Highlights Archives
Scream Time! Our Favorite Horror Classics and B-Movies
Dracula ... Frankenstein's monster ... The Mummy ... all classic horror characters made famous by classic horror movies. But there are more horror classics out there that you may be less familiar with among the thousands of films and millions of images lurking in the shadowy halls of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.
Classics with Class
Well before Universal Pictures made the famous 1930s versions of Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Mummy that everyone remembers, silent films laid the groundwork for the horror movie genre.
The Golem (1920): A rabbi brings a huge clay figure of a man to life to protect his people from persecution — but the creature turns on him and runs amok. The hulking Golem (from a legend of the Krakow ghetto) is a clear ancestor of Frankenstein's monster.
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920): Mild-mannered Jekyll discovers a drug that can separate his good and evil natures into two separate personalities, but his control over the evil Hyde weakens — to terrible results. World-famous stage and screen actor John Barrymore (grandfather of today's actress Drew Barrymore), while filming Dr. Jekyll by day, was also performing Richard III on Broadway by night.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1921): A mad doctor forces a sleepwalking patient in his asylum to commit murders ... or does he? This is a striking early example of German Expressionism, with painted sets leaning at odd, distorted angles.
Nosferatu (1922): A young real estate clerk travels to Transylvania at the behest of the mysterious Count Orlok, who turns out to be a vampire. The hideous, ghoulish Orlok travels to the clerk's hometown, bringing plague and death in his wake. This unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula" has a very different vampire design than the dapper, seductive character later played by Bela Lugosi.
Phantom of The Opera (1925): A strange, ghostly figure haunts the caverns beneath the Paris Opera House, violently obsessed with a beautiful singer. Lon Chaney designed and applied his own makeup for the death's-head appearance of The Phantom, and even today some of his secrets remain unrevealed.
B-Picture Ballyhoo
In the 1950s and '60s, producer William Castle (who would later produce the critically acclaimed film Rosemary's Baby) made a series of B-grade horror movies, usually relying on a creative promotional gimmick he dreamed up and gave a catchy name.
The Tingler (1959): Coroner Vincent Price discovers a creature called "The Tingler" that lives in the human spinal column and feeds on fear; it can only be weakened by a hearty scream, so he urges the audience to "Scream! Scream for your lives!" The gimmick here was called "Percepto": in some first-run theaters, Castle had small buzzers attached to random seats, so that when the Tingler was attacking on film, some audience members would feel a telltale tingle up their spines.
House On Haunted Hill (1958): A wealthy playboy invites five strangers to a haunted house, promising them ten thousand dollars each if they stay for 12 hours — but after they are locked in for the night, strange and sinister things begin to happen. The gimmick here was "Emerg-O": when a skeleton rises up from an acid vat in the movie, a real (plastic) skeleton seemed to emerge from the screen and fly along a wire over the heads of the audience. House on Haunted Hill was remade in 1999, with Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen.
13 Ghosts (1960): A poor man inherits his late uncle's estate, but he is warned that the house is infested with a collection of vengeful spirits. The gimmick was "Illusion-O": audiences were given special glasses, with a red filter and a blue filter. When they looked through the red one, ghosts would appear on the screen; when they looked through the blue one, the ghosts would vanish. The movie was remade in 2001 (as Thir13en Ghosts), with Green Bay native Tony Shalhoub and F. Murray Abraham.
Mr. Sardonicus (1961): The wicked Baron Sardonicus has had his face frozen in a hideous grin ever since he dug up his father's grave to find a winning lottery ticket, and he kidnaps a doctor to force him to find a cure. The gimmick was a "Punishment Poll": audiences were given cards bearing a glow-in-the-dark thumb, and late in the movie they were asked to vote thumbs-up or thumbs-down on whether Sardonicus should live or die. (However, since these were the days before DVD alternate endings, Castle only shot one version of the film — and he guessed correctly which fate audiences would prefer for the villain.)
Macabre (1966): A little girl disappears, and a mysterious caller says that he has just attended her funeral, sending the entire town on a desperate search. The gimmick here was the offer of a $1,000 life insurance policy (from the esteemed Lloyd's of London), payable in the event of a viewer's death from fright. The advertising campaign warned, "Not valid for persons with heart or nervous conditions."
If that whets your appetite for the creepy crawly stuff on the big screen, the Wisconsin Historical Museum is showing a series of classic scary movies with crafts for the kids.
:: Posted October 24, 2005
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