So today, I wanted to talk about some horror movies. I initially thought I would do a history of horror but I think this will be more fun. When I was younger, a child of the eighties if you have not figured that out yet, I loved horror movies. More importantly, I loved the slasher genre. Partially because it was the kind of thing that seemed to upset the adults in my world and partly because I enjoyed the rush I got from being a little scared. I have always loved horror. I used to enjoy being scared, why I do not know, but I did enjoy it. We would get together on the weekends and most of what we watched was horror. It was all so formulaic I am not sure how we even liked it. I thought I should look at five slasher movies I liked growing up. This list is going to be more in chronological order, would not want to start a fight over my favorite order. In addition, this will also satisfy my need for the history of it. Part of the history teacher in me always wants to look at the chronology and impact of things. Therefore, I will put that eye towards five slasher movies and see what we can learn from them.

First, up I am going with Psycho. Now I know this does not seem to resonate as a slasher movie. Its Hitchcock, this makes it both a thriller and classic. How dare I put this in with the slasher movie? Because quite simply this is a slasher movie. Many of the kills are with a knife, slashing people to death. Wow when you say it like that this movies seems grittier. Now if you have not seen this in a while let me see if I can refresh your memory a little bit. We start with a rather tight shot on a sandwich, love that Hitchcock references food like every fifteen or twenty minutes. We discover a couple sneaking away for lunch date, for lack of a better word. Janet lee plays Marion Crane. She is a secretary at a real-estate office. When she returns to work from her lunch her boss arrives with a client from their lunch. The client is of course very tipsy and rather flirty with Marion. He then proceeds to show off his wealth by purchases a property in cash. The realtor boss is uncomfortable with this amount of cash so he has Marion drop it at the bank. Marion takes the cash and heads off with it. We see a scene of her in the car at a stop light and in the crosswalk is her boss and the client, as well as Hitchcock walking by. I loved that he has cameos in everything he did. One of those things I always look for. Now she is in her head about whether she was recognized or if they are on to her. She drives as far as she can before pulling over to rest. A police officer arrives and awakens her. This officer follows her as she goes to the next town where she trades her car and pays an additional $700 for a newer car. All in view of the officer, so not really sure if she even has a plan here or not. Eventually she gets to the Bates Motel. This is where we meet Norman. Anthony Perkins plays this part to perfection. He presents as sweet and kind but that is just the exterior. He invites Marion in for dinner. In the back office, or parlor rather, Norman shares a sandwich and they have some polite conversation. We learn Norman has a hobby of taxidermy. I am guessing in 1960 this would not be a big deal, but these days I think that sends up a red flag, actually a bright signal flare. Also of note, this dinner occurs about 20 minutes in, so long overdue for a food reference. In the back parlor, we see some of Norman’s handy work. The office walls have several stuffed birds displayed, all of which are birds of prey which I always thought was an interesting bit of symbolism. They talk and part ways. Marion returns to her room does some math with the cash she has and then tears up the paper and flushes it. If I am remembering correctly this is also the first time we see a flushing toilet on screen. Imagine the level of outrage over that for a moment, and then wonder what these same people would think of a few of the other films on this list. Oh yeah we are about to go on ride. Janet lee decides it is shower time. We all know this scene. We have all seen the scene, well most of us have. There is something like 78 separate setups and 52 edits. It is really a violent scene, even though by today’s standard we see nothing. The cuts and changes happen so rapidly you are caught up in it, as if you are there. This is only the end of act one. Now we are off to figure out what happened to Marion. Now we see this as a classic whodunit, this is where Hitchcock shines. He is a master of building suspense. That may not translate as well in the modern audience, but he is a master.

So many movies these days tell and do not show. Hitchcock is classic show do not tell. Somewhere in the eighties or nineties, we moved to a more dialog heavy script with a lot of edit action. No real action on the screen just a lot of cuts to give the appearance of movement. Now do not get me wrong, I like both; however, I do have to be in the mood for the older shows and movies.  I love that classic Hitchcock quote, well I hope it is Hitchcock now that I am saying it but he said and of course I am paraphrasing, that you show the audience the ticking time bomb. They get to see the clock counting down but never let it explode. That is how we build tension people. This is a hard thing to pull off. We all want the big payoff; we want the bomb to go off. That is why this works so well when building the suspense.

Hitchcock uses the rest of Psycho to build the suspense. Will we catch this guy? Will Norman get away with murder? Has he done it before? These are all scenes we get in the film. If you have not seen this get it.  Find it.  I think you can buy it on VUDU or Amazon at this point. This is a classic and you need to see it. It should also be in your collection. I think I saw the end of this when I was young. I had to be around four or five based on the image that is in my head. It does involve the ending reveal so I will not tell you exactly what I saw, if this is even what I saw, but I have this memory of that scene where all is revealed. For years, I could not place it. I would sit and ponder sometimes what was that scene that freaked me out when I was younger? I often thought it was a dream, and maybe it was, but when I recently re-watched it that memory flooded into my mind and I had this moment where I honestly believe that is the scene I saw. Not traumatic, unless you are four or five and even then, it was more of jump scare than anything.

So next on the timeline is the movie who has had more issues because of the title than any other reason. I am talking about what most consider the first slasher movie, of the modern era; I am talking about Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This movie was banned more for its title than its content. I recently was able to re-watch this with commentary from Joe Bob Briggs. I love this guy. His knowledge on film, especially horror, is so immense and awe-inspiring. I would love a chance to just listen to him talk about film. I always love when he pops up in documentaries on film or drive in theaters he is a fan and you can tell. I probably have been watching him since the eighties. I remember he had a show on movie channel that predates monster-vision. I always loved those drive-in totals, but on TNT it was disappointing as they would cut out a bunch of them. So, what is the Texas chainsaw massacre? This is a wonderful movie. Yes, it is a low budget horror film and it is wonderful as a film. Just a film. Add in horror and it is over the top. The best thing here is how little is actually shown. Most of this film takes place in the viewers mind. We have a group of twenty somethings taking a road trip to check on their grandfather’s grave. Apparently, a local cemetery had been vandalized and some of the bodies have been dug up. Now I have to admit I have seen this movie more times than I can count, but I always forget about this first part of the film. I am always surprised. In my mind it really just starts after this, you know when they pick up the hitchhiker. I think I am getting ahead of myself. Picking up a hitch hiker, This is clearly the seventies. Our group is packed into a van with no AC. Back in those days, AC was an extra and most cars had a vent window, a little triangular window on both of the front windows. You could pop those open and funnel air into the car. It did not get cold but it did keep the vehicle cooler. As we, all know that driving with the AC on tends to burn fuel and the last thing you want to do is run out of gas during a gas shortage. Which of course our group does. They end up sitting at a gas station waiting for the delivery truck. This is a small town in Texas and it is exactly what you would be looking for. Having driven across the country, or at least through Texas, several times I can tell you these little mom and pop stations used to be out there. You had gas, maybe two pumps, and some food inside, usually made by mom of the mom and pop store. Always welcoming and inviting. Knowing we are in a horror movie this quaint little gas station now seems so ominous and sketchy. As our twenty somethings wait for the gas delivery, a few split off to explore the surrounding area. If any of you have ever played Dungeons and Dragons you know splitting the party is always a bad idea, and of course, this does not take long to play out for our characters. One of the young ladies finds the house and she is scooped up by leather face quickly. Then one of the guys goes looking for her and of course, he is grabbed as well. Now it is getting dark and sally, our final girl played by Marilyn Burns, and her brother Franklin, played by Paul A Partain, go looking for the rest of the group. Leather face gets Franklin in a scene that I always know is coming but still gets me every time. You go from the relative quiet of these two looking for their friends to the loud sound of a chainsaw out of nowhere. I really wish my chainsaw would start on the first pull like Leather face’s does. Sally escapes and manages to find, what she thinks is safety with a man at the gas station. Of course, he is part of this murderous family of cannibals. I am not going to ruin the end but suffice it to say you have seen this ending in every slasher movie from this point on.

I now want to address just a few things about this film. First, I need to talk about the wonderful actor who plays the hitchhiker. Edwin Neal does such a wonderful job playing the creepy hitchhiker. This is really the poster boy for not picking up hitchhikers. While in the van, he takes a Polaroid picture of the group and burns it. He cuts his had with his own pocketknife. They do throw him out of the van and smears his bloody hand down the side of the van. I honestly think he has marked this van. It is never stated but I think that is the intent here.

Now let us talk about the kills. First, it seems if I am remembering correctly, there is only one kill with a chainsaw and it takes place off screen. How can it be a massacre if it is one person, and off screen? Many of the kills in this movie are nowhere near as graphic as the title would imply. Most of these horrible deaths take place with our imagination. Early in the film, one of the characters is slammed down on a suspended meat hook. You never actually see the hook penetrate the body. However, it is done in such a way that many people will tell you in graphic detail what they “think” they saw.

Gunnar Hansen as Leather face is awesome. He is huge in this movie. Looks as though stands over everybody, and yet with his own family he is bullied, almost nonstop. Treated correctly, this guy could have been a gentle giant but the circumstances for this character would not allow it. Gunnar Hansen has made a career out of playing these kinds of characters but for me leather face is the beginning. He is played with the skill and depth of the silent era stars. He was a stand out in this cast. Tobe Hooper is said to have come up with the idea while shopping in a crowded store, boy do I understand that. This little horror film really does touch on some serious issues. I love horror films for this, and horror film writers and directors. These people seem to be looked down on as they make these violent films about killing. To me this is someone who is not paying attention. Let us look at Texas chainsaw massacre as social and political commentary. Right up front and center is the energy crisis in the early seventies. Gas lines everywhere. People waiting in line for hours to buy fuel. You had to go by the last digit of your license plate to know if you were “ALLOWED” to buy gas. Imagine living in an America where you were denied gas because of your license plate number. That would be if you could find a station with gas. I swear people used to sit in line and push their car forward just so they would not use gas needlessly. Leather face as a Trans icon. Many people do not see this. Leather face actually has the “pretty” mask me puts on at one point, I think it is for dinner. Lipstick and rouge on the cheeks. It is the early seventies so people are not as accepting of this type of self-discovery. The film also comments on the rising unemployment in our country. Many jobs were lost due to either outsourcing or just automation. This point is made in the film. The hitchhiker reveals using the pneumatic gun to slaughter cattle is no good you have to use the hammer. Later in the film, we see the hitchhiker helping his grandpa use a hammer in trying to kill sally. A lot of commentary here. Horror does this well sometimes. Not as often or blatant as science fiction but it still has its commentary.

I think this next one might just be my favorite horror movie. It’s not the goriest or the scariest but it is one I can watch almost anytime. John Carpenter’s Halloween is a wonderful film. I think I was probably about nine or ten when I saw this one for the first time. I have always enjoyed this as a movie that happens to be horror. Very simple story, and a well-crafted film from start to finish. The pacing is excellent the introduction of characters and setting flows, sometimes that feels like it lags but not here. Alright for those who have yet to see the film let me give you the run down. Halloween takes place in the town of Hadden Field Illinois. A town that does not exist, and the film was actually shot in California. Notice all the bright green trees that would be brown on Halloween up north, and that does not even pull you out of it, that is how good this is. Essentially, we have a movie about the boogie man. A mental patient, Michael Meyers, escapes and returns to his hometown after being locked up for fifteen years for killing his sister. He appears to become fixated on these three teen girls. Now, these are you typical all American high school girls. You got the blonde cheerleader, played by P.J. Soles. She is the hypersexual friend Lynda. You know the girl who is always planning a place to hook up with her boyfriend. We also get the straight shooter friend, Annie played by Nancy Kyes, who also is interested in hooking up with her boyfriend but also seems interested in getting Laurie a boyfriend as well. Which of course brings us to Laurie Strode, played by Jamie lee Curtis. I believe this was her first film role, if not it was very early on for her. She is our final girl, not the first final girl but definitely an early one and a model for future final girls. Was she afraid? You better believe she was. This is what brings us in. we see her afraid and we see her protecting the children and risking her own life in the process.

I love Halloween. Like I said I was like nine the first time I saw this. I was at a Halloween party I saw this and humanoids from the deep, definitely too young to see that one. I recently watched it and wondered if anyone was even paying attention when they were baby sitting us.

One thing I love about this movie is how isolated the suburbs are. Okay history lesson. After WWII Halloween became a children’s holiday. You would tick or treat early then go to a party at the community center and then you rush home to try to win a prize calling into the local radio station after the party they hosted. This is the boomer version of Halloween. As they aged the youth traditions were handed down to their children, but adults would all go to their own Halloween parties and leave the kids home with a babysitter. I remember this as kid, and this is how Carpenter is able to clear out the suburbs and isolate our group in the middle of a populated area. Just wonderful.  I also love all the foreshadowing in this film. We get a scene of Laurie staring out of her classroom window at michael across the street staring at the school then she answers this question in a high school class about philosophy something about Samuels seeing fate as a force of nature. First of all, what high school has philosophy on the schedule, or even a high-end English where students are this involved. Secondly, she is literally staring out the window at her fate, who appears to be a force of nature himself. Wonderful! We also get a conversation between our three girls where Laurie tells Annie “You are going to get us all in big trouble one day”, care to guess where all most of the murders in the movie happens? That’s right at the house where Annie is supposed to be babysitting. As a matter of fact, all of our teens meet their fate in this house. Excellent.

The music here is wonderful, I think we all know that whether you have seen it or not you know that theme. It is done 5/4 time, so it never seems to find an end, so it just builds tension and anxiety. Music is the dance of dissonance and harmony intertwining. Coming together and moving apart. And this music does that very well. We also get a great visual representation of this dance. In one scene we get a wide shot from behind Michael Meyers. He is next to a tree across the street from the house where Annie is babysitting. He is standing in the dark in the right side of the screen. everything in this scene is on the right side. The majority of the house across the street, the front door everything is slanted to the right. I know this is so we see Annie arriving from the driveway, but it is out of balance. Then in the next scene we get this perfect center line alignment of the Meyers house, which itself is very symmetrical. You have the door in the center one window equal distance on either side, and even the windows on top are also split this way. This is not the only place it happens. It happens in many places through out the film. There is the scene where Donald pleasance, who plays Dr. Loomis the man hunting Michael Meyers like Quin in Jaws, scares these kids off form the Meyers house. He does it to get them away and keep them safe, but he gives this little half smile. We all know Halloween is about scares we like to give them. He turns around and jumps when the sheriff shows up, showing we also like to be scared a little on Halloween. And of course, if you pay real close attention all of the jack-o-lanterns are different through the whole film, which is just a nice touch.

Next in our timeline order we have Friday the 13^th. There are like 12 of these movies. 12, right? Does that include Freddy v. Jason? I mean is that a separate movie or does it belong to both franchises? That is what we do here at that and dollar. We ask the questions man has been seeking answer to since the dawn of time. Any way lest talk about the first Friday the thirteenth. I love the story about how they ran a full-page ad with just the title to see if they’d get sued. I have seen many a documentary on this. So, what is the story. again, as it is with most of these movies, very simple story plot. Essentially, we have a summer camp that has been closed down for many years and about to reopen. The owner of the camp is bringing some college kids to get the place open. They are warned against going by a local town’s person, crazy ralph played by Walter Gory. He is that creepy older guy usually used as a distractor and only there to give the initial scare and present the opportunity for the audience get the lore of the place. Turns out back in the fifties, or Sixties, been a while since I have seen it, a boy drowned while two counselors were fooling around instead of attending to their duties. The next year more people died. This gets camp crystal lake the nick name of camp blood. Now that we are creeped out and isolated at the camp and the counselors begin to die off, one by one.

One thing I loved about this movie when I saw it initially is that this is not a horror film at all. I mean yeah okay it is a horror movie. I mean you got a killer, isolated teens having sex drinking and dying. So yes, a horror film, but what it is at its core is a mystery. This is a classic who done it. first of all, we are presented with crazy ralph. He keeps warning them that they are doomed, doomed I say. So, when we get our first death, we all think “hey its crazy ralph. He is the killer” then when he gets killed, we really start watching. As each of our suspects die off, we get more and drawn in. who is it? who is the killer. Now I normally try not to give any spoilers, but here I am going to ruin this one for you. It is so iconic that I am sure most have seen it. so, spoiler warning. The killer ends up being a character we never met through out the entire film until the end. It is Jason’s mom; she is the killer, but of course they all blame Jason. In the midst of a breakdown. She is hearing the voice of her dead son Jason and is taking out her revenge on the counselors at the camp. Yes, it feels a little tacked on as we never even see this character in any meaningful way until the third act, but it is still good. The true star of this wonderful film is not Kevin bacon in an early film appearance. It is not even the fact they had all these wonderful stage actors in this film. Even the music is great and atmospheric but none of these are the star the shines brightest. This films true star is the makeup effects of Tom Savini. I am talking about a diamond amongst diamonds. I mean we all reeled in horror when we saw that arrowhead pierce through Kevin bacon’s throat and the frothy blood comes out through the tube. It is wonderful and all the effects are just this inventive. His work definitely shines here. the writing in this is excellent. I love how Jason, the true Reagan era hero, is shown as a force of nature. Each of these movies has a storm moving in as Jason’s body count goes up. I know it is his mother who did all the killings in the first movie, but yes, she is paired with the impending storm. Wonderful! Why do I say Jason is a Reagan era hero? He was a moral enforcer. Look at who gets killed in these movies. Bully the odd kid at the gas station? Dead. Break off from the group to smoke weed? Dead. Engage in premarital sex? Dead. Jason is only enforcing these societal morae through swift and determined punishment for the offenders. Jason goes on the list with Dirty Harry and Paul Kersey, from death wish. Wonderful commentary on conformity to the societal norms. yes, it spawned like a million sequels. I think this could be ripe for a Blair witch treatment. Head cams for a bunch of POV shots as our young college students explore the famed crystal lake region. Animal cams placed around the woods to capture any images. Not sure why this has not been done yet, but I think it needs to. We are far enough away from Blair witch that I think it could work. Plus, who does not love a good found footage movie.

So here we are at our last movie. I am going to round out the mount Rushmore of slasher films with a nightmare on elm street. At last check this was available on Netflix. Now I am taking about the 1984 original. I loved this movie when I was younger. Elm Street is the movie that made me notice writers and directors. Being a music guy if you like an artist or band, you follow them, but it has always eluded me how to do that with film and television. So many moving parts. Then I realized it will depend on the part you like. With this movie I loved the concept. When you were a kid and were scared, how did you hide from the boogey man? Right, you pulled the blanket over your head and tried to sleep. We all know the boogey cannot attack as long as you are completely under the blanket and therefore it is safe to go to sleep. I mean it all made sense when we were young. Why do I bring this up? Simple Freddy Krueger is waiting for you to do exactly that. Pull the blanket up over your head and go to sleep. For those that are not aware a nightmare on elm street is really a revenge movie. It’s a sub-genre’. The story is that Freddy Krueger was a child molester who got out of jail on a technicality, so the parents of those children took the law into their own hands and killed him. Now he is back and killing the children of elm street in their dreams.

This concept was frightening on many levels. I already talked about the paradigm shift with the boogey man. The other factor here is that in the late seventies and early eighties it seemed kids were getting snatched up left and right. The Atlanta child murder, Adam Walsh, and of course numerous local stories that I am sure happened across the country. So many kids were getting snatched they started putting missing children’s pictures on milk cartons. So, the idea of a child murderer was a very real thing people my age grew up with. Freddy Krueger was real for so many of us. I love how by the end of the eighties Freddy had become such a pop icon that he had children’s pajamas and plush toys to snuggle with. Tell me the eighties weren’t weird. Children owned stuffed dolls of a child molester. Yep, that is the eighties for you.

Alright, so the movie itself again has that very simple premise. We got a group of teens going up against a monster. One of the key elements of horror movies is isolation. I talked about Carpenter isolated us in the suburbs in Halloween, but now what is more isolating than being in your dream unable to do anything but deal with it. very quickly we get our fist death with Tina. We see the real-world impact of Freddy. The effects here are excellent. We are in the real-world watching Tina get cut by Freddy’s glove. No glove the cuts just appear, very nice. She then begins to flail around the room, up the wall, and onto the ceiling, all while her boyfriend watches on in horror before she flops dead on the floor. Nancy, Heather Langenkamp, has a nightmare while sleeping in class and actually burns her arm. Now we learn what happens in the dream has real world consequences. We get a young Johnny Depp. He gets swallowed by his bed and then spewed back out. So over the top it makes you laugh more than it should. Our final show down is between Nancy and Freddy. She pulls Freddy from the dream world into the real world where she defeats him by taking all the power she ever gave him back. Or does she? I mean the end of the film sort of alludes to Freddy not being defeated. I mean the kids are trapped in the car. The mom is dragged through that tiny window on the door, and we got the three kids playing jump rope. The whole thing is…well you know “totally one two Freddy is coming for you” you know what I mean?

so there are five slasher movies that I love. Don’t forget to vote in the poll below. please be sure to follow me on twitter at @thatandadollar. also be sure to listen to the podcast That and a Dollar… where ever you find your podcasts.