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Post by hman on Sept 22, 2004 20:21:46 GMT -8
I have a question for people to put in their two cents. What are the defining attributes of Gothic horror films? What it is it about such a movie that puts it under such a sub-genre?
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Cory
Ultran
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Post by Cory on Sept 27, 2004 15:50:34 GMT -8
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Sept 27, 2004 16:30:12 GMT -8
i figured (and hoped) Cory would answer.
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Post by hman on Sept 27, 2004 17:49:58 GMT -8
You didn't know, Megs? That was a cool essay. I scanned it this time. I'll read it in more detail later. I really do want to see the Spanish version of Dracula. Dr. Freex of the Bad Movie Report said that gothic horror is more about mood and mystery rather than shocks and splatters. Would you all agree?
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Cory
Ultran
Posts: 52
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Post by Cory on Sept 27, 2004 19:32:04 GMT -8
Well, it's a good thing I did my monthly swing-by this soon  I would definitely say that Gothic horror is more about mood and mystery than shocks and splatters. In fact, I would maintain that the best Gothic horrors have neither crude shocks nor splatters. Gothic horror is, at its core, metaphysical horror: it scares you with the ramifications of there being worse things awaiting man than death. Some of these are the horrors of this world... To be driven insane, to be physically defiled, to find one's bloodline tainted by ancestral curses. But deeper than that, there are the horrors of the next one... Damnation, being spiritually defiled, learning that which man was not meant to know, finding one's actions having eternal ramifications in the cosmic struggle between Good and Evil. Slasher horror derives its horror from a totally different mindset. It is nihilistic horror that scares you with the ramifications that there is nothing worth living for. It paints a picture of a random, meaningless universe in which only the strongest win the dubious victory of survival. The only horror it can appeal to is death, because it believes that this is the only fate of humanity. Of course, like most horror fans, I don't actually find either kind especially scary. Slasher films might make me jump from shock or totally gross me out from gore, but they don't scare me and I'm not especially fond of either sensation to subject myself to them. Gothic films I actually find rather warm and inviting in all their dark, dank expressionistic fogginess. But the ideas and aesthetics of these films, whether the old stuff like German Expressionist and Universal Studios or new stuff like Burton's fairy tales and Anne Rice's vampires, I find more interesting by far. |
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Sept 27, 2004 19:35:02 GMT -8
i agree with Cory. Hammer got many great films out with a slight amount of blood, and then got really boring when they added more gore and sex (forgot about having a good story with interesting likable characters).
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Post by hman on Oct 16, 2004 22:54:40 GMT -8
I just got done watching "Fall of the House of Usher" and by Cory's definition, that movie is pure Gothic horror. It's great fun. It's leisurely-paced, but the last third is classic horror. The movie really makes me want to see more films based on Poe novels, although this seems to be the best, alongside a couple of other genre favorites.
In any case, the ideas the film presents and the script make this a thinking man's horror film. Something that my generation probably couldn't appreciate. Oh well, that's life ain't it.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Mar 12, 2005 0:13:34 GMT -8
i'd agree, most of those Poe movies were pure gothic drama- some with more horror, some with more comedy.
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Post by stareater on Mar 12, 2005 6:50:51 GMT -8
I figured I'd look the term up to see what it means at its root, and go from there. I think the term "gothic" tends to get used in describing broader styles than it actually defines, one of those "buzz" words that people throw around and may not even know what it means. Everybody here seems to have it down, but I don't think we can say that about the general masses. Here's the Merriam-Webster definition: of or relating to a style of fiction characterized by the use of desolate or remote settings and macabre, mysterious, or violent incidents. Going by this, The Fall of the House of Usher is a perfect example, as is Dracula's castle: remote, desolate, mysterious, macabre, and violent all at the same time (though, by definition, all those criteria need not be met to qualify a work as gothic). It would also seem to include a film like John Carpenter's The Thing; while very sci-fi, it's also a story that revolves around mysterious, macabre, and violent incidents taking place at an extremely remote & desolate setting. The mood certainly screams gothic. Robert Bloch's Psycho would be another good example. The flipside of "gothic" would be films like Halloween and Night of the Living Dead. The former is certainly macabre and violent, yet takes place in a setting that's hardly remote or desolate. The latter film's action takes place at a remote farmhouse, but the problem of the dead returning to life was pandemic, not an isolated incident. Both films do create a good mood of desolation, however. The anti-gothic style would be garbage like Scream, a film that is nothing but gratuitous slashing violence in plain sight of everyone. I think many people assume "gothic" just means a horror film that takes place in pre-modern times, anything Victorian or medieval, missing the point that it means more than just a period setting. It's a style that can be placed in any time period. I enjoy these types of films over the slasher ones, although I agree very few films are actually scary. It's a tough nut to write a story or create a film that is genuinely scary when so many truly horrifying things happen in everyday life. Just look at the hideous shootings in Atlanta. That's reality, and realizing you can get blown away by some criminal maniac with no regard for life (other than his own) just by going to work or being in the wrong place at the wrong time makes it difficult to get scared by a movie. I've had more nightmares from the videogame Resident Evil 2 than from any movie I can recall, although as a child, the bagpipes from The Onion Field gave me many recurring nightmares for some reason, and that wasn''t even a horror film.  |
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Post by Zone Fighter on Mar 12, 2005 13:18:39 GMT -8
As a kid my sister was scared by the wicked witch of the west in the Wizard of Oz and the childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, otherwise she says nothing in movies frighetened her. The only tv show that every frightened me was a Mission: Impossible episode in which they faked an execution in the gas chamber. I'm not sure why that spooked me but it did. I've seen the episode several times since without it bothering me.
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Post by Xenorama ™ on Mar 12, 2005 14:25:47 GMT -8
i didn't like the witch OR the monkeys from Oz, but mostly blob things scared me more than people type monsters.
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