Ever since I started doing CitD, I've been looking forward to having a chat about classic horror, and who better to have it with than the guy who runs Classic-Horror.com? Nate Yapp, author of that Rondo-nominated site (as well as of Cinema Geek, home of my 52 Perfect Movies series), was kind enough to join me this time out for an interesting discussion of all things old school.Listen in below as we pontificate about everything from Universal stuff, to Val Lewton, to Hammer, in an effort to discover exactly what "classic horror" is, anyway. And we also get into what has changed in horror between then and now, which is always a subject of spirited debate. And then there's the whole Karloff vs. Lugosi controversy...
In addition to the embedded player, you can also proceed directly to the Vaultcast page, or download Conversations in the Dark right here.
Great conversation. I totally agree about the 70s. The thing they got about making horror then was pacing, atmosphere, mood, and tension. What characters were experiencing in those horror movies seemed feasible. We all go into creaky old houses and feel nervous, we think we see something and talk ourselves out of it, we hear a whispering voice and our minds runaway with racing thoughts and heartbeats. Modern movies sort of thrust it into our faces, play all their cards at once. As a viewer we're not kept from what the terror is, we're often shown things through the terror's viewpoint. I don't want to know what's menacing me, I want my mind to fill that in. I think we've lost a lot of that in the desire to get people to the box office with big actors, horrible CGI effects, and directors essentially spoonfeeding us our horror rather than letting us have our own interpretations. Great talk--love these stimulating discussions.
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me on the podcast, Brian. I had a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteHere, here! Thanks for listening, Autumn!
ReplyDeleteNate, it's always a pleasure to talk about the old-school stuff.