To further illustrate my opinions on the merits of 60's Horror, I thought I would write a bit more about a specific episode of the NBC Television show from 1961 THRILLER, titled "THE GRIM REAPER."
The episode set-up: an artist obsessed with death paints an image of the grim reaper imbued with supposed supernatural powers which cause the violent deaths of any who own the painting. The painting comes into the possession of a famous middle-aged female horror writer. Her nephew, played by Shatner, comes to warn her of the paintings evil powers, but is too late to save her from a violent accidental death.
The episode, like the series, is much more concerned with the dread of the unknown, and the curiosity of the viewer, than of the fear of being shocked by violent images. This is the main difference that I find so refreshing and attractive in these older horror and supernatural stories. The Lovecraftian dealing with the dreadful unknown, the desire to make sense of the insane or unbelievable, this is the stuff that brings me back to this genre. The fixation on gore, on the shock of the violent image that has become the main focus of modern horror is exactly what pushes me away.
This is a blog, and not a scholarly paper, therefore I don't need to provide too much in the way of a balanced viewpoint. I'm sure fangoria fans love the gore. I'm sure eli roth, and the saw crowd can't get enough of violent torture on the screen, but for me that style of story has so little to do with imagination or terror, and is really much more of a basic visceral terror.
So what? Well, the reason I chose the GRIM REAPER episode of thriller is not just because I enjoyed it, but also because the story itself can prove a point here.
SPOILER ALERT! I'm going to mention events in the climax of the show, so if you want to be surprised, watch the episode before reading on.
In the episode, the painting is used as a red herring by Shatner's character in order to terrify the other members of the household into believing in some supernatural power that can harm them. While they are busy suspecting the painting, Shatner systematically bumps them off for the purpose of gaining his aunts money, as the sole living benefactor. The camera spends a lot of time showing the terror of the characters, the dread they feel towards the painting, all of which Shatners character uses while he does his murderous work. What I enjoyed about this was the parallels it holds for modern viewers. We become so terrified by the gory image, we are unable to see the kind face of our murderer as he pushes us down the stairs, or gives us a poison to help us sleep.
Perhaps I'm reaching, but the concept that we are easily beguiled by a gory image is pretty basic. The modern horror is much more about a the pornographic need to see it all, to see every tendon, every corpuscle, every tear. While we're focused with our microscope on the ends, we have lost the need to understand the means, to meditate on the meanings.
In the show, Shatner is undone by the grim reaper of the painting, which does come for him, seemingly powered by the ghosts of his murdered aunt and uncle in law. The police are left to wonder in shock at who could have killed him in the locked study, and how the reapers scythe could become bloody in the painting.
You might say it's predictable. I would say it has structure. It is a meditation on the character of a murderer who uses fear to distract his victims, which is a theme that was more apparent to those living in the 1960's but less "relevent" to our sophisticated tastes.
...and now for something completely different...
Here's my random crackpot understanding of modern mass communication. Unbeknownst to us, huge machines of every size work to control and guide our perceptions, to control our lives in ways never before possible, but we are unaware, distracted by the microscopic hyper realist anti-thought films. I worry that the modern horror has absolutely nothing important to say, and is simply another distraction enabling people to suspend intelligent thought.
Now that's a reach! Perhaps you should read a bit of non-fiction. Might I recommend a great book on 20th century communication systems? Tim Wu's THE MASTER SWITCH, a history of how each form of communication from the phone to the internet is constantly under threat of large corporations who would control what you can and cannot see, say, or even know about. The media conglomerates that would not have you able to share information without their say so, while continuously providing easy simple entertainment which does not rock any boats.
BACK TO THRILLER...The script was written by Robert Bloch, one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle, and the writer of the story PSYCHO was based on. It was directed in great 60's TV style by Herschel Daugherty, who did many great television shows including star trek.
I hope you are able to view the show, which is available on netflix to stream.
here's another bloggers take on the episode, much more focused on the reaper himself as a supernatural element.
The episode set-up: an artist obsessed with death paints an image of the grim reaper imbued with supposed supernatural powers which cause the violent deaths of any who own the painting. The painting comes into the possession of a famous middle-aged female horror writer. Her nephew, played by Shatner, comes to warn her of the paintings evil powers, but is too late to save her from a violent accidental death.
The episode, like the series, is much more concerned with the dread of the unknown, and the curiosity of the viewer, than of the fear of being shocked by violent images. This is the main difference that I find so refreshing and attractive in these older horror and supernatural stories. The Lovecraftian dealing with the dreadful unknown, the desire to make sense of the insane or unbelievable, this is the stuff that brings me back to this genre. The fixation on gore, on the shock of the violent image that has become the main focus of modern horror is exactly what pushes me away.
This is a blog, and not a scholarly paper, therefore I don't need to provide too much in the way of a balanced viewpoint. I'm sure fangoria fans love the gore. I'm sure eli roth, and the saw crowd can't get enough of violent torture on the screen, but for me that style of story has so little to do with imagination or terror, and is really much more of a basic visceral terror.
So what? Well, the reason I chose the GRIM REAPER episode of thriller is not just because I enjoyed it, but also because the story itself can prove a point here.
SPOILER ALERT! I'm going to mention events in the climax of the show, so if you want to be surprised, watch the episode before reading on.
In the episode, the painting is used as a red herring by Shatner's character in order to terrify the other members of the household into believing in some supernatural power that can harm them. While they are busy suspecting the painting, Shatner systematically bumps them off for the purpose of gaining his aunts money, as the sole living benefactor. The camera spends a lot of time showing the terror of the characters, the dread they feel towards the painting, all of which Shatners character uses while he does his murderous work. What I enjoyed about this was the parallels it holds for modern viewers. We become so terrified by the gory image, we are unable to see the kind face of our murderer as he pushes us down the stairs, or gives us a poison to help us sleep.
Perhaps I'm reaching, but the concept that we are easily beguiled by a gory image is pretty basic. The modern horror is much more about a the pornographic need to see it all, to see every tendon, every corpuscle, every tear. While we're focused with our microscope on the ends, we have lost the need to understand the means, to meditate on the meanings.
In the show, Shatner is undone by the grim reaper of the painting, which does come for him, seemingly powered by the ghosts of his murdered aunt and uncle in law. The police are left to wonder in shock at who could have killed him in the locked study, and how the reapers scythe could become bloody in the painting.
You might say it's predictable. I would say it has structure. It is a meditation on the character of a murderer who uses fear to distract his victims, which is a theme that was more apparent to those living in the 1960's but less "relevent" to our sophisticated tastes.
...and now for something completely different...
Here's my random crackpot understanding of modern mass communication. Unbeknownst to us, huge machines of every size work to control and guide our perceptions, to control our lives in ways never before possible, but we are unaware, distracted by the microscopic hyper realist anti-thought films. I worry that the modern horror has absolutely nothing important to say, and is simply another distraction enabling people to suspend intelligent thought.
Now that's a reach! Perhaps you should read a bit of non-fiction. Might I recommend a great book on 20th century communication systems? Tim Wu's THE MASTER SWITCH, a history of how each form of communication from the phone to the internet is constantly under threat of large corporations who would control what you can and cannot see, say, or even know about. The media conglomerates that would not have you able to share information without their say so, while continuously providing easy simple entertainment which does not rock any boats.
BACK TO THRILLER...The script was written by Robert Bloch, one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle, and the writer of the story PSYCHO was based on. It was directed in great 60's TV style by Herschel Daugherty, who did many great television shows including star trek.
I hope you are able to view the show, which is available on netflix to stream.
here's another bloggers take on the episode, much more focused on the reaper himself as a supernatural element.
1 comment:
John Petaja I am now following your blog. Love Jon Payne.
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