TCM is airing a Vincent Price Marathon today, with special consideration to the Roger Corman's productions of Edgar Allen Poe's writings.I've just viewed The Tingler (1959) for the first time (taped it too, thank goodness) and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Having studied The Last Man on Earth (1964) for my NCUR research on women in zombie film, I noticed that horror text write off The Tingler as gimmicky-William Castle-schlock, most notably for the amazing "Percepto!" effect in which tiny shockers were attached to theater seats to frighten patrons into screaming. What fun it would have been to be in the audience the first time that was used!
Writes David Skal in The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror (Faber & Faber: New York, 2001):
"Castle's gimmicks were part of the larger Hollywood movement in the fifties towards expansive presentational modes that could compete with television...Flying skeletons, buzzing seats, and hokey insurance policies had the additional effect of turning impersonal moviegoing into a ritual of participatory live theater, an understandable lure in a decade marked by suburban isolation and personal alienation...Horror gimmicks provided audiences with a needed sense of contact, engagement, and recognition. Even if the dominant sensation was gooseflesh, at least it was a feeling." (259)
Knowing this, a tingle goes up my own spine upon hearing that Feast (2005) writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan are in the process of writing a remake of The Tingler, due out in 2009. The L.A. Times reports (with a nod to The Tingler) that advances similar to "Percepto!" are being made in 3D technology,
"At a time when theater attendance is threatened by the explosion in home entertainment choices, filmmakers and exhibitors are eager to come up with an experience that can't be duplicated at home."
What does this say about the current social climate? Are we so, as Skal writes of fifties audience, isolated and alienated, that remakes and special gadgetry are all that can shock Americans out their dimly-lit living room malaise and into theaters? It can hardly be coincidental, Hollywood is remaking fifties and sixties horror movies with wild abandon: The Invasion (2007) hearkens back Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), I Am Legend (2007) to another Price flick, The Last Man on Earth.
Is it any surprise in this age of television infotainment, increasing globalization but decreasing world coverage, a world where everyone knows of Paris and Lindsay's "tragedies" but has to be pushed and shoved into giving a damn about the Darfur. A society so desperate for feeling that the outrageousness of torture porn is all that will motivate horror fans to the theaters in search of voyeuristic carnage and sexuality?
Is America's social psyche so fragile that events like 9/11 and Katrina - as truly horrible as they are, but small potatoes in concern to the thousand unknown atrocities perpetuated in other parts of the world; where soldiers are killed in the line of duty - are enough to throw it into a metaphorical isolation chamber, hungry for any feeling, no matter how distasteful, simply to feel?
I didn't intend to take this post in this direction.
Frankly, it makes me a little sick to my stomach.
16 comments:
Hey--
I followed the link off the Bruce Coville guestbook (he was my favorite author when I was younger). This is a very interesting and penetrating blog. I'm not a huge horror fan, but I'm always intrigued by analysis of the genre as it relates to society and the psyche. It does seem to lend itself well to social commentary, even though it sometimes seem unconscious on the part of the writers/filmmakers. One thing I learned from Speech class: Alien is a veritable labyrinth of Freudian sexual crises.
I'm putting your blog on my favorites tab.
P.S. I just checked your profile, and based on your interests, I think we might actually be the same person. Sorry to break it to you.
Oh no! A doppelganger! Sounds like a bad horror movie....I kid, I kid.
Anyway thanks for taking a look. It's nice to know your education and experience are actually readable.
And would you believe I've never actually seen Aliens? Shameful, right? I guess I've been waiting to do the film justice, but from what you said I should get my butt in gear.
You asked (Are we)
"A society so desperate for feeling that the outrageousness of torture porn is all that will motivate horror fans to the theaters in search of voyeuristic carnage and sexuality?"
Nope, not at all. But the folks who put out that crap sure think we are.
Great blog (except for you never having seen ALIENS!)! I'm linking you to feoamante.com.
I found your post linked from the imdb page and was immediately intrigued because it was about The Tingler remake. I'm currently writing my masters dissertation on Castle and his gimmick films, including Tingler and have come to the same conclusion about the impending remake: its too easy to write off audiences like that. If anything, it may prove (as I think in Castle's case and time) that we maybe isolated, but we sure as hell wish something would try to reach out to us. I don't know, am I wrong to assume that society as a whole isn't 'dead' feeling? We're just so overwhelmed that we don't know what else to do?
A good article, but just as a point, the "I am Legend" movie isn't actually a remake of "The Last Man on Earth". TLMoE was based on I am Legend the book, but the script apparently went through so many rewrites that Richard Matheson disowned it. "The Omega Man" and the newer movie are both based on the book, but none are remakes of each other.
That being said, it's still a pretty sad state of affairs that Hollywood has no original ideas. While they may not be remakes, they are still using 50 year old material, with which I agree is stupid.
wow! i was JUST having this conversation with someone this morning. how i long for a new lewton/tourneur duo to come in and save the genre from the schlock that is torture porn.
a new fan,
v
Don't you feel that calling "I Am Legend" a remake of Last Man on Earth is a bit of a misstatement? It is just another film based on the novel by Richard Matheson (which is brilliant).
I think too many people make the mistake of classifying films as "remakes" when they are simply based on the same source material. I'm excited about I AM LEGEND for the simple fact that I enjoyed the book, not based on any notions of how it reflects on previous adaptations.
When I saw a screening of Bruce Campbell's The Man with the Screaming Brain, he did a Q&A, and I actually asked him what he thought about the state of horror movies, with remakes and catering to the PG-13 crowd. I didn't get to finish my question because of the applause.
Those of us that like and appreciate good horror movies are out there...we're just too cool to talk to the general public.
(ps-It's cool to see so many chicks into horror movies! I thought I was the only one!)
"Feast" was one of the most poorly scripted films I have ever seen, and yet somehow the direction was worse.
I couldn't believe it when I read the DVD package and saw it was a Project Greenlight winner, as the whole show is based on scripts. It's a sad state in general when something as lame, cliche and pointless as 'Feast' wins a writing contest
I've been vastly disappointed by the horror genre for a few years now... but it is the glut of remakes particularly in this genre which is killing it.
-Referred by the IMDB
I think it's interesting that people complain about all the remakes and wonder why Hollywood puts them out, but fail to realize that the film industry is a business. They put out films that make money. If people didn't go see remakes, they wouldn't get made anymore. And complain all you want about torture porn, but Hostel made back 10 times its budget. What a surprise that they would make a sequel to it, isn't it?
Also, the reason Hollywood doesn't make original films isn't because they have no original ideas--look at the films that come out of independent filmmakers every year. People are just more comfortable seeing a tenth Halloween movie than "The Host," for example.
I think, personally, these remakes are not just a matter of H-Wood running low on ideas, but some are actually labors of love (Rob Zombie's Halloween) As for crap like The Invasion, a good story is hard to keep down, even if it has been filmed more times than Lindsay Lohan doing something slutty. The point I am getting at is, remakes can go bad or they can be really really good. There is no so-so remake of something. It is a rare Hollywood phenom...There is no one who I've ever heard say "That remake was so-so. I can take it or leave it" it's more of a "I love/hate it" But remakes are also needed, especially in the horror/scifi/fantasy world...
As for Vincent, well I am a huge fan, somewhat of an expert, and The Tingler is a good one...keep on Blogging...your pal
henri
C'mon, really. I Am Legend isn't a remake? Isn't that a little over generalized? If I said to you, "Hey, there's this movie about a guy who seems to be the only survivor of some sort of apocalypse that's turned the rest of the population into vampire-like creatures."
You'd be, "Which one? Last Man on Earth? The Omega Man? I am Legend?"
Of course there are differences, I won't dispute that. Hell, a shot-by-shot exact remake of 1960's Pyscho isn't the same' in fact, it was pretty awful. But it's basically the same. The details change, the director adds their own pizazz (for better or worse, my favorite movie of all time is a remake, but the simple plot is the same. All you can hope is that the director interprets the script in such a way that it adds something new to the legend of the film, a modern take that makes it relevant.
And THAT'S what I haven't been seeing lately.
As Shakespeare said, "There is nothing new under the sun."
In response to a few of the other posts....of course Hollywood is just a money making business...but I'd like to think that there's still a few "arists" out there, people who care about what they are doing...care about the final product and not how much money it's going to reel in. I recently saw The Tingler and loved it, it's nothing like what I see being released today...but some how seems to fall into a category of horror films that have set some sort of precident. Not only is it suspenseful but it has a sense of silliness to it. And as far as outright comedy in horror movies...give me a break. I want the suspense, I want the terror and I want it to be never ending until the last frame of the film. I don't want the comic relief that is instilled in so many horror films. Oh and don't get me started on remakes...and although Rob Zombie may think he's creating a labor of love, will it really be any good? Halloween is one of my favorite horror flicks...and I'm not looking at this as a remake...but I'm not sure sure it will be worth seeing. There aren't any original ideas left in the horror genre.
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