Welcome Gruesome Magazine and Decades of Horror Podcast

 To my shock and surprise, a long and rambling email I sent in to the Decades of Horror podcast was read on air... in not just one but TWO of their shows. They even were kind enough to post a link to this blog, which shocks me as well.

This is incredibly kind of them, of course,

And... nerve wracking to me. I mean.... no one has ever actually LOOKED at this blog before. 

Anyway, Decades of Horror has been my podcast of choice to listen to, in addition to Evolution of Horror. Its not quite as academic as Evolution of Horror, but thats not a bad thing. Its really the sort of podcast I would like to do, if I ever did a podcast. 

One thing it has done though, is get me thinking about the various eras of Horror cinema. If we look at their series, they have it divided roughly by decade. The Classic Era is everything 1969 and before, the 70s is another, the 80s is on its own, and the 90s is what wraps it up. I suppose there could be a modern era too.... but as far as I know, they don't have that as a podcast series.

I lean to the Classic Era. That is my comfort zone. I love the old black and white films of that era. Maybe its the historian in me, seeing a cinematic vision of the past. Not always, mind you. But sometimes you can see a glimpse of the world as it was, for better or worse. Just last night, for example, I got a chance to see, for the first time, The Black Camel (1931). This was one something like the second Charlie Chan film made, and the only surviving one of the first 5 Warner Oland led Chan films. It also stars Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye (note that this was released the same year as Universal's Dracula). It suffers from some poorly aged racist stereotypes, but also show Honolulu in the early 30s, which is AMAZING. It even had several scenes shot on location at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel... one scene looking remarkably like it was even the same table I sat at once when I was in college and got to visit with my then-girlfriend, now-wife's family. The film itself had some clever dialogue though, and it gives a wonderful look at the kind of star Lugosi might have been if he hadn't been typecast by his role in Dracula. And I keep thinking about the fact that Hawaii in 1931 seems INCREDIBLY different than it later became. Thats the power of films and history I guess.

But, circling back to the Decades... the 70s is where I start to lose interest. Not entirely, and I probably didn't think of it like this at the time. I can watch almost any genre film of the 60s and before and enjoy it, with a few exceptions. But moving into the 70s, there are suddenly a LOT that annoy me. To be honest, I have discovered I don't really like most American cinema of the 70s. There is a 'same-ness' to the look of it that annoys me. Its the same colors, its the same bleak scenery, and its often the same bleak, downbeat endings. There is a similarity in the look to films like.... The Devil's Rain, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dual, Messiah of Evil, and Kingdom of the Spiders which just sort of annoys me. It looks hot, dusty, and sparse. I'm not sure how to describe it really... it needs someone more eloquent than me I guess. Its utilitarian, I suppose. But I compare it to the films coming out of Europe and Mexico and Asia as the same time? There is no comparison. The incredible colors you find in the films of Argento or Bava give a deeper dimension to those films. The wild use of colors enhanced the spectacles coming out of Japan in films like Hausu or the Godzilla series. Even films that have a similar visual style, like the Paul Naschy werewolf films from Spain, still seem to sparkle more than a lot of their American counterparts. Part of this may have to do with the subject matter... Once the Exorcist hit in the US, there seemed to be a lot of religious based horror unleashed, which doesn't do much for me. Sure, the Exorcist or The Omen are fine films, but... they don't really scare me, or offer me much to think about. 

Well... except for Zombie films. Zombie films always freak me out.

But moving into the 80s... The 80s is a prettier decade for films, and there are some fantastic films in the 80s. But... there is also a lot of very shallow things. I like a bit of depth, and I start missing depth in a lot of the 80s films. The 80s is the age of the endless sequel... where we see the same ideas trotted out over and over again with the slightest variations. Its the age when serial killers overtook the old style monsters, and I felt that loss. There are gems to be found, to be sure... but for every The Thing, Re-Animator, Near Dark, or Videodrome, there are a dozen Friday the 13th Part 5, or whatever slasher variant there was this time around.

I guess... I like monsters. I like the supernatural. I don't care for serial killers or religious horror. I like there to be something in a film to make me think, or I want it to be so obviously playful that it doesn't NEED me to think.

Geez, I'm such a picky old man, aren't I? *shakes my fist at the weather*

And if that hasn't scared folks off from this blog... welcome to my place to rant about things I hate and gush about the stupid things that apparently only I care about.