As our 13 Years of Fear feature has proven, technology and real-world
trauma are the genre’s biggest motivating factors. Because there is no short- age of things to fear or lack of ways to express our anxieties through art – particularly movies, which have become so accessible to everyone, every- where – the horror fan’s world keeps on getting bigger and badder. Because we connect so strongly, so personally to terror tales, we’re as loyal as ever,
too. While this results in sequels and remakes galore, it also means that hor- ror becomes a cutting-edge platform for artists and companies to try new things with less fear of failure. Of course, the more technological we become the more we seek genuine human experiences. To discover what this means, we consulted three experts who really understand the ebb, flow and evolu- tion of fright films.
Colin Geddes has been programming the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto International Film Festival since 1997 and witnesses the latest in genre trends before the rest of us.
What are some of the major changes you’ve ob- served over the last thirteen years? I’m starting to see more accessible horror films from Southeast Asia and Central Europe and these films are trying to cater to audiences raised on Western cinema, so often they are devoid of any root in local culture. That lack of cultural identity however makes the films generic Western imitators at best. ... I ex- pect to see more paranoia-based horror films coming from areas of the world poised on economic break- down, such as Greece and Iceland.
Would you say your Midnight Madness audience has changed? I think over the years the audiences have become more sophisticated. When the series first started, there was more of a campy, silly element to the films they wanted to see, whereas now they demand smarter, darker and edgier films rather than just T&A and blood and gore.
Horror-themed film fests are popping up everywhere, even though home theatre systems are becoming more commonplace. Why is this? Because of the shrinking world of film distribution and exhibition, festival audiences are looking to see and enjoy films en masse with their peers, something which might otherwise be missing from the modern horror fan’s experience. Watching a film with a gig- gling, terrified mass of 1000 people in an auditorium is very different from renting it at Blockbuster or downloading it.
DECEMBER 4, 2008 Original Famous Monsters of Filmland editor and genre icon Forrest J Ackerman dies at 92.
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FEBRUARY 4, 2009 Cramps’ iconic frontman Lux Interior dies at age 62.
Former President of Acquisitions and Co-Produc- tions at Lionsgate, producer Peter Block shepherded hits such as The Grudge, The Descent and Sawinto North American theatres. He left Lionsgate to start independent film company A Bigger Boat, which re- cently released Adam Green’s Frozen.
You’re known for bringing foreign talent to North American audiences, so where are you casting your eye these days? The French are extremely intense when it comes to horror and there’s also a new crop of directors com- ing from the UK horror scene. We just recently brought on a young UK director named Mark Tonderai who’s known in England for a film called Hush. He’s signed on for our project House at the End of the Street, which we like to describe as a “teenage Psycho.”
How is technology affecting what you do? The business model for successfully producing has changed significantly over the last five years and will keep shifting radically. ... Technology is increasingly important and changes almost daily, affecting every aspect of filmmaking from pre-production all the way into the release strategy. The avenues of distribution are also being modified and include some exciting new prospects in video-on-demand, as well as shorted release windows. Overall, it’s all about adapt- ing and trying new things.
Is the current boom in remakes and sequels going to slow any time soon? There will always be remakes and sequels as long as the audience keeps coming back for more. I think that soon the business will even out a bit and there will be a proportionate amount of original content to remakes and sequels.
APRIL 4, 2009 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies introduces the undead to Jane Austen.
OCTOBER 16, 2009 Paramount scraps Paranormal Activity remake, releases the $15,000 original to theatres instead.
David J. Skal is the author of The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror, Hollywood Gothic and Ro- mancing the Vampire, plus he’s produced and ap- peared in various documentaries on classic horror.
What evolves the genre more than anything else? I hope I’ve made a convincing argument in my books that war and its metaphors (like death and itsmetaphors – war being the biggest death-magnifier in human ex- istence) is the driving drumbeat behind modern horror entertainment. It’s not a matter of long-term or short- term, it’s an essential and permanent underlying reality. Now that we’ve truly entered an Orwellian world of end- less war for profit, it shouldn’t be surprising that horror entertainment is bigger and more profitable than ever.
In terms of the current “monster show,” vampires are in vogue. What are bloodsuckers tapping into culturally? Addiction, recovery and various forms of co-dependence seem to colour our current vampire tales to an unprece- dentedly pronounced degree. Twilight and its abstinence obsession aside, it’s interesting that vampirism tradi- tionally represented displaced sexuality, but today’s vam- pires indulge in blood-drinking plus a lot of sex, especially homo-transgressive sex. Just watch True Blood. The chil- dren of the night are having their stake and eating it, too.
Do we need monsters now more than ever? Whenever we feel especially dead-alive, the more we crave high-stimulation fixes. Pulse-pounding horror movies reliably address the need, even when – or maybe especially when – they revolve around living death itself. ... Until everybody on Earth is completely depersonalized and zombified, there will always be a useful function for the horror catharsis. When people fi- nally stop flocking to zombies and vampires will be the time to be really afraid.
MARCH 2010 Thomas Edison’s Frankenstein turns 100. The silent short is the first adaptation of the 1818 tale.
JULY 2010 After years of legal turmoil, a reborn Famous Monsters of Filmland is set to launch.
COMPILED BY A.S. BERMAN, TREVOR TUMINSKI AND DAVE ALEXANDER
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