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A new sense of realism (a hallmark of '70s cinema) made the horror of the day especially resonant. Filmmakers like Craven, Romero and Tobe Hooper ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), captured grainy, dark, high-contrast images on hand-held cameras to evoke the feel of the evening news.
"If you watch 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' or 'The Last House on the Left,' they look like documentaries," Zombie observed. "They're such a change from what horror movies were. There's no sense that they're fake, and there's no sense that those are actors."
While domestic issues did their part to drive the horror of the decade (the doomed teens of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" even fell victim, in part, due to the gas shortage), it was the bloody grind of Vietnam — beamed directly into the home of every American — that weighed heaviest on the horror of the day.
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Essential Viewing From The Heydays Of Horror
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1950s
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Godzilla (1954)
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Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
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The Amazing Colossal Man (1957)
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The Blob (1958)
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The Fly (1958)
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1970s
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The Exorcist (1973)
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
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The Omen (1976)
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The Hills Have Eyes (1978)
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Dawn of the Dead (1978)
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Halloween (1978)
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2000s
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Jeepers Creepers (2001)
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The Ring (2002)
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Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
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House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
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Freddy Vs. Jason (2003)
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Cabin Fever (2003)
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Dawn of the Dead (2004)
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"When you talk about all the filmmakers who made all of the classic stuff in the '70s, like Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, John Carpenter, they always reference all the horrible images that you saw for the first time on TV from Vietnam. That had a big impact on those films, because those films were so real," Zombie said.
" 'Last House on the Left' was very much ... if not a protest against Vietnam, certainly a reflection of the anguish, and the shock at the horror of it," Craven said of his 1972 horror debut.
"I think in the '70s there were a bunch of us who were angry, who grew up in the '60s and were pissed off we couldn't change the world," Romero recalled. "I think that the anger in some of us came out of that."
Moviegoers — who were mighty angry as well back then — ate it up. From mainstream successes like "Texas Chainsaw…," "Dawn of the Dead," "The Omen," "The Exorcist" and "Halloween" (a favorite among the "latch-key kids" of the day) to cult classics like "The Hills Have Eyes" and "I Spit on Your Grave," the decade teemed with tales suggesting that boundless evil that can live in the heart of anyone.
But soon the pendulum swung back, and the hyper-realism and social commentary of the '70s gave way to marketable and easily franchised characters in the '80s. While some maverick filmmakers made inroads with horror fans ("Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson had "Bad Taste," "Spider-Man" visionary Sam Raimi had "Evil Dead" and "Titanic" titan James Cameron had "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning," and the decade did give us "Hellraiser," for which we can be forever grateful), Reagan-era horror was big business.
"In the '80s, horror got really friendly," Zombie recalled. "Freddy Krueger started out as a horrible, child-molesting murderer, but by the end of the '80s, every kid wanted to dress up as him for Halloween."
Combined with the economic prosperity and contentment of the Clinton era, that burn-out resulted in a new breed of knowing, ironic horror films. The '90s were not without turmoil (the L.A. riots and the government's violent raid on the Branch Davidians' compound in Waco, Texas, were especially haunting), but standard horror wasn't enough for moviegoers who were generally feeling safe and secure at home. Call it the "Scream" factor.
"It was totally unique," Craven said of the 1996 film. "It had very complex characters, lots of back story, kind of a soap-opera [plot], and its own social commentary about the generation itself. It was really fascinating."
Inventive as it was, the film's slick blend of recognizable, heartthrob actors and know-it-all allusions to the "rules" of the horror genre were co-opted by a slew of films to follow. As "I Know What You Did Last Summer," "Urban Legend," "Disturbing Behavior," "The Faculty" and others rolled into theaters, it seemed like the grit and chills of the '70s were long gone.
"It seemed there was that moment where everyone was just too cool for everything," Zombie said. "I think the over-sequelizing, franchising, merchandising world of horror sort of took the bite out of everything. By the '90s, nobody thought that anything could be scary anymore, so they thought like, 'Why even bother? We won't even make it scary. We'll make it so that these young teen characters are smarter than all the killers and they're not really scared because they're so smart and they know everything.' People dug it because there's nothing kids love more than to think they're smarter than everybody else."
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Photo: New Line
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