Explore the Darkest Corners of Horror at the Library
March 15th, 2022 is the 100th anniversary of the premiere of F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. One of my most vivid childhood horror memories was seeing Max Schrek’s Count Orlock on late night TV. It scared me but also fascinated me because the atmosphere seemed so odd and unreal. That got me thinking about how horror movies and books outside the mainstream can make such a lasting impression.
Some of the scariest horror movies that I saw when I was young were the silent horror films. Just because they were so odd and out-of-the ordinary, they had that extra scare factor. Do you wonder how and why those weird silent horror films got made? Then check out Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror by W. Scott Poole, which posits that just as life in the trenches blended the real and the unreal, so the silent German Expressionist horror movies did the same on celluloid. The library has a good selection from the silent horror era, including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Haxan.
And some of my most potent horror memories from childhood come from made-for-TV horror movies. Are you also haunted by those scary but obscure TV movies that you (sort of) recall from your childhood? You may remember the scares, but maybe you don’t remember the name of the movies, which have long since faded into obscurity. You may need the help of Are You in the House Alone? by Amanda Reyes. Read through the plot descriptions of the movies, and you might jog some long-lost memories. I have spent a long time looking for many of these films, sometimes not knowing even the titles, just a few half-remembered scary scenes. But the library has quite a few that have been released on DVD or Blu-ray, such as Trilogy of Terror which stars Karen Black in three very memorable roles.
Some of you may remember the lurid horror paperbacks from the 1970s and 1980s. You may not even have read the books, just seen the covers in the bookstore. Not all of these cheap paperbacks ever made it onto library shelves, but you can read about them and view the glorious cover art in the book Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix.
Then there’s the “cult” horror film. Sometimes cheaply made, quickie independent horror films stick in the minds of horror fans. While other films fade quickly into obscurity, cult films remain to be viewed over and over again. One good example is Carnival of Souls. In this ultra-low budget film shot in Utah, the bizarre, dreamlike plot works to create an atmosphere of pure dread. It has achieved such a reputation in horror circles that it even has its own Criterion DVD release.
You don’t want to restrict your viewing just to American horror films. Some of the most mind-bending horror films have come from abroad. Not only German Expressionist horror, but also Italian horror films, especially from the 1970s, have their fervent fans. There are whole books dedicated to this genre, such as Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1970-79 by Roberto Curti. Two films that stand out from this era are Dario Argento’s Suspiria and Mario Bava’s Lisa and the Devil. The dreamlike, surreal qualities of these films are far different from what you’d expect to see in a commercial horror film. Even France has produced its own cult horror films, such as Jean Roulin’s The Grapes of Death. Who else but the French would make a film about wine turning people into zombies?
The golden age of the TV horror movies are long behind us, as are the silent horror films and the odd, haunting films of the great Italian horror directors. But they remain an inspiration to horror fans, and also to aspiring horror writers and directors who will always find in them much to admire and emulate.
- Michael K., West Windsor Branch
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