RANTS & RAVINGS ABOUT HORROR – “HOW MONSTER FILMS
DEFINED MY LIFE”
Early this year during the 2017 Something Wicked Film
Festival (www.somethingwickedfilmfestival.com), Festival Panel Moderator Jim
Adams created a panel discussion that would forever define the future of panel
discussions for the event (especially since I’m the Festival Director and I
just hired him to be the Official Festival Panel Moderator. One of Mr. Adams’ first duties were to come
up with some original ideas for new panel discussions and thus “How Monster
Films Defined My Life” was born.
Now I know part of the reason why Mr. Adams decided on this
topic for a panel discussion is because he has the podcast “Monster Attacks!”
where he has spoken at length about his love for monster films. For many people, monster films from the
Universal horrors of Dracula and The Wolfman to Hammer Studios’ Frankenstein
and The Mummy were defining characters of fear from childhood. For more modern audiences there is
Leatherface and that dream demon Freddy not to mention the likes of Ghostface
Killer and The Jigsaw Killer. No matter
which decade, audiences have their own nightmare monster that haunts them or
fascinates them to no end.
I was one of the film-makers on this panel discussion and
one of the films that defined my childhood was the Joe Dante film Gremlins (1984). I saw this in the theater in ’84 at the early
age of 8 and it left an undeniable impression on me. The monsters were both cute and cuddly and
dangerous and fun at the same time. It
was like watching a bunch of unruly children at play able to do whatever they
wanted. It also had an amazing
soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith (who became my all-time favorite music
composer). The film was dark and
horrifying as well as funny and entertaining.
It had the perfect mixture of comedy and horror and part of that is due
to the very dark photography of the film and the fluid cinematography. It truly became one of my all-time favorite
films for which my love for other monsters would grow.
I didn’t grow up with the black & white Universal
monsters nor had I seen many of the bloody Hammer Studio films until I became a
big horror fan in my teenage and college years.
The next monster I gravitated to was that of the Good-Guy doll
Chucky. When I saw Child’s Play (1988) I
had never seen anything like it before.
A serial killer uses Voodoo to possess a doll and to continue his
killing spree. Even though this film
played straight into horror (unlike the more comedic sequels) it still was
quite fun and entertaining. By ’88 when
this film was released and I was eleven years old I had already become a horror
fan but nothing had defined my true love of the genre just yet until this film. I got the poster for the film from the nearby
Video Store (how I miss these establishments) and I placed it lovingly on my
bedroom wall (where it was later joined by posters of the second and third
films). It was the first poster I ever
put on my wall but it would not be the last.
I followed the continuing exploits of Chucky to cinema with
Child’s Play 2 (1990) and Child’s Play 3 (1991) which I had to beg my Father to
take me to since I was too young for the R-Rated horror. At this point I did come to realize how much
I loved horror films but more importantly – monster films.
At this point you could say I went looking for monsters as I
learned to love all monsters big or small.
It wasn’t until Clive Barker’s Nightbreed (1990) that I
wished I was one of the amazing monsters that populated our magnificent
world. Barker crafted a story where the
monsters were the good guys while man was the bad guy. This film defined the idea of what a monster
could truly become. The monsters in
Barker’s film were deformed and misunderstood as well as dangerous and
fascinating.
It was after this that I became a true and everlasting
monster fan. From the films featuring
Godzilla and his rogue’s gallery to the Cenobites of the world of Hellraiser I
loved monsters both other-worldly and those more human. My favorites were monsters not easily
described or defined like those in Christine (1983), The Thing (1982), Puppet
Master (1994), Critters (1986), and especially Killer Clowns From Outer Space
(1988), to name but a small few.
I most certainly enjoyed the exploits of Michael Myers and
Leatherface (and family) and even those Freddy films but it was with these
non-human monsters that I enjoyed more and would later define my love and
appreciation of horror. For me, monsters
aren’t defined as either good nor evil but in most films, they are simply just
trying to survive and do what comes naturally.
This is the defining trait of King Kong and Godzilla as well as many
other timeless monster films.
Serial killers and mass murders are interesting but monsters
are something from the imagination where anything that can be dreamed can
become a reality. Therefore, they’ve had
such a profound effect on me as not only a film maker but a storyteller and a
film lover. If nothing else, I implore
others to seek out monster movies not just for pure entertainment and enjoyment
but to understand oneself and the world in which we live (and the one created
for the monsters to live in). It’s never
too late to enjoy a good monster film.
Hands of the Ripper (1971) is one of the many films having
to do with the Jack the Ripper mythos only this is one produced by Hammer
Studios! In the film, as a young girl Anna
(Angharad Rees) watches her father – the Real Jack the Ripper, kill her
mother. Years later as a young woman
Anna begins to blackout and kill people as if she was in fact The Ripper. Dr. Pritchard (Eric Porter) believes that he
may be able to help her but he must first learn what triggers her blackouts and
turns her in The Ripper before it is too late.
