A PAGE FROM CHRIS LEE'S BOOK

The prestigious British Film Institute houses a collection of movie memorabilia that is hard to imagine. One of the more interesting collections for genre fans is Sir Christopher Lee's personal scrapbook that was donated by his widow. Here is an example of the content. Those of you living or travelling to the UK can view the item by appointment.

6 COMMON HORROR FILM TROPES

This post, from the Raindance Film Festival website, discusses some of the more often-used tropes (a nicer word for cliche) used in horror films. Like in other media it's how the trope is used in the context of the rest of the story as to its effectiveness.

6 Common Horror Film Tropes
by Matt Loggie | 9 January, 2017 | Filmmaking, Screenwriting

We all love a good scare, well most of us do. A good horror film can do this in a number of different ways, from a creeping sense of dread to a heart stopping moment of shock. Horror films get your heart thumping and your blood pumping.

Horror may be the most ‘tropey’ genre in film. It uses and re-uses concepts and familiar settings over and over. Humans fear the unknown, so after the 14th time seeing a main character walk through the halls of a dark house, or abandoned insane asylum coming face to face with the ghost that’s been terrorizing him it’s not really all that scary any more, to me anyway.

Most horror films in recent years feel like they are going by a checklist. A dark house, a vengeful spirit, and jump scares every 5 minutes. Here’s a list of commonly used tropes and themes associated with the horror genre. Lets take a look at how and why they are used and maybe inspire you to do things a little different.

Jump Scare
This one is such a common trope some might consider it integral to the genre maybe even a necessity. Jump scares can be effective at getting the heart rate of the audience pumping, giving them a quick chemical injection of Dopamine and Adrenaline. We get a buzz from the release of these chemicals.

This buzz can hide certain flaws in the film and might disguise weak writing or poor character development. I feel it can be ineffective and even counter productive for a film if overused. Great horror films like The Shining (1980), The Babadook (2014) and The Witch (2015) try to avoid the jump scare, instead favouring to build up the fear and uneasiness over time, letting the audience stay in that feeling longer.

No Coverage
Being chased by a killer through the woods? Hiding from the monster in the closet? If you’re a character in a horror film, chances are your cell phone will have no coverage at a crucial point in your survival. This trope is a product of the times. Years ago these kinds of scenes didn’t exist along with the cell phones used in them. As cell phones became more common scriptwriters had to come up with a way to explain why people couldn’t just call for help at any time. The easiest way to solve this problem? No coverage. This is a tough one to work around at this point, everyone has a smart phone and coverage is pretty good in most places.

The Abandoned Place
Weather it’s a haunted house or dilapidated hospital, horror films love putting characters in creepy abandoned places. There is something about imagery depicting places human beings have left behind that strike a chord with people. We think about what could have happened that drove the people away, what was life like before they left? who were they? These are some major reasons why filmmakers choose to set films in these types of locations. However, the scariness of your film should not be tied to the creepiness of your location. Try to write script that would be scary no matter where it took place, where the fear is based on internal factors within characters, not the external factors of the set. 

The Vengeful Spirit
This one is very popular. In films ghosts always seem to have a grudge against the living. They spend eternity trying to exact revenge on our characters for the suffering they endured in the past. Eventually our character discovers the truth, solves the riddle and sets right a wrong that eventually brings peace to the angry apparition. This one seems to be the most popular trope in recent years with films like The Grudge (2004), Paranormal Activity (2007), The Conjuring (2013), It Follows (2015),

The list goes on. Have you ever noticed in most of these films characters eventually just seem to accept the fact the ghost exists and that they need to help them. After they succeed everything is happy and they can go back to their normal lives, but what about the fact they now have proof of an existence after death, and a terrible, anger filled one at that. This is a world changing revelation, even if just to the person who experiences it. How would someone really deal with that?

Death by Sex
Death by sex is the ultimate 80’s horror trope. It still pops up every now and then but is mostly remembered from classic horror films like Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and it is effective because it prays upon the psyche of the young adults watching the film. Come on, getting caught in the act by anyone let alone a masked killer is a terrifying thought, especially to younger people. This trope seems to have died off I recent years (no pun intended) but it still pops up from time to time.

The Final Girl
This classic trope is more commonly found in the slasher sub-genre and usually starts with a group of teenagers having a good time together and ends with all but one girl dead and dismembered. I think the reason this trope became so popular among filmmakers is kind of due to the necessities of slasher films. The audience identifies and (usually) empathizes with the lead character so you want them to be perceived as vulnerable in the face of danger hence why the last person alive usually is a small, terrified woman instead of a large, angry man.

These films usually start with a larger group of young people. Each character usually represents an archetype (The Jock, The Slut, The Nerd). The filmmaker wants the audience to be unsure who is going to live and who is going to die so having a large cast that gets picked off one by one helps with that. The final girl is usually innocent, and shy in the beginning of the film. In the end she is revealed to be the most intelligent and resourceful character and in the end usually finds the strength to defeat the killer.

This trope connects with the Death by Sex trope as they were both popularized in the late 70’s early 80’s and usually in the same types of films but has appeared in more recent films like Cabin in the Woods (2012), a film that pays tribute to the horror genre and puts a twist on many of the tropes in this list.

These are just a few of the many tropes commonly associated with the horror genre. Will you use them or will you break them? Whatever you decide; if your are planning on writing a horror film it is important to know the history and conventions of the genre so to better understand how you can innovate and stand out.

[SOURCE: Raindance.org.]

VINTAGE MUMMY SCRAPBOOK

Here is a collection of eerie ephemera from the classic, vintage Universal monster movie, THE MUMMY for you to get wrapped up in this afternoon. The "scrapbook" includes clips from newspapers, the house publication, UNIVERSAL WEEKLY, a British cigarette card and a collectible promotional herald.

LUGOSI'S INFAMOUS LOVER

The caption for this photo from PHOTOPLAY (December 1924) describes the 19-year old Clara Bow as a "precocious baby vamp". A few years later, she would meet Bela Lugosi backstage after one of his stage performances playing Dracula. A torrid affair ensued (so the legend goes). As an apparent commemoration, Lugosi commissioned a nude painting of Miss Bow which he hung in each of the houses he owned over the years. One can only wonder what his wives thought...

'PSYCHO' SET DRAWINGS

Here is a set of architectural drawings that were used in designing the sets for Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO. These characterize the detail that was given to the look of the film and show the care that Hitchcock gave in realizing his vision for this unique and influential film.

The set of drawings sold at auction for $6,875.00.

A Large Collection of Architectural Drawings from the Set of "Psycho." Paramount, 1960. Approximately 30, all rendered in pencil on onionskin, all folded numerous times, all highly detailed professional architectural drawings of the various sets from the film, each specifically labeled such as "Ext. Bates Motel, Norman's Room, Bates Home, Ext. Gasoline Station, Hardware Store, Int. Courthouse, Sheriff Chamber's House, Int. Hotel Doorway, Ext. Swamp" and "Ext. Chicken Coop" among others, all noting various dates from 1959 to 1960 when the film was in pre-production, all with copious notes, exact measurements, and other specifications about every last detail; amazing to see the exhaustive amount of work that went into creating each set of this most classic of all horror/suspense films by the master, Alfred Hitchcock; "Psycho" was rightfully nominated for a 'Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White' Oscar, though unbelievably, it lost out to "The Apartment." All Approximately: 30" x 42" (though some are smaller or larger)

LON CHANEY IS AT IT AGAIN!

The title of this photo by Roman Freulich in the May, 1923 issue of MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE indicates that Lon Chaney was already well known by theater goers as the actor who could thrill audiences with his outlandish and outre makeups.

His character of Quasimodo in Universal's THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME is described here in this moody image as "a sinister creature of dark places". They had no idea that Chaney's Erik, the phantom would be next...

HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) PRE-PRODUCTION DRAWING

There are a few actors in the long history of horror films that were oddly cast in their roles. One is Charles Laughton's Quasimodo. Opposite Maureen O'Hara (personally, I liked Gina Lollobrigida's Esmeralda the best), the 1939 version showed that Laughton could play a monster like the next guy.

The images shown here are of a pre-production drawing for the film rendered in gouache and pencil by Joseph Hayse Goodwin, a Hollywood sketch artist of the time.

An Original Pre-Production Set Drawing from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." RKO Radio Pictures, 1939. Rendered in gouache and pencil on cardboard, depicting an elaborate, detailed, and eerie town scene as a small figure wearing a red jacket crosses a bridge, signed in the lower right corner "J. Hayse / Goodwin;" verso displays handdrawn penciled lines with a further signed "Hayse Goodwin" -- a Hollywood sketch artist who worked on this classic film starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara; from The Estate of Joseph Hayse Goodwin as consigned by his family. (Please note there is a 2" diagonal tear in the upper left corner and all borders are slightly frayed due to age.)
22" x 22".

RARE PHANTOM AND HUNCHBACK STEREOSCOPIC SLIDES

Described as an "entertaining relic of the past", this item should be of special interest to all Monsterologists. Rarely does a unique example from early horror history such as this emerge from a collector's horde and see the light of day.

The Stereoscopic viewer and accompanying slides are from Universal's THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923) and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925), both starring Lon Chaney, of course. The 10 3.25" x 4.5" slides are meant to be looked at through the 3.75" x 5" "stereo" viewer for  3-D effect. On the back is text written by the studio describing each scene.

Description of Auction Lot:
The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera (Universal, 1923 & 1925). Stereoscopic Slides (10) (3.25" X 4.5") & Viewer (3.75" X 5").
Still fully functioning, this entertaining relic of the past uses one of the very first iterations of 3-D photography to show off the gorgeous artistry from Universal's silent smash hits, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. The slide viewer comes with the original studio note to the owner, original case, and each photo has informative studio text detailing each scene on the verso. The photos show only some edge wear, minor creases, and corner bumps. The viewer, in excellent condition, shows only minor wear. Very Fine.

 

 

  

KARLOFF AND LUGOSI ON THE SET OF 'THE BLACK CAT'

It's hard to say for certain exactly how Karloff and Lugosi really felt about their filmic "friendly rivalry". I'd like to believe that, considering the nature of their personalities, they felt a warmness to each other, despite the fact that Karloff had the upper hand in popularity -- and more importantly -- finances. Karloff was grateful, Lugosi was proud, and together they made beautiful movies together.

One of those was Universal's 1934 classic story of Satanism and murder, THE BLACK CAT. The July 1934 issue of MODERN SCREEN showed a picture of Karloff and Lugosi on the set of their first film together, hyped with the promise to out-Frankenstein FRANKENSTIEN and out-Dracula DRACULA!

 

 

SELLING KING KONG

U.S. film companies employed many ways to promote their products abroad. Shown here is a "merchandising manual" for RKOs KING KONG that was sent to potential U.K. distributors containing instructions and guidelines to follow for a successful theater run.

BONUS: Here is an example of a merchandising manual tip put to use, a British program for KING KONG.

THE EVOLUTION OF A MUMMY

A puff piece in the 19 November 1932 issue of UNIVERSAL WEEKLY extols the studio's one name star, "Karloff", for his accomplishments as an actor, including his mastery in the art of makeup (!).

Hollywood was still reeling (no pun intended) from the passing of Lon Chaney, one of its most popular and top-grossing stars, and it was desperate to fill his rather large shoes. The list of candidates was endless, and every Tom, Dick and Harry that wore greasepaint in a horror film was a potential to bear the moniker -- not the least of two named Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.

What they seemed to be collectively overlooking was that the stars that were named as Chaney's successor all sat while a makeup artist behind the scenes applied the goop that would make them famous. No one would argue that Karloff's wordless role as the Frankenstein monster was nothing short of brilliant, but it was the head of Universal's makeup department, a little Greek immigrant by the name of Jack Pierce, that created the look of the monster with his skillful hands.

Syndicated columnist, Robert Grandon, glossed over this fact in his feature on Karloff that was selected by the editors of the Weekly. In it he states, "Since 'Frankenstein' there is no player on the screen who can hold a candle to his popularity as a horror artist or as a makeup artist [sic]. The mantle of Lon Chaney seems to have landed squarely on his shoulders."

More importantly, the one-page promotional piece provided readers with a short bio on Karloff and how he evolved from a construction laborer to one of Universal's biggest stars of the 1930s.

BONUS! Included here is a page from the Tuesday, May 17 1932 issue of the Hollywood trade paper, VARIETY. The article on the far right column discusses a rating of newspaper syndicates that covered Hollywood news by Tinseltown's own press agents. The ratings were based on importance. Coming in first was the Associated Press. The celebrated insider maven, Louella Parsons was seventh. Last on the list was Robert Grandon, representing Publisher's Syndicate.

DRACULA RESTORED

For years, rumors circulated around monster cognoscenti that Hammer's first vampire flick, DRACULA (HORROR OF DRACULA in the U.S.) was missing some footage. Marcus Hearne, Hammerphile, went so far as to say that the two scenes are "crucial to the film".

The missing scenes in question were tracked down in Japan, where it was the only country that played the movie uncut. They were restored and added to the extant footage. The most recent version released to viewers was a 2013 Region 2 Blu-ray/DVD.

So why haven't we seen a U.S release yet? The rationale escapes me.

Shown here is an article from SCI-FI NOW's HAMMER HORROR Special Edition (2014) that discusses the find. Also included is a Q&A from IMDB.

 

I've seen stills from scenes that don't appear in the film. How come?

There are at least two scenes for which stills exist, but which did not make it to the final edit of the film. The first is the decayed corpse of Jonathan Harker. The second is Dracula's prolonged disintegration sequence at the end. For a long time the latter was rumoured to have been included in the Japanese release, and in 2012, it was confirmed. Several seconds of extra disintegration footage, including some of Dracula tearing his flesh from his face, were restored and integrated into the 2007 BFI restoration, then released in March 2013 on Region 2 Blu-ray and DVD. The recovered Japanese reels also included an alternate version of Dracula's seduction of Mina, with erotically charged shots of Mina from Dracula's point of view and more explicit shots of Dracula kissing Mina and her very clearly enjoying it. These, too, were restored and included in the 2013 Blu-ray/DVD release. The photograph of a decomposed Jonathan Harker is thought to be a test shot or studio still, and it's unlikely the full scene was ever filmed, not least because it wouldn't make sense for Harker, who is young, to age like the other vampires on being destroyed.
 

What's new about the BFI's 2007 restored version?

Although the colours are certainly beautifully and vibrantly restored in the new print, all the footage has been seen before--just never together in one version. The 2007 restoration includes the original British title card, which reads simply Dracula, in ornate, gothic script. A few seconds of extra blood are seen in Lucy's staking scene. These were in the original US release but not in the UK version. Contrary to rumour, this restored version does NOT contain any of the supposed Japanese footage of Dracula's disintegration or of Jonathan Harker's decayed corpse. Photographic stills exist of both, but until the 2011 discovery of a partial print in Japan, no actual film had been found.
 

What are the differences between the Restored Version from 2007 and the 2012 Restored Uncut Version?

The BBFC demanded some cuts for the theatrical release of the movie in 1958. This version, known as Horror of Dracula in the USA, was for many years thought to be the longest version and was restored in 2007. So it was a real surprise when in September 2011, some old film reels containing previously unknown scenes were found in Tokyo. They didn't include the whole movie (just the last 36 minutes). Nevertheless, the buzz among the fans was huge and they naturally wanted to see these scenes. And the impossible happened at the beginning of 2013, when Lions Gate and the British Hammer Films announced the release of a new longer version of the movie on DVD and Blu-ray. Although the picture quality of the new scenes is a little bit worse than the rest and the movie's also only a few seconds longer, it is nevertheless the ultimate version for fans of this classic.

RARE 'CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI' LOBBY CARDS

Coming up for bid are two "nearly impossible to obtain" lobby cards from the silent horror film, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (Goldwyn, 1920). Dubbed by film critic Roger Ebert as "the first true horror film", the cards are from the estate of James Card, noted film preservationist. In 1948, Mr. Card brought his huge collection of silent films to the famous George Eastman House (of Eastman Kodak) archive of photography and motion pictures.
 
Card cites CALIGARI as the film that changed his life and claimed that it influenced every other film that was to follow and that ''served dramatic notice that film was a graphic art rather than a theatrical form or a branch of photography.'' He called films, "the ambrosia of his life".
 
Following the cards is the auction lot description.

 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Goldwyn, 1920). Lobby Card (11" X 14").
An astonishing piece of film history, this nearly-impossible to obtain lobby card is from the groundbreaking Expressionist masterpiece conceived by writers Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. Dubbed as the "the first true horror film" by none other than Roger Ebert, Caligari pushed the art of filmmaking deep into the uncharted territories of psychological fear and fantasy, exploring the darker side of human consciousness with a perfectly surrealistic set design and labyrinthine plot. Director Robert Wiene and designers Hermann Warm, Walter Reim, and Walter Rohrig created a terrifyingly abstract world of shifting perceptions that has influenced an inestimable number of film noir and horror directors for nearly a century. The card has a rubber stamp in the right side of the upper border denoting it as part of the "James Card Collection." Card was a film collector who started the Eastman House film collection (1951-2000) after WWII and built it into one of the finest holdings of classic silent films and ephemera relating to that era. His greatest love was early German Expressionist films, and his favorite among them all was Caligari. Minor flaws do not detract from the monumental significance and appeal of this lobby card and include: pinholes in the corners, single pinholes in the center top and bottom border each, a pinhole in the center image, small tears in the bottom border, light surface wear in the center, some paper loss and glue residue on the verso, a small crease in the top border, mild corner bends, a light diagonal crease in the upper left border, and general edge wear. A small chip in the top border, upper left corner, and a sliver down the left side have been replaced. This card comes with a wonderful provenance. Fine-. 

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Goldwyn, 1920). Lobby Card (11" X 14").
Always a marvelous treasure of early cinema, paper from Robert Wiene's monument to German Expressionism is exceedingly scarce, and exceedingly sought after. Weaving a tale of unprecedented terror, writers Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer plunge headlong into the murky depths of the human mind, expertly exploring the constantly shifting boundary between subjectivity and insanity. The surreal, nightmarish sets further warps the labyrinthine fantasy unfolding on the screen, a magnificent product from the visionary designers Hermann Warm, Walter Rein, and Walter Rohrig that has had a profound influence on the horror genre to this day. The card has a rubber stamp on the verso, denoting it as part of the "James Card Collection." Card was a film collector who started the Eastman House film collection (1951-2000) after WWII and built it into one of the finest holdings of classic silent films and ephemera relating to that era. His greatest love was early German Expressionist films, and his favorite among them all was Caligari. Minor flaws do not detract from the monumental significance and appeal of this lobby card, which include pinholes in the borders, three rounded corners, a tiny tear in the left border, creasing and scratches in the image area, minor staining and smudging in the borders, and cellophane and paper tape on the verso. The bottom left corner has been replaced, and there is also slight surface paper loss in the upper border and background, the latter of which has been colored. Only sold once before at Heritage, opportunities to own such a rarity as this hardly ever surface. Fine+.  

BONUS: NY Times Obituary of James Card

James Card, 84, a Leader In Film Preservation, Dies
By MEL GUSSOWJAN. 21, 2000 
 
James Card, one of the world's leading film preservationists, a passionate devotee of silent movies and the founder and first curator of the Department of Film at the George Eastman House of Photography in Rochester, died on Sunday at a hospital in Syracuse. He was 84 and lived in East Rochester.
 
Mr. Card joined the Eastman House in 1948, bringing with him his personal collection of 800 films, which became the cornerstone of the institution's archive. Under his direction, over a period of almost 30 years, Eastman House was generally acknowledged as the finest film collection in the United States.
 
Paolo Cherchi-Usai, the curator who holds Mr. Card's former position at Eastman, said that the collection would not have existed without Mr. Card. He added that his predecessor ranks as a preservationist with three other major figures in the field, Jacques Ledoux from Belgium, Henri Langlois from the Cinematheque in Paris and Iris Barry of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
 
''The others are better known, but he contributed very much the same way,'' Mr. Cherchi-Usai said. ''The difference was that his personality was so flamboyant that he didn't seem like an archivist in the traditional sense.''
 
Mr. Card frequently disagreed with Ms. Barry about her taste in films and about the power that she held at her museum. He said that her selections for preservation were crucial and that ''her rejection of any film for preservation was tantamount to condemning it to death.'' He added that the Museum of Modern Art and the Eastman House were ''two of the very few places one may still see projected, original, 35-millimeter nitrate films.''
 
Mr. Card's book, ''Seductive Cinema: The Art of Silent Film'' (1994), is a personalized critical history of silent movies and also a kind of memoir about his life in film.
 
''There were some of us with an addiction, with fierce passion for the medium,'' he wrote. ''We were militant and protective, and we didn't want to change it in any way. We loved its silence. When dialogue arrived and the silent film almost vanished, some of us were so infuriated that we actually refused, for many months, to even look at a talkie.''
 
Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Card was instrumental in reviving interest in the silent film star Louise Brooks. As a longtime admirer of her work, he persuaded her to live in Rochester. When Miss Brooks arrived, Mr. Card screened her films for her, and she said it was the first time she had seen them.
 
''As a working actress,'' Kenneth Tynan wrote in a profile of Miss Brooks in The New Yorker, ''she had never taken films seriously; under Card's tuition, she recognized that the cinema was a valid form of art, and began to develop her own theories about it.''
 
Soon she began writing articles for film magazines. Among Mr. Card's other enthusiasms were Theda Bara, Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford and John Barrymore.
 
He was always in search of lost films. As he said, ''From barns, abandoned warehouses, attics, basements, even from bedroom closets, these old nitrate prints are still being discovered, for every good silent-film historian is a film hunter as well.''
 
Mr. Card's dedication to film began very early in his childhood in Shaker Heights, Ohio, where he was born. He said that while others chose to collect baseball cards or postage stamps, ''for me there was never any question -- I had to have film, motion picture film of my own.'' He began by inhabiting ''the Elysian fields'' of movie theaters in downtown Cleveland, and by the mid-1920's he was seeing five movies a week. An obsession, he said, soon turned him into a monomaniac.
 
Soon he had his first hand-cranked film projector, and he began buying movies. Even before he left high school, he said, ''the mania to show and share wonderful films became an intense concern,'' and he started showing them to audiences.

''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' was the film that changed his life and ''shaped what would ultimately become a kind of career.'' That film, he said, ''influenced every film to come'' and ''served dramatic notice that film was a graphic art rather than a theatrical form or a branch of photography.'' While studying drama at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, he bought a print of ''Caligari.''

Back in the United States he became head of a documentary film and photography project for the federal government, and then was drafted into the United States Army. He was grateful for the end of World War II, at least partly because ''the collection could be resumed!''

In 1948 he became curator of the film department at Eastman House, and the following year the movie archive was opened to the public. In 1974 he was a founder of the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. He also taught film at Syracuse University and the University of Rochester.

He is survived by his wife, Jeannie; two daughters, Callista, who lives in California, and Priscilla Card-Fuller of Deerfield Beach, Fla.; and a sister, Dorothy Grove of South Bend, Ind.

''I cannot conceive of living without showing films,'' he said in his book. ''Movies have been the ambrosia of my life. To offer that gift to others, sharing in their enjoyment of the movies I love, is my greatest joy.''