Текст книги "Monsters in the Movies "

Автор книги: Джон Лэндис

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The Devil’s Work[ Book Contents]

The Devil’s Advocate  [Taylor Hackford, 1997]

Al Pacino plays lawyer John Milton in a none-too-subtle reference to Paradise Lost. As the Devil, Pacino is given free rein in a ferocious, enjoyably mad performance. Poor Keanu Reeves is blown off the screen whenever Al is present.

The Devil’s Work[ Book Contents]

Damn Yankees  [George Abbott, Stanley Donen, 1958]

Ray Walston as Applegate and the fabulous Gwen Verdon as Lola in the film of the hit Broadway musical, a Faust story set in the world of baseball. Ray Walston’s Devil sings “Those Were The Good Old Days,” recalling with relish various wars and disasters. Gwen Verdon performs her show-stopper “Whatever Lola Wants” to seduce Tab Hunter. A lovely movie.

The Devil’s Work[ Book Contents]

The Devil Rides Out  [aka The Devil’s Bride, Terence Fisher, 1968]

Christopher Lee as the Duc de Richleau in the pentacle he has drawn to protect his friends from demons summoned by Mocata (Charles Gray), the leader of a cult of devil-worshippers in the English countryside. Based on Dennis Wheatley’s novel, with a screenplay by Richard Matheson. This movie would have benefited from a bigger special-FX budget.

The Devil’s Work[ Book Contents]

The Exorcist  [William Friedkin, 1973]

Linda Blair as Regan in a make-up by Dick Smith. Friedkin’s film is considered one of the scariest movies of all time.

The Devil’s Work[ Book Contents]

The Omen  [Richard Donner, 1976]

Harvey Stephens is truly creepy as Damien, the Antichrist in Richard Donner’s beautifully crafted film of David Seltzer’s screenplay (from his own novel). Composer Jerry Goldsmith contributes a brilliant and often-imitated score.

The Devil’s Work[ Book Contents]

Bedazzled  [Stanley Donen, 1967]

Raquel Welch as one of the Seven Deadly Sins, “Lillian Lust—the girl with the bust,” in Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s comic retelling of Faust. Barry Humphries makes a very funny appearance as Envy.

The Devil’s Work[ Book Contents]

Drag Me to Hell  [Sam Raimi, 2009]

Lorna Raver as the gypsy witch Mrs. Ganush with the button, instrumental in the curse she puts on a young bank officer (Alison Lohman) who turns down her loan application.

The Devil’s Work[ Book Contents]

Night of the Demon  [Jacques Tourneur, 1957]

Dana Andrews investigates a Satanic cult led by Dr. Julian Karswell (a terrific Niall MacGinnis). This demon was supposedly put into the film by the studio over the director’s objections, but I have to say that I agree with the studio!

“It’s in the trees! It’s coming!”

Professor Harrington (Maurice Denham), Night of the Demon

IN CONVERSATION

John Carpenter

“Monsters don’t scare me—people scare me!”

John Carpenter with The Fog[1980] cast members Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Janet Leigh.

The Devil’s Work[ Book Contents]

JL: You’ve created yourself as a brand, as a master of horror. How would you define a monster? What do you think a monster is?

JC: Primarily, it’s us. It’s parts of us, parts of the dark heart of humanity. But it’s also the other: the other tribe, the other people, the people that look different, the ferocious demons out there.

JL: By the other, do you mean the Unknown?

JC: Well, there are two basic horror stories. Where does the evil come from? It comes from out there, or it comes from in here. That’s it, there’s nothing else. So if you have an Outer Space invasion, the evil is out there and they’re coming to get us. That’s the evil outside of us. The harder story to tell is the evil in here, in our own hearts. Each of us is capable of evil, under certain circumstances.

JL: The John Carpenter quote that I quote all the time, is: “Monsters don’t scare me—people scare me.”

JC: A fear of monsters is part of the basic nature of humanity. When we came out of the trees and started walking upright, we still had these fears of predators. We see something coming at us and we respond to it. It’s self-preservation. All this stuff gets jumbled up in our myths, in our stories. And here it is: Here are monster movies.

JL: OK, so let’s talk about Vampires—Dracula. There are more movies with Dracula in them than any other kind of monster.

JC: Vampires are all-purpose monsters for each new generation.

JL: The new abstinence vampire is now. The Mormon vampire!

JC: You had the Rudolph Valentino vampire originally, with Béla Lugosi and his slicked-back hair and this kind of come-hither look but, throughout the years, look at Christopher Lee and his Dracula—it’s entirely different.

JL: About vampires: Is there anything you particularly like or dislike, or think is cool?

JC: Well the original myth works. It’s a myth of decay. The European aristocracy is falling to ruin in Gothic castles, and who do the aristocrats live on? They live on the peasants. They suck their blood. Think about that. Where does that come from? It comes from European attitudes way back when. European attitudes about how things work. But then they slowly corrupt…

JL: Now, what about the Wolf Man?

JC: The Wolf Manis a take on Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. This innocent man is bitten by something, and he can do nothing about it. He’s good and evil, both.

JL: I think that the Jekyll and Hyde thing is not entirely right, because in Jekyll and Hyde, it is basically two sides of himself, whereas with the Wolf Man, it’s more of a disease. He’s a victim.

JC: He is a victim, yes. The Wolf Manis a victim of life’s circumstance, of something that has just happened to him.

JL: OK, so what about the Mummy?

JC: The original [Karl Freund,1932] Mummy movie with Boris Karloff is just Dracula. It’s literally a remake.

JL: Yeah.

JC: He comes back, he’s after the girl… but it’s still a great movie.

JL: It’s slow, but I love the opening when the Mummy walks out.

JC: Fabulous. But that’s Dracula, and the legend is that he’s a sort of fallen character. In the Christopher Lee version [ The Mummy, Terence Fisher, 1959], he wanted to live with his love forever…

JL: In the first Mummy, Karloff’s Mummy is the bad guy, but in other Mummy movies it’s the priest, and the Mummy is just a kind of killing machine.

JC: That’s why I like the Christopher Lee version.

JL: He’s fabulous in both The Curse of Frankenstein[Terence Fisher, 1957] and The Mummy, and totally different.

JC: His eyes in The Mummy! He can be so sad and haunted by this ancient love for this girl, and yet he can become so cold. I mean, he’s fabulous! The Curse of Frankensteinjust transformed me when I was a little kid.

JL: What I love in that is, when they shoot him, Chris has clearly got blood in his hand and he goes (slaps face)…

JC Of course.

JL: It works totally.

JC: But it was like “Ooh!”

JL: The gore was amazing.

JC: I was eight years old when I saw that.

JL: Frankenstein’s monster, the Creature. He’s always very sympathetic to me.

JC: Yeah, it’s sad because he had no choice in his existence.

JL: Doctor Frankenstein in the Hammer films—Peter Cushing—becomes the monster.

JC: That’s what’s so fabulous. He’s great, and evil. But poor Christopher Lee in that movie is kind of just walking flesh.

JL: OK, so what about zombies? Zombies were Voodoo zombies; then, starting with George [George A. Romero] really, they were vampire zombies. George copied his zombies from an Italian movie, The Last Man on Earth[Ubaldo Ragona, 1964] with Vincent Price, based on the Richard Matheson novel. Did you ever see that?

JC: Yes, I did.

JL: Because I said to George: “You got your zombies from that,” and he said, “Absolutely!” But you know, the idea of zombies, they were Voodoo, and then they became caused by disease, accidents, radiation spills…

JC: There was a film in 1959 that no one mentions, a movie called Invisible Invaders. Invisible moon people come down here and take over dead bodies, and the dead bodies rise up. Edward L. Cahn, who also did It! The Terror From Beyond Space[1958], directed it. Invisible Invaderswas the first rising dead movie that I can remember.

JL: So, do you know what a ghoul is?

JC: Tell me.

JL: Well, a ghoul is basically a re-animated corpse.

JC: That’s a zombie.

JL: A zombie is also a re-animated corpse. See, I never understood it.

JC: It’s the Walking Dead.

JL: The Walking Dead, exactly. But a ghoul knows what he’s doing and has a purpose. Zombies are either eating or killing machines, and they just shamble around. Why do you think zombies are so popular now?

JC: Everybody’s been re-making Night of the Living Deadsince 1968. Over and over. I’ve never seen anything like it. Specifically the rules of Night of the Living Dead.

JL: Like shooting zombies in the head to kill them?

JC: Everything about it! George A. Romero transformed horror movies. He really did.

JL: Well, Halloween[John Carpenter, 1978] inspired many other films. Here’s a question: In the first Halloween, Mike Myers (the killer) is clearly human.

JC: Sort of.

JL: No, he’s human. The only thing that’s supernatural about him is that he gets up and walks away after he’s been shot.

JC: But he’s everywhere. His behavior is of the other world. He’s partially supernatural, but nothing is explained. It’s an intentional overlay on this kind of banal story of a guy running around killing people.

JL: Now, what about giant monsters, like Godzilla?

JC: I love Godzilla. He’s everything to every generation. He was friendly, he was evil, he works forJapan, he works againstJapan, he fights other monsters…

JL: Now what is this big thing about dinosaurs? In movies, we always have people coexisting with dinosaurs. You know One Million Years B.C.[Don Chaffey, 1966] and all that kind of stuff… I asked Ray Harryhausen why he thinks that is, and he said, “Because without people, it’s boring!”

JC: Well, I think that’s true. I’ve got a question for you, pal! What is the Golem?

JL: The Golem? It’s made of clay, very much like Frankenstein. They say it’s a legend, but it’s not. I can’t remember the name of the guy who wrote it (Berthold Auerbach for his 1837 novel Spinoza), but it’s set in Prague and it’s a story about the rabbi of a ghetto where the Jews are being killed, who makes this clay model, and he comes alive through Kaballah and prayer. The Golem is basically a monster, an avenger for the Jews. But then he falls in love with a Gentile. There are three movies where Paul Wegener wrote, directed, and starred as the Golem. But they’re kind of anti-Semitic movies; they’re weird!

But let’s get back to zombies. Why are zombies so popular now?

JC: I don’t know. They started as something actually frightening; when you saw Night of the Living Deadin 1968, it was actually scary. You started worrying what you were going to see. Are the filmmakers going to go too far here and show me something I don’t want to see? When the girl goes after her mother…

JL: No, her father. You saw the zombies eat her mother, and then she goes after her father.

JC: Yeah, her father. And she chomps up the bones! But one of the things George [A. Romero, the director] said was, every time he did one of those zombie movies, critics would come and visit the set, and all they’d want is to be a zombie… that’s all they’d want!

JL: Do you think the appeal of zombies has something to do with death? Or is it not even about that any more?

JC: No. It’s us. As George says: “They’re us.”

JL: That’s a good title: “Zombies Are Us.”

JC: What do you think, John? Are you going to make it? You could do it as a comedy!

JL: Everyone’s making them. Now, I have another one for you—monsters in the ocean. Jawsis a monster movie.

JC: But it’s not based in any kind of fantasy world. It’s not a monster created by science.

JL: Except Jaws, much like Moby Dick, really is out to get the hunters. The first half of that movie is a classic, by-the-numbers monster movie, and the second half becomes an adventure on the high seas! Even the music changes. It’s two different movies!

JC: Jaws, I think, is probably a monster movie. The monster in it isn’t like the Mummy or Dracula. It’s more like Moby Dick, and Moby Dick is not a monster: he’s somebody’s obsession.

JL: Ahab is the monster.

JC: Jawsis a “Force of Nature” story.

JL: What about religious angles? What about The Exorcist, the Devil?

JC: What do you think?

JL: I think The Exorcist[William Friedkin, 1973] is the best horror film ever made.

JC: It’s pretty good.

JL: The original version, not the remake. And the reason I say that is that I’m an atheist, and a Jew on top of that: I don’t believe in Jesus, and I don’t believe in the Devil. The reason I credit The Exorcistso much, is that I bought it. I bought into the church, I bought into the power of Christ, and I bought into the possession. I was so pleased when Father Karras showed up. Thank God, you know?!

JC: You see, I didn’t buy into it at the time. Later I came to appreciate what he (director William Friedkin) did there. I remember I thought at the time that this movie requires a belief in the Devil to be believable.

JL: Now, what about ghosts? There are ghosts in your movies who kill people, who are out for revenge.

JC: That’s true.

JL: And the two scariest ghost movies are…

JC: I bet you’re going to say The Haunting[Robert Wise, 1963], aren’t you?

JL: The Hauntingand The Innocents[Jack Clayton, 1961].

JC: The Hauntingis bullshit! It is so awful.

JL: I love it! What about The Innocents? They’re both creepy and scary, and you never see anything.

JC: That’s the bad and beautiful way of making horror movies.

JL: You think you have to see something?

JC: No, not at all. But I get pissed off when you don’t. I pays my money, I want to see what the fuck it is!

This Island Earth[Joseph M. Newman, 1955] A Metaluna Mutant checks out his looks on a sound stage mirror before being filmed. Based on the novel by Raymond F. Jones, this is an exciting science-fiction film in glorious Technicolor.

SPACE MONSTERS

There are monsters fromouter space who come to the planet Earth to be in our movies [ Invaders From Mars, William Cameron Menzies, 1953] and then there are monsters inouter space whom we send rocket ships to encounter [ The Green Slime, Kinji Fukasaku, 1968]. There are aliens who come to Earth to befriendus [ Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Steven Spielberg, 1977], there are aliens who come to Earth to warnus [ The Day the Earth Stood Still, Robert Wise, 1951—I refuse to mention the remake!], and there are aliens who come to Earth to destroyus [ Mars Attacks!, Tim Burton, 1996].

Most movie aliens want to destroy us. Howard Hawks produced one of the best scary alien-who-wants-us-dead movies, The Thing from Another World[Christian Nyby, 1951], a taut thriller based on the disturbing short story by John W. Campbell, Jr. Who Goes There?. When remade in 1982 as John Carpenter’s The Thing, Bill Lancaster’s screenplay stayed much closer to the Campbell story and Carpenter, with the aid of the extraordinary make-up effects of Rob Bottin, created a truly horrific and suspenseful classic. The Thinghas one of my favorite lines in a monster movie: When one of the characters sees another character’s decapitated head grow crab-like legs and skitter across the floor, he says, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Which, in context, is an extremely realistic reaction. Two years later John Carpenter’s Starman[1984] landed on our planet with a sensitive performance by Jeff Bridges in the title role. Almost as if to make up for the ferocity of The Thing, Starman’s alien is so handsome, sweet, and charming, lovely Karen Allen falls in love with him.

Pioneering French special-effects filmmaker Georges Méliès probably made the first outer space movie with his silent version of Jules Verne’s A Trip to the Moonin 1902. Méliès combined Verne’s novel with H. G. Wells’ novel The First Men in the Moonand brought us cinema’s first aliens—the insectoid Selenites. This film is most famous for its iconic image of the Man in the Moon with a rocket ship stuck in his eye! Sixty-two years later, Ray Harryhausen gave us another version of H. G. Wells’ First Men in the Moon[Nathan H. Juran, 1964] with remarkably similar-looking Selenites. The charming screenplay by Nigel Kneale adds an opening sequence in which modern-day astronauts discover a tattered Union Jack, left behind by the intrepid explorers who had set foot on the moon when Queen Victoria was still on the throne!

For every benign alien visitor, there are 50 hostile ones. And we Earthlings almost always greet our guests from space with suspicion and gunfire—like the Ymir in Ray Harryhausen’s 20 Million Miles to Earth[Nathan H. Juran, 1957], which is brought back from Venus as an egg. The rocket ship splashes down off the coast of Sicily, the egg hatches, and the alien creature is eventually gunned down atop Rome’s Coliseum.

One of the greatest of all space monsters appears in Forbidden Planet[Fred M. Wilcox, 1956]. A lavish MGM production, with glorious Technicolor cinematography by George Folsey, and the first all-electronic score by avant-garde musicians Louis and Bebe Barron, this is one of the most influential science-fiction films ever made. William Shakespeare’s The Tempestinspired the screenplay by Cyril Hume and, although some of the costumes and dialog are dated, the ideas expressed are startlingly modern. Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) with his beautiful daughter Alta (Anne Francis) are the only survivors of a colony of settlers on the planet Altair. A rescue mission led by Commander John J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen) discovers that the two survivors are doing well, Dr. Morbius having learned much about the planet’s former inhabitants the Krell and their amazing technology. But Alta’s innocent sexual curiosity about the handsome men who have come to rescue them disturbs her father. A terrible, invisible monster kills several of the crew. It is an awesome sight, revealed only in outline by the crew’s neutron-beam weaponry. Eventually, Dr. Morbius reveals the terrible secret of the Krell’s disappearance… This splendid movie is clearly the template for the television series Star Trekand all of its sequels and prequels.

Two years after the release of Forbidden Planet, a meteor crashes down near the small town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. A red substance attacks an old man named Doc. Steve McQueen, in his first starring role, tries to convince the police of what he witnessed: “Something” was killing the Doc! The “something” turns out to be The Blob[Irvin Yeaworth, 1958], a gelatinous goo that grows larger as it consumes more and more victims. This quintessential 1950s sci-fi movie features a wonderfully loony cha-cha-cha title song by Burt Bacharach and Mack David.

Ridley Scott’s seminal Alien[1979] revitalized the genre by placing a monster in an Old Dark House in outer space. Swiss artist H. R. Giger designed the creature, combining organic and mechanical elements in a truly original way. Dan O’Bannon’s screenplay is rife with cliché, but Scott’s stylish direction and a fine cast overcome the silliness and create a handsome, truly scary film. The wreckage of an alien spacecraft they find on another planet comes directly from Mario Bava’s excellent Planet of the Vampires[1965], and once the alien is loose aboard the space ship Nostromo, Alienbasically follows the storyline of It! The Terror From Beyond Space[Edward L. Cahn, 1958] a low-budget picture featuring Ray “Crash” Corrigan in a rubber monster suit.

Alienwas a worldwide sensation and it was followed by James Cameron’s Aliensin 1986, which brilliantly swapped horror for full-on action and made Sigourney Weaver’s character Ripley into a feminist icon.

John McTiernan’s Predator[1987] was a vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger, then at the height of his stardom. But the wonderfully designed Predator, an alien big-game hunter on Earth for sport, was far too interesting to disappear after just one movie. Sequels followed until, in 2004, Alien vs. Predator[Paul W. S. Anderson] attempted to become a contemporary Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man[Roy William Neill, 1943]. I’m sure that if Abbott and Costello were still alive, they too would have eventually met the Predator and the Alien!

Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day[1996] and 2011’s Battle: Los Angeles[Jonathan Liebesman] clearly demonstrate that our planet is still not safe from alien invasion; however 2011 also brought us another gentle (if foulmouthed) alien in Paul[Greg Mottola]. So I think it’s wise to remember the last words broadcast from that Arctic station at the end of The Thing From Another World[1951]: “Watch the Skies!”