Be afraid…… Be very afraid. The day is finally upon us. Inconveniently positioned on a Thursday, Halloween and its annual celebration of horror is now almost over. Bummer. BUT, fear not, I do have one more week of horror recommendations to check out before All Hallows Eve returns to the abyss from whence it came and we can get to buying tacky gifts for people we don’t like on the one occasion a year where we see them; and this week I am taking things old school.
Horror has a LOT of defining, iconic films. I could very easily spend the next 1,000 words telling you why Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Child’s Play, Friday the 13th and Hellraiser are absolute monoliths of terror, but that would feel like a cop out and I wanted to be a little more interesting. Instead, I’m going to give you my favourite iconic films that AREN’T talked about, re-released, sequeled and remade every five minutes. I know, I know, that still leaves a LOT of films, but these 3 I think are a cut above the rest, and showcase some of the absolute best parts of the genre, while also featuring an unexpectedly familiar face or two.
So please, read on. I have such sights to show you!
1) Return of the Living Dead
George A. Romero defined zombie films with his ‘Living Dead’ trilogy. That’s irrefutable. He created the standards to which almost every zombie film still plays to, to some degree. In saying that, he also defined it so well, it can be hard to break the mould and bring something new to the grave without seeming contrived, or missing the point. Dan O’Bannon’s 1985 classic not only managed to break the mould, but did so while paying total respect to Romero’s work and adding to the mythos perfectly.
Return of the Living Dead is actually a pseudo-sequel to Night of the Living Dead, referencing the events in it’s opening scene, and setting it’s narrative sometime after ‘Night’, off-shooting completely from Romero’s timeline. The story is about a bunch of teenage punks hanging out in a graveyard (because where else would punks hang out) when one of their friends accidentally releases a toxin developed by the army as a chemical weapon. The toxin, of course, brings the dead back to life, and is reputed in the film to be the cause of the events of Romero’s classic. The friends must battle for survival against the dead swarms and find a way out alive. Well, fully alive, at least.
This is markedly more comedic in tone than the ‘Living Dead’ series, and is one of the landmark films in both horror and horror/comedy for it’s blending of both serious and near slapstick moments without one getting in the way of the other – something many, many zombie films replicate today. There’s a really punk rock attitude in the film, centred and aggressive, but fun and loud at the same time – in fact, the film is essentially a tribute to horror punk with it’s soundtrack and characters. Not only does the film contain some truly horrifying scenes and some great special effects and prosthetics, it’s also the origin of THE zombie phrase, ‘BRAAAAINS’. Dan O’Bannon (whose credits include Alien, Total Recall and Screamers amongst others) took one classic and with it rose from the grave to create another, which sits firmly amongst his other credits as one of the best of it’s kind.
2) Bad Taste
Okay, I want you to stop reading here for a second and google this film to see who directed/produced/wrote/starred in this film. Go on, I’ll wait.
Yup, that’s right. Peter fucking Jackson. Before Lord of the Rings, before King Kong, before The Frighteners even, Jackson was making some of the best budget horror films around, and this is one of his earliest, and arguably his best.
Made with a budget of just $26,000 (US), Bad Taste (1987) is an alien invasion film set in New Zealand and features a hap-hazard team known as the ‘Astro Investigation and Defense Service’ (yes, AIDS) who stumble across an alien conspiracy to harvest humans for fast food and must fight for the survival of the human race. Yes, you read that right. This is an absolutely glorious piece of film-making, in an altogether under-utilized genre of horror.
As I was typing this, I had to stop several times just to giggle at various scenes as I remembered them. Much like his more famous ‘Braindead’, with the greatest zombie killing scene of all time (room full of zombies + lawnmower = YES), this also has some really horrifying and iconic scenes that you want to re-watch and quote again and again. This is one of those films that just exudes charm and sticks with you after you watch it. It’s hilarious, both because of the cheapness and because of the great writing, and how inspirational it is because you’re watching it just thinking ‘this dude wrote and made this on a shoe string, and eventually ended up bathing in money with the biggest fantasy film trilogy of all time… I should probably go put my wacky idea into action, never know where it could end up if I try’. If you’re lucky, you’ll even get a chunky bit!
3) Nightbreed
Clive Barker. I could just stop there and that would be enough to to tell you why this movie is worth watching and is a horror classic. Clive has given the horror/fantasy world his fair share of great work throughout his career; Candyman, Hellraiser, the Abarat series, and while all of them are worthy of the praise they get, some of his lesser known work really doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, and among these is definitely Nightbreed.
The setting is absolute perfect horror fodder – an unstable mental patient, played by Craig Sheffer (One Tree Hill), is made believe he is a serial killer by his Doctor and his girlfriend, David Cronenberg (eXistenZ, Scanners, Videodrome) and Anne Bobby (Bioshock 1 and 2), and eventually finds himself on the run from the police whereupon he finds solace in an old graveyard inhabited by a gang of monsters and outcasts, known as the Nightbreed. It’s a perfect set up for a dark, grim look at humanity and an exploration of the perception of what’s good, and what’s evil and in typical Clive Barker fashion it delivers.
Barker does not hold back in his story-telling. He likes going dark, he likes exploring the human psyche and picking on the scabs of our collective darkness and having a look at what comes out. He likes to do this because he likes to reassure us that no matter how dark any of us get in our thinking, we are not alone, someone else gets it. Being a gay man, Clive only came out very late in his career and Nightbreed is the first film to really explore that part of him. The central theme of the film is about being an outsider and being misunderstood, and how if you search hard enough in the right places, you will find people that see who you are and who believe in you. For such a dark, horrific film, and this is a horrific film, it’s got some positivity to it, while being shrouded in lots of darkness. This is one of the best examples I can think of of how horror can represent in meaning, and still be an aesthetically pleasing story. Good for the thinker and the regular viewer alike.
Well, there you have it folks. My personal favourite films for the Halloween season. I hope you enjoyed reading and watching these as much as I enjoyed writing about them and telling you about them. As usual, any other lesser known films you feel are iconic, or indeed any recommendations in horror, do let us know.
‘Till next year ghouls and goblins, same Arcade time, same Arcade channel. And remember, whatever you do… Don’t fall asleep…..
