Top 13 of '13

Every year, like sparkly, enormous, Times Square-clockwork, horror fans, freaks, and scholars spend the last week of December polishing their "best of" and "worst of" lists for the genre. Most of these lists will find the author lamenting about how thin the year was or how mainstream horror has gone to the dogs (werewolves?). It's easy to see how one might take to that field of thought given the noticeable lack of blockbuster horror films this year. Of course, on the flip side, if you've got a year that's horror heavy-handed, with October packed to the brim with thrills and chills, then you'll have fans taking to the message boards to berate all the remakes and sequels and copycat films cluttering up the multiplexes. The close proximity of all the Saw (2004), Paranormal Activity (2007), and Final Destination (2000) films is probably to blame for this. 

Funny you should say that, Chucky...

In reality, this was an above-average year for horror. Some major releases made splashes, and some others turned out to be garbage, but it seemed to be the parade of successful independent films that took the calendar year and sliced it up real nice. If you're finding that you missed some really solid horror this year, or if you need that reminder to check out something you made a mental note to see last July, hopefully this post will prompt you to seek out one of the films below. Or save you the trouble of watching a complete stinker and/or utter disappointment--because for every stand-out, there's at least two films that fail to live up to their height and crash and burn in a blaze of bloody glory. 

I'm sure that several of these films will get greater examinations in the future, probably once I finally knock off the Horror History series (I mean, dammit, why did the 1950's have to be so influential and so boring at the same time?), so I'll try to keep things streamlined, and I won't give all that much attention to the clunkers because, honestly, I'm hoping they will all die with the rest of the year at the stroke of midnight tonight.

Or at least get thrown into the basement with her…

And on that note, let's get started with Splatter Chatter's 13 Best Horror Films of 2013, kicking it off with 

13. Stoker

This film was the definition of "under the radar" in 2013. Even some of the most hardcore genre fans unknowingly skipped by this one as a result of a very, very, very limited theatrical run and one of the worst marketing campaigns since the dawn of ever. I could count the number of previews I saw for this film on one hand, and that's a shame because this psychologically driven film about a girl, India (Mia Wasikowska) and her mother (Nicole Kidman) who became drawn into an unsettling mind game with India's uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode)--recently moved in after India's father's death in a car accident--will keep (and leave) you guessing. This is a film that's all about the escalation of suspense, so fans of gore, blood, and undead warfare may not gravitate towards this one, though you may be left feeling disgusted once the credits roll. Before that moment though, your skin will prickle and your stomach will rumble that something is not just not right…and we should always listen to our gut.

12. Curse of Chucky

Alright, yes, it's a bit of a head-scratcher as to why the sixth film in a franchise about a murderous doll should make this list, but the fact that this movie introduced us to a darker, and dare I say it, more menacing version of Chucky, made it one of the genre hits of the year. This is a film that does away with the cheesy one-liners that made the first five films in the series great in their own right. Instead, the emphasis lies on the nature of fear and claustrophobia. There's even a solid acting performance or two. It came as quite the surprise, which is probably why it ranks over Stoker, which I expected to be good, and I wish it had received more attention than it did…and I don't even like the series!

11. Curandero: Dawn of the Demon

Another sleep night (though perhaps not so south of the border; I'll have to check on that) this Mexican demonic horror film is multi-faceted and complex. It does some great work in examining horror's relationship to politics and cultural/societal norms for our neighbors to the south. Billed as "Mexico's Answer to The Exorcist," Curandero is also quite the gore-fest, and at one point seedy drug lords are involved in the plot. Which never ends well. It's an interesting film, especially for U.S. viewers, and as with all good horror (and film in general) it packs in different layers of enjoyment for everyone. 

10. Jug Face

Every time I think of this movie, I think of how ridiculously uncomfortable the first five minutes made me feel. Read: sibling incest. And not the saucy (but still weirded out) kind you'd watch on The Borgias (2011-2013) or Game of Thrones (2011-present). And that's just the beginning. This indie production that could also sports a mother examining her full-grown daughter's nether regions and a slew of human sacrifice. This film is inspired, but it's also totally insane. The plot can get somewhat thin and it doesn't make the most sense all the time, but oddly enough it doesn't need to, and will keep you fully invested the whole time. You won't be able to take your eyes off the screen, though at times you'll wish that you could.

Don't they make a cute couple?

9. The Seasoning House

Revenge, cold, cruel, and bloody, dominates this British horror film set in a war-torn and ravaged unnamed country in Eastern Europe. What helps to make the film brilliant is that the retribution that is being delivered happens almost by accident or divine providence, though looking for God is something the protagonist, a girl abducted by militia soldiers and forced to work various chores in a brothel staffed with unwilling and kidnapped girls, does not have time for. Very well done horror cinema.

8. Insidious: Chapter 2

When this sequel was originally announced, fans had some concern. James Wan, who shotgunned to prominence in the horror genre with his work on the Saw franchise, Dead Silence (2007), and the first Insidious (2011), was releasing two films within months of each other, and that made people nervous that he had failed to deliver on at least one of them. The bets were placed on this movie, probably because of the WAY too many impacting shots in the trailers, but this follow-up to the haunted-boy troubles of the Lambert family was still pretty damn creepy at parts. Not as strong as the first, as sequels tend to be, but not as bad as most are inclined to think.

7. All Hallows' Eve

This straight-to-DVD anthology film garnered high hopes in the horror community, and delivered on a great many of those hopes. A warp-around with three individual horror vignettes sprinkled throughout, this movie may have been the birth of the next great horror film villain, Art the Clown, who features in each of the four stories. I'll admit that you may not find this ranked as high on other lists, given my personal, biased fear of white-faced clowns, but this film covers gore, jump scares, tension-building, and packs a serious punch of lingering, sinister menace. The middle segment is a bit weak, but I don't think that will stop it from becoming essential Halloween viewing for most horror fans now, so expect a more thorough review in October 2014.

So much NOPE.

6. Evil Dead

There are so many things that could have gone wrong with this re-imagining of Sam Raimi's  The Evil Dead (1981)--and some of them did--that it was bound to disappoint at least a few loyal and passionate fans of the original staple to the horror genre. I had my doubts, and did not see it for quite some time, but I'll admit that it came out about as good as it possibly could have. It's ultra-violent and unforgiving and has some good practical effects in the spirit of the classic it came from, as well as some of those iconic Raimi shots that toyed with by director Fede Alvarez. The story was spun just enough, which was smart, and allowed the film to stand on its own.

5. The Conjuring

While the basis of James Wan's other big-budget horror film of the year as a true story is somewhat murky, the dramatization is exceptionally creepy through a solid 80% of the film. The story twists from a straight-forward slow burn haunting into a full-on exorcism battle that erupts after all hell breaks loose. It's a supremely eerie film that is handled deafly by Wan, who has an intricate understanding of direction. The heavy-handed promotion led some critics to believe it wasn't well-crafted, but it is, rarely faltering through the 112 minute runtime.

4. You're Next

In the current state of the horror film, it's difficult to pull off a legitimately disconcerting home invasion story, and quite easy to write off the ones that try. It's a sub-genre of horror that has never quite managed to refresh its formula, and the luster has faded. And yet, here was a powerful and lovable sparkle. Director Adam Wingard, who has a true fan's passion for filmmaking, crafted this film that is equal parts thrills and chills, homage and re-invention, titillating and terrifying. Mired in post-production for close to two years, this film takes genre expectation on a roller coaster ride in an examination of horror, film, and safety. It's clever, playing in the league of other great home invasion films like Funny Games (1997), Them (2006), and The Strangers (2008). And that pig mask is more than capable of inducing a nightmare or two…

Someone call animal control…

3. American Mary

Twin sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska are fast carving an unforgettable niche for themselves in the world of horror, first coming to prominence with Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009) and following up with American Mary, a technically refined, highly jarring picture that takes an artistic approach to some of the most uncomfortable gore and body modification ever filmed. This sleeper hit follows Mary, played wonderfully by Katharine Isabelle, a med student whose quest for vengeance ends up making her a major player in the medical underworld, a place where strippers and sexual fetishists become her associates. As her life snowballs out of control, a feat steadily handled by the Soskas, the audience is drawn into Mary's headspace and begins to wonder, along with her, how simple revenge ever went this far.

2. The Battery

The zombie film has been done, and re-done, and then done twice more after that, to death (pun intended). How then does a filmmaker take a post-apocalytpic story and turn it into something unorthodox, fresh, and deeply moving? Jeremy Gardner found a way on a $6,000 budget, and though that leaves the film as being remarkably bland, it also makes the story that much more effective and lovable. The endearing personalities of the characters make the character examination rich and fulfilling, much like the use of the scenery. The struggle portrayed feels very real, and it's unfortunate that no one has seen this movie, because once you do you'll want to hit "play" over and over and over again. You can feel the thought, heart, and determination that went into this film, and hopefully that will help spread it to more viewers in the coming year.

1. Maniac

This genius remake, expertly shot and poignantly acted, achieves a rare feat in the world of cinema, horror or otherwise, in that it is better than the original source, the 1980 film by William Lustig. This re-imagining follows Frank Zito, played with haunting and heartfelt depth by Elijah Wood, an uber-quirky and murderous psychopath who yearns and hunts for a human connection in a world that has cast him and his mannequin store aside. The graphic chaos and unraveling of his fatal endeavors after he meets beautiful photographer Rita is both gut-wrenching and wonderful to behold. The atmosphere alone is enough to leave you feeling heavy with gloom, and yet director Franck Khalfoun is still able to build palpable tension, bringing you to the very edge of darkness, before that thumping final push.

He's come a long way from the Shire…

With that I conclude the list; thirteen excellent horror films I am happy to vouch for any day. I'd also like to give honorable mention to a few other gems from 2013, namely Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem and Jim Mickle's We Are What We Are. There was also a surprisingly good number of horror-comedies to come our way this year, including Warm Bodies, John Dies at the End, Sightseers, and Ghost Team One. 

Hopefully there is enough fodder here to spur you on into the next year, which is going to see some really interesting genre films (Big Bad Wolves and The Banchee Chapter are two I'm looking forward to) and some (likely) flops as per usual, i.e. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, The Purge 2, I, Frankenstein, and Paranormal Activity 5. Yep, that's right. We're getting not one, but TWO more Paranormal Activity films next year. Therefore my resolution is to not spend money on those films but to somehow see them anyway… 

Hey, we should all challenge ourselves in the coming year, right? Right. 

Happy New Year, folks.

Holiday Horror

You may think that of all the seasons, all the holidays and phases of the year, that Christmas is the most ill-suited to horror. Well, you'd be wrong. Dead wrong. Obviously the days leading up to Halloween are the meat and potatoes of a horror film fan's existence, what with creeps and spooks and serial slashers and one more Paranormal Activity sequel taking over multiplexes, television schedules, and your suggestion row on Neflix, but the Yuletide makes for a surprisingly devilish season when it comes to holiday horror. It's not all rosy-cheeked children and talking puppies skating around the ice musing about St. Nick, or aggravating and dysfunctional families brought together to magically heal their decades-old emotional wounds through the power of tinsel and snow. Nope. In fact, there's a sleigh-full of Christmas-related horror out there so that us die hard fans (or perhaps those fans who get just a little bit tired of watching Elf (2003) seventeen times in one week) can always find something shocking in our stockings.

Like this monstrosity, for example

Some people might find it offensive or distasteful that there is such an abundance of Christmas horror films in the world, or that themes typically related to the horror genre have no place at this time of year. To that, I bring up one of the oldest and most beloved Christmas tales of all time, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which is littered with ghosts, graveyards, and ghoulish visions. So, I've got some recommendations for a few holiday horror hits for those who prefer their Christmas movies a little on the twisted side, or anyone that needs an antidote to the endless parade of celluloid holiday sweetness clogging up the TV. 

When it comes to Christmas-themed horror, ask any true buff of the genre and they'll talk to you about Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984). This delightfully cheesy slasher film once enraged an entire nation to the point that a large smear campaign, led primarily by rural and suburban, middle-class, white parents, managed to get the film pulled from theaters and dropped by its distribution company. The film, which has since become a cult classic and a gem in the horror crown, tells the story of young Billy, who witnesses his parents get slaughtered by someone dressed in a Santa Claus costume. As a grown up, Billy has trouble dealing with the lingering issues he has over Old St. Nick, especially when he is forced to put on a Santa suit as part of his job at the toy store. Needless to say, a mental breakdown ensues, prompting Billy to stalk about his small, cheerful Utah town with an axe, knocking off random citizens while shouting "NAUGHTY" and "PUNISH."

Part of the fame surrounding this low-budget classic is certainly due to the fact that its commercials alone scarred a generation of American children and spurred their elders to fantastically self-righteous protest. They were even joined in their cause by Siskel and Ebert, who denounced the film on their television show, "At the Movies." And yet, despite its notoriety, or perhaps because of it, Silent Night, Deadly Night endured, sought out desperately by horror freaks due to it's "forbidden fruit" allure. The film spawned four sequels by the early 1990's (and in an odd twist, actor Mickey Rooney, one of the original film's most vocal detractors, had a starring role in the final installment, Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker (1991) ), and was remade just last year as Silent Night (2012), in which Malcolm McDowell plays a sheriff tracking down another psycho killer dressed in a Santa suit. The only snag? His entire town is full of guys dressed in Santa suits because it's the day of the annual Christmas parade. Don't you hate it when that happens? This gory, violent, and over-the-top loose re-imagining isn't all that bad, though, and pleased most fans of the original--myself included. 

He'll show you exactly why his suit is so red…

What's interesting about the massive backlash that followed the release of Silent Night, Deadly Night, was that it was virtually absent when Christmas Evil (1980), a film that used the same hook, was released four years prior. This film, sometimes marketed as You Better Watch Out or Terror in Toyland, follows a schlumpy toy company employee who, so jaded from a lifetime of cynicism and festering bitterness, snaps on Christmas Evil and dons a Santa suit to strike down anyone who's ever done him wrong and thus diminished his Christmas spirit. It's kind of like a Taxi Driver (1976) holiday special. Sharp-eyed viewers will recognize a young Jeffrey DeMunn, better known as Dale on AMC's "The Walking Dead."

If you still haven't had your fill of serial Santa's, you can watch him go psycho again in Santa's Slay (2005), a horror-comedy that enlightens us all to the true origins of Father Christmas: he's the son of the Devil who once did battle with an angel. As punishment for this, he was sentenced to a 1,000 years of "doing good" by delivering presents on Christmas Eve. But now, as you may have guessed, his millennia of community service is over and he can return to his true calling of making Christmas a "Day of Slaying." A similar premise is also utilized in the so-bad-it's-good awesomefest, Satan Claus (1996), which finds innocent New Yorkers axe-murdered in order to have their body parts chopped off to decorate a macabre Christmas tree from hell. Duh. 

The last movie I'll suggest to round out Killer Santas (which, at this point, I'm realizing could be it's own horror sub-genre), is To All a Good Night (1980), which is even more classic slasher than the others listed above, as this time a Santa-suited maniac is picking off co-eds on a college campus who have stayed behind for Christmas break. It doesn't get much campier than that. Not to worry, though, Santa is not always the one doing the hacking; in Don't Open Till Christmas (1984), a slasher prowls the streets of London, murdering department store Santas, always one step ahead of Scotland Yard and one step behind logic. For some reason, the film was heavily promoted as being from the same producer as Pieces (1982) which, if you've seen this drive-in dime…is not exactly the best selling point.

Now don't get all hot and bothered there, Santa…

But of course, holiday horror does not need a deranged Santa to find that warm, special place in the heart of a horror fan. Take Black Christmas (1974), for instance, a monumental and influential film that acted as the true founding father to the slasher genre, even if it was later overshadowed by John Carpenter's Halloween (1978). In this controversial and well-known horror classic, the residents of a sorority house, including a young Margot Kidder, fall victim to an obscene phone caller who then escalates into a sinister and murderous home invader as the girls attempt to prepare for Christmas break. It's probably the most well-known and well done Christmas-horror film out there, and it's definitely a staple and game-changer for horror as a whole. Ironically, director Bob Clark would go on to helm one of the greatest warm-and-fuzzy Christmas classics of our time, A Christmas Story (1983). 

If slashers aren't your thing, and I'll admit that my bias for that sub-genre has dominated this post thus far, I suggest Silent Night, Zombie Night (2009)--man, what is it with all these Christmas horror films using "silent night in their titles? Black Christmas was also released under the title Silent Night, Evil Night--a low budget film that finds the Christmas celebrations of Los Angeles rudely interrupted by an outbreak of everyone's favorite flesh-eating undead walkers. In that same vein, you could pop in Elves (1989) and watch a department store Santa Claus attempt to protect a group of unlucky teenagers from a demonic, Nazi, North Pole Elf who was unknowingly released by a pagan blood ritual. You really just can't make this shit up, folks.

But wait. If Santa can chop us into bits now, and his elves can do the same, what about snowmen? You'll find the answer to that in the overly cheesy, what-the-hell-even-is-this cult classic Jack Frost (1997)--not to be confused with the family comedy of the same name starring Michael Keaton, which is horrific in its own right--that features a serial killer having an unfortunate run-in with an experimental genetic modifier on a cold winter's night, resulting in his transformation into a psycho, fucked-up Frosty. I'm not even kidding. I literally just went back and linked the movie's Amazon page to the title. Because honestly, this is a movie that has to be seen to be believed. And, if you can find it in your hearts to truly embrace the reason of the season and believe, there is a sequel. 

This probably should have been shown to the filmmakers

of Jack Frost 2 after the first film bombed

The last, but certainly not least of the more "established" Christmas-themed horror movies out there I want to draw your attention to, is Joe Dante's classic creature feature Gremlins (1984). It's hard to find someone these days who hasn't seen the film or at least understands the pop culture references surrounding Gremlins, but many people forget that it takes place on Christmas Eve. There is massive amounts of tiny critter carnage, but what's truly disturbing is the mid-film soliloquy from Kate as she recalls finding her father's dead body stuck in the chimney as a little girl. It's oddly tragic.

Much like the following list of Christmas related horror movies I have either seen (the ones with a brief description) or have heard of. You know, if you really just can't get enough. Or if Uncle Clyde keeps gushing about the latest Tea Party rally and you need to sneak away and watch something in which there is a high probability of someone or something being struck repeatedly…

-Dead of Night (1945)--one of the top 100 horror movies of all time, easy
-Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)--this amusingly bad horror/sci-fi B-movie comes complete with a sing-along portion. OBVIOUSLY.
-Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972)---A man inherits an old manor that once used to be an asylum. When he investigates strange events of the house's past, the townspeople grow worried. Pretty solid film.
-Home for the Holidays (1972)--an ailing man summons his three daughters home for Christmas and asks them to kill his new wife, whom he suspects is poisoning him
-The Legend of Hell House (1973)--another film on this list that makes the top 100 without question about a psychiatrist, his wife, a young psychic, and the only survivor of a previous trauma are sent to Hell House to prove/disprove life after death
-Deadly Games (1982)
-Blood Beat (1982)--a woman in rural Wisconsin is possessed by a samurai warrior
-The Thirteenth Day of Christmas (1985)

-Chopping Mall (1986)

-Child's Play (1988)--another one people forget takes place at Christmastime. The Chucky doll is the hottest toy on the market in the first film of this silly series
-Lucky Stiff (1988)--loner Ron, who has no luck with women, is invited by Cynthia to her backwoods home for Christmas dinner. Turns out clan takes inspiration from the Donner party
-Deadly Dreams (1988)
-Prime Evil (1989)
-Family Reunion (1989)

-Campfire Tales (1991)
-The Day of the Beast (1995)
-Santa Claws (1996)
-Feeders 2: Slay Bells (1998)--aliens invade Earth and it's up to Santa and his elves to save the day
-The Minion (1998)
-Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman (2000)--he's back to made the holidays red

-A Christmas Nightmare (2001)
-Nutcracker (2001)

-Christmas Season Massacre (2001)
-One Hell of a Christmas (2002)
-Dead End (2003)--En route to his in-laws on Christmas Eve, Frank decides to take a shortcut for the first time in 20 years. It turns out to be the biggest mistake of his life. Highly recommended. Really great, little known gem.
-Psycho Santa (2003)
-Trees 2: The Root of All Evil (2004)
-Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004)--sequel to one of the greatest horror films post-2000 in which Brigitte now finds herself a werewolf who must hide out in a rehab facility
-Gingerbread Man (2005)--it's not directly related to Christmas, but it's the only time of year I associate gingerbread as a thing
-The Toybox (2005)
-The Horror Seasons (2005)
-Marcus (2006)--a troubled young man returns home for Christmas to reconcile with his estranged sister. Then her alleged boyfriend shows up and turns the holiday dinner into a dark, disturbing night of violence and terror
-Two Front Teeth (2006)
-Xmas Tale (2006)
-P2 (2007)--A woman is pursued by a psychopath after being locked in a parking garage on Christmas Eve
-Wind Chill (2007)
-Inside (2007)--one of the most visually brutal and controversial horror films out there about a recently widowed pregnant woman who endures a horrific home invasion
-Ornaments (2008)
-The Children (2008)--A relaxing Christmas vacation turns into a terrifying fight for survival when children begin to turn on their parents. Very, very creepy little film.

-Alien Raiders (2008)

-12-24 (2008)--a zombie horde prevents a group of characters from getting home on Christmas Eve
-The Blackout (2009)
-Deadly Little Christmas (2009)
-Hate's Haunted Slay Ride (2010)
-Wolf Cabin (2010)
-Sint/Saint (2010)--St. Nicholas is a deranged bishop who kidnaps and murders children whenever there is a full moon on December 5
-Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)
-Nixon and Hogan Smoke Christmas (2010)
-Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast (2011)--all the YES

-A Cadaver Christmas (2011)
-Snowmageddon (2011)

-ATM (2012)--David and Emily leave the company Christmas party to salvage their first date together, only to have their night turn deadly when co-worker Corey asks to stop at an all-night ATM (in all honestly, I highly recommend this one)
-Tinsel (2012)
-The 12 Disasters of Christmas (2012)

-Bloody Christmas (2012)

-Christmas with the Dead (2012)
-Darkest Night (2012)--family reunion in the mountains at Christmas is spoiled by a series of bizarre, demonic, and tragic events

-Caesar and Otto's Deadly Xmas (2013)
-Treevenge (2013)--a short film that depicts Christmas from the perspective of sentient pine trees hacked down, shipped to homes, and subjected to humiliation by humans who decorate them and make them stand in their living rooms. Now the trees have had enough, and decide to stage an uprising

Oh, Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, oh please oh please

don't kill me

Bloody Christmas to all, and to all the bumps in the night!

Horror History: Man vs. Animal, a Looming Terror (The 1940's)

If the horror movies of the 1930's had dealt in well-established fictional monsters for inspiration (i.e. Dracula, Frankenstein, werewolves, mummies, etc.), then the 1940's reflected the internationalization of the horror market. Americans looked at themselves as "safe" and separate from Europe, where everything was gradually turning into a chaotic, frightening, uncontrollable, and and unreasonable mess. Banned in Britain, wartime horror movies became solely an American product. Of course, the U.S. did not remain separate and pure. Senses of duty and heritage regarding Europe kept peeking through the American shield, the pull of that link to the land of the nation's ancestors eventually catapulting the States not only into war with Japan, but Germany as well. In the same way, many horror films of this period deal with roots cracking through the ground--men and women becoming subject to the emergence of a primal, animal identity. You can actually see this device used in Disney's Pinocchio (1940), when the bad boys of Pleasure Island turn into donkeys. 

You wanna hear something truly horrific? 

Listen to "Dominic the Donkey"

But it wasn't donkeys that posed the main global threat at the outset of the 1940's. It was wolves. Hitler (though one could easily call him a jackass), identified strongly with legends and symbolism associated with wolves. His first name, Adolf, means "noble wolf" in the Old German tongue and he was known to use "Herr Wolf" as a pseudonym for himself in his early political days. Various headquarters for the Nazi Party were given names like Wolf's Gulch (France), Manwolf (Ukraine), and Wolf's Lair (Eastern Prussia). Hitler often referred to the SS as his "pack of wolves" and several sources, among these his favorite secretary Johanna Wolf (whom he called the "she-wolf") report that he would absent-mindedly whistle the tune of "Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?"--a character, it should be recalled, whose desire is to consume people and blow their houses down.

Propagandists of the time were fond of depicting Hitler as the Big Bad Wolf of various fairy tales. It seemed that the figure of the marauding wolf typified the predators that were lurking in the corners of the public consciousness. It is therefore no surprise that Universal, home of those iconic monsters of the 1930's, picked the Wolf as the go-to figure of menace for their horror films of the early 1940's. 

After Son of Frankenstein (1939), Universal looked to their backlist for properties that could have sequels. This move ended up finding Vincent Prince disappearing in The Invisible Man Returns (1940) and Tom Tyler bandaged up in The Mummy's Hand (1941). But this wasn't enough, so the new studio regime developed a fresh horror star in Creighton Chaney, son of their silent Quasimodo, better known under the name he was working under, Lon Chaney Jr. Chaney Jr. had scored critical success in his portrayal of Lenny in Of Mice and Men (1939) and so Universal used a leftover, unfilmed Karloff-Lugosi script to introduce Chaney into their repertoire. The result, Man-Made Monster (1941) prompted director George Waggner to take on a more elaborate project to showcase the character talents of the new, burly Chaney.

"Blitz Wolf," a short Disney farce of the Three Little Pigs

with Hitler in the role of the Big Bad Wolf

And so Chaney Jr. was cast as Larry Talbot in The Wolf Man (1941), a film about an American schlub, probably only a few IQ points smarter than Lenny, who is bitten by a gypsy in wolf form (Lugosi, passing on the "curse" and status of a horror star) while staying in Wales. He is eventually battered to death with a silver cane by his father (played by Claude Rains) at the conclusion of the well-mounted and ambitious script by Curt Siodmak, who had fled the Nazi wolves himself in 1937. The Wolf Man proved that Universal could still found horror franchises. Chaney was then shuffled around to play all of the greats, taking on the role of the Monster in Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), the Mummy in The Mummy's Tomb (1942), and the vampiric count in Son of Dracula (1943). It must have burned him just a little when Waggner was producing a lavish, Technicolor Phantom of the Opera (1943) and passed over Chaney Jr. to take his father's old role. The part was deemed too important and so given to Chaney Jr.'s Wolf Man father figure, Rains.

This new version of the masked theater dweller's tale was as much musical melodrama as it was horror and is surprisingly mild compared to the silent version. It was also unusually large-scale for Universal in the 1940's who mostly stuck to making series horror the way other studios were making series Westerns. There were ongoing sagas chronicling the eerie adventures of the Invisible Man and the Mummy and a three-picture series about Paula the Ape Woman, kickstarted with Captive Wild Woman (1943), again pinpointing the cultural fear of man overcome by baser, primal instincts that lead to disaster. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, signed over from Fox, played Holmes and Watson respectively in a series of twelve modern-day mysteries, almost all directed by Roy William Neill, and featuring horror elements, as in The Scarlet Claw (1944) and The House of Fear (1945). In turn, the Holmes films spun off their own monster stars. Real-life acromegalic Rondo Hatton, the "Creeper" in Pearl of Death (1944), became a regular mad lab assistant in an Ape Woman sequel and got vehicles for success in House of Horrors (1946) and The Brute Man (1946). Gale Sondergaard, the black widow of The Spider Woman (1944), returned as a similar villainess (with Hatton playing her minion) in The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1945). Chaney Jr. starred in six Inner Sanctum mysteries, often in unsuitably intellectual roles, as when he plays a college professor in Weird Woman (1944). There were a few stand alones at the time whose familiar sets, players (Karloff, Atwill, Lugosi, etc.) and story lines makes it seem like they were series efforts that never took flight, among them Black Friday (1940), Night Monster (1942), The Mad Ghoul (1943), and She-Wolf of London (1946).

The most significant Universal horror in franchise terms was Neill's Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), a dual sequel to Ghost of Frankenstein and The Wolf Man in which Lugosi (whose brain--spoiler alert--was put in Chaney's skull at the end of Ghost of Frankenstein) plays the Monster and Chaney Jr. returns as the cursed Talbot. In House of Frankenstein (1944), Dracula (John Carradine) joined up, Lugosi was ditched in favor of bulky Glenn Strange, and Karloff returned to play a distinguished mad scientist. House of Dracula (1945) lost Karloff, but is otherwise the same deal. These monster rallies remain endearing to fans of the classics (myself included), not least for the strange twists of plotting that get around the monsters' seemingly permanent deaths and contrive to bring them together for yet another rumble. They don't, however, even try to be terrifying, and seem pitched entirely at children's matinees. The end result was one of the first truly great horror-comedies, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), in which Universal's premier vaudeville comics run into Chaney Jr.'s Wolf Man, Strange's Monster, and in what was to be his last turn in the role, Lugosi's Dracula. The pair's later run-in movies with the Invisible Man, the Mummy, and Jekyll and Hyde aren't as funny as they should be, but the comedians are spot on in haunted-house mode with Hold That Ghost (1941). 

Many a sleepover with my cousins was spent watching this movie.

Because obviously.

At this point, the days of the lovingly-crafted Bride of Frankenstein (1935) were over, and the horror genre had totally devoured itself like the feral creatures it played up so much in the early 1940's. The series of Abbot and Costello parodies put the final nails in the coffin of this phase of the horror film, forever resigning Dracula, The Wolf Man, the Mummy, and the Monster to sequel fodder. Those monsters who had been so terrifying on their debuts would not be frightening again for a long time to come. Meanwhile, the B studios were cashing in on Universal's comedy-horror act with lookalike efforts. Columbia signed Karloff to a run of "mad doctor" movies like The Man They Could Not Hang (1939) before landing Lugosi and his werewolf minion (Matt Willis) in their own monster mash-up picture, Return of the Vampire (1943). Fox and Paramount felt obliged to produce a white slavery/gorilla brain transplant story with The Monster and the Girl (1941) and a foggy werewolf whodunit, The Undying Monster (1942). It seemed that if it wasn't werewolves, it was brains being switched or tampered with, a person made into something they are not, something twisted, devilish, cruel…wolflike. Then, down on Poverty Row, Monogram kept Lugosi on retainer for The Invisible Ghost (1941) and its eight sequels, and played the race card with King of the Zombies (1941) and Revenge of the Zombies (1943), inadvertently channeling subversive societal issues of the times. Studios loved having their comedians mix it with ghouls and spooks in old dark houses with secret passageways, and that became the premise of a whole slew of horror-comedies like You'll Find Out (1940), Whistling in the Dark (1941), The Smiling Ghost (1941), Topper Returns (1941), One Body Too Many (1944), Ghost Catchers (1944), and Genius at Work (1946).

In contrast to all of this cheap bustle, RKO hired Val Lewton to produce their own small-scale horror pictures and got a clutch of polished, doom-haunted, poetic little masterpieces  in Cat People (1942), I Walked With a Zombie (1943), The Leopard Man (1943), The Seventh Victim (1943), The Ghost Ship (1943), The Curse of the Cat People (1944), Isle of the Dead (1945), The Body Snatcher (1945), and Bedlam (1946). Directed by Jacques Tourneur, Mark Robson, or Robert Wise, the Lewton films are literate, adult, and sophisticated, especially when set beside their competition. But the reason they worked for the audiences of the 1940's is that they are also serious about being scary in a way that Universal had given up on. The stalking scenes in Central Park and a basement swimming pool in Cat People are models of a style of horror cinema that Lewton would perfect, a style that would become the basis of the stalk-and-slash films of the 1970's and beyond. The Lewton films also spill more gore than the average Monogram--the trickle of blood under the door in The Leopard Man was an especial shock at the time--and emphasize extreme emotional states, like the neglected daughter driven nearly to child murder in Curse of the Cat People. Almost all of Lewton's films dealt with vicious animal beats overcoming the human form, though some of his later films, the ones produced as war grew imminent, were measured exercises in psychological horror that revealed the true monsters of the world to be human beings who had lost their moral compass. That Lewton had hit on a style and formula that worked is proved by the way others tried to imitate it. After Cat People, Columbia managed its own effects-free, "subtle" horror, Cry of the Werewolf (1943), and Lewtonesque effects could be seen in The Soul of a Monster (1944) and The Woman Who Came Back (1945) as well.

As far as intelligent, well produced, carriage-trade horror goes, Lewton wasn't quite the whole act in the 1940's. MGM had Victor Fleming, a hero on the strength of his credited direction of both Gone with the Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). He mounted a big-budget remake of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) as a showcase for Spencer Tracy's dual performance, with the full Metro glamor treatment for his co-stars, Ingrid Bergman as the abused Soho waitress and Lana Turner as Jekyll's society fiancee. This was followed by other fogbound literary properties, with bravura acting and careful production values: The Lodger (1944), with Laird Cregar as Jack the Ripper, Gaslight (1944), with Bergman persecuted again, and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). During the war and its aftermath, there was a run of near-benevolent supernatural pictures, like A Guy Named Joe (1943), the British film A Matter of Life and Death (1946), and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947). This trend took in a few scarier themes. The Uninvited (1944) feels like an homage to Lewton, to the extent of the casting of Elizabeth Russell, Lewton's favorite, as the wispily malevolent specter (who happens to be a nasty lesbian, to boot). The Uninvited was groundbreaking and incredibly influential, and still stands as the model for many, many tales in which nice folks buy a picturesque, remote house and are pestered by spooks, which then prompts an investigation into the cause of the haunting (allowing for that oh-so crucial mystery angle), and a climatic exorcism. From Britain, neglectful of the horror film while fighting against real life monsters, came Ealing's multi-directed Dead of Night (1945), the grandfather of the horror anthology, best remembered for its haunted mirror and mad ventriloquist sequences. It was highly influential in its use of the frame narrative with twists and mixes of moods from supernatural anecdote to clubroom comedy to all-out psychological terror.

Chucky ain't got nothing on this guy

Some horror scholars say that the greatest mystery of the genre is that in the late 1940's, just as in the late 1930's, the horror film completely died out seemingly without warning. In the 1930's the phenomenon is almost entirely down to the unique circumstance of the British horror ban. For the 1940's, some have suggested that after Abbott and Costello it became impossible for moviegoers to take the monsters seriously, but I would point out that the pair didn't "meet" Frankenstein until 1948, when the genre was already withering away. It could equally be argued that it was hard to take the monsters seriously after the third or fourth Mummy sequel in which victims have to maneuver themselves into a corner so that the limping, pot-bellied, not terribly fearsome, bandaged bully can get his single functional hand around their throats. Between 1947 and 1951, Hollywood produced almost no horror films. The Creeper (1948), Jean Yarbrough's weird melange of Lewton shadows and Monogram mad science, is the lone exception. It could be that overproduction had killed the genre, but hollow copycat Westerns had been churned out in even greater numbers without slaking the appetites of cowboy fans. For example, there are five films in Universal's Kharis the Mummy series, which most fans rate as repetitive and formulaic; there are 51 completely interchangeable Three Musketeers pictures. Perhaps the explanation was that after World War II, gothic horror was upstaged by real life genocides--but the First World War had proved a potent inspiration for the Expressionist horrors of the 1920's and 1930's, lingering subliminally in the films of F.W. Murnau (a fighter pilot) and James Whale (a POW). 

The irony is that, in the later 1940's, American screens were as shadowed and haunted as they had ever been, but not in actual horror films. Film noir is a genre that was diagnosed rather than invented. French critics looked at a stream of American films (mostly thrillers and melodrama) and labelled them as noir, in homage to their overwhelming darkness in imagery and in subject matter. Lewton's horror films are also important as early noirs, and Jacques Tourneur proceeded from his woman cursed to turn into a feral and ferocious cat if she cannot consummate her marriage to his noir masterpiece, Out of the Past (1948). Other personnel made similar shifts. Robert Siodmak, Curt's brother, helmed the gloomy, unusual Son of Dracula in which the girl wants to be bitten by Dracula, as well as the early psycho-horror suspense The Spiral Staircase (1946). He also took on many outstanding noir films that doubled as horror, Phantom Lady (1943), The Killers (1946), The Dark Mirror (1946), etc. Edward Dmytryk moved from Captive Wild Woman to Murder, My Sweet (1944), the first major adaptation of Raymond Chandler's work. While Karloff and Lugosi were tied too closely to castles and laboratories, Peter Lorre segued easily from horror to noir roles, reprising his M (1931) act as a sorrowful psychotic killer in what might be the first truly proper noir, Stranger on the Third Floor (1940). 

These were all films about a looming evil, scenes steeped in gloom, scores that pulsed with foreboding atmosphere and dread. Many viewed them as the embodiment of the last decade, dark forays into the atrocities that had griped the globe and unleashed those feral, wolflike creatures in the early 1940's who were responsible for so much cruelty and damage. The noir films worked hard to do horror's job in a less direct but still compelling manner while the genre was on hiatus. Because as any student of the supernatural will tell you, if a thing looks dead, that's the time to be most afraid, as you never know what might come shooting out from beneath the tombstone…

Next in Horror History: Creature Features (The 1950's)