some excellent performances from Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Brooke Adams and Colleen Dewhurst.

Three years later, Cronenberg made the movie that would cement his status as a Horror/Sci-Fi master forever. His remake of the 50's B-movie The Fly was a sensation and not just for it's envelope-pushing special effects. Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis (in tragically ignored Oscar-worthy performances) play scientist Seth Brundle and science reporter Veronica Quiafe. When Seth reveals the teleportation device he's been working on to Veronica, the two of them become embroiled in a tragic romance worthy of Shakespeare. Of course, we all know that a fly is trapped along with Seth when he makes his first solo test, resulting in a mutation that would inspire nightmares (not to mention an opera) for millions of horror fans. The scene where Veronica visits Seth for the last time before he is completely dehumanized, can still make me choke up. Addressing cancer, AIDS and a slew of human foibles, The Fly touched audiences in a way Cronenberg never had before.

Cronenberg followed  The Fly with Dead Ringers, his 1988 adaptation of Bari Wood's novel "Twins," about two brilliant, but drug-addicted twin gynecologists (Jeremy Irons) who develop the worst kind of God complex:

1991 saw what may well be one of Cronenberg's most disturbing films of all time, an adaptation of William S. Burrough's supposedly unfilmable novel Naked Lunch, about an exterminator who becomes addicted to his own poisons and his journey into madness.

In 1993, Cronenberg side-stepped away from horror and adapted David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly, about a French diplomat who is tricked into an affair with a male Chinese opera star who is actually a spy. While not exactly a Horror movie, M. Butterfly still explores the connections between sin, flesh, deception and desire. Then came the repulsive Crash, about a group of fetishists who find sexual arousal in car accidents. Crash was the first movie I saw in a stadium theater, with most of my fellow cast mates of "Love! Valour! Compassion!" and we were all both appalled and confused by what we were seeing.  major misstep for the usually brilliant director.

1999 saw return to Cronenberg's obsession with the marriage of electronics and flesh with the virtual reality-themed eXinstenz, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Ian Holm and Willem Dafoe in a story about a video game programmer on the run from those who would use her technology for nefarious means:

2002's Spider stars Ralph Fiennes as a mental patient who escapes into his childhood to avoid the horrors of reality. It is probably Cronenberg's least successful and least well-known film to date. Since then, Cronenberg has moved on to more mainstream films, such as 2005's A History of Violence and 2007's Eastern Promises, both of which explore the psychology of crime. His upcoming film, A Dangerous Method is about the relationship between the fathers of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Personally, I look forward to the day when Cronenberg returns to exploring both psychological and physical horror.

More, anon.

Prospero

*Link probably NSFW

Shocktober Director of the Day: Clive Barker

With only three feature films to his credit as a director, openly gay horror author Clive Barker has managed to create some powerfully disturbing movies.

With two short films in the 70's (Salome and The Forbidden), Barker's career as a novelist far outpaced his career as a director. Author Stephen King once described Barker as "...the future of horror," though lately his output has slowed down considerably. Still, the three major releases directed by Barker all hold special places in both Uncle P's cold black heart, and the annals of Horror film history.

His first film, 1987's Hellraiser, based on his short story "The Hellbound Heart," was a sensation when it was first released. Using then state-of-the-art special effects to tell the story of Frank, a man who, while seeking the ultimate thrill, buys a strange puzzle box and upon opening it, unleashes a sadomasochistic group of cenobites from hell. After they literally drag him to hell, his brother's family moves into his house, where the accidental spilling of blood brings Frank back, though less than complete and hungry for blood:

Aided by Christopher Young's magnificently creepy waltz, Barker takes a page right out of Cronenberg and uses reverse images, physical puppetry and plenty of weird sound effects to produce what was a rather startling scene in 1987. The skinless Frank draws his former lover (now sister-in-law) Julia into his scheme to lure unsuspecting men to the house so he can drain their bodily fluids in an effort to complete himself. But his niece Kirsty has found the puzzle box and the cenobites are trying to lure her to hell, as well.

Of course, by the time Frank has skinned his own brother, the cenobites have finally caught up with him and this happens:

Sorry about the poor quality there, but it was the only full version I could find of that scene.

Hellraiser went on to spawn several increasingly silly sequels and gave rise to the iconic villain Pinhead. A new sequel is scheduled to be released sometime next year, though a Barker-produced reboot is also scheduled for 2012.

For his next film, 1990's Nightbreed, Barker turned to his novel "Cabal," about a young man who discovers he is part of a group of monstrous-looking mutants who have been targeted by a monstrous-acting serial killer. Craig Scheffer (A River Runs Through It) stars and in a stroke of genius casting, David Cronenberg plays the serial killer. Weird and unsettling, Nightbreed didn't enjoy the same success as Hellraiser, but I have always found it to be a fascinating movie.

On a side note, I share 1 degree of separation with Scheffer, who was a college roommate of my dear friend, Sci-Fi geek and fellow director, Dan S.

Barker's last (and for my money, best) feature was 1995's Lord of Illusions. Sexy Scott Bakula ("Quantum Leap") stars as Barker's recurring character Harry D'Amour, a private detective who specializes in weird cases. When famous magician Phillip Swann (Kevin J. O'Connor) is killed while performing a particularly dangerous illusion, Swann's widow (X-Men's Famke Janssen) hires D'Amour to investigate. The trail leads back to a strange cult led by the deceased Nix (character actor Daniel von Bargen), who had taught Swann "real" magic and whose resurrection is being attempted by his rabid followers.

Noirish and weird, Lord of Illusions was probably a bit too esoteric for most audiences, though I find it fascinating every time I watch it. And Barker's highly improved directorial skills are best on display here. 

There are plenty of film adaptations of Barker's stories and novels, most recently The Midnight Meat Train (starring hottie Bradley Cooper); Book of Blood and the announced Thief of Always. Barker is scheduled to return to directing with an adaptation of his novella Tortured Souls: Animae Damnatea in 2011. I, for one, can't wait.

More, anon.

Prospero

PS - I've been holding onto the image at the top of this post forever, just waiting for the perfect time to use it. So glad I did...

Shocktober Director of the Day: Tod Browning

From 1915 to 1939, Tod Browning made 62 films. But he is most remembered for two particular horror movies, which I'll talk about soon enough.

Not much is known about Browning's first film, a 1915 short called The Lucky Transfer, other than the date it was released and the names of some of its cast members. Browning made 11 short films that year, with titles like An Image of the Past; The Story of a Story; The Electric Alarm and Little Marie. His first full-length feature, 1916's The Fatal Glass of Beer starred Elmo Lincoln, the first actor to play Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan. Only stills and snippets remain of these early silent films, and little is known about their plots, though the titles are good indicators of what they were probably about. From 1917 to 1924, Browning cranked out another 27 movies that are mostly lost to history. 

Then, in 1925 he was assigned a film with the legendary "Man of a Thousand Faces," Lon Chaney. The Unholy Three was story about three circus performers (a theme Browning would explore more than once, having grown up in the circus) who escape their lives of servitude and set about creating a crime wave from a bird shop run by a ventriloquist disguised as an old lady (Chaney). Browning and Chaney collaborated on 8 films, including the long-lost vampire thriller London After Midnight, which Browning remade in 1935 as Mark of Vampire, starring the legendary Lionel Barrymore.

Of course, it wasn't until 1931 that Browning made his indelible mark on film history with his version of the Deane/Balderston stage adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, starring Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi reprising the role that had made him a star in America. While I personally find the Spanish-language version (filmed on the same sets after the American crew was done for the day) to be a better film, Browning's movie is still a masterful film, using light and shadow most effectively and exploiting the then charismatic Lugosi's talents most effectively. It is the first horror movie I can remember seeing and it turned Uncle P into the horror junkie he is today.

Almost 80 years have passed and the film remains a Classic. We may laugh at the hokey acting and decidedly quaint special effects, but Lugosi's performance and Browning's use of light  and shadow are still studied in film classes all over the world.

Browning's next film, Iron Man starred Lew Ayres as a boxer trying to win back the woman he loved. A rather standard early 30's melodrama, Iron Man pales in comparison to Browning's best works. 1932 saw Browning's most controversial (and probably best) film, Freaks.

Freaks tells the story of an ambitious trapeze artist named Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) who marries Hans, a little person who is the star of the circus' sideshow. When Hans' fellow sideshow performers discover that she only married him for his money, they exact a terrible revenge on Cleopatra, transforming her into a sideshow freak named "The Feathered Hen." Using actual sideshow performers such as the microcephalic Schlitze and conjoined twins the Hilton Sisters (themselves the subject of the highly underrated musical Sideshow), Freaks was derided as exploitative and disturbing and was banned in the U.S. for almost 40 years. The trailer below is a fan-made remix, but it certainly conveys the surreal atmosphere Browning manages to impart in this bizarre and unsettling film:

After Mark of the Vampire, Browning made The Devil Doll, again starring Lionel Barrymore (who dons full drag as a kindly old doll-maker). The movie is about an escaped convict (Barrymore) who uses miniaturized humans to exact revenge against those who he thinks have wronged him.

Browning's last film, 1939's Miracles for Sale, tells the story of a magician's illusion designer (future 'Father Knows Best' star, Robert Young) who specializes in debunking fake psychics and mediums. It is mostly forgotten. Browning, who began his show business career as a circus dancer and clown, made his acting debut in D.W. Griffith's Intolerance. He died in 1962 at the age of 82. Dracula and Freaks remain among the most well-known horror films of all time and continue to influence writers and directors to this day.

More, anon.

Prospero

Shocktober Director of the Day: Tobe Hooper

In 1974, former college professor and budding filmmaker Tobe Hooper directed and co-wrote a low budget horror movie that took audiences by storm, terrifying millions without showing any actual on-screen violence. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre introduced audiences to Leatherface, the first seminal horror villain since Norman Bates. Of course, the two characters share more than instant recognition - they were both based on real-life maniac Ed Gein. Relying on sound effects and the audience's imagination, TCM was an underground hit and audiences swore they saw way more than Hooper ever actually filmed. TCM tells the story of a group of teenagers on their way to visit their grandfather's grave who pick up a rather hysterical hitchhiker and end up in the clutches of a family of cannibals. Hooper's $83,000 film has so-far grossed over $30M and has been since remade with more gore and less critical acclaim.

Hooper's next movie, 1977's Eaten Alive, about a psychotic Louisiana hotelier who has a penchant for feeding his guests to his pet alligator was not quite as successful, but still has an off-kilter sense of the bizarre which makes for an interesting, if not quite as scary, ride:

In 1979, Hooper got a big break with the TV adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot, about vampires invading small town America. Horribly miscast and employing 50 year-old visuals, Salem's Lot ultimately fails (as do most King adaptations) due to it's silliness factor. While King may terrify on the page, his works don't always lend themselves to the screen, and that's very obvious in Hooper's ambitious but un-scary version:

Hooper made another silly monster movie in 1981, The Funhouse in which a deformed circus freak terrorizes a group of teens who are dared into spending the night in a carnival dark ride. Depressing and poorly acted, The Funhouse is probably one of Hooper's worst films. It would be followed the next year by one of his best -- and certainly his most successful film, 1982's Poltergeist, a movie Uncle P and his sister can quote almost line for line and which Uncle P can tell you exactly what's happening just by listening to it's soundtrack. Stephen Spielberg served as producer and his influence can be seen in shot after shot, but the tension and terror are pure Hooper:

Hooper then made the under-appreciated "Vampires from Space" zombie movie Lifeforce and an ironic remake of the 1950's Sci-Fi thriller Invaders from Mars, before making hat I think is his best and most terrifying film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. A sequel that's better than the original, TCM2 is one of maybe three films that made Uncle P feel like he was a part of someone else's nightmare. Set mostly in the underground tunnels of an abandoned amusement park, TCM2 features more disturbing performances and images than anything in recent horror history. It it also one of the few films I cannot bring myself to see a second time:

Since then, Hooper has made a string of rather unremarkable films, including Spontaneous Combustion; The Mangler (another lame King adaptation); the poor "X-Files" clone "Dark Skies" and The Toolbox Murders, a film which many horror fans love, but I find to be rather derivative and beneath his best works. I do, however, have high hopes for Tobe's upcoming adaptation of King's From a Buick 8, a novel that figures among King's alternate universe stories found in "The Talisman" and "The Gunslinger."

Hooper's prolific career as a director has certainly had its ups and downs, but he will always be remembered for at least two of the genre's best films. And that's why he's included in this Shocktober's list of Best Horror Directors.

More, anon.

Prospero