By
Kristin Battestella
What's
the next best thing to watching horror? Watching other people talk
about zombies, scary classics, and the history of frightful film!
Birth of the Living Dead –
This 2013 frank and colorful conversation with George A. Romero
recounts his early start with Mr.
Rogers' Neighborhood, beer
commercials, and stalled productions before establishing the zombie
onscreen as we know it today and using horror to make social
statements on Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement with Night
of the Living Dead. Romero
and his associates wore numerous hats for the organic filming and
bare minimum $100,000 production, leading to a necessary ingenuity
shaping the realistic horror and self aware fears onscreen as they
fought against studio demands, difficult cinema distribution, and
copyright issues. Contemporary filmmakers and students also provide
detailed scene by scene analysis and discuss the groundbreaking
racial impacts of the film, early uses of the inaccuracy of
television and radio media to parallel 1968 news coverage, and
erroneous law enforcement implications of the time – topics still
very relevant today. It's interesting to hear how the script did not
mention race and went unchanged once Duane Jones was cast in the lead
– the focus of the film was primarily a cynical denouement on the
large mistakes or small differences that would unravel mid century
middle America in the face of unexplained, non-supernatural horror
but nonetheless inadvertently addresses racial issues of the era.
The
villain isn't made clear and no one actually wins, and these
frightening concepts influenced numerous political films to come.
It's a real treat to have an entire 76 minutes dedicated to
discussing Night
of the Living Dead, and
this documentary is perfect for horror fans or sociology classrooms
looking to dissect horror onscreen and off.
Nightmare Factory – John
Carpenter, George A. Romero, John Landis, Elijah Wood, Norman Reedus,
Tom Savini, Robert Rodriguez, and more discuss the difficulty of
makeup designs, prosthetic effects, and bringing scares to life in
this 94 minute 2011 special. There are warehouse tours, historical
horror props, early talk of Lon Chaney and Jack Pierce, gore in
progress limbs, macabre sculptures, and body casts alongside
animatronics and puppetry secrets. However, the primary focus here is
not on the history of horror effects but rather Greg Nicotero, Howard
Berger, and their KNB Effects company. Primitive childhood films,
behind the scenes footage from Day
of the Dead
to The Walking Dead,
and
interviews with the Nicotero family help shape the personal rise and
artistic camaraderie as the late seventies horror wave brought the
effects industry into mainstream films. Remember, in the past it
wasn't cool to be into creepy gross stuff like it is now! Of course,
Robert Kurtzman – the K in KNB Effects – is only briefly
mentioned amid this rock n roll makeup fraternity, and the
presentation is uneven, meandering vainly over KNB's monopoly on the
effects business and wasting time on funny anecdotes. Though diva
aspects, perfectionism, and CGI competition are addressed, these
counter topics are too swift and the absence of a narrator to balance
the chronology or transition segments further contributes to the
seemingly random structure. I might have preferred to see a more
linear, practical behind the scenes instead – use this fake blood
mix, rubber mask mold that. However, there are some neat insights
into the special effects evolution, with debates on the practicality
of making one small piece versus an entire monstrosity, what you can
do with little money compared to a big budget, and ultimately how
tedious a production can truly be. The conversation may be somewhat
rocky, but this remains an informative treat for behind the scenes
enthusiasts and scary die hards.
Universal Horror – Kenneth
Branagh narrates this 1998 documentary previously available on other
Universal DVD videos and now accenting the Universal Classic
Monsters: The Essential Collection blu-ray set. These 95 minutes are
packed with interviews from Ray Bradbury, Gloria Stuart, Fay Wray,
Carla Laemmle, Sara Karloff, Forrest J. Ackerman, and yet more
actors, actresses, authors, filmmakers, and historians discussing the
Hollywood Gothic and European design trends begun by Universal after
their early start in silents and westerns before The
Hunchback of Notre Dame.
From foundings with Carl Laemmle, the famed Stage 28, and The
Phantom of the Opera to The
Cat and the Canary, The Man Who Laughs, and
London After Midnight, time
here is also well spent on directors Tod Browning and James Whale and
their talkie success with Dracula
and Frankenstein.
Due time focuses on Lon
Chaney, Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff, too, before King
King nostalgia, more
Depression era horror, and The
Black Cat. Yes, this is a
lot of stuff to cover, but the orderly progression moves at a nice
pace on each leg of the journey thanks to film clips, rare footage
and photos, and family anecdotes. Highlights on German Expressionism,
earlier silent inspirations, and the beginnings of censorship battles
help frame Universal’s place in the budding horror glory, but the
time here only covers up to Dracula’s
Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, and
The Wolf Man. Intriguing
topics such as bankruptcy and the end of the Laemmle era, World War
II parallels in horror, the forties second wave of sequels, and
Abbott and Costello mash
ups are quickly squished in the final fifteen minutes. One could do
an entire mini series on the history of this studio, indeed. However,
this extended retrospective has more than enough to delight movie
history buffs and horror fans old and new.
Skip
It
Doc of the Dead – This 80
minute 2014 special tackles the zombie rise on film from the medium's
infancy to Romero's work and beyond with spoof newscasts, zombie town
hall meetings, film clips from White
Zombie to
World War Z, and
quips from Simon Pegg,
Bruce Campbell, and more. Early film racism, voodoo metaphors,
biological scares, and science fiction undead mixes create an
interesting conversation alongside Black Friday irony, capitalism
fears, and social commentary. Retrospective sit downs discuss how new
disasters both natural and manmade have created a millennial zombie
resurgence with video games and all things The
Walking Dead.
Unfortunately, many
zombie films go unmentioned in favor of more pop than cinema. Real
life voodoo practitioners and global undead history are pushed aside
in favor of a lengthy fast versus slow zombie debate. Obvious
metaphors are nothing new to hardcore fans, and the 98% white male
experts end up repeating the same pretentious things. The ironic
hipster tunes and geek humor is a bit much, too – on the street
funny people and music montages are unnecessary and off the mark.
Scientific perspectives are dropped in favor of zombie commercials,
zombie weddings, and kid zombie movies followed by onscreen experts
saying we haven't jumped the zombie shark just yet. This counter
productive approach at once tells us how mainstream zombies have
become whilst also presenting bizarre aspects such as undead rape
fantasy and zombie porn – which of course is where the few female
commentators get to look foolish. Time is padded with double talk on
why zombies are so big but how such popularity is baffling, and
panelists say they would leave their kids behind and jump off
buildings in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Ultimately, this
embracing fandom hug feels more like a cultural mockery complete with
homophobic comedy, and I stopped caring before the last forty
minutes.
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