On Red Bands and Dark Ride

Does anybody else get really excited whenever a red band trailer comes on screen? The truth is that they’re rarely anymore graphic or obscene than one that’s been approved for all audiences, but there’s a sense of the forbidden that’s hard to pass up. We want to see something that we aren’t supposed to see. It’s the same reason we watch horror movies and go into haunted houses ever October.

I recently watched a film called Dark Ride. Directed by Craig Singer, it was one of the original 8 Films to Die For in the After Dark Horrorfest back in 2006. I’ve seen a handful of these film over the years, and while they don’t really live up the billing of movies too graphic and terrifying for theatres, some of them are definitely worth a watch. Others aren’t.

Back to the point. The Red Band trailers got me thinking of other similar marketing campaigns that caught my eye. The first thing that came to mind was Paranormal Activity. I remember my friend sending me videos of the audience freaking out during advanced screenings, with a request to get it sent to a nearby theatre. It got me interested. And while I did like it, I may have gotten a little too excited about the Evil Dead reboot and its “scariest-movie-ever-made” taglines.

Honestly people have been trying to scare us with movies for decades. So why would I believe that there were eight movies too scary for theatres all of a sudden? If there are than I don’t want to see them because they’re truly twisted. But we still buy into taglines every once in a while and expect a new brand of horror on occasion. Why? Like red bands, there’s potential for anything.

The narrative in Dark Ride is straight forward enough. It follows a group of college kids on vacation for spring break, who stop to spend the night in an abandoned horror attraction that proves not to be so abandoned after all. Not many points for originality admittedly. In fact, this movie hit about every major horror trope there is.

The more you see them the more interesting horror tropes start to seem. We’re afraid of the things that kill us of course, so why are our horror scenarios so farfetched? Our horror movies should be about car crashes, heart disease and war. These deaths don’t frighten us because while they may not be completely natural, they have become normal.

I think the genre is at its best when it shows us a perversion of the things we love and the things we idealize. Take Dark Ride for example. I used to go to an amusement park called Joy Land when I was little, growing up in Kansas. There was a dark ride there. I always used to love to do it, but I was always scared. Even after the 10th time through, after you know nothing in there will hurt you, you can still be scared. Maybe it’s because there’s a part of you that thought one of the scares would come to life.

Fear is nostalgic. It knows what we loved and what frightened us when we were children and it turns it on us. It takes dream scenarios, like a young and reckless spring break with friends, and turns it into a nightmare instead. While Dark Ride wasn’t a great movie, it definitely made me think a little. And it was entertaining enough to make it to the end. Don’t take that as a recommendation.

The After Dark Horrorfest as a whole is rich in its own right though, and worth the viewing especially if you’re looking for a marathon.  Look out for childhood fears and joys cropping up next time you pop in a DVD, but don’t blame me if you get A Scary Dream. 

On Rob Zombie's 31 and House of 1000 Corpses

I remember the first time I pulled Rob Zombie’s 2003 film House of 1000 Corpses off of the horror rack at Blockbuster, stricken by the bloody-faced mutant staring back at me as I slid it onto the counter to check out, a task my older brother would have had to help me with.

I didn't honestly know what to expect from Zombie, especially at an age when my taste was still developing, but from the moment my brothers and I slid it into the DVD player I knew that Zombie was onto something.

It wasn't necessarily that what Zombie had done with the film was better than others in the same vein (of which there are a myriad: teenagers driving cross country stop at the wrong gas station), but it was more surprising.

It was the style in House of 1000 Corpses that set it apart, just as Zombie has been setting himself apart ever since.

One way he’s trying to do that is with his new film, 31. 31, which is set for a 2015 release, follows the journey of five people who have been kidnapped and forced to battle their way through “Murder World” in a vicious clown-filled blood sport.

As fascinating a premise as it is, what interests me more is Zombie’s choice to crowd fund the project. Fans of Zombie’s work have created a cult following, getting Sid Haig as Captain Spaulding or one of Sheri Moon Zombie’s many roles tattooed to their bodies.

“When you love something so much, you just want to be a part of it,” said Zombie in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine. “And that’s what I think about this crowd-funding campaign – you can be a part of it.”

Zombie’s choice to crowd-fund the film shows that he cares about his fans, and wants to reward them with a chance to be a part of his movie in a very real way. While fans who back the project can receive rewards for their funding, including prizes from a cell phone case to an executive producer credit, the appeal to most horror fans is simply an opportunity to say you were a part of it, in any small capacity. Back the project here.

The film also represents a coming out, so to speak, for the horror community. While the mainstream has seemingly eluded the horror genre, for better or worse, 31 is giving fans a chance to be active participants in creating something they are passionate about.

Of course before audiences could become fans of Zombie, he needed to give them something to be passionate about.

House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

In Rob Zombie’s first film, House of 1000 Corpses, Zombie provides viewers with a familiar horror narrative, but with a post-modern stylistic approach.

Image from doodleblog, licensed
through Creative Commons

The opening sequence gives the audience a thrill as a dated Halloween special on television reminds them of something they may have peaked through their fingers at as children, a kind of nostalgic kick to the stomach. Zombie capitalizes on this feeling immediately by presenting a clown to the mix, both a staple of childhood fears and Rob Zombie himself (1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, Halloween, 31 all have clowns).

Zombie utilizes an interesting mixture of subtleties and the utter lack of subtlety in the movie. At the beginning of the movie a truck drives by with a sign that reads “God is Dead,” a recurrent and, in the context of the film, difficult to argue sentiment. Later in the film Zombie offers the audience the ramblings of an old, shotgun toting man who is confident that the reality they are experiencing is not earth or purgatory, but hell itself.

A later descent into a hell on earth and an obsession with masks (that shows up in all of Zombie’s films), prove to be the less penetrating symbols in the film.

Perhaps what made the film so polarizing was Zombie’s decision to abandon the southern torture paradigm and drop the characters into a hellish landscape, presided over by Dr. Satan. The change, while frightening, is jarring like so much of the film. It seems as if Zombie is insistent on reminding the audience every now and again that they are watching a movie, as an array of interesting visual elements in the film sometimes break the illusion of the picture.

As a result the entire thing ends up feeling like a scary dream, where acts of violence and sadism are explored through a very nontraditional format.

Under the surface the film may reflect anxiety over a dying American sentiment of a traditional family. The dinner scene reminds viewers of the Sawyer family from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, wherein a traditional familial practice of sharing dinner is perverted by the insanity of each the family and the legend of Dr. Satan.

Bill Mosely as Otis delivers an especially disturbing performance, capturing the macabre nature of his companions with every movement and declaration. His transparency as a character is chilling, as there is no veil of humanity or compassion surrounding him. Meanwhile he believes his actions to be artistic and justified, putting himself up on a pedestal as a revolutionary.

“How could I, being born of such, uh... conventional stock, arrive a leader of the rebellion? An escapist from a conformist world, destined to find happiness only in that which cannot be explained?” Otis says. “I brought you here for a reason, but unfortunately you and your sentimental minds are doing me no good! My brain is frozen. Locked! I have to break free from this culture of mechanical reproductions and the thick encrustations dying on the surface!”

In a way Otis is a much more respectable character than the other members of his family. It is clear that the lot of them are unhesitant in their killing, and furthermore tend to enjoy the act but while the rest of them kill for joy, Otis at least gives purpose to the people he kills, however contrived it would seem to anyone sitting in a chair in front of him.

Like most of Zombie’s films, House of 1000 Corpses isn't for everyone. There is a level of grotesqueness and debauchery that will disturb the easily offended and shock the faint of heart. But it’s definitely one worth watching, even just to get a glimpse of Rob Zombie’s unique style implemented in the film.

Regardless of any personal opinions about the film, it did successfully break Zombie into the movie business and propel him to a person of interest in the horror world. The Devil’s Rejects and Halloween would help to cement him into that world. 

Welcome Scary Dreamers

Hello and welcome to the inaugural post of A Scary Dream-an exploratory  discussion of the horror genre from the eyes of a scary dreamer.  

While movies and other media will be discussed in great detail on the site,  our intention is not necessarily to review these works, but rather to lead a discussion into the cultural phenomenon that is the horror genre. Our post will include what we think of movies, artwork, essays, short stories, poems, and anything else having to do with the things that go bump in the night.

With each new post we will give readers a look into how we feel a particular piece of horror media or culture fits into the customs of the traditional horror world, and further, what social commentary can be taken away from it from the traditions it draws from.  

While the blog is still in its infancy, we believe that with the help of loyal readers and participants we can create a lasting vehicle for horror fans to read about the world they love to fear.  While we will facilitate the discussion, we encourage readers to be active participants in the process. Suggestions for movies and other discussion topics is always welcome, as are submissions of your own works which we may feature on the site.  Please see the “Contact Us” tab for details.  

In the end you are here because you, like me, are a scary dreamer. Our fascinations with the intricacies of fear, the development and consumption of horror in popular media, and an imperfect human understanding of death have all brought us to the same place.  So welcome, to all of you who always turn the lights off before a scary movie,  those of you who always hold their breath as they drive by a graveyard, and of course those who refuse to be kept awake by A Scary Dream.