100 Years of Horror

I would have to say that this is a very good video. They really made this right. The only thing is that where is George Romero? They should have had him on because he was the one who gave a zombies a new name (well thats what I think). Anyway it is overall excellent.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the birth of horror and how it has grown up to 1996. Listening to the actors like Vincent Price, Robert De Niro and Brinke Stevens, directors like Herschell Gordon Lewis, companies like Hammer Films, and others involved in the business was entertaining and informative.

It was fascinating to see how well known characters like Frankenstein changes over the years. I didn't even know that Robert De Niro did the character in 1994. From Frankenstein and the Wolf-man, we move to Hellraiser and Michael Myers, discovering along the way how some films were meant to be a one-time deal and ended up a franchise, and why we are so fascinated with demons. And, then there are dinosaurs, from 1 Million Years BC to Jurrasic park. I love a good Godzilla movie!

Christopher Lee does a great job of narrating.

I only watched a third of these before giving up, so I will do a blanket comment.

This is many hours of stuff stretched out possibly three times as long as it deserved. Interviews are reused in multiple weeks. There is lots of footage from the films they are talking about, but almost exclusively from trailers. The host is a nitwit who blathers on, partly in character. The people interviewed have almost nothing to say.

But its such a rich topic with so many, many opportunities for reward that I kept hoping.

Their definition of horror excludes Giallo. There's no mention of sleaze horror. Omitting these is like not mentioning whiskey in a history of the US. There's an episode on girl monsters and another on scream queen victims, but no mention of sex. No discussion of redheads.

There's no examination of racially based horror. How could that be?

The omissions are not as crazy as the way things are grouped. There's an episode about freaks. Now there are enough of those to fill a couple episodes. But they are crammed in with the maimed and scarred. Does anyone on the planet believe these work the same way?

I found only one mildly interesting thing: the episode on sorcerers has some pretty good background on Crowley and the actor who played Caligari's ghoul (who in turn influenced Christopher Lee). And then talks about Svengali. This seems to have been written by someone who knew the history and knew how the device is used: evil hypnotizes.

But other than that (episode 19), you really should look at any horror film closely. You'll get more than you'll get here.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Just saw the DVD, which only contains the two general episodes of this series and enjoyed it immensely. And since I'm a HUGE Abbott&Costello fan I was pleasantly surprised to see some outtakes from 'Abbott&Costello meets Frankenstein', one of their best films for sure.

But aside from that, Lee guides us through the history of horror movies using the trailers of the movies themselves. Not bad, all the exciting shots are there, but also the the very misplaced music and captions that accompanies the trailers. Silencing the music and removing the captions would have earned this otherwise wellmade documentary a 8/10, but now I think a 7 will be quite enough.

Generally speaking, most of these compilation "tributes" are crap...even this one was done on the cheap. Perhaps on account though of the clips used (95% trailers, if you're observant enough to notice) and Christopher Lee's (who else???) narration, the thing works. Matter of fact its great stuff!

Definitely more of interest to the over 40's (over 60"s wouldn't go that far astray either, now I come to think about it!) as the greater majority of the referenced work here is from archived horror 1940 and earlier. Not ALL though, even relative "acolytes" such as John Carpenter get their few minutes worth on camera!

As one reviewer pointed out, it was funny stuff to hear Lee's more than realistic comment upon his own contribution - to the "horror" that was HOWLING II!