31 by 31 Challenge #6: THE HAUNTING (1963)

Regarded as the definitive haunted house novel, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is a mainstay in classic horror fiction and is beloved by fans of all ages and generations; Stephen King calls it one of the most frightening books he's ever read. Given that great works of literature have a tough time becoming great works of film as well, it would not have been a surprise if the first cinematic adaptation of Jackson's seminal work was a flop; but in the careful hands of director Robert Wise, flop status was happily avoided (until the Jan de Bont 1999 remake, of course) and we were left with one of the all-time greatest haunted house movies ever. Assuming, of course, that the house is actually haunted...

The Haunting
Released: September 18, 1963
Director: Robert Wise
Screenplay: Nelson Gidding

Tagline: "You may not believe in ghosts, but you cannot deny terror"

Cast:
Julie Harris as Eleanor "Nell" Lance
Claire Bloom as Theodora "Theo"
Richard Johnson as Dr. John Markway
Russ Tamblyn as Luke Sanderson


Eleanor Lance, a lonely, shut-in spinster who has spent the  majority of her adult life caring for her recently deceased mother, takes a chance on an adventure at Hill House, an old Victorian mansion with a sordid past, where she will take part in a psychic experiment led by Dr. Markway, who hopes to prove the existence of supernatural. They are joined by Luke Sanderson, playboy heir to Hill House, and Theodora, a mysterious bohemian woman with purported telekinetic abilities. As soon as the four are settled and left to their devices by the caretakers, strange things begin happening at Hill House, things that seem to revolve around Eleanor -- but are they paranormal phenomenon or the fantasies of a young woman coming undone? Both the characters and the viewer are tasked to find out, but the film is resolute in its detail of clarity. 

It can be said that The Haunting set the standard for great haunted house movies, perhaps even the rulebook. One such rule that usually proves particularly beneficial is that the haunted house film must be psychologically driven, and so character is everything. Certainly we question the sanity of Eleanor, our focal point, but can we trust stability and motives of the other characters any better? Upon closer inspection, none of them can be entirely trustworthy witnesses. Dr. Markway gave up an aristocratic lifestyle to prove the supernatural to the academic world, and so he very much wants, if not needs, to discover a ghost or two. Theodora exhibits jealousy at the attention given to Nell and is an admitted psychic, a dubious profession in the public eye, and there's always a lingering question of whether or not she's making a game out of the whole experience. It's the beauty of the film to have crafted characters and placed them in such an unsure situation that we can never ground ourselves as a viewer to a point of trust. We're left drifting about the house, much like Eleanor in the midst of one of her musings.

Eleanor is the soul and star of the story, however, and is played brilliantly by Julie Harris, whose performance elevates Nell above the histrionic women we might expect from a William Castle film of the same era. Her character is matched only by the presence of the house itself, brought to life by an exceptional production value full of misshapen rooms, flock wallpaper, sinister cherubs, angled mirrors, and suffocating Victorian clutter. From the set dressings alone we feel the sinister sense of this house that was born bad, and that's before unseen presences pound their down down a corridor and on a bedroom door, which is still today one of the most chilling sequences in horror cinema. 

Of course, the brilliance of The Haunting is that it never confirms the origin of that horrendous knocking. It certainly seems and sounds like a malevolent spirit, but perhaps it's rooted in Nell, somewhere deep and subconscious. She's come to Hill House to escape the drudgery of her everyday life and sees an opportunity to finally "belong," both to the group and to the House. Is she somehow causing the noises in the old manor? Is she unable and hallucinating? Or, and perhaps most disturbing of all, is she pretending that all the experiences are real? Wise, like Jackson with the source material, provides many hallways which we might walk down to find the truth and so the tension in The Haunting comes as much from the interpersonal dynamics of the strangers locked inside as it does from the stressful environment or the possible actions of the house itself. As Dr. Markway says, the house's occupation by spirits can only be suspected, not confirmed. And that is perhaps the most haunting thing of all.


The Haunting
5 - Totally Terrifying
4 - Crazy Creepy
3 - Fairly Frightening 
2 - Slight Scary
1 - Hardly Horror

31 by 31 Challenge #5: TERRIFIER (2018)

In his 2011 short film "Terrifier" writer/director Damien Leone introduced audiences to the maniacal Art the Clown, who would go on to feature prominently in Leone's feature film All Hallows' Eve (2013). Still, horror hounds couldn't get enough of the murderous clown, and so Leone decided to up the ante and give the people what they want with a full-length film centered entirely on Art. It's a doozy, and secures Art a spot in that hallowed pantheon of horror icons that will continue to terrify viewers for years to come.

Terrifier
Released: March 15, 2018
Director: Damien Leone
Screenplay: Damien Leone

Cast:
Jenna Kannell as Tara
Samantha Scaffidi as Vicky
Catherine Corcoran as Dawn
Matt McAllister as Mike
Pooya Mohseni as Cat Lady
David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown


On Halloween night, best friends Tara and Dawn are stumbling home after a night of festive debauchery when they catch sight of a man in a creepy clown costume who soon fixes his attention on them. When they discover that Dawn's car has a flat and have to wait for Tara's sister, Vicky, to come to pick them up, Tara worries that their troubles with the clown have only just begun. And she's right.

It's a thin story with an easy set-up, but Leone makes it work. Most of the action takes place in an old office building that's being exterminated for rats; it's a creepy, winding maze of decaying rubble, stained concrete, and dusty storage. This makes the film itself feel unclean, as though we're watching an awful, dingy home video we were never meant to get our hands on. And what an amazing feeling to have while viewing a horror film. It conjures a very 80's grindhouse vibe, which is exactly what Leone is going for, especially with the gratuitous gore. Terrifier is a gross, visceral movie that works the violence to its advantage. One kill, in particular, is so daring and unpleasant that while you'll moan at knowing you can never un-see it, you'll applaud the production team for pushing boundaries. 

And as with all the great 80's hackfests, you'll be shouting at the screen at the stupidity of one of the main characters. Tara starts off as level-headed and intelligent, and has flashes of common sense throughout, but consistently dips into the pool of stupidity at the worst possible times. She severely injures the killer three times in the course of her nightmare and never once takes the opportunity to properly finish him off. It's maddening! But it's also in keeping with the tone of the film, and in showcasing the real star, Art the Clown, played by David Howard Thornton, who is absolutely incredible. Since Art never speaks, it's all down to body language and mannerism, and Thornton is perfectly in sync with himself and the character, bringing to life one of the most horrifying characters in contemporary horror cinema and possibly the scariest clown in the genre (sorry, Pennywise). 

Now, the ending is a bit predictable, but again, the goal of this film isn't really about presenting a monumentally original story so much as it is giving Art the chance to shine in a feature-length runtime. And shine he does. It will be interesting to see how and if he figures in the purported All Hallows' Eve sequel, but I can't imagine he'll be excluded completely. He's made far too much of an impact amongst horror fans, so I anticipate that there will be many more films in the future where bevies of innocent stock characters are flung in Art's path. And I'm sure he'll continue to have the last laugh as well.


Terrifier
5 - Totally Terrifying
4 - Crazy Creepy
3 - Fairly Frightening
2 - Slightly Scary
1 - Hardly Horror

31 by 31 Challenge #4: HELL FEST (2018)

Lovers of local haunts will find this bloody little gem to be right up their alley, and an excellent way to usher in October and all the Halloween happiness that comes with it. It's our time once again, Chatters. Let us fly into the dark, dark night...

Hell Fest 
Released: September 28, 2018
Director: Gregory Plotkin
Screenplay: Seth M. Sherwood, Blair Butler, & Akela Cooper

Tagline: "Fun Getting In. Hell Getting Out."

Cast:
Amy Forsyth as Natalie
Reign Edwards as Brooke
Bex Taylor-Klaus as Taylor
Christian James as Quinn
Matt Mercurio as Asher
Roby Attal as Gavin
Tony Todd as The Barker

Perma-studier Natalie comes to visit her best friend Brooke during Halloweekend in the hopes that they can reconnect after drifting apart from attending different colleges. Natalie is dismayed to find that she won't get to hang out with Brooke alone, however, as Brooke's wild friend Taylor and her boyfriend Asher have secured six tickets to Hell Fest, a traveling horror carnival made up of rides, haunts, games, and other assorted scares. It's all jump scares and cuddly moments with Gavin until Natalie realizes that their group is being stalked and taunted by a masked serial killer posing as one of the actors.

Hell Fest accomplishes two feats that make it worth your time. One, it delivers an old school slasher story straight out of the 80's slasher heyday, with heads getting pummeled by hammers, eyes jabbed with syringes, a group of relatable, obnoxious teens who are somehow all likable, and a creepy, silent killer with an equally creepy mask and a creative repertoire of kill tactics. Add in the themed, expansive-yet-contained amusement park setting, and it's like watching a lost Carpenter or Cunningham film.

And speaking of the setting, that is Hell Fest's second great achievement. The production team nailed the set design and clearly did their homework when it comes to professional haunts. The various mazes and rides look like they could have been lifted from your hometown haunt; colorful, crazy, scary, and detailed. And they're pulling double duty as well. Not only do the sets and extras serve to establish a sense of authenticity, but they're the source of a lot of the film's scares as well. As such, Hell Fest becomes the one horror film where excessive jump scares don't wear thin.

The leading ladies (Amy Forsyth, Reign Edwards, & Bex-Taylor Klaus) shine, and their chemistry is natural and believable for college students. Taylor-Klaus in particular brings a perfect energy to her character and steals every frame she's in (something she did in the Scream TV series as well). Any annoyance felt with teh characters is due to the writing, not their portrayal, and it's lucky that the performances are so strong because the writing is certainly the film's weakest point. This clunkiness is likely due to the fact that there are three credited screenwriters and two story contributors, which is far too many cooks in the kitchen for such straightforward horror fare.

What's perhaps most interesting about Hell Fest, however, is that it's not actually frightening until the final scene; or rather, the implications of that scene and the resulting question of whether or not we are safe anywhere in society anymore. It's a chilling coda to end the movie on, while also opening the door to a potential sequel or franchise, and I for one would not be opposed at all. As long as any future properties adhere to the standards of the original, they're sure to be one hell of a good time.

Hell Fest
5 - Totally Terrifying
4 - Crazy Creepy
3 - Fairly Frightening
2 - Slightly Scary
1 - Hardly Horror

31 by 31 Challenge #3: THE NUN (2018)

The Conjuring universe expands with the latest spin-off from the blockbuster horror franchise that brings us to 1950's Romania where a Catholic agent and a novitiate with preternatural gifts investigate strange goings-on at an abandoned abbey rumored to be inhabited by an evil presence. Solid acting, great atmosphere, and grand Gothic set pieces save the movie from being completely hellish, but the story and the dialogue are in desperate need of divine intervention.

The Nun (U.S.A.)
Released: September 7, 2018
Director: Corin Hardy
Screenplay: Gary Dauberman

Tagline: "Pray For Forgiveness"

Cast:
Demian Bichir as Father Burke
Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene
Jonas Bloquet as Maurice "Frenchie" Theriault
Bonnie Aarons as Valak / The Nun


James Wan and his producers have been doing solid work since establishing their shared horror universe with 2013's The Conjuring. They followed their blockbuster inaugural installment with an excellent--if by-the-numbers--sequel, an okay spin-off, and a respectable prequel to the spin-off, with more sequels and prequels and side-quels (maybe?) in the works. Enter The Nun, the latest chapter in the saga and the first real stumbling block in the five-film franchise. This time around, we find ourselves in Romania, 1952, where a nun at the cloistered Carta Monastery commits suicide to escape a dark entity. Her drastic action spurs the Vatican to send two representatives of the Church to investigate not only the shocking death, but the reports of supernatural activity as well.

It's a familiar story, basic both in structure and execution and not terribly interested in doing anything original. That said, for the lack of attention paid towards the plot, equal amounts are spent fashioning a grim, gloomy atmosphere that drips Gothic goodness and oozes creepiness from the very first frame. In this sense, The Nun is very much an old school, low key, slow-burn horror movie (at least for the first two acts), and for that I applaud the production team. A sense of dread is often lacking from contemporary mainstream flair that is designed to grab the attention of young movie-goers. And while slasher romps and relentless zombie attacks are fun in their own way, it's nice when mainstream horror can be a bit more intellectually interesting.

Wan and his team try their best to maintain that interest through showcasing their love of classic horror cinema. Director Corin Hardy channels the ambiance of the great Hammer Horror productions of the past and keeps things consistently eerie. This is aided by the fifties setting and period costumes, as well as the various ominous locations scattered around the haunted abbey that the characters explore bit by bit. The leads are strong, with Taissa Farmiga's suspicious newbie nun Sister Irene and Bichir's weary yet noble Father Burke working together with an enjoyable, if unlikely, chemistry. They're rounded out by Jonas Bloquet's "Frenchie," who provides local insight and comic relief when necessary. Other than that, the cast is thin. A few more characters may have helped create a grander sense of mystery deserving of the setting, or at the very least given fodder for a body count. Instead, Hardy relies on dream sequences and jump scares to keep us invested, and his tactics wear thin quickly. She's a creepy nun walking around slowly, being creepy. I get it.

Though a shallow story that hasn't drawn massive crowds or exceptional praise, The Nun contains enough gems that it won't tarnish The Conjuring crown permanently, and it won't be the worst option for what to watch on a lazy, rainy Saturday in the future. The question now posed is whether or not Wan and co. can get back on their feet for the next foray into demons and damnation, or if this could be the new model of what to expect from the franchise moving forward. Let's pray they know what they're doing.


The Nun
5-Totally Terrifying
4-Crazy Creepy
3-Fairly Frightening
2-Slightly Scary
1-Hardly Horror

31 by 31 Challenge #2: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (1981)

The bastard love child of Friday the 13th and Scooby-Doo, director J. Lee Thompson's Happy Birthday to Me is 80s slasher camp with the running time of War and Peace and the shlock of Sleepaway Camp. A big budget affair that nonetheless resulted in a cheesy teen whodunnit horrorfest, it has gained one of the most significant cult followings in recent years due to its bizarre, yet strangely alluring, ending.

Happy Birthday to Me (Canada)
Released: May 15, 1981
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Screenplay: Timothy Bond, Peter Jobin, & John Saxton

Tagline: "Six of the most bizarre murders you will ever see"

Cast: 
Melissa Sue Anderson as Virginia "Ginny" Wainwright
Glenn Ford as Dr. David Faraday
Lawrence Dane as Harold "Hal" Wainwright
Tracey E. Bregman as Ann Thomerson
Frances Hyland as Mrs. Patterson
Sharon Acker as Estelle Wainwright



At Crawford Academy, an elite group of students known as the Top Ten are the envy and admiration of teachers and pupils alike. When a black-gloved assailant begins killing them off one by one, only Ginny seems to feel concerned. But she's battling her own demons, suffering strange memories of a past trauma that her therapist Dr. Faraday is helping her to remember. As her birthday looms, Ginny, a recent addition to the popular circle, becomes unsure of whom to trust, including herself, as she begins to recall a terrible accident, a dramatic medical procedure, and what could be the key to unlocking the motive of the stalk'n'slash campus killer threatening her friends' lives.

Happy Birthday to Me would have been very much at home in the giallo movement of late seventies Italian cinema--classic whodunnit horror films filmed with gauzy lenses featuring nubile young co-eds stalked by vengeful killers wearing black gloves who off their victims in appropriately melodramatic murders. In reality, though, it was one of a glut of responses to the success of Friday the 13th and the new slasher craze that overran horror in the 1980's. It makes use of all the tropes, from our rowdy, incestuous group of attractive teens to killer p.o.v. shots that give the audience a murderers-eye view of the kills and a parade of victims exclaiming "Oh, it's you!" That said, the film walks a fine line between pastiche and parody, never quite committing to either yet still maintaining its sense of dread and fun.

Melissa Sue Anderson, far from the wholesome comfort of Little House on the Prairie (1974-1983), shines as Ginny, who is, at first, coded as our Final Girl and then, about halfway through the film, becomes not only the most likely suspect for the killer, but an on-screen murderer! Or does she? The film's cheesy, Grand Guignol-style ending is notorious among horror fans, in part for its delicious ridiculousness, and in part for being one of the most sinister "body tour" sequences in any of the great 80's slashers. This can't change how illogical it is, however, but the script was rewritten several times during production, and the ending was unknown even at the time of filming; in the end, the production opted for a complex psychological solution rather than a supernatural one as was originally intended. You'll have to judge for yourself whether this was the right call.

"Lighten up, guys, it's a party..."

Drunk on itself, Happy Birthday to Me has a zany charm that has kept it in the eye of genre fans for over thirty years. While it doesn't push any notable boundaries, it does take its viewers on a fun ride, offering a few choice kills, an unforgettable poster, and a gratuitous disco scene that, upon reflection, might be just as iconic as the "see it to believe it" ending. And for the true horror hound, could you ask for a more perfect gift?

Happy Birthday to Me

5-Totally Terrifying

4-Crazy Creepy

3-Fairly Frightening

2-Slightly Scary

1-Hardly Horror

31 by 31 Challenge #1: SUMMER OF 84 (2018)

For awhile now, the horror genre has been awash with all things 80's, from mega-hits like the new adaptation of Stephen King's IT (2017) and Netflix's Stranger Things (2016 - present) to lesser known gems like The Guest (2014) and The Final Girls (2015). When you throw in non-genre fare like wacky wrestling drama GLOW and Amazon's Red Oaks, it's clear there's a massive audience for all things parachute pants and big hair. Summer of 84, from the creative team that brought you Turbo Kid (2015) is cashing in on that, and while it could have used a dash more creativity, it still manages to hold its own, offering a healthy balance between nostalgia and nihilism.

Summer of 84 (Canada)
Released: August 10, 2018
Directors: Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, & Yoann-Karl Whissell
Screenplay: Matt Leslie & Stephen J. Smith

Tagline: "Every serial killer lives next door to someone"

Cast:
Graham Verchere as Davey Armstrong
Caleb Emery as Dale "Woody" Woolworth
Rich Sommer as Wayne Mackey
Tiera Skovbye as Nikki Kaszuba
Judah Lewis as Tommy "Eats" Eaton
Cory Gruter-Andrew as Curtis Farraday



Davey Armstrong is your typical, All-American, 80's nerd. He has a passion for conspiracies, hidden truths, and secrets hidden in plain sight. His bedroom and treehouse are littered with all things National Enquirer from Bigfoot to UFO sightings to anything else you could imagine would interest Fox Mulder. His three best friends don't quire share his enthusiasm for the weird and the macabre, but they're a tight-knit gang nonetheless, excited to spend their summer at the arcade, riding their bikes, and playing Midnight around their quiet, suburban neighborhood in between razzing each other for being virgins and losing their shit around their hot blonde neighbor, Nikki. When Davey begins to suspect that their friendly cop neighbor, Mr. Mackey, might be the serial killer dominating local headlines, the Cape May Strangler, he convinces his friends to join him on a quest to prove his guilt and save the town's teen boys from becoming potential victims.

Like a lackadaisical summer day, this movie takes awhile to get moving. This is both beneficial in terms of time for character development, and a hindrance in terms of establishing tension. We linger a bit too long in introducing the setting, with the filmmakers seemingly desperate to show the viewer how meticulously they've recreated a 1980's suburban cal-de-sac. This isn't to say that they didn't do a great job and should be praised for it, as everything from the clothes to the cars to the decor is spot on, but it can feel like the set pieces are the focus of the film at times, and the characters are just window dressing. Especially since they occupy the space of archetypes rather than fully drawn individuals.

Some of the actors really make their characters shine, while others translate quite poorly. Jason Gray-Stanford, who plays Davey's father, is awkward and over-the-top and to be honest, I didn't understand a single one of his acting choices. On the other side of things, Tara Skovbye, whom some genre fans will recognize from Riverdale, and Rich Sommer (Mad Men's Harry Crane) steal every scene that they're in. Skovbye makes you fall in love with Nikki, channeling Elisabeth Shue from The Karate Kid (1984) and making it easy to understand why all of the boys like her. There's a really great character moment with her near the end of the second act that made me wish the film had used her more. That said, Sommer is very appropriately used, and is definitely the film's secret weapon. His perfect, nice guy next door vibe clashes brilliantly with the mounting evidence (albeit circumstantial) hinting at a darker side and in the film's final bone-chilling moments (don't worry, no spoilers) he runs away with the whole show. 

Somewhat corny dialogue and so-so performances from the core group of child performers aside, by the time the aforementioned climax arrives, your realize that you've really grown to care for this dorky quartet. Perhaps not as much as the Goonies or the Losers Club, but they carve their own niche. And the ending is surprisingly dark even given the buildup. It's jarring, but completely earned, and posits an interesting reflection on our culture's current true crime obsession, juxtaposing it with the exposure of serial killers to the American suburban public eye in the 1980's. In the end, we're left with a sinister reminder that the truth is often not what we want to hear, yes, but that it is also not at all what we think.

Goodbye summer, indeed.


Summer of 84
5-Totally Terrifying
4-Crazy Creepy
3-Fairly Frightening
2-Slightly Scary
1-Hardly Horror

Something Wicked This Way Comes: Witches in Horror Cinema (Horror Sub-Genres Series #1)

"There's evil in the wood..." - William (Ralph Ineson), The Witch (2015)

For reasons better explored in another discussion entirely, certain monsters have been stable favorites in the horror genre. The vampire has never truly gone out of style, merely shifting form and presentation throughout the decade. And yet other creatures have remained on the outskirts, only now getting the black eye of the camera turned towards them (Bigfoot comes to mind, or mermaids). The figure of the witch is neither, straddling the middle area in what is one of the most interesting and complicated histories within horror cinema. The recent fascination with witchcraft in horror films began with The Witch (2015) but is just the latest in a cycle of occult-centric films that ebb and flow with the times. In this post, I'll be taking a look at a history of witchcraft in horror film, trying to tease out what our relationship with these films has been as viewer, and what makes them so spellbinding. For a larger discussion, check out Episode 43 of the podcast over on iTunes or SoundCloud where Miss Mel and I dig deep into these and other witchy films. 

Benjamin Christensen's Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) is the first film in movie history to deal with the subject of witches, and it's a curious place for this sub-genre's history to begin. The film is framed as a documentary, with re-enactments and voiceovers recounting the history and depictions of witches in art, culture, and religion. As such, its main goal is to understand and de-mystify witchcraft and to explore the psychological and sociological implications of what it meant to be an accused witch, and what the lore and legends surrounding witches might tell us about our own internal fears and prejudices. Interestingly, this film received a great deal of controversy and was banned in several states and countries. One wonders if they missed the point of the film or if that's exactly why they wanted it banned. Regardless, it's worth noting that the first depictions of witches in film weren't meant to terrify, but to enlighten.

The Wicked Witch of the West aside, it would be another 40 years before witches really got any star treatment in films worth talking about. In the 1960's, the occult film was all about revenge, the most notable example being Rosemary's Baby (1968). Here, Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes) makes a deal with a coven of witches to receive generous rewards in exchange for his wife Rosemary (Mia Farrow) copulating with the devil and producing a son for him. The psychological trauma that Rosemary endures during her pregnancy breaks her in body and mind, allowing the coven to not only achieve their goal but to further bend the world towards their whims. After all, these witches aren't just any old Joe Nobody. No, they're all high society elites, secretly pulling strings and hoarding wealth and power; the once-maligned and hunted now taking stabs back at the world that crucified them. It's the ultimate revenge fantasy cloaked in occult urbanoia.

On a less philosophical scale, the sixties also provided us with great witch-revenge in Black Sunday (1960), Master of Horror Mario Bava's first feature film, wherein a condemned witch (scream queen Barbara Steele) is executed by her brother and returns 200 years later for payback against the descendants of those who destroyed her. Bava's debut sensationalizes gore and the gruesome side of witchcraft. He depicts his witches as pseudo-vampiric, their rituals and power not only stemming and revolving around blood and blood sacrifice but in the consuming of blood as well. All of this is wrapped in a morbid fascination with witchery and the notion that the past will always arise to taint the present.

Witchfinder General (1968), released the same year as Rosemary's Baby, utilized witches as a vehicle to examine a corrupt social order. Set in the lawless land of seventeenth-century England during the English Civil War, Witchfinder chronicles the rise of Matthew Hawkins (Vincent Price), the eponymous general and real-life historical figure. Hawkins and his ilk ride from town to town, accusing men and women of witchcraft and then torturing confessions out of them. Like Black Sunday, the post-Renaissance setting gives the viewer context before exposing us and the characters to extreme violence and sadistic torture the likes of which would be rarely seen until the post-9/11 "torture porn" phenomenon. Witchfinder is a bold film, not only questioning the idea of the witch itself but also providing deep social commentary, akin to The Crucible. As such, it is at this point in the cycle of the witch in the horror film that witches transition from monster-antagonists into veils into which we might gaze at a broken world and a flawed society. 

The great witchcraft films of the 1970's were almost all in direct response to the films of the previous decades, in particular, the three explored above. Witchfinder General had a heavy influence on both Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) and The Devils (1971). Both films were all about confronting the evil society had now been made aware of thanks to the witchcraft films of the 60's and finding ways to rid the world of that evil. Satan's Claw explores this through the story of a small town that falls under demonic possession and the townsfolk banding together to cast out the beastly party who has placed them under this spell. The Devils also focuses on a small, isolated town as they respond to rumors of a priest being accused of witchcraft and the uproar that surrounds the accusation. 


But of course, no other film from the 1970's concerning witches can ever match Suspiria (1977). Capturing the attention of critics and horror-loving audiences alike at the time, and still maintaining its reputation today as one of the definitive films about witches and one of the scariest films of the decade, Suspiria was directed by rising auteur Dario Argento and was set in a German ballet academy. Unconcerned with suspicion and accusation, Argento's film sees students and townsfolk alike getting slaughtered, often brutally, by a secret coven of witches. But it's still concerned with dragging darkness out into the light and as such is the perfect close to the decade and transitional film to bring us into the 1980's. 

We now enter the era of the witch film where the secret shroud of mysticism is replaced with a violent power to be both feared, desired, and reckoned with. At the same time, thanks in large part to Suspiria but also to The Devils, motherhood and witches become closely intertwined and a common theme moving forward in the sub-genre. The idea and the concept of the witch became firmly planted in this decade, and it's here in the 1980's that we see the first attempts at subverting the idea of the witch and examine witchcraft not just as a metaphor for social issues, but as a more individualized form of terror and mayhem. 

And yet curiously, it's also at this time that a less serious, quasi-reflexive way of looking at the witch emerges, likely because society had become so comfortable with the idea of the witch and her figure in pop culture. An interesting narrative tool begins to be used in this decade and carries over to the 1990's wherein humor and camp are used coax the audience into letting their guard down before being frightened, and in some cases terrified, by the reemergence of the witch. The Nicolas Roeg helmed adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic The Witches (1990) comes to mind as an example of this particular strategy. In fact, it's easy to argue that The Witches encapsulated the standard for the slightly comedic, toned down, and very much desensitized vision of the witch utilized in the late 80's and early 90's. This period gave us The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Pumpkinhead (1988), Warlock (1989), Hocus Pocus (1993), and The Craft (1996), all of them slightly frightening in their own right, but still parodical in nature. Long-running TV fantasy soap Charmed (1998-2006) was also born out of this pop-friendly version of the witch.

In a sense, this era is where creators and audiences alike really begin to have fun with the witch and experiment with the form now that no one needs to be told where a witch comes from or what she is or even what she symbolizes. It's why we get a witch summoning a pumpkin-headed revenge demon in one film and a seventeenth-century-male witch time-traveling to twentieth-century Los Angeles, only to be pursued by his archnemesis witch-hunter in another film. And while the films of the 1960's and 1970's were trying to educate viewers about witches, the witchcraft films of the 1980's and 1990's were about playing with, bucking, and re-evaluating the stereotypes of witches previously settled upon by society at large.

Following this line of thinking, there's a logic to how witches in film ended the millennium. Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick's The Blair Witch Project (1999) was a reclamation of the witch, turning its back on the witchcraft films of the two prior decades and striving to once again make the witch terrifying. Three campers set out to investigate the local legend of a witch in the woods and through their peril the witch is re-mystified. As has been discussed on the Splatter Chatter podcast at length, what makes The Blair Witch Project so successful is that we're only shown hints of the true terror and must do our own work to fig together the pieces of the puzzle. It's in the blind spots that the fear creeps in, shattering the image of the non-threatening witch that had so dominated the 90's until this point. After seeing everything a witch was capable of, a sense of mystery was exactly what horror viewers needed. 

Now that the witch was reinvigorated, creators and filmmakers could both use the fearful fuel of The Blair Witch Project and combine that with all the great witchy imagery of decades past to produce sophisticated stories with new angles and interesting themes. Beginning in 2001, and lasting until 2011, the Harry Potter films also did great concurrent work to popularize witches with a mass audience. This helped audiences to become savvy with witches and allowed filmmakers new and old alike to satirize, subvert, and honor the figure of the witch and a new batch of films. Films worth noting would be Lucky McKee's The Woods (2006), Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell (2009), and Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem (2012). Each of these explores the historical roots of witches in their own ways while also incorporating some new-age flair.

Then came the Paranormal Activity franchise (2007 - 2015), six films that wrapped self-reflexivity, entertainment, and narrative innovation into one giant ball. Though they didn't market themselves as being about witchcraft or the occult, the continued references and importance of witches in the overarching mythology that developed as the series progressed placed the witch (and the secret coven once more) as the inadvertent central figure of the entire franchise and the last two films directly. Of course, as is often the case in prolonged film series, and horror series in particular, each installment of Paranormal Activity declined in both frights and returns, leaving audiences disinterested and worn out by the release of the final film. And if that wasn't enough to sap audience interest, season three of American Horror Story, subtitled Coven, would surely have finished the job. 

Enter The Witch (2015), Robert Eggers' terrifying entry that has become the new reigning voice of the current state of the witch in horror and the guidebook on where to proceed next. Taking a page from the great witchcraft films of the 1960's, Eggers takes us back to the 1600's and focuses tight on the relationship between witchcraft and hysteria as fueled by religious mania. The Witch pulls from a very primal place, relying heavily on lore and contemporary belief to establish its haunting atmosphere of dread and uncertainty. In Eggers' film, we now find ourselves back at the origin point of witches in film first explored all those years ago in Haxan. We have cycled through revenge and self-reflection to return to doubt, fear, and nihilism. This re-set could have only been possible in our current time and not a moment before, as it relies so heavily on our exposure to all the previous incarnations of witches on the silver screen. The Witch set the tone and the stage for what is to come next in this complicated and enchanting sub-genre of horror. The only question now is what sort of cinematic spell will we all fall under next?