Movies That Conquered the World

While Curse of Frankenstein may not have a major impact on society as a whole, it sent many ripples out, affecting the future of horror films, actors, and hammer studios itself.

The movie was to be hammer’s first foray into gothic horror and their take on Frankenstein. However, Universal was very protective of their creation and warned Hammer ahead of time that they had lawyers at the ready to sue should their make-up or interpretation of Mary Shelly’s novel come to close to Universal’s own Frankenstein movie. So, the writer of the script, Jimmy Sangster, opted to focus not on the monster, but on Dr. Frankenstein himself. His take? That the doctor is not just driven by a need for knowledge, but morally reprehensible, making him the true monster of the piece.

The studio’s talent was elite if not well known, and the movie came together to be a cinematic masterpiece with gothic trappings, period costumes and sets, wonderful cinematography and superb acting. Perhaps most importantly, the studio decided to spring for color, making the blood bright red; a first in a gothic tale and a standard set that would be followed by most gothic horror movies thereafter. All of this made the movie a great success, loved by the fans if not the critics, who found it distasteful, disgusting, and low brow.

The success of the movie had a multitude of lasting effects that spread out from its humble beginnings. First and foremost, it made horror stars of Peter Cushing who played the doctor and Christopher Lee who played the monster. While Lee’s part was small, his work directly led him to the Role of Dracula in Hammer’s next film (again alongside Cushing) which rocketed him to stardom. Without this role, it is unlikely that would have happened. Both men were to become horror icons, taking the mantle once held by Karloff, Price, and Lugosi.

Its success also gave Hammer Studios a newfound purpose. They focused their attention and money toward continuing the gothic horror path they had begun, moving next to Dracula. The studio became a very successful maker of gothic horror movies, cranking out 8 Frankenstein movies and 9 Dracula as well as many other movies in the gothic vein. Their reimaging of the gothic horror in color and its success created a renewed interest in the genre and led to other studios across the world trying to copy the formula. Italy and Spain began their own wave of gothic horror movies and although gothic horror had died out many decades ago in the U.S., Roger Corman used the renewed interest to unleash his own gothic stories; retellings of Edgar Allen Poe stories beginning with House of Usher in 1960. This in turn helped spur on the gothic tradition which Hammer began, especially in the US.

In the end, the small studio of Hammer took a gamble on the retelling of a classic horror book and movie, while unable to use many of its iconic moments. It had to create a new lab style, new make-up, and a new telling of the story, all to avoid lawsuits. It was a risky move but one that, thanks to talented men on both sides of the camera and the crew behind them; left behind an indelible mark on horror movies for decades to come and made Hammer studios a force to reckon with for years to come.

Night of the Living Dead had two major impacts on Horror cinema. First it changed zombie cinema forever. Second it changed horror cinema forever.

George Romero and his partner Dan O’Bannon ran a small film company in Pittsburgh PA that made industrial films, ads, and segments for Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. They decided they wanted to make a movie. Originally, they were going to make a romantic drama but instead decided it would be far easier to make a horror movie. The movie they ended up making was Night of the Living Dead.

Its premiere was in Pittsburgh at a Saturday Matinee. This was prior to the movie rating system and was therefore accessible to all ages. Unfortunately, Saturday matinees were mostly populated by children and teenagers. Used to the standard 60s horror movies of dark gothic castles and rubber masked monsters, they were unprepared for the dark tone and serious violence depicted on screen. After the initial fall-out from this incident the movie gained in popularity and was the top grossing film in Europe in 68’ and was translated into 25 languages. Over the next five years it became the most profitable movie made outside of Hollywood. The power of the movie was so overwhelming that even critics stood up and praised it.

Made in grainy black and white in Pittsburgh, the movie has an oddly documentary or newsreel feel to it, making it feel somehow more realistic than a high budget film. The movie featured zombies as the monster, but as in most Romero movies, it’s man’s inability to work together that is the true threat and leads to their downfall. So much subtext runs throughout the film, intentional or not. Some people see the grainy and documentary style coupled with the government’s dismissal of the problem as a commentary on the Vietnam War. Others saw the zombies as representative of the silent majority and the county’s disdain for them. There is an argument to be made that it is also a representation of our 2 political parties and their roles in our country. In the movie, we have the younger couple and frail woman (Barbara) counting on protection from the two take-charge adults. But instead the two men spend their time arguing and openly hostile to one another, making one poor decision after another instead of working together to solve the problem. We also see the lack of effectual action of the government leading to local rednecks making a makeshift pose trying to work things out for themselves. In the end, we see what damage this can lead to. And in casting a black man to play Ben (because he was the best actor, not because of his skin color) there is a definite message of racism throughout, but especially when Ben meets his final fate.

In addition to making a quality movie that made several social commentaries, Romero created a chilling picture that was frightening, suspenseful, and unsettling. It was also gory for its time, with the scenes of the undead eating organs and other remains from their victims. Perhaps one of the most powerful scenes is of young child killing and eating her parents, which was transgressive at the time. While Blood Feast had broken the taboo of gore several years earlier, this was the first critically acclaimed and serious movie that had such dark and disturbing images. Unlike in blood feast, it was played deadly serious. Gore was no longer just for the drive-ins and teenage crowds. It had moved into mainstream viewing.

All of this together changed horror movies from that point on. You can clearly draw a line in the US to pre-NOTLD movies and post NOTLD movies in style and content. Horror movies were no longer just fun and entertaining but could be dark, disturbing, and thought provoking.

Finally, NOTLD changed zombies forever, changing the creature from Haitian undead slaves controlled by a voodoo priest to flesh-eating free-willed horrors. A trend that continued on from that point and grew into a culture phenomenon. If you have never seen this important and amazing film, it should be next on your list. Horror movies may never be the same for you.

I remember back in the day of video stores, walking the horror section to see what movie boxes looked cool or eye-catching. The box for this movie was always oversized and featured a close-up of a woman’s face with blood coming from her mouth as if her tongue had been removed. If I remember, the back had a picture of a woman in the bathtub with her leg missing. This was in the mid-80s and even at that time the picture looked transgressive and gory. Imagine my surprise to find out the movie was made in 1963 before gore movies became popular. I had no aversion to bloody movies, but this one seemed too much for my tastes.

Before we get started looking at the influential nature of this movie, let me start by clarifying that this is not a “good” movie. The acting is stilted and terrible and the technical aspects such as sound and cinematography are amateurish at best. It is the shocking gore that made this movie so influential in the history of horror.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s look at its history see why it made such an impact.

The creator, Herschel Gordon Lewis, was making “nudie cuties” (sexploitation comedies that showed copious amounts of nudity but stopped short of porn) for theaters in the years before his foray into horror. When the market for such products dwindled, Lewis and his partner, David F. Friedman decided to change direction.

Their first attempt was Blood Feast. It is the story of an Egyptian Caterer who kills women and uses their body parts to serve an elaborate feast for an Egyptian goddess, and of the detective trying to solve the case.

The movie filming took place in Miami and took only four days. It had a budget of a mere $24,000. Both the miniscule budget and speed of production are obvious in the final product. Nonetheless, due to the shock value and graphic gore depicted, the movie was unlike anything seen before and was a huge success at the drive-in movies and grossed $4 million. (No pun intended.) Made outside of Hollywood and made for drive-ins, it did not have to adhere to the Hayes Code and could out-gross anything Hollywood imagined. Blood Feast is considered the first gore movie ever made and featured scenes of a woman getting her leg sawed off, one getting her tongue cut out, and several other graphic scenes, with the camera never shying away from the violence and carnage that was being depicted in bright color. Animal organs, such as a lamb’s tongue, were used to heighten the gore and make it more realistic looking.

There were some problems created by the film as several theaters refused to show it due to public outrage and a few lawsuits were even filed against the makers for indecency and attributing to the delinquency of a minor. Overall, Blood Feast was blasted by the critics and attacked by the public overall.

But the younger crowd ate it up (still no pun intended) and long lines continually formed at the drive-ins where it showed. The success of the film prompted Lewis to continue in the gore vein following up with 2,000 Maniacs. Most importantly, it showed other producers and film makers that gore movies could draw in huge crowds and did not require much effort or money to produce. Gore movies have been a large portion of horror movie output for a long time but Blood Feast was the one that started it all…for better or for worse.

Movies That Conquered the World!

The Curse of Frankenstein

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Blood Feast (1963)