Fortnight of fright
By Andy Etzkorn
Feb. 11, 2004 9:00 p.m.
Blood. Gore. Attractive women. Cheap thrills and even cheaper
effects. Ah, yes. The elements of every old horror movie,
right?
Wrong.
The UCLA Film and Television Archive hopes to show that these
stereotypes are not the only elements to make up horror pictures.
Appropriately, Friday, Feb. 13 will bring the start of a series of
films titled “Going to Hell: Horror From the 1970s and
’80s.”
“These movies show a wide range of experimentation,”
said David Pendleton, the Archive’s programming director.
“On one hand, you have (the directors) experimenting with
technical aspects, and on the other, you have them trying to
reflect the social changes of the time.”
Richard Blackburn, director of “Lemora: A Child’s
Tale of the Supernatural” and scheduled to appear at the
film’s screening for a Q&A session, wanted to push the
genre of the standard horror film and show that horror can be a
good template for showing aspects of our own reality.
“At the time, it was very feasible to do a low-budget
vampire movie,” said Blackburn. “I wasn’t just
interested in doing horror exclusively, but since I was doing one I
wanted to make something different.”
“Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural”
takes on issues such as homosexuality and organized religion,
issues emerging more and more in the public sphere at the time of
the film’s original 1972 release, and sets them against the
backdrop of a vampire movie.
The relative obscurity of the film selections is intentional.
Many may notice the absence of classic horror films by famous
directors such as Wes Craven of “A Nightmare on Elm
Street” fame and John Carpenter, who directed
“Halloween.”
“There is more to horror than just these names,”
said Pendleton. “We didn’t want to show horror films
everyone had already known or seen, but movies that are not as well
known. We feel that the movies we have chosen are worthy of being
rediscovered.”
Part of what this collection of movies will demonstrate is how
horror films made in the last few decades have influenced those
being made currently. The series also hopes to show that fear and
horror are not things simply created by extreme gore or
violence.
“Today the horror movie seems to be put down in many ways
as a simple slasher movie,” said Gloria Katz, producer of
“Messiah of Evil.” “(Filmmakers of our time)
wanted to create a mood of horror. We didn’t want to
explicitly show violence.”
Those who simply wish to enjoy the pleasure of watching a campy
horror film, complete with fake blood and cheesy music, will get
their thrills from this series. But those who also wish to learn
something more about horror movies and how they have evolved over
time will not leave disappointed.
“(The Archive) does an eclectic mix of programming,”
Pendleton said. “We hope to show that these films can still
have an influence on a new generation of horror
filmmakers.”
“Going to Hell: Horror from the 1970s and
’80s” is a 10-film series running Feb. 13-25 at the
James Bridges Theater. The cost is $7 for general admission and $5
for students. For more information, visit
www.cinema.ucla.edu.
