THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE Horror Documentary Part 1

Amazing Documentary! Gives me a whole new respect and insight into horror movies.

Ah, Night of the Living Dead...what a great film! If anything, the grainy quality adds to its appeal. It's raw and suburban, serving to remind us that a zombie infestation could happen in our own neighbourhoods. If zombies existed, that is.

fantastic documentary. watched my copy a couple of nights ago.

Films often presages or mirrors the events of the times. The famous horror films of the 30's seemed to predict the horrors of the rise of totalitarian militancy. In the 50's, while we in grammar school were taught to duck under our desks & cover our cervical spines with our hands in the event of nuclear attack, there were insect-fear films being made about atomic fallout created, giant mutant insects, pod people, atomic "things" descending from mountaintops, mutants Godzilla, Gorgo, Rodan, etc

Actually, a lot of the origins of the horror films of the 20s and 30s were more a result of the injuries returning soldiers suffered in WWI--disfiguring wounds that would have been fatal a few years earlier had it not been for advances in medical science.

In terms of "pod people", Invasion of the Body Snatchers was more of a metaphor of communist takeover of society as opposed to the atomic bomb angle.

Godzilla was a direct metaphor for atomic attacks on Japan.

Just throwing in my 2 cents...

I don't remember so many horror movies from the 20's & 30's about disfigurement, mostly I remember the Frankenstein films (Mary Shelley) Dracula films (based on the works of Bram Stoker) & the Wolfman (based on folklore).

Almost all the Japanese monster films delt with the effects of the atomic bomb attacks, understandably.

Ah yes, the "pod people", definitely a metaphor for the "Red Peril" during the height of the cold war. J Edgar would have agreed.

The thing is, many of the Universal films were influenced by German Expressionism in terms of look and feel. For example, Paul Leni (from Germany) did a silent film called The Magician, which heavily influenced Frankenstein. Then there was Lon Chaney playing distorted characters with no arms or mangled faces. A lot of this influence came from European directors who came to the US after WWI. There is a good documentary called "Universal Horror" on cable TV that gos into a lot of this.

how was videodrome comercial let alone crap.

I LOVE John Landis!!! Did wonderful work on "Thriller".