I’m actually watching ‘Monty Python At The Hollywood Bowl’ while I write this, so I apologise if this all comes off a bit half-hearted. It shouldn’t; but if it does, well, it’s Monty Python, so fuck you.
Right, first some housekeeping. A quick update on where I am:
-£480.65.
Yeah, I’ve actually lost money, which is lovely. Some of you might know I just finished my MA; well, I took out a loan for it, and now the stupid bank want their money back. Early setback, but the journey is far from over.
Okay, done. Onto business.
WHEN THE SPANISH STOLE HORROR, AND WHY IT’S A GOOD THING
Like all good sheltered Muslim boys, I grew up not watching very many horror movies. But I heard about them. Evil Dead. The Nightmare on Elm Street. The Omen. And the scariest of the lot – The Exorcist. I distinctly remember my older brother telling me about a man who was apparently so scared after watching Linda Blair ask Jesus to, quote, fuck her, that he couldn’t physically leave the room. He was probably chatting shit, but the story always stuck with me. Eventually, though, I broke my horror embargo, my earliest horror memory coming from one of the Freddie Krueger films, with the girl on the tricycle saying ‘Freddie’s home!’ Chilling stuff. Horror in Hollywood was probably at its peak.
Strangely, I don’t have much recollection of 90’s American horror (at least not without doing some research), so when I think more contemporary horror, I look mostly to the new millennium. And, in my humble opinion, it’s all a bit rubbish, really. Certain films have come along and tried to redefine the genre but, in true Hollywood fashion, those concepts got beaten into the ground. We had the shaky camera mockumentary phenomenon. Beaten into the ground. We had the extreme gore phenomenon. Beaten into the ground. We had the CGI-enhanced monster movies. I’ll let you work out what happened to that concept. They’ve even tried to rehashing the old classics, and messed those up too. Hollywood fucked up somewhere, and forgot how to make good horror.
Fortunately, while Hollywood was busy fucking things, a revolution was taking place. It seemed to start in Asia and moved swiftly on to Europe. Suddenly, countries like Spain and Japan were making critically acclaimed, commercially successful horror films. The Japanese gave us truly chilling films like Ring O and Interview, and the Spaniards gave us great genre-bending stuff like The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth and Julia’s Eyes (the inspiration for this, coincidentally).
And, frankly, I’m glad.
I won’t talk too much about Japan, because I don’t think I’ve seen enough Japanese cinema, but European cinema tackling horror is, for lack of a better term, genius. Why? Well, European cinema has always been known for being a little bit out there. But who woulda thought that being a little bit out there meant giving horror films meaning.
Yeah, simple as that.
I’ll explain. The Saw franchise is about people in very grisly situations. There’s a slight backstory as to why but, really, it’s just about people getting their legs cut off and their jaws clamped. It’s all a little…simple. Final Destination is the same. Now the other side: Pan’s Labyrinth is a horror film, but it’s really about the atrocities of war, and how the breakup of a relationship affects a young girl. Meaning. The Devil’s Backbone is a very scary film, but it’s actually about how Spain tried to cope after the Spanish Civil War. Meaning.
Julia’s Eyes is another brilliant example of this. When her blind twin sister commits suicide, Julia sets out to find out why. Through various means, she finds out that the sister claimed to have a boyfriend, but nobody had ever seen him. Was he invisible? Was he a ghost? Was she going insane? Julia tries to find answers, but problem is that Julia suffers from the same condition and is also slowly going blind. What follows is a fantastic use of light and shadow, brilliant performances and a truly scary film. But here’s the thing – as scary as it is, the film isn’t about the horror. The film is about a woman trying to come to terms with her inevitable disability. Meaning!!
It would be unfair to say that Hollywood horror is completely devoid of meaning. I thought Monsters was a very thought-provoking film, but that’s the only example I can come up with. They’ve tried the psychological horrors with films like Dream House recently, but they’ve been awful. They can’t do it. All they can really try is remaking these foreign gems, and hoping they do them properly (Naomi Watt in The Ring was a solid effort, I guess), but I personally think it’s time Hollywood gave up on it.
You can have the superhero movies and the romantic comedies and the biopics and the 3D stuff. Have it all. But leave horror for the rest of the world. Let Spain make Julia’s Eyes. Let Australia make Wolf Creek. Let Japan make The Grudge. Let Norway make Trollhunter. Hell, even let us Brits make The Awakening and Kill List.
Hollywood lost control of horror a long time ago, and Spain stole it. Let them have it.
Wow, so that was a rant. I do bloody love talking about film though, so I might do more of this, I’ll see. For now though, I’m done. Monty Python finished a while ago (typically brilliant!), and I’m listening to ‘Don’t Let Me Get Me’ by P!nk, though It’s about to finish. Wait for it…so, as I sign off, ‘An Honest Mistake’ by Bravery starts to play.
Sorry for ranting. Thank you for reading. Follow me (@writeofcentre), and we’ll talk soon. Call me.
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