by Kristin Battestella
Gather round any time of year for
these informative documentary scares, monsters of the silver screen,
ye olde witches, and retro ghosts. Boo!
Monster Madness: The Golden Age of The Horror Film – Moody scoring, photo stills, archive
footage, and black and white clips accent this eighty minute
retrospective chronicling the silent horror classics and Universal
Horror glory from the famed Stage 28, The Hunchback of Notre Dame,
and The Phantom of the
Opera to Dracula,
Frankenstein, and The
Mummy. Guest speakers include
Carla Laemmle, Bela Lugosi Jr, and Sara Karloff alongside newsreels
celebrating The Bride of Frankenstein
despite Depression era censorship. The narration moves fast,
however – packing in a one and a half speed sentence before the
highlights chronologically discuss Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, Boris
Karloff, James Whale, and the continued provocative power, nightmare
inducing effectiveness, and good versus evil morality plays of these
really nice guys creating monster men. Further success in The Old
Dark House and The
Black Cat would typecast
these favorites amid 1939 Hollywood heights and wartime escapism
scares, and MGM competition from Fu Man Chu and Mark of the
Vampire, Paramount's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Peter
Lorre in Mad Love add more
than just Universal to the conversation. Brief
side chats also mention the growth of horror makeups and effects, SF
horrors, Island of Lost Souls, and RKO's King Kong
before The Mummy's Hand and
The Wolf Man degrade into the
more juvenile fluff mash ups such House of Frankenstein
and Abott and Costello meet Frankenstein. At
times, this seems somewhat unofficial, with Monster Rally panel
interviews, repeated trailers, and an uneven focus – some topics
are fleeting, others ramble and stray from the comment at hand.
Lesser sequels are skipped entirely, and this leg ends on an abrupt
down note, unable to stand on its own and forcing viewers to continue
with Monster Madness: Mutants, Space Invaders, and Drive
Ins. While mostly superficial
with nothing new for longtime horror fans, fun anecdotes keep
this informative and atmospheric for newer genre audiences. 
Monster Madness: The Gothic Revival of Horror – This eighty-two minutes continues
recounting the horror history with Hammer Films' early struggles and
suspense pictures before edgy SF fare like The Quatermass
Experiment and the Technicolor
Hammer Horror renaissance with Horror of Dracula and
The Curse of Frankenstein. Tossing in Elvis, however,
alongside the state of fifties cinema and hammy television horrors
meanders, delaying more interesting talk on Christopher Lee's larger
than life monster stature and the beloved Peter Cushing as the
villainous Dr. Frankenstein. Rambling archive footage with Lee, Jimmy
Sangster, Freddie Francis, Ingrid Pitt, and Oliver Reed is also
difficult to discern at times while the chronology sputters over The
Hound of Baskervilles, The Mummy, and
Hammer's increasingly ambitious set design, colorful gore, and
saucy skin. Standalone
thrillers including Paranoiac, Scream of Fear, and
Curse of the Werewolf are
discussed alongside the varying success of sequels such as The
Revenge of Frankenstein, the polarizing Evil of Frankenstein,
Dracula: Prince of Darkness, and Dracula Has Risen from the
Grave. Other hits like
Psycho, Amicus productions such as The Skull and
The Creeping Flesh, and anthologies including Dr.
Terror's House of Horrors are
name dropped, but this session unfortunately wastes more time
missing famous horror classics such as The Innocents and
The Haunting – and
Vincent Price is never even mentioned! Censorship battles and raunchy
from The Vampire Lovers or
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde don't
hide the lagging mood, and this ostensible presentation ends on The
Satanic Rites of Dracula without discussing further Amicus and
AIP productions or even more Hammer gems such as Frankenstein
Created Woman and Countess Dracula. These Monster
Madness documentaries need to go
together, yet the series should have been either exhaustive
two hour slots or a half hour series with tighter focus per topic.
Despite a sentimental and flawed presentation, this video has enough
serviceable nostalgia for Hammer lovers and tip of the iceberg
information for budding horror fans.
Witches: A Century of Murder
– Historian Suzannah Lipscomb hosts this two-part 2015 special
chronicling the seventeenth century persecutions and torture run
rampant as witchcraft hysteria spread from James I in the late
fifteen hundreds through Charles I and the English Civil War. 1589
Europe has burn at the stake fever thanks to the Malleus
Maleficarum belief that witches were in league with the devil,
and contemporaneous sources, books, and confessions help recount
violent techniques and sexual aspects that may not be classroom
friendly. Innocent birthmarks or moles on maids and midwives were
used and misconstrued until naming names and pointing fingers
snowballed into deplorable jail conditions, hangings, and conspiracy.
Postulating on why the innocent would confess is addressed alongside
the details from the North Berwick Witch Trials – including
garroting and even the smell of burning human fat. James I's own
Daemonologie becomes a license to hunt witches as the 1645
then-normal rationale that witches have sex with the devil escalates
to extreme Puritan paranoia. Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins
takes the law into his own hands via body searches, sleep
deprivation, and agonizing deaths while unknown medicinal ills or
causes were conveniently mistaken as evidence for witchcraft
accusations. Names and faces are put to the exorbitant number of
accused while on location scenery from Scotland to Oxford, Essex, and
Denmark add to the prison tours and suspenseful trial re-enactments.
Here specific facts and detailed information happen early and often
rather than any hollow paranormal herky jerky in your face design.
Community fears, social cleansing frenzy, and things done in the name
of good and God against evil and the Devil at work accent the
timeline of how and why this prosecution became persecution run amok.
Instead of broad, repetitive sensationalism or the same old Salem
talk, this is a mature and well presented narrative on the erroneous
impetus of the witchcraft hysteria.
Skip
It!
The Haunting of Fox Hollow Farm – This sixty-four minute
documentary from 2011 opens with a disclaimer on the interviewee
testimonies before more inserts explaining the history of the titular
Indiana farm and the subsequent paranormal investigation. Archive
footage and news reports add drownings and skeletal evidence to the
murderous past, lending a bit of authenticity to this obviously low
budget and on the fly production pretending to be a paranormal
reality show with green night filming and shadowed talking heads.
Jerky skeptical men dismiss the fanatical women and numerous
psychics, mediums, demonologists, and shamans while rambling,
repetitive visuals, graphics, camera pans, and editing cuts make
audiences wonder what the heck is happening here. I feel like this
never expressly states that it is about heinous serial killer crimes
and their subsequent hauntings thanks to double talk on both, and it
takes over fifteen meandering minutes before getting into the case
details. Instead of actually seeing the investigative action,
narrated montages and music video slide shows feign something
fantastic but really just waste time on the same minutiae, treading
tires in an incoherent attempt to play at Unsolved Mysteries or
imitate today's ad nauseam paranormal reality shows. I
couldn't take this whole thing, the case has been covered
elsewhere, and reading the Wikipedia page was better.
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