For years, sci-fi films and horror films and any kind of film that entertains by playing into viewers’ worst fears have relied not on coherent plot lines or relatable characters but on jarring, disturbing visuals and gory violence that is endless--- and mindless. This, unfortunately, is an old, tired story and, as long as these films bring in big bucks at the box office, the motion picture studios will keep churning them out.
Take, for example, LUCY, starring Scarlett Johansson and directed by Luc Besson, a filmmaker who has built a career on this formula. LUCY, which was released to theaters last year and recently came to DVD and Blu-ray, is based on a potentially interesting premise. Human beings only utilize a tiny percentage of their brain power. What would happen if a drug was developed that enabled an individual to up that figure to 80, 90, or 100 per cent?
This premise is provocative, to be sure, but LUCY is yet one more contemporary film that ends up solely relying on jarring visuals and gory violence. A case in point: Right in the middle of the film, there is a slickly-edited extended chase sequence through the streets of Paris that is crammed with cars crashing into cars crashing into cars-- and adds nothing to the plot.
Once upon a time, however, plenty of films that played to the anxieties of viewers actually were memorable, for one reason or another. These films were as dazzling to the intellect as they were to the eye. This is not to say that all older films of this type were high-quality. Many were dreadful when first made and have not improved with age. But plenty of them still are worth discovering and this view is put forth in THE FEARMAKERS, a two-DVD set created by John McCarty, a colleague who has written countless film books and scripted and directed a number of short dramatic films.
THE FEARMAKERS consists of bios of 13 filmmakers who are the creators of classic horror and sci-fi films. Collectively, these bios are crammed with facts and insights. For example, producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur worked together back in the 1940s. They believed that horror films were more effective if they stressed the psychological elements of fear, rather than explicit in-your-face imagery. In other words, you do not have to see the monster in order to scare the viewer. What works best is the art of suggestion, and this precisely is what makes such Lewton-Tourneur collaborations as CAT PEOPLE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, and THE LEOPARD MAN classics of the horror genre.
Back in the day, some of the best sci-fi films dealt with topical issues. In 1951, Robert Wise, a filmmaker who worked in many genres from musicals to film noir to science fiction, made THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, which resonates today as a dire warning against the indiscriminate use of atomic warfare. In such 1950s classics as CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, director Jack Arnold presents a subtle plea for tolerance and understanding with regard to those who are different, those who live lives that are outside the mainstream. Roman Polanski’s REPULSION, a tale of psychological terror which dates from 1965, offers insight into mental illness and what it might be like for a person who is going mad.
Tod Browning, who worked with Lon Chaney during the 1920s, specialized in the cinema of alienation, the cinema of isolation. Despite his credits with Chaney, his most striking film is FREAKS, which dates from 1932 and is aptly described in THE FEARMAKERS as “the horror movie to end all horror movies.” FREAKS is a one-of-a-kind film that spotlights the title characters, circus sideshow performers who are played by real individuals with physical disabilities. They are the good guys, while the so-called “normal” people are the villains.
All of these insights make THE FEARMAKERS a valuable tool in understanding not only cinema history but the fact that films like LUCY are not the be-all and end-all of big-screen entertainment.
Rob Edelman teaches film history at the University at Albany. He has written several books on film and television, and is an associate editor of Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.