The Tuesday Top 10: Faith-Based Horror Movies

I was recently asked to put together a list of the top faith-based horror films for Bloody-Disgusting... However, because Brad "Don't call me Mr. Disgusting" Miska is a busy dude, the list was accidentally assigned to two different writers--and damn it, I wasn't fast enough! Not one to let good copy go to waste, I've decided to "repurpose" the list--as we say in the marketing business--which means that now all you loyal Vault Dwellers get to enjoy it exclusively!

BJ-C had been helping me put this one together, but she's off the hook now--saved by baton nationals! However, keep your greasy eyeballs peeled for the newest VoH/DotW collabo in the days/weeks to come... For now, enjoy this breakdown of the most memorable horror flicks with religious themes:

10. Angel Heart (1987)
Robert DeNiro plays the Devil (oh excuse me, Louis Cypher) in this horror noir which was unfairly maligned upon release, but has since aged like a fine wine. Plus it has that infamous sex scene between Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet. What would the Cos say? Oh wait, he was too busy asking interns to tug on his Jell-O pudding pop...

9. Stigmata (1999)
I didn't expect much from this one when I first saw it, but it surprised me--both in its effectiveness, and its knowledgeable use of Christian folklore. Patricia Arquette is freaky in the title role of Frankie Paige, a girl afflicted with the wounds of Christ. And of course, Gabriel Byrne is Gabriel Byrne. As a recovering Catholic, this one was much appreciated.

8. Signs (2002)
I might catch heat for this one, but Signs deals very pointedly and frankly with the common problem of crisis of faith. If that doesn't make it "faith-based", I don't know what would. Mel Gibson plays a fallen priest whose brush with invading aliens causes him to reassess his relationship with the magic dude in the sky.

7. Seven (1995)
Yes, I refuse to spell it in that goofy way with the number 7 in the title. I'm cranky that way. Anyway, thanks to BJ-C for suggesting this one. For the handful of you that might not know the plot, Seven features the serial killer John Doe, whose murders are each based around one of the seven deadly sins. Think of him as Jigsaw, if Jigsaw had gone to Sunday school.

6. Hellraiser (1987)
While not so much tied into any recognizable organized religion, Clive Barker's masterwork is highly spiritual in nature. And of course, there's the whole "Hell" thing, which is kind of hard to get around. The Cenobites are clearly New Age demons, and there is much made of the universal balance of good and evil, which is all very Zoroastrian. Thank you, liberal arts education!

5. Faust (1926)
Four years after Nosferatu, F.W. Murnau delivered his other amazing epic, the screen's finest adaptations of one of Christianity's most famous legends. God and Satan do battle over the soul of Faust in Goethe's literary masterwork, brought to life in boldly visual fashion by the master of German Expressionism.

4. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Yes, we're getting into the "predictable zone" here, so sue me. This is the film that ushered in the era of "Satanism chic" in horror, and spawned more copycats than you can shake a pitchfork at. Mia Farrow is impregnated by Beelzebub, and delivers her impish progeny to an apartment building filled with eager Devil worshippers. Shocking stuff for its day, and still packs a punch now.

3. The Omen (1976)
Gregory Peck delivers one of horror's all-time classiest performances in this wicked tale of Satan's attempt to reincarnate himself on Earth in the cute little form of Damien Thorn. Another great example of a film that makes the most of Christian folklore, crafting a story that draws us in, whether we buy into the faith-based stuff or not.

2. The Wicker Man (1973)
Ask any horror fan who's seen it, and they'll tell you that The Wicker Man is one of the genre's truly great discoveries. A much bigger deal in the UK than in the States, this twisted morality tale pits devout Christian police officer Edward Woodward against a cryptic Pagan cut led by the sublime Christopher Lee. Avoid the remake at all costs, in large part because it ejects much of the religious subtext.

1. The Exorcist (1973)
What would be the point of even trying to be cute and picking anything but this? William Friedkin's enthralling piece of filmmaking so impacted the culture into which it was released that it actually raised the ire of the Catholic church, and polarized audiences with its intense, and gripping take on the struggle between Satan and the soldiers of Christ in a world in which good and evil are very real forces. Based on William Peter Blatty's best-seller, it's the perfect example of a faith-based horror film directed at an often faithless modern world.

* HONORABLE MENTION*

Constantine
End of Days (direct hate mail to BJ-C :-))
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Prince of Darkness
The Prophechy
The Seventh Sign

Women in Horror

Delving through the many sub-genres of horror, an almost unifying trait seems that horror loves female leads. Be it Alison Lohman in this year's exceptional Drag Me To Hell, or Mia Farrow in the classic Rosemary's Baby, women are more often than not at the forefront of the scary and the disturbing. From The Exorcist to Halloween, Blair Witch Project to Hellraiser, we delight at scary movies with female leads, and this is something that's true across the world. [Rec], The Orphanage, Ring, A Tale Of Two Sisters--they all feature women as the focal point. I get myself to thinking, why is this? Let me give you my perspective.

Some people would have you believe that Horror hates women. That the depiction of a male killer dominating female victims is a misogynistic expression of what young male audiences feel. Now, that's not something I believe for a second. It's a fallacy to think that the depiction of a woman's death in film is attacking women as a whole, when a film like Die Hard kills off an entirely male cast yet isn't believed to make any anti-male statements.

No, I find that the opposite is in fact true. Horror has brought us the idea of the Final Girl, the Scream Queen. A Nightmare on Elm Street features Nancy defeating Freddy, Halloween has Laurie overcoming Michael, and while often enough horror films can be more bleak in their endings, I do think that girls fare better than the boys a lot of the time. Johnny Depp didn't fare so well against Freddy, for example.

With that said, I do find that there are gender roles at play. Why, with Horror having such a huge male following, do women make such compelling leads? Action is another genre aimed towards the boys, and that still features predominantly male characters kicking the crap out of other males. I'm of the opinion that for a horror film to work, it needs to have a lead character that engages us, we need to connect with them and to feel afraid for them, and if we're not emotionally invested in them, the film loses it's power to scare us. I think that it's easier for us to be sympathetic towards and to feel afraid for a female lead than a male one. When watching Rosemary's Baby, we as an audience are concerned for Mia Farrow, and through her character's fear, the film affects us.

In the Korean horror A Tale of Two Sisters, our lead is a mentally unbalanced young girl who is deeply haunted by a past trauma. She seems so troubled and fragile, so vulnerable that she has our every sympathy and we do feel for her. It's perhaps this vulnerability that makes this female archetype so compelling for us as horror fans, and by comparison, it seems rare to find a male lead that we feel for. Donald Sutherland in Don't Look Now and George C. Scott in The Changeling are two that I would say exemplify male leads that we connect to. They've both suffered horrendous losses at the beginning of both films, so we are sympathetic to them because they have had a part of their lives shattered.


In Satoshi Kon's deeply psychological animated film Perfect Blue, the main character is a young woman whose sense of reality and sense of self is falling apart piece by piece. She's a pop star turned actress who's having to deal with threats against her, a mysterious stalker, and a website that describes her life with frightening detail. It's a film that works so well because of how strong a character she is, continuing to push forward with her career, but she is under a lot of strain and we can't help but feel threatened for her. I don't think I would've felt as strongly had it been a male character in her place.

Now, that's not to say that having a female lead is the sure-fire way to success in Horror. There's been plenty of terrible pieces of fluff like the awful Lindsey Lohan vehicle I Know Who Killed Me, or the spectacularly bad Captivity with Elisha Cuthbert. You still need a good film, and well written characters in order for it to engage the audience, and the fact that there's plenty of throwaway fluff in the horror genre is a testament to that. But an awful lot of the best Horror films, the ones that do engage us and make us genuinely frightened for the characters, are the ones with female leads.

This is something I find equally true with children. The Shining or The Sixth Sense for example, part of why we're afraid is because of how concerned we are for the child characters. The Exorcist is rather disturbing because of how sweet and innocent Linda Blair is. Guillermo del Toro's films The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth work extremely well because both child leads are placed in a dangerous place where they're scared, and we feel great sympathy for them.

Now, that's probably not true of everyone, but I do find that the characters I engage with the most personally are often women and children. What do you think? After all, there's no doubting female leads are a popular archetype in horror, what do you feel is the reason? Be sure to leave a comment and let my know your thoughts.

This is Karl Hungus, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.

[Editor's Note: For more on the feminine side of fear, be sure and check out another Vault affiliate, Day of the Woman.]

Rosemary's Baby Remake Dead! The Birds Remake in Question!

Platinum Dunes head honchos Brad Fuller and Andrew Form dropped a bombshell today that's sure to please those, like myself, firmly planted in the anti-remake camp. During the press conference for the upcoming Platinum Dunes production The Unborn, Fuller & Form indicated firmly that the previously touted redo of Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby is no longer happening. Here's what they said over at Collider.com:

"We went down that road and we even talked to the best writers in town and it feels like it might not be do-able. We couldn’t’ come up with something where it felt like it was relevant and we could add something to it other than what it was so we’re now not going to be doing that film."

Score one for reason. Huzzah!

Furthermore, here's what the boys had to say about another frequently poo-pooed remake they've been attached to, that of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds:

"Martin [Campbell] has been working on the script and we’re expecting a script in the next 2-3 weeks, but... its not like Drew, Michael [Bay] and I think that we’re just going to crap all over Alfred Hitchcock’s movie. I mean, Alfred Hitchcock, in a company-wide opinion, is probably the greatest director of what we do, and other things too... Michael and I studied [him] in college, and there’s a reverence for him. So that’s not a movie that we’re just going to step up and just go have birds attacking people and trying to throw that into the box office. If we can’t make that movie unique or add something to it, I don’t think we’re going to make it."

Hmmm. Could it be that the glut of remakes is finally causing some to come to their senses and respect the sanctity of classics that shouldn't be remade? Well... let's not get carried away. But at least Rosemary's Baby is officially off. Spread the word.

Special thanks to fervent reader Gord for passing along this scoop!

Whatever Happened to Rosemary's Baby?

MovieMaker magazine is holding a very clever contest to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Roman Polanski's groundbreaking horror film Rosemary's Baby. Called "Whatever Happened to Rosemary's Baby?" (after the forgettable made-for-TV sequel), the contest asks readers to postulate who Rosemary's baby may actually be today.

Basically, you pick a person in the public eye you think might be the spawn of Satan, presumably of roughly middle age to fit the bill, and send the response to rosemary@moviemaker.com. Two winners will be selected at random--one receives a Rosemary's Baby lobby card signed by cinematographer William Fraker (guess they couldn't lure ol' Polanski back for this one), and the other gets a poster signed by Fraker. Winners will be announced 9/1.

My choice, you ask? That's easy:

Ms. Alba, Haven't You Done Enough Harm Already?

As if her lame retread of the Chinese cult favorite The Eye hasn't built enough ill will toward Jessica Alba amongst genre fans, the vacuous actress has now seen fit to desecrate some of the finest horror films ever made.

In a new cover story for Latina magazine, Alba ineptly attempts to recreate famous scenes from her five supposedly favorite horror movies. Check out this cringe-worthy Psycho shot:


If only young Jessica possessed a tenth of the poise, class and chops of a Janet Leigh, this might not be nearly as sad. Want more? Here's her take on Rosemary's Baby:


Check her out displaying the acting skills she honed on the Disney Channel. And speaking of sacrilege, here's Jessie's impersonation of Tippi Hedren in The Birds:


Alba has some better luck with Scream, in which she steps into the shoes of an actress nearly as inane and irritating as herself:


Notice how they made sure that Ghostface can actually be seen creeping up on her, just so readers would be able to tell what movie it's supposed to be? Nice touch. If you have the constitution for one more, here's a rather artful--if only loosely adapted--tribute to The Exorcist:


Now if only that ceiling wasn't there, then maybe she might have simply floated away into the stratosphere, so that we would no longer have to be subjected to drek like Good Luck Chuck and FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

The Times, They Are A-Changin': A History of Horror Movies, Part 4

Perhaps never in our history was there a time as rife with drastic change as the 1960s. Indeed, the chronology of popular culture can be divided into two periods: before the '60s, and after.
Practically every aspect of our lives were changed, owing to a variety of reasons pundits have debated about ever since: the eye-opening horrors of the Vietnam War--America's most cynical conflict to that point--and the manner in which it was so directly brought into our homes; the brutal assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King; the rise of a youth movement that gave young people more power than ever before; relaxing social mores that led to a sexual revolution and an overall loss of innocence.
Whatever the reasons, America was a very different place in 1969 from what it had been in 1960.
Like everything else, entertainment was not immune to the dramatic changes. And perhaps more than any other genre, horror films underwent a transformation that was as dramatic as it was shocking. By the end of the decade, the modern horror genre would be born.
Even as early as 1960, change was in the air. The first shot would be fired by one of the business' most established and respected directors, Alfred Hitchcock, whose seminal suspense/slasher flick Psycho set a standard that would be a sign of things to come. Here, it was not some outlandish monster, but the guy next door who was the instrument of terror. It was not some baroque fantasy world in which the action was set, but the very real world in which we lived. This would become a hallmark of the modern horror movie.
Still, some vestiges of the old school would persist, most notably in the classic series of Edgar Allen Poe-inspired films from low-budget king Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. The supernatural aspect of horror was not about to go away in the face of the new reality-based terror. But it was being transformed, as evidenced by films like The Haunting, a superb modern ghost story from 1963.
The modern setting was one thing, but there were many more changes in store. These would be facilitated by the collapse of the restrictive Hays Code in 1964. The code, established 30 years prior by studio heads looking to silence moral watchdogs by toning down the content of their movies, had long held the horror genre in handcuffs. Why it was lifted when it was can be attributed to many causes, but it is impossible to overstate how important the Hays collapse was to the evolution of horror movies. Now the gloves were off.
Two films in particular would signal the arrival of the "new" horror movie. Fittingly, they would also be among the first movies to receive an R rating from the brand-new Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
The first was actually filmed in 1965, the year after the code fell, but wouldn't be released until three years later. The brainchild of a young Pittsburgh filmmaker inspired by both Vincent Price's The Last Man on Earth (1964) and Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), Night of the Living Dead was the ultimate indicator of where horror movies were headed. Mixing strong social commentary with unprecedentedly horrifying imagery, George Romero's landmark vision was a grim and unrelenting nightmare. And the graphic violence depicted--although somewhat tame by today's standards--was enough to inspire revulsion and even condemnation from many critics of the time. Yet it is quite telling that today that very film is included in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
The other groundbreaker of the era was Rosemary's Baby (1968) from director Roman Polanski. A product of the culture's growing fascination with the occult, the film was blunt in its depiction of Satanic themes, something that would continue to a much greater degree in the next decade. Also worthy of note was the fact that unlike most horror movies of the past, which were B-level flicks, Roesmary's Baby was a top-of-the-line A-level picture--another trend that was to continue.
By the end of the '60s, the change was complete, and horror was more mainstream than ever before. The limits of what it could portray, both thematically and visually, had been pushed beyond anything anyone could have imagined. The decades to come would feel the effects of this overwhelming shift in tone, and take it still further.
Other major releases:

• The Brides of Dracula (1960)
• Village of the Damned (1960)
• Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
• Carnival of Souls (1962)
• Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
• The Raven (1963)
• The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
• Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965)
• The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)

Part 1: The Silent Dead
Part 2: Gods & Monsters
Part 3: It Came from Hollywood
Soon to come: Part 5 - Blood & Guts