Imagine my amazement then, when I heard John Carpenter talking about the ‘very real screaming’ he witnessed among audiences when Halloween was shown in American cinemas. What? How on earth can anybody be moved to that state by a film? And especially Halloween, which doesn’t even have an engaging plot.
The series did, however, reveal one fact that caught my attention. I’d never realised that Dawn of the Dead was partly intended as a social satire. The zombies were meant to represent the mass of consumers in western cultures who actually take shopping malls seriously. Nice one. That film and its director have now risen considerably in my estimation.
5 comments:
I never knew that about Dawn of the Dead either, interesting...and I do think I like it a bit more now, haha!
I like horror films too, for the most part. Some of them (like the ones made by Rob Zombie) drive me nuts, but there are a lot of ones I like, especially the small-name, independently produced ones. Cemetery Man, Dog Soldiers, and Let the Right One in are among my favourites. And I really like old ones too, like Nosferatu.
Let the Right One in is probably my favourite too along with Nosferatu, The Omen and Bram Stoker's Dracula, for pure costuming pleasure ;) I scream and jump and shriek, I fall into films a bit too easily perhaps :)
Talking of Hammer House, a film well and truly in that vein is The Wolfman with Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt, I loved it.
Didn't know that about Dawn of the Dead either.
Haha, Americans like to be frightened. That's why we go to horror movies (and so girls can pretend to be scared and cling to their boyfriends for dear life).
Personally, I haven't seen a lot of horror movies, so if I went to one, I would probably actually be glued to my seat in fright.
Oh, McC. Dog Soldiers is an excellent film, but did they have to shoot the dog?! And I agree about Nosferatu - an Expressionist classic whose style Hitchcock copied in some of his early silents.
Scream, jump and shriek, Mel. Never! And I thought you were so sensible. BSD is on my fave films list, but I had to smile at Nosferatu when they showed on TV once. The subtitle writer got one wrong. In the scene where the vampire enters Jonathan's bedroom, instead of having 'Who are you?' they printed 'How are you?' Took the edge off it a bit.
How romantic, Maria. I don't think I ever took a girl to see a horror film. I remember taking one to see 'Kiss Me Kate' once. It didn't work. And another one used to drag me to see boring soft porn movies. That didn't work, either.
;) you see, I would have been too terrified to notice a subtitle slip up!
Still laughing, I liked that!!
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