Rating of
2/4
Only Offers Superficial Discussions
Franz Patrick - wrote on 10/23/08
I expected this documentary to focus more on the classic horror films from the 1960’s and 1970’s than the social or historical events that inspired them. Even though it’s not what I expected, I liked some parts of this picture because it was able to offer some personal insights from some of the masters of horror (John Carpenter, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg, George Romero, Tobe Hooper). Academics were also interviewed and they were able to elucidate the finer details in films like “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), “Dawn of the Dead” (1978), “The Last House on the Left” (1972), “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974), “Shivers” (1975), and “Halloween” (1978). Even though I am already aware of most of the implications in horror films that the interviewees talked about, I didn’t know how much the Vietnam War impacted the genre. I also didn’t know that the make-up artist Tom Savini learned how to model dead people on screen by watching actual dead victims of war. What didn’t work for me was the way the documentary quickly glossed over the films that should be the focus. This documentary is barely seventy minutes long but it must have talked about the actual films for twenty minutes. Plus, it felt longer than an hour and ten minutes because the social aspects that the interviewees talked about felt repetitive. If this picture didn’t talk so much about the social influences and actually talked about the movies themselves, it would’ve been better and more interesting. I say watch “Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film” for a better horror film analyses.
