Nightmare
Decade: In Front of the Children
The 1970s weren't
very nice. After the optimism of the 1960s, with its sexual
and cultural revolutions,
and the moon landings, the seventies were something of a disappointment. It
all started to go horribly wrong in 1970; the Beatles split, Janis and Jimi
died, and in many senses it was downhill all the way from there: Nixon, Nam,
oil strikes, glam rock, feather haircuts, medallions... However, when society
goes bad, horror films get good, and the 1970s marked a return to the big budget,
respectable horror film, dealing with real issues, addressing genuine fears.
One genuine fear
apparent in the horror films of the 1970s is the fear of children, and the fear
of the messy, painful and often fatal process of childbirth. David J Skal, in
his brilliant book The
Monster Show, identifies this fear as stemming from the introduction of
the contraceptive pill, and from the birth defect horrors forced on the western
world by thalidomide. Once sex and conception have been separated, and sexual
activity becomes primarily a pleasure, the by-products (ie children) become
monstrous aberrations. Huxley covers it well in Brave New World (1932)
with the grotesque reappearance of Linda:
"But I'm Linda, I'm Linda."'
The laughter drowned her voice. "You made me have a baby," she screamed above
the uproar. There was a sudden and appalling hush; eyes floated uncomfortably,
not knowing where to look. The Director went suddenly pale, stopped struggling
and stood, his hands on her wrists, staring down at her, horrified. "Yes,
a baby—and I was its mother." She flung the obscenity like a challenge
into the outraged silence; then, suddenly breaking away from him, ashamed,
ashamed, covered her face with her hands, sobbing. "It wasn't my fault, Tomakin.
Because I always did my drill, didn't I? Didn't I? Always ...I don't know
how...If you knew how awful, Tomakin..."
(Chapter
10 - you can find the whole e-text here)
Children are the
focus of horror in many key 1960s films (Village
of The Damned (1960) really reinforces that kids can be spooky. And unwanted.
And do bad things to their parents) culminating in Rosemary's Baby.
Yet this theme dominates the 1970s, as the crumbling family unit becomes the
source of much fear and mistrust. This time around 'the enemy within' is not
a shapeshifting alien from another planet altogether. This time the enemy is
to be found in your own home.
It's
your Mum (Shivers). Your Dad (The Shining).
Your brother (Halloween). Your husband (The Stepford
Wives). Your little boy (The Omen). Your daughter
(The Exorcist). It's the people you see so often you don't
really see them any more (Carrie). The seventies were about
deep-seated paranoia, and the fear that the moral shift of the 1960s had created
a culture of monsters - the archetypal successors of the shuffling zombies in
Night of The Living Dead. There is little humour in 1970s horror
films. Gone are the OTT antics of the Hammer/Corman crew, along with the shoestring
budgets, as horror once again returns to the mainstream. The apotheosis of all
this is, of course, The Exorcist
(1972).
The 1970s is also
the decade when the first so called movie brats (the first generation to grow
up with television and the level of visual literacy that brings) leave film
school and get let loose on their own movies (Spielberg, Scorsese, Lucas, de
Palma et al). Also, writer Stephen King hits the bestseller lists with his 1974
debut, Carrie. These are people who grew up (as King vividly recalls in his
horrorography, Danse Macabre) watching the Universal horror classics and The
Addams Family on TV and playing with their Aurora
Monster kits. This new breed of creatives were well versed in the genre
paradigms and steeped in genre history. They knew intimately how a horror film
should look and how a monster should behave - and how a skilled director might
start playing variations on the well worn themes. Steven Spielberg took the
well-worn theme of the monster movie ("It's coming to get you! Run! Hide!")
and produced the sublime Jaws (1975),
proving his worth as a director even with a budget of $12M.
Carrie - Teen Romance turns to Terror
The
casual viewer of the first hour or so of Brian De Palma's Carrie
might be forgiven for thinking they are watching some variation of the 'teen
makeover romance' subgenre, where the ugliest girl in the school only needs
a new dress and a visit to the beauty salon to suddenly date the prom king and
find out her high school isn't such a bad place after all ("She's All That"
and "The Princess Diaries" being recent entries). After a voyeuristic
opening, where terminal misfit Carrie White find herself naked, in the shower,
menstruating for the first time, being pelted with tampons by her classmates
shouting "Plug it UP! Plug it UP!", the film takes us through the
familiar territory of the headmaster's office, the ballpark, the classroom,
the suburban living room and the all-important question of a teenage girl's
career:"Who shall take me to the Prom?" Carrie's world isn't really
so weird - her telekinetic powers mean she is able to knock an ashtray off a
desk and an irritating brat off his bike. Big Deal - but really she just wants
to be loved. Sure her Mom is an embarrassing nutcase who stalks the sidelines
flashing fire and belching brimstone, but then whose Mom doesn't?
In the opinion
of sickly-sweet Sue (Amy Irving), and good-hearted PE teacher Miss Collins (Betty
Buckley, go smash those stereotypes), all Carrie needs is a decent haircut and
the sanction of top jock Tommy. In the opinion of our binary opposite Chris
(Nancy Allen) and her greasy sidekick, JD-wannabe Billy Nolan (John Travolta)
what Carrie needs is public, gruesome and spectacular humiliation. Let the conflict
begin. It seems like Sue & Miss Collins might triumph, as Carrie brushes
up well and gets to go to the prom with angel-haired Tommy Ross. They even get
elected prom king and queen. For one moment it looks as though Carrie might
put her weird background behind her but just when it's all got too romantic
and soppy for words, Chris and Billy disrupt the carefully laid genre paradigms
of high school romance with a well placed (on Carries head) bucket of pig's
blood. The final third of the film is grotesque to the extreme - gallons of
blood, fire, destruction of ALL characters (even the ones we thought were quite
nice), chaos, flying knives and of course the oft-copied-never-equalled final
shot. It's a film where you can't really hate the monster, where you want the
underdog to come out on top, and where the cataclysmic closure provides little
satisfaction for the viewer. It's a very brutal film, made to seem more so by
De Palma's use of split screen to extend action sequences, tracking shots to
create uneasiness and the VERY seventies red filters to symbolise blood. It
owes a great debt to Psycho, and together with Hallowe'en
(released the same year) marks the genesis of the teen slasher movie.
Carrie was a great success at the box office, tapping in to
teenage fears about what happens when you don't fit in with the in crowd, and
more adult preoccupations with What Regan Might Do at senior prom. Like The
Exorcist before it, Carrie garnered Oscar nominations
(for Spacek and Laurie) and Spacek won the Golden Globe for her iconoclastic
portrayal of an unwilling and very female monster. Horror seemed to be back
at the forefront of popular consciousness.
Carrie
Links
Carrie
2: The Rage? Don't bother. Really.
The
Omen: Spawn of Satan
The
Omen is another glossy, big budget horror film which deals with a demonic
child. Following the success of The Exorcist, it was inevitable that the other
movie studios would 'have a go' with this theme. The Omen is often compared
to The Exorcist, and often comes off worse. it is not a bad
film - well acted, directed, paced, with an unforgettable score and a chilling
central depiction of evil. There are strong performances from Gregory Peck as
the father who can no longer ignore the truth about his only child, and David
Warner as the journalist who meets a grisly end - his final decapitation is
one of the stunning special effects moments of the film. Other moments of shock
are well-delivered (a nanny crashing, rope around neck through a top floor window
in the middle of a child's birthday party, the impalement of a priest by a lightning
rod), providing the gory punchline to passages of suspense. It is not as original
nor as intelligent as The Exorcist, and because it follows
more usual conventions, it has not aged well. However, the apocalyptic theme
is chilling enough, and the pudgy, blank yet incredibly malicious face of young
Damien as he watches those around him die will stay in the mind long after the
strains of Carmina Burana have faded from the ear.
There are two sequels
which chart Damien Thorn's progress through life, from teenage schoolboy (Damien:
Omen II, 1978) to CEO of a huge multinational (The Final Conflict:
Omen III, 1981), neither of which have the power or impact of the original.
There is also a TVM (Omen IV: The Awakening) about a female
antichrist made in 1991, which proves that that studio still felt there was
power in the brand name. Needless to say, it's Not Very Good.
Oh, and there are
some REALLY bad haircuts in this film.
Further Reading
Ten Key Horror movies of the 1970s
(in no particular order)