Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film

Movie Title--  Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film

Release Year--  2009

Running Time-- 1 Hour and 36 Minutes

Director--  Andrew Monument

Cast--  Lance Henriksen, George A. Romero, John Carpenter, Mick Garris, Larry Cohen, Joe Dante

A look at how horror as developed through the decades. 

Much like last week's film, this one is hard to give a straight up synopsis for.  What they did in this film was timeline through the decades, giving examples of the themes and highlighting some of the most influential films that came from those eras.  Therefore this "synopsis" is going to be laid out like a timeline.  Enjoy your horrific walk through the decades that helped to make horror was it is today.

In 1910 Thomas Edison's New York film studio produced a version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; it was a commercial failure. It would take another 20 years before the American Horror film would be truly born.

In the 20's the horror monster was mainly mutilated men with twisted minds. Some of the men that came back home from WWI were missing limbs and had deformities from war and that captivated and revolted people. In the 20's, Lon Cheney becomes the father of the horror genre. The characters he played were normal men with twisted minds or turned monsters by the cruelty of men. His characters portrayed the fears of the day and never did that became more true than on October 24, 1929, the day the stock market failed.

The original horror films contained monsters that were brought over from old world Europe. In the 1930's the turmoil in Europe helped to develop some of the movie monsters we know today. Legend even has it that Hitler's favorite film was “King Kong” (1933).  In 1934 the Hollywood Production Code Administration said that all movie monsters must be destroyed at the end of the film, not matter what the monster's motives are. Still, with all the monsters out there, the scariest film monsters were human beings.  The ghosts of WWI was getting ready to resurface and movie goes found themselves staring at the horrifying reality of the Holocaust. After seeing the mass genocide of the Holocaust, movie monsters didn't seem quite as scary, so horror film makers had to step up the terror.  During and after the war, horror films started to take on a darker tone. The films also became very minimalist. Filmmakers feel like viewers will be faced with their own fears if the monsters jump out of the dark. Horror films introduce the psychological element into their films, making viewers have to face their own fears while sitting in the theater.   

Film directors of the 1940's had movie goers watching the skies for atomic bombs and flying saucers.  Films then started to touch on the question “What is going to happen to the world if an atomic bomb was dropped or the world ended?” and it spawned such monsters as deformed mutant people and huge bugs.  By the second half of the 40's, aliens went from in your face to subtle and that began to bleed into the 50's.   

With the release of “Psycho” in 1961, it became obvious to the viewers that no one in the films were safe. The heroes can and possibly will die and that one guy in the film that you couldn't imagine would be the villain was actually the most evil in the film. After that films tries to out shock “Psycho” which leads to Hitchcock's 196 release of “The Birds”. He wanted to see just how much the viewer would sit though. After that, horror film makers increased the shock value and production value of the film. A lot of these films were not shown at mainstream theaters but at smaller theaters, mainly on the wrong side of the tracks.

The Vietnam war started to change the counter culture, which also changed the tone and culture of films.  1968 “Rosemary's Baby” came along with the theme of the coming of the end. That same year, “Night of the Living Dead” premiered with the revolutionary idea that the dead is coming back to life and eating people, giving the viewers a very hopeless feeling.

When the decades changed over from the 60's to the 70's, the films got darker. The films contained more sex and more violence; the 70's brought excess to the screen. Back in those days, making independent films did not have an many restrictions on them as they do today, opening up film makers to make truly horrifying and realistically violent films.

By the 70's it became evident that there were two kinds of horror fans—fans of the monsters and fans that go into horror films with their eyes shut and with the realism that you can't control the outcomes of your life and have to cope with them.

In 1973, “The Exorcist” comes to the screen forcing viewers to watch an innocent girl being tortured by a demon. This film truly terrified movie goers, a lot of people being traumatized by the film. It starts out with an innocent girl and the viewer has to watch transfer into a possessed monster.

In 1975 horror went mainstream when “Jaws” was released. It started to become obvious that people were falling deeper and deeper in love with horror films. The productions began to get bigger as well as the budgets. The films again start to reflect the political views of the time, this time, the topic became women's rights and the right a woman has over her own body. “Carrie” was released in 1976; the undertones of the film was the question of “how much power does a woman truly have?” and could they be the more powerful sex. John Carpenter was criticized when his film “Halloween” was released in 1978 because critics felt like he was making young promiscuous girls the target's of the monster. Carpenter states that it was originally supposed to be about babysitters, so he put in the film what he thought young women of that age really do, which is talk about their boyfriends, as well as making out with them and possibly more happening but no one remarks on how the woman that is a little socially behind on the subject is the one kicking butt through-out the films.  “Dawn of the Dead” released in 1978 and it's undertones are making fun of the consumer culture . With “Amityville Horror” in 1979, even the thought of buying your own home had negative connotations when it came to horror films.

A writer with horror in his blood captured the horrifying plight of the middle class citizen perfectly and although “Carrie” was released in 1976, the 1980's became his playground for onscreen adaptations of his films with the release of “The Shinning” in 1980 that extends to the present.

With home video coming on the scene so did the rise of slasher films and films like “Friday the 13th” (1980) became popular. In the 80's a slasher film came out just about every weekend. Film makers were then trying to figure out how to revamp the old movie monsters for a new generation.

The release of “Poltergeist” (1982) takes the viewer into a quiet suburban town and proved that if you do bad things, it will come back to haunt you. John Carpneter's “The Thing” remake in 1982 proved that no one trusted anyone anymore. In Romero's “Day of the Dead” 1985, humanity has been reduced to a small group of people that have different ideas of how to cope.  In the 80's, monster movies were marketed to a wide audience with the releases of “Gremlins” (1984), “Ghostbusters” (1985) and “The Stuff” (1985). With the video tape, independent films were more easily released and it made for more interesting takes on the horror film.  The 80's also brought film maker Sam Rami into the spotlight. His films were excessive which spoke to the theme of the 80's. The 80's also brought with it one of the most iconic horror villains, Freddy Kruger in Wes Craven's “Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984).

In 1991 “Silence of the Lambs” was released and Hannibal Lecter became a household name. With this film, serial killers were given a human face and that drew audiences in.  “Se7en” (1995) brought with it the idea of the serial killer is a bad guy but so is everyone else; the idea was that everyone has done something bad. It brought with it the idea that even the small guy can be the person that you need to beware of.

Soon, the idea of the “villain” becoming the hero became a theme amongst horror films. This is clear in “Interview with the Vampire” (1994), with Brad Pitt's vampire character going against and killing off the “bad”vampires and “Blade” in 1998, we see Blade, a half human-half vampire man destroying bad vampires as well. “Hannibal” in 2000 shows that Hannibal Lecter was only killing people that were bad guys, so is he really a villain or is he actually a hero? With “American Psycho” (1999) came the thought of the corrupt “American dreamer” as the villainous monster.

When the US went to war in Iraq in 2003, Hollywood producers rushed to recreate the heyday of horror films, to appeal to new horror fans. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”,”Dawn of the Dead” and “The Hills Have Eyes” were all remade to reboot these old franchises for new fans. Films got more violent to try to top some of the violent scenes people were seeing on the news. Producers were also setting up films to continue in sequels to generate more revenue and keep horror fans coming back to see their favorite killers; the killer is never caught and therefore is still out there to kill again.  With “Land of the Dead”'s release in 2004, it shows a culture of fear that has been taken advantage of by world leaders to gain money and power from the everyday man.

“Saw” released in 2004 became one of the most successful film franchises in the 2000's. The Jigzaw Killer gives his victims a choice, kill or be killed. “Hostle” in 2006 showed the villains as other countries, which reflects the social aspects of that time.

As the decades have passed, horror films have tended to reflect the political and social landscapes that is affecting America at that current time. People connect with horror films because it is literally the things of their nightmares and the result of having to cope with it all.

So, this wasn't my favorite documentary but there are a lot of interesting facts in it.  I think that I maybe expected something a little bit different than what I watched and that could be why I am feeling slightly let down by it.  

I do like the fact that the people that are being interviewed are the people that actually worked on these films that we all know.  Not only that, all throughout the film clips and sequences are being shown from those same films and the viewer is getting a look at what the driving force behind these films through the eyes of politics of the day and the culture of the time.

I think that if you are a true horror fan, you will probably like this film.  If you feel lukewarm toward horror flicks, this may not be the film for you.  Watch this one for it's interesting facts and a new insight on the films that we all know and love and Don't Forget the Popcorn!