I've begun watching selected horror movies (many old classics I haven't ever viewed) motivated by my reading of two immensely readable and comprehensive books:  A History of Horror (2011) by Wheeler Winston Dixon; and The Rise and Fall of the Horror Film (1997) by Dr. David Soren.  Here are a few films I've recently viewed. 

The Devil Commands (1941, 65 mins, B&W)  directed by Edward Dymtrk, stars Boris Karloff as a scientist studying brain waves who becomes obsessed trying to communicate with his recently deceased wife who was killed in a car crash. This film is considered the best and most interesting of the Columbia horror film series of that era (Dixon, 56).  An eerie atmospheric tone is set immediately reminiscent of the movies The Haunting (1963, based on Shirley Jackson's novel, The Haunting of Hill House, 1959) and Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940, based on the  1938 novel of the same name by Daphine DuMaurier).  In a voice-over the main character in Rebecca begins her tale, "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."  In The Devil Commands a similar foreboding tonal quality is captured with the voice-over that begins the movie, "No one goes near my father's house. No one dares..."   That same mysterious cadence is captured in The Haunting by the character, Mrs. Dudley, who reminds the guests of Hill House, "We live in town, miles away... there won't be anyone around if you need help... We couldn't hear you.  In the night.  No one could.  No one lives any nearer than town.  No one will come any nearer than that.  In the night.  In the dark."

Available for rental at Netflix - The Devil Commands


The Seventh Victim (1943, 131 mins, B&W) directed by Mark Robson and produced by famous Val Lewton, starring Tom Conway, Jean Brooks and introducing Kim Hunter. This intelligent psychological horror film (shot in 24 days in May 1943) rates among Lewton's best.  Mary (Kim Hunter) leaves boarding school to go to New York to search for her missing sister Jacqueline (Jean Brooks) who, Mary discovers, has been abducted by a group of Satan worshipers.  According to Dixon, the film perfectly reflects Lewton's personal views on the tenuousness of existence (Dixon, 47).  This is a tale of murder and intrigue set in a world where evil exist and the forces to defeat it are weakened in their efforts.

The Seventh Victim is a bleak, somber film populated with people who try to escape their preoccupation with death (Soren, 125).  Close-ups, up-angle shots, and shadows all add to the film's noir atmosphere.  A sense of hopelessness permeates the film in which its characters struggle to survive as they lead lives of quiet desperation.

Available for rental at Netflix - The Seventh Victim


The Haunting (1963, 112 mins, B&W) directed by Robert Wise, starring Julie Harris and Clara Bloom.  Based on the Shirley Jackson novel, The Haunting of Hill House.  This classic horror movie is about a paranormal investigator who recruits three people to help uncover the secrets of Hill House, a mansion overwhelmed by spirits of its former residents.  This is a first-class psychological horror thriller!

Available for rental at Netflix - The Haunting


Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964, 115 mins, B&W) directed by Bryan Forbes, starring Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough.  This is a well-acted, excellent scarey paranormal movie.

Available for rental at Netflix - Seance on a Wet Afternoon




__________

Dixon, Wheeler Winston.  A History of Horror.  New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 2011.
Soren, David.  The Rise and Fall of the Horror Film.  Baltimore, Luminary Press, 1997.





 

The Use of Labels on Gothic Quest

Labels are used to group together like entries on a blog (or other types of applications).  Their use are fairly obvious but this entry explains how various labels are used here on Gothic Quest.

In an attempt to cross-reference the entire blog, the following LABELing convention is explained below:

Anthologies - whenever one or more anthology titles are referred to in an entry.  An anthology is a collection of selected items by various authors.

Authors - whenever the name of one or more authors are mentioned in an entry.

 Collections - whenever the title of one or more collections are referred to in an entry.  A collection is generally a group of selected items by the same author.

Critique - an entry that contains a critical analysis of one or more works.

Doppelganger - An entry in which the doppelganger motif is mentioned or discussed.  Also interchangeably termed: The Double, The Twin, The Other.

Films - an entry in which one or more film titles are mentioned.

Novels - an entry in which on or more novel titles are mentioned.

 Poems - an entry in which one or more poems are mentioned.

Resources - an entry in which one or more non-fiction sources are referenced.  The resource(s) may be complete books, book sections, articles or any combination of resources.

Reviews - an entry that is either a review of one or more works or makes reference to such reviews.

Short Stories - an entry that discusses or mentions by title one or more short stories.

Titles - whenever a title of any kind is mentioned or discussed in an entry.

All the above labels have been applied to this entry to serve as an example.  In addition to the above labels, others may be used as needed.

Shadowy Realms

Like many, I've always enjoyed a good scare. We enjoy being frightened as a result of the Fight or Flight response triggered by our brains when confronted with a stressful situation and adrenaline rushes through our body as, for example, when we ride a roller coaster. That's the biological explanation but I like the psychological one: each scare is a mini dress rehearsal for our eventual death, the Big Scare.

But thrill-seeking joy-rides aren't quite the same thing as the slow build-up of a good scary story that you read with a growing sense of dread and expectation while sitting pensively biting your nails. For many of us, we actually enjoy that build-up of tension and subsequent relief. I'll take sitting in a darkened movie theater witnessing a ghoul on a larger-than-life screen traipsing around a cemetery at midnight anytime over a reckless dare-devil ride on a motorcycle.

This blog is a continuing, if sporadic, record of my thoughts and reactions to what I am currently reading or viewing in the Gothic mode of the horrific, the dark, the grotesque and macabre. This is a log of my personal exploration of the Gothic genre in literature in film.

As I explore new titles in literature and film--or revisit some of my favorites I've read or viewed in the past--I intend to record my critical views in commentaries here in hopes visitors may find some of my remarks interesting and insightful.

I regard my study of, and search for, the weird and bizarre, as a Gothic Quest because most any good tale of terror or film of horror owes its foundation to elements of the early Gothic genre. Some of the more obvious components are: thunder and lightening storms, haunted castles, spiraling staircases, madness, monsters, mayhem, voyeurism, cemeteries, ladies in distress, flickering candlelight, shadowy figures in half-lit rooms, and the like.

But there are more subtle ingredients that give bone-chilling stories their special, strangely dark flavors of the grotesque and macabre. One such element (a favorite of mine) is the doppelganger--known also as The Double or The Other or The Twin. This psychological motif is present in many films (Fight Club, Strangers on the Train, Vertigo, Psycho, Body Double, Magic, Face Off--to name a few) and countless stories (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, "The Jolly Corner", "William Wilson", Frankenstein, "The Birthmark", "The Mezzotint", "The Oval Portrait", "The Secret Sharer").

There's an endless menu from which to select--a variable feast to spread upon the table--from classics like Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto to contemporary Ramsey Campbell's fantastic collection of short stories, Alone with the Horrors. Novels, novellas, short stories, poetry and films will be the landscapes of my search for the Gothic. Some non-fiction resources will be included when reference is made to scholarly criticisms and contemporary reviews.

Join me, then, on a journey into the shadowy realms in search of the uncanny, the speculative, the hauntings, the suspenseful, the sexual, the horrifying, the entertaining, the thrilling, the psychologically chilling--in a word, the Gothic in literature and film...