The Rough Guide to Horror Movies

288 Pages·2005·10.38 MB·english

by  Alan Jones

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO
Horror
Movies
ROUGH
GUIDES
www.roughguides.com
Credits
The Rough Guide to Horror Movies Rough Guides Reference
Editor: Daniel Crewe Series editor: Mark Ellingham
Layout: Link Hall and Dan May Editors: Peter Buckley, Duncan Clark,
Picture research: Michele Faram Daniel Crewe, Matthew Milton,
Proofreading: Karen Parker Joe Staines
Production: Julia Bovis and Katherine Owers Director: Andrew Lockett
Publishing Information
This first edition published September 2005 by The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the
Rough Guides Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL accuracy and currency of all information in The Rough Guide to
345 Hudson St, 4th Floor, New York 10014, USA Horror Movies; however, they can accept no responsibility for
Email: [email protected] any loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result
of its information or advice.
Distributed by the Penguin Group:
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without
Penguin Putnam, Inc., 375 Hudson Street, NY 10014, USA permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief
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Victoria 3124, Australia
© Rough Guides Ltd
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario,
288 pages; includes index
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Penguin Group (New Zealand), Cnr Rosedale and Airborne A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand Library
Printed in Italy by LegoPrint S.p.A ISBN 10:1-84353-521-1
Typeset in Bembo and Helvetica Neue to an original design by ISBN 13:978-1-84353-521-8
Henry lies
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
THE ROUGH GUIDE TO
Horror
Movies
by
Alan Jones

Contents
Foreword vii
Introduction viii
The Origins:
horror literature 1
The History:
over a hundred years of horror 11
The Canon:
50 horror classics 57
An American Werewolf In London 59 Dracula (1931) 84
Black Sunday 61 Dracula (1958) 87
Braindead 63 The Evil Dead 89
The Bride Of Frankenstein 66 The Exorcist 92
The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari 69 Eyes Without A Face 94
Cannibal Holocaust 71 Frankenstein 96
Carrie 73 Freaks 98
The Cat And The Canary 75 Halloween 101
Cat People 77 The Haunting 102
The Curse Of Frankenstein 79 The Innocents 104
Dawn Of The Dead 81 I Walked With A Zombie 106
Diabolique 83 Jaws 108
V
Near Dark 112 Ringu 139
A Nightmare On Elm Street 113 Rosemary's Baby 140
Night Of The Demon 115 Scream 142
Night Of The Living Dead 117
The Shining 144
Nosferatu 119
The Old Dark House 122 Shivers 146
Onibaba 123 The Silence Of The Lambs 148
Peeping Tom 125 The Sixth Sense 150
The Phantom Of The Opera 128 Suspiria 152
The Pit And The Pendulum 130 Switchblade Romance 155
The Plague Of The Zombies 132
Psycho 133 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 156
Re-Animator 135 The Uninvited 159
Repulsion 137 Witchfinder General 160
The Icons:
the faces of horror 163
The Global Picture:
horror movies around the world 217
The Information:
where to turn next 249
picture credits 265
index 267
vi
Foreword
If anyone is going to be your tour guide through have to thank Alan. It was 2001 and I had just
the realm of horror movies, it has to be Alan completed my first feature film, Dog Soldiers,
Jones. I first read his name on many articles and which Alan helped to make successful. The
reviews extolling the virtues (and failings!) of the film's producer had come to the conclusion that
dark side of movies, as an enthusiastic teenager the title would be "Night Of The Werewolves",
already making my first tentative steps into film and no amount of persuasion would convince
making and eager to splash some blood and guts him otherwise. However, at the eleventh hour
across the silver screen. Alan heard of this development and intervened,
And I've two reasons to be eternally grateful
telling him that Dog Soldiers was the best title
to Alan. The second he's only too well aware of,
for the film and always would be. What Alan
and I'll get to later. The first came about many
had was clout - the producer listened, and Dog
years before I made my first horror movie. Back
Soldiers won awards at film festivals on both sides
in the early 1980s the only access I had to hor
of the Atlantic.
ror materials was Newcastle's sci-fi and horror
So thank you Alan, for many hours of quality
shop, Timeslip, a cramped and dusty Aladdin's
reading and a film title I can be proud of. All of
cave. Back then, movie memorabilia was sacred,
and unavailable in the high street stores, and on which brings me, in a roundabout way, to this
Saturday afternoons I would rummage through book. Alan Jones and horror movies go hand in
the boxes hoping to find hidden gems, such hand, and with the Rough Guide to Horror Movies,
as rare back issues of magazines like Starburst, Alan takes you beyond the shadows, through the
Fantastic Films and Fangoria. It was through these places you are afraid to go, and shows you hor
that I began to read Alan's work and gain an ror in all its bloody glory. Enjoy.
appreciation and appetite for all things horror
that has taken me to where I am now. Neil Marshall, director of Dog Soldiers (2002)
Twenty years later came the second reason I and The Descent (2005)
vii
INTRODUCTION: THE ROUGH GUIDE TO HORROR MOVIES
Introduction
Horror has been a part of my life for as long as I men. Mike Childs is my best friend, and a pro
can remember. Even as a child growing up in the ducer at London's Capital Radio, who was asked
late 50s, I was drawn to the lurid poster art grac to become the UK correspondent for the influ
ing every release with the promise of forbidden ential American fantasy magazine Cinefantastique/
terror. The first design to have a real impact on CFQ. He asked me to help him write the feature
my consciousness was Circus Of Horrors (1960) interviews and much of what we did together
- "He turned the greatest show on earth into a ... on The Wicker Man (1973), Carrie (1976) and Star
Circus of Horrors!" - which was complete with Wars (1977) is still being reprinted in books and
tumbling trapeze artists and knife-throwing gone read by scholars today.
wrong. I lost my horror virginity to that film as To go from being a starry-eyed rabid fan to
soon as I could pass for sixteen, as was neces interviewing Carrie director Brian De Palma for
sary then to see an X-rated film then, and it was two hours in the back of his limo on the way to
on a double bill with the equally classic Horrors Of Heathrow airport was amazing and unforgettable.
The Black Museum (1959). When Mike bowed out because of his workload,
The moment the victim's eyes were gouged I took over as sole CFQ correspondent and
out in the latter by booby-trapped binoculars, editor Frederick S. Clarke let me do anything I
everything I'd heard about the horror film was wanted.
proven true. I was shocked rigid! And the next Thanks to him I've met all my film idols, have
week, when I braved the steely stare at the box covered every major horror movie on location
office to see the Italian movie Blood And Black - the main body of quotes in this book com
Lace (1964), I knew I'd never be the same again. ing from those interviews — and have banked a
From that moment on I wrote diary reviews raft of memories; these range from becoming
of everything I saw, a practice I kept up until I director Dario Argento's official biographer and
became a professional journalist specializing in visiting Chernobyl for Return Of The Living Dead:
the genre in 1977. I still go back to those reviews Necropolis (2005) to being a jury member at every
today for my gut reaction to seeing Rosemary's international horror film festival (and being given
Baby (1968) or the countless Hammer horrors of the original Lament Configuration box by Give
the period for the first time. You will read many Barker for helping him on 1987's Hellraiser). Fred
of those original observations in this Rough is so longer with us but there isn't a single day I
Guide. don't mentally thank him for turning my obses
My journalistic career began because of two sion into my profession.
viii
INTRODUCTION: THE ROUGH GUIDE TO HORROR MOVIESI
So what is horror? and the age we live in, and even on our gender.
As children it's the fear of abandonment or the
This strong emotion, one of the oldest and deep death of a parent. In our teenage years it's rite-
est of humankind, is what we feel when anything of-passage anxiety about our burgeoning sexu
frightens us or promotes fear or terror. ality that fuels the flames of fear. In middle age
The urge to scare oneself witless might seem it's the possible death of a child or a loved one
masochistic. But exploring the notion of fear is that haunts our daily life. And in our older years
revealing. We can open ourselves up to being it's the fear of loneliness, isolation and death
scared if we know that no harm will befall us. that remains uppermost in the mind.
And it's the wave of relief once the fright is over As long as film exists as something that
that makes being scared so much fun. provokes the essential emotions of humanity,
Since the invention of cinema more than a the horror film will continue to exist too. The
century ago, this relief is what the horror movie technology behind films will change, as will the
has provided, while frequently dragging itself way that we view the finished product. But our
from the grave and reinventing itself. So it's no vulnerability, our terror of the unknown and
accident that the birth of the horror movie in our nightmares won't disappear; those irrational
Paris in 1896 coincided with the public accept forces of chaos will, however, always be defeated
ance of psychoanalytical theory (and especially by a movie genre that is defined purely in terms
the teachings of Freud), which for the first time of its intended emotional impact.
openly discussed the ambivalence of human The Rough Guide to Horror Movies is designed
desire - horror is a direct conduit to uncon to help you understand horror movies. You'll
scious fears and thoughts of love, pain and loss. find out how horror developed from its literary
And it's because it speaks of the unspeakable origins. You'll discover how the genre devel
that it's so frequently attacked. Self-appointed oped, decade by decade, from the nineteenth
moral guardians often don't like the questions century to the twenty-first. You'll meet the
that are asked. icons of horror, from the directors to the most
But the roots of horror go back further. Safe famous characters. You'll encounter the themes
inside the four walls of a darkened cinema, we of horror movies around the world. And then
are begging to be frightened in the same way you can see where to head for more, depending
that we were in previous centuries, when sitting on where your taste lies.
by campfires listening to stories about mythical You'll also be given a tour of the 50 hor
creatures and demonic villains. And countless ror movies that are essential when getting to
horror movies relate to the Bible. Religions grips with the history of horror. The list will,
extol a divinely inspired division between Good of course be, controversial — that is inevitable,
and Evil and have rules to follow, and many and no bad thing. But there are also dozens of
horror films are about breaking those rules and shorter reviews of other horrors to satisfy your
the punishment that rains down from above for curiosity.
such arrogantly transgressive behaviour.
Even if elements of horror stories are uni
versal, what scares us depends on the age we are Alan Jones, 2005
X