Understanding Horror: A Personal Journey

I normally discuss film noir, but today I want to focus on horror. I know some of you are horror fans, and others probably aren’t. That’s okay. I hope you’ll keep reading! Maybe we can all discover a few things about ourselves.

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Lately I’ve been talking with a friend about horror movies. Our wonderful conversations have caused me to reexamine my relationship with horror. To better understand my thoughts on the genre, I created a list of the horror movies that speak to me. That number is fairly low, and I’m sure it says a lot about me.

To give you an idea of my tastes, here are a few of my all-time favorites in chronological order:

Frankenstein (1931)

The Mummy (1932)

The Old Dark House (1932)

The Black Cat (1934)

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

The Body Snatcher (1945)

The Innocents (1961)

The Haunting (1963)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Halloween (1978)

Phantasm (1979)

The Thing (1982)

Basket Case (1982)

From Beyond (1986)

The Descent (2005)

Zodiac (2007)

Let the Right One In (2008)

Kill List (2011)

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

The Lighthouse (2019)

I know, this is a very telling list: six films from the 1930s, just two from the ‘40s, and three each from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. And during the first 25 years of this century? Only six. I’m comfortable rewatching these films, and I own most of them. Something about these 23 films makes me want to experience them again and again. I can’t say that for most horror movies I’ve seen, and I wanted to find out why.

Recognizing that there are so many horror fanatics out there, I began wondering why I’m not one of them, so several years ago, I devoted two weeks to watching 20 horror films from different eras. I allowed myself a few rewatches, but most were new-to-me titles recommended by horror fans. Here’s what I discovered:

Of the 20 horror movies I saw, five were rewatches: Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971), Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Basket Case (1982), and The Thing (1982). Let’s see if I can find any common threads in these films.

Three were directed by John Carpenter: Halloween, The Fog, and The Thing. Let’s break down those films first.

Halloween was not my first slasher film, but it was the most effective and memorable. Part of what makes the film work for me is the opening scene with young Michael Myers being very nasty to his sister. Perhaps there's something there about children not being sweet or adorable all the time. (If you don't already know, I taught middle school for 13 years, so there's that.)

Then there’s the “good girl” Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), who wants to have fun like her friends, but is burdened with responsibility and a certain amount of respectability she wishes to maintain. My parents divorced when I was about Laurie’s age, so I often felt the need to prove myself “good” and respectable, believing I was the problem in our family. In short, I could identify with Laurie. She’s also smart and attractive (not that I was necessarily either of those things), and doesn’t deserve what’s happening to her. (Or does she?) The scenes with the killer are terrifying, and even though the ending may seem like a cop-out to first-time viewers, it worked for me. The terror continues even after the credits have rolled. Add to that John Carpenter’s simple but effective score, and I was hooked. The film continues to resonate with me.

It took me years to come around to The Fog, a movie that initially bored me. I was probably getting popcorn during the opening and missed John Houseman’s wonderful campfire story that begins the film, which puts you in the perfect frame of mind for what follows (unless you’re a dope and missed it like I did). For that reason, I didn’t revel in the atmosphere and found the movie slow-moving. Yet when I revisited the film a couple of years ago, I kicked myself for not appreciating it back in 1980. Not only is The Fog a terrific ghost story, but its atmosphere is spellbinding. There’s depth in the historical and religious aspects of the film that were lost on me as an 18-year-old, things that resonate with me much more now. The past matters. As Faulkner said, it’s not even past.

The Thing is a superb science fiction/horror film, the only one I can think of that rivals Alien (1979), but those films are different enough that comparisons are mostly pointless. (And yes, I could easily have placed Alien on my list.) Everything about The Thing works for me: the cast, the pacing, the Ennio Morricone score, the special effects, and the entire “What the hell is going on here?” vibe that runs throughout the picture and never lets up. And that ending… The Thing forces you to question everything and everyone you see, not only in the film, but also in real life. What if what we see from people is an act, a sham, a con? Can anyone really be trusted? What about ideas and concepts? Can we trust those either? What if the people and institutions we once believed in have transformed into something…. well, alien? (No commentary on current events!) I could explore this further, but you get the picture: The Thing touches on trust, survival, and paranoia. It’s brilliant.

So with just these three John Carpenter-directed films, we have a slasher, a ghost story, and a science fiction horror tale. Yet each of these resonates with me for different reasons. Why do I revisit them? For assurance? A belief that I have these feelings and fears under control? Or something else?

I’ll have more films and thoughts to share with you in the coming days. The comments are open, so please feel free to share your thoughts below. Thanks for reading. Please stay tuned.