Eli Roth's History of Horror (2018) s02e06 Episode Script
Nine Nightmares
1
male narrator:
I'm Eli Roth.
I want to introduce you
to nine uncategorizable films
that pushed the boundaries
of horror
[terrifying music]
Nine films that tell us
dark truths about society
and ourselves.
[screams]
narrator:
Nine films filled with fear
and fun.
[screaming]
narrator: Nine nightmars
you'll never forget.
[tense music]
[screams abruptly]
[eerie music]
♪♪
[screams]
[chainsaw revving]
narrator: Horror is the
outlier genre of cinema.
Some people fear it.
Others don't respect it,
but that renegade status
lets it go places
no other genre can reach.
Great horror films
entertain us and provoke us.
They put society
under a microscope
Sam?
narrator: Making us questn
not just what we fear
[bell rings]
- [screams]
narrator:
But why we fear it.
[suspenseful music]
And there's
no better recent example
than Jordan Peele's "Us."
♪♪
In 2017, Jordan released
his first film, "Get Out,"
an Oscar-winning
commercial and critical hit
satirizing racism in America.
♪♪
The Armitages are so good
to us.
What you experienced
in your first movie is, like,
to come up
with the Academy Award,
to make a movie that is, like,
probably the most culturally
significant horror film
since
"Night of the Living Dead,"
and then you're like,
"Now I have to follow that up."
The expectations
were a bitch.
As you know, you, like
you kind of have to say,
"Okay, well what got me here
in the first place?"
looking at "Get Out"
and imagining
what people are expecting.
[ominous notes]
[heart pounding]
If I can kind of start
to understand or pinpoint
what I think people
are expecting,
I can start to plot
how to suvert that.
♪♪
[deep ominous notes]
♪♪
There is a Black family
vacationing in Santa Cruz
at their summer home,
basically the only
Black family you can see
on this beach.
So it speaks to isolation
almost immediately.
And over the course of a normal
evening, the young son, Jason,
realizes there's
a family standing outside.
♪♪
[dramatic musical sting]
And once the family breaks
into the house,
we realize
these are doppelgangers,
that everyone who's broken
into the house
is a mirror image
of this family.
♪♪
You know, I think both films,
in a strange way,
are about losing your identity
and sort of who you are
like,
what the external world sees
and what you are on the inside.
Both of these movies
became clear to me
when I decided
to be vulnerable
and and and
look look within.
[shouts unintelligibly]
[pants wheezily]
Asked myself
what really scares me,
asked myself
what I'm not ready to face.
What are you people?
Which felt related to what
we're not ready to face.
[hoarsely]
We're Americans.
[ominous music]
What would it be like
to see someone
who looked exactly like you?
Who is that person?
What does that mean?
Are they taking something away
from you,
or are you taking something
away from them?
- [hoarsely] Run!
- [yelping]
narrator:
At first,
the film seems to be about
one family in peril
[roaring]
narrator:
Then we discover
everyone has a doppelgangr
living underground,
invisibly tethered to their
counterparts on the surface.
Now, our tethered twins
have emerged
to murder us.
[sharp musical sting]
[suspenseful music]
I remember you telling me after
we shot last year
that you were gonna go
shoot something
that felt like "Lost Boys"
♪♪
Yeah,
we're in the same place
Santa Cruz Boardwalk
the exact same location.
Did you hear the line
about "Lost Boys" in there?
You know, they're filming
something about a carousel.
You should see
if they're looking for extras.
[screams]
[shouts unintelligibly]
[dramatic music]
But I always thought
this idea of "Lost Boys"
that there's a monster
up here,
and so I thought,
with that same location,
what if there's a monster
underneath as well?
- Mm-hmm.
- On the opposite side.
Yeah.
[hoarsely]
They created the Tethered
so they could use them
to control the ones above.
[unsettling music]
Like puppets.
I was thinking
about, uh, incarceration.
I was thinking about class.
- Mm-hmm.
I I was thinking about
the term "us and them,"
the the idea of "us and them"
and the the the division
when when you
sort of identify an "us."
You create a "them."
You create an other.
Don't waste your strength.
Don't try to fight it.
You can't stop the inevitable.
Much like "Get Out,"
this is a a systemic monster
we're dealing with.
It really does appear to be,
on a fairly
straightforward level,
a story about the haves
and the have-nots.
[pleasant orchestral music]
♪♪
Sort of existing
with a privilege
and and a privilege
that many of us enjoy
is a violent act.
And that's that's
the central theme of "Us,"
is this idea that,
when we look at the mirror,
both individually
and collectively,
we might realize, well,
it's not as simple as,
"I'm the good guy."
You know,
we're all part of a system.
There's a story
behind everything we enjoy.
There's a factory.
There's a a line.
There's there's somebody
working overtime,
you know,
to to try to make us happy
if we can afford it.
♪♪
Our little pleasures
are coming
at the cost
of invisible people
that we really don't want
to acknowledge or see
because it's inconvenient.
[ominous notes]
narrator: The family
at the center of the film
are better equipped
to handle the Tethered
than most horror fim
protagonists
[shrieks]
narrator: Partly becaus,
as Black people in America,
they are always on guard.
Let's make some traps
or something,
like some
"Home Alone"-type stuff.
That way if she comes
Tell me you did not
just reference "Home Alone."
Well, having
a Black protagonist
in in a horror movie,
as a writer, is a trap
because you can't have them do
the stupid response.
They have the upper hand.
This is the time to run,
not to be sprinkling
Micro Machines on the floor.
What are Micro Machines?
What's "Home Alone"?
It's it's partly
a satirical comment,
but partly very grounded
in real real life.
This country is is a
is a horror show
- Yeah.
- For Black people, you know?
This is
we're in a horror movie.
[eerie music]
I try and access
what I'm actually afraid f
or what I'm you know.
Mm-hmm.
And that part of the process
of making these movies,
I swear, I kind I
I overcome my fear.
[match snaps and hisses]
[rasping]
narrator:
Race and class divisions
can turn everyday lives
into horror movies,
but what about people
in the most privileged
position in society?
What nightmares stalk
the ruling class?
[screams wildly]
narrator:
In the year 2000,
Christian Bale gave
an unforgettable performance
as the antihero
of "American Psycho"
[chainsaw revving]
A dark satire
of human behavior
at the top
of the economic ladder.
[suspenseful music]
"American Psycho,"
based on the notorious novel
by Bret Easton Ellis,
is about a young,
wealthy businessman
who seems
to have a perfect life.
I work on Wall Street.
So he's, uh, very handsome;
he has a perfect apartment;
he has a
you know, a high-paying job.
So it's about someone
whose life is full
of perfect surfaces
and who is so filled wi,
sort of, rage and emptiness
that he disembowels
young women.
I like to dissect girls.
Did you know
I'm utterly insane?
Uh [chuckles]
Uh, great tan, Marcus.
I mean, really impressive.
Where do you tan?
- Salon.
[musical sting]
"American Psycho" is one f
the best satires of all time.
You can always be thinner,
look better.
To me, it really, really
caught what the '90s was about.
♪♪
Suddenly,
metrosexuality came in
and men became obsessive
with grooming products,
skin care, waxing,
tanning booths.
What beautiful skin
you have, Mr. Bateman.
And what suits
you were wearing,
the kind of explosion
in fashion and commerce
and restaurants and status.
It was just
this Wall Street world.
Gene, great jacket.
Matsuda?
Valentino Couture.
It's really a satire
of consumerism
Where did you get
that overnight bag?
[car trunk slams]
- Jean Paul Gautier.
You know,
American vulture capitalism
at the end of the 20th century.
And it's all expressed
in this person who looks good,
but is actually a monster.
[hollowly]
I guess you could say
I just wat
to have meaningful relationship
with someone special.
I wanted Bateman
to be the object of fear.
[tense music]
When Christian and I
were in preparation
for "American Psycho,"
we talked about him
as being like a a Martian
someone from another planet
who doesn't know how
to be a human being.
♪♪
So when Bateman's going
to have sex with someone,
he watches a porno movie.
[chainsaw revving
and woman screaming on TV]
If he's gonna, uh,
commit a murder,
he's gonna watch
a a faous horror movie.
[chainsaw revving
and woman screaming on TV]
The fact that it was
directed by a woman, I think,
ws such an interesting
counterbalance to the book.
Even though he's doing all
of these crazy things,
there isn't this misogynist,
anti-woman, kind of gross tone
about the movie.
Jean?
Sorbet?
When we were filming
"American Psycho,"
I realized that
the fear a woman has
of going on a date
or going to a guy's apartment
and something bad happening
or him suddenly transforming
from one kind of person
into another
is
is a very strong female fear.
Can we go now?
We're not through yet.
Movies are a way
of exploring those fears.
[chainsaw revving]
- [yelps]
[wet impact]
- [screams]
We don't want to admit it,
but all of us
there's a part of us
that is like Patrick Bateman,
that is obsessive,
that wants things.
It's like this personification
of all the greed
and the vanity
and the consumption
and the vapidness
all the stuff
that we suppress;
that we say we don't have;
that we say,
"That's just other people";
it's all reflected
in Patrick Bateman,
but we're watching him
and there is a part of him
that's in all of us.
[laughing]
I
[gasps]
Just have to kill
a lot of people!
And um
[tense music fades]
[stutters and sniffles]
I'm not sure I'm gonna get awy
with it this time.
He's not punished at the end,
so you're not giving
the audience that satisfaction,
actually.
But I felt like the
the satirical
and also of the moral point
of Bret Easton Ellis's book
was that
he wouldn't get found out
because society didn't care
to find him out.
I chopped Allen's
(bleep) head off.
The whole message I left
on your machine was true.
Excuse me.
I really must be going now.
Society just didn't care
as long as he conformed
to the perfect, you know,
surfaces and perfect, uh,
stereotypes
of of
the successful businessman.
No one would bother.
This confession
has meant nothing.
[unsettling music]
[musical sting]
narrator: Faced with the
emptiness of consumer culture,
many turned to the spiritual
comforts of religion.
accursed!
♪♪
narrator:
But there can be a fine line
between a religion
and a death cult.
- No!
- No!
narrator: Most religions
teach the way of peace,
yet religious differences
have led
to an almost unthinkable
amount of bloodshed.
He brought you up
to be a pagan.
[eerie music]
narrator:
This paradox is at the heart
of two films about faith
[musical sting]
"Midsommar" from 2019
and "The Wicker Man"
[all gasp]
From 1973.
♪♪
"The Wicker Man"
has the reputation
for being the greatest British
horror film of all time.
[goat shrieking]
It was one of those movies
I didn't see until late in life
because I would look
at the video box and go,
"What's scary
about a wicker man?"
Oh, God!
Oh, Jesus Christ!
[single drum beating ominously]
I finally saw it,
and it's one of those movies
that changed my life.
[organ playing hymn]
all: In pastures green ♪
He leadeth me ♪
It has to do with
Christianity versus paganism.
[tense music]
A police inspector is sent
to this remote isle
of Summerisle
to investigate the
disappearance of a young girl.
[chalk scraping]
- Rowan Morrison.
And he's
this repressed, uh, Christian
coming to grips
with this society
that is the total opposite
of everything he believes in.
I find degeneracy,
and there is brawling in bars.
There is indecency
in public places.
Open sex and wild dancing
and all this uninhibited
craziness that he's not used to
and he has a hard time
adjusting to that.
Can I do anything for you,
sergeant?
Oh, I doubt it
seeing you're all raving mad.
And the fun of the film
is watching him getting
taken down a notch or two.
They do love
their divinity lessons.
But they they are
are naked.
Naturally.
It's much too dangerous
to jump through the fire
with your clothes on.
Oh, Christopher Lee did that
picture for almost no money
because he liked the pat
so much.
And I think it was
his favorite part
of anything he'd ever done.
[peaceful music]
It's a truly weird, pagan,
fascinating movie.
It's almost a musical.
I mean, it's got all
these Paul Giovanni songs.
[pianist playing slow song]
- She took the tinker ♪
By the hand ♪
They created a score
that are folk songs integral
to this island
to tell the story
of their religion
and their culture.
together: For patching ♪
And plugging is his
delight ♪
[echoing musical sting]
The lyrics
of these songs are so
everything's a double entendre
and everything's sexual.
[musicians playing upbeat
folk music]
And it's a very,
very subversive, sexual movie.
[raps loudly on bar]
[music stops]
This police officer
is unwittingly being led,
thinking he's
on an investigation,
thinking he's gonna catch
the killer of a little girl,
until he realizes
that he's been a sucker
this entire time.
[ominous musical sting]
It's about faith
and how faith doesn't really
pan out for you.
There is no sun god!
There is no
goddess of the fields!
I wouldn't say it's
on the side of the pagans,
but it certainly comes close,
because as devout
as the hero is,
it doesn't save him.
No! No!
Think!
Just think what you're doing!
[words echoing]
Think what you're doing!
Think!
The reason "The Wicker Man"
has such staying power is
you look at this cult
that believes that burng
and sacrificing a virgin
is going to bring back
the crops.
That makes perfect sense
to them.
pagans: [together]
Summer is a-comin' in ♪
To this other person,
it's absolutely insane
because everything he believes
is from a Christian
perspective
pagans: [together]
And blows the mead ♪
And these are coming
from a pagan perspective.
What is totally normal
to one person
is absolutely terrifying
to another,
and I think there's something
very real about that.
[suspenseful music]
The culture clash
captured by "The Wicker Man"
was a big influence
on my film "Hostel."
So I visually paid tribute
to it.
♪♪
And you can see elements
of both films
in Ari Aster's "Midsommar."
♪♪
In the wake
of a devastating loss,
a young woman joins
her self-absorbed boyfriend
and his fellow grad students
on a trip
to the Swedish countryside.
They've been invited
to witness
an annual folk celebration.
[locals whoop]
The writing of "Midsommar"
was pretty therapeutic.
I was going through a breakup
and was looking for, uh,
kind of an angle
on a breakup movie.
♪♪
What's, like,
the evil version of that?
[echoing scream]
narrator: The students enter
what at first appears to be
a peaceful community
of nature-worshipping pagans.
[bell dings]
I love that it is,
like "The Wicker Man,"
set in this isolated,
very homogenous community
that is supposed
to signify safety
[gasps]
And then have it
completely turn around.
- No!
- No!
[gasps]
The Americans are trying
to be cool,
and they want to be open
and they want to embrace it
and they want
to understand it
and they don't quite get
what's going on.
What's going on?
[claps]
[ethereal whooshing]
But they get caught up
in the ritual
and the pomp
and the circumstance
and they don't want
to offend the culture
and, you know, they wind p
paying the price for it.
[blows]
♪♪
narrator: The film's
protagonist is gradually drawn
into what turns out
to be a death cult
♪♪
And the other travelers
are ritual sacrifices.
She ends up finding,
in this community,
what might be a home.
You are the family now, yes?
Yes, you are the family!
And of course,
the irony is that they are
a eugenicist community
of murderers.
[shrieking]
But they're also
much more empathic,
they're they're much more
compassionate.
[all wailing]
And that's why people
join cults.
[eerie music]
People don't join cults because
they want to be mass murderers.
[ominous droning music]
♪♪
They join cults because
they need connection.
[peaceful droning music]
♪♪
narrator: "Midsommar"
was a slow-burn film
that built
to a fiery conclusion.
But horror can also go way
over the top to make a point.
[rushing music]
narrator: When you think
of a morality tale,
you might picture something
like this.
[speaking Swedish]
Amen.
others:
Amen.
[suspenseful music]
♪♪
I hope you rot in hell.
narrator:
But in horror,
stories about suffering
terrible consequences
for your poor behavior
can be scary and fun,
like "Creepshow."
"Creepshow"
was a horror fan's dream.
It still is.
It's the combination
of George Romero,
Stephen King, and Tom Savini.
Me,
as a 12-year-old horror fan,
knowing that this
was the director
of "Dawn of the Dead"
♪♪
This was the guy that did
all the gore
in "Dawn of the Dead"
and "Friday the 13th."
[intense string music]
And Stephen King writing
these stories?
This was gonna be
the greatest movie ever made.
[sparse ominous music]
♪♪
Well, my first thing
with George was he said,
"Why don't we do
a number of stories
like 'Tales from the Crypt'?"
And I went, "Yeah,
let's let's do that."
- It's a comic book.
- What?
- It's a comic book!
- It's a comic book!
[musical sting]
- Look.
Because really,
what is a comic book?
It's a storyboard
for a movie, right?
narrator:
"Creepsow" is presented
like an EC comic book
from the 1950s,
with five macabre stories
♪♪
[shouts]
narrator:
And an all-star cast.
Stephen King himself
plays the doomed hayseed,
Jordy Verrill.
♪♪
I'm a goner already, Daddy
ain't I?
♪♪
narrator:
Each story was a moral tale
in which sinners were rewarded
with ironic deaths,
and sometimes,
ironic afterlives.
The teenaged Greg Nicotero
was a frequent visitor
to the "Creepshow" set.
I remember seeing them
shooting the actors
with the colored lights
in the background.
I got my cake.
All of a sudden, like,
there's a bunch of guys
on dimmers, and they'd go
[imitates electricity]
- [screaming]
- Happy Father's Day.
Then they would turn it
and the lights would change.
They were trying to immerse
you into the comic book world.
♪♪
narrator: One of my favore
stories is "The Crate,"
where
a henpecked college professor
comes into possession
of a vicious animal
- a couple of emeralds!
- Don't!
narrator:
With a thirst for human blood.
[screaming]
[laughing deliriously]
I don't even know what it was.
And it's Hal Holbrook
and Fritz Weaver
and Adrienne Barbeau
and this old crate,
and you're just waiting
for Fluffy.
[roars]
I remember, as a kid,
I read "Fangoria" magazine
and I saw pictures
of the monster
that they called Fluffy.
And when that thing comes out
of the crate
♪♪
The fun is inventing how
to do this stuff.
♪♪
You know, the script, kind of,
is sometimes very vague.
"We see a flash
of fur and teeth."
[dramatic tense music]
Well, I gotta create
a creature from that
that comes out of a crate
underneath steps
in "Creepshow," you know?
Something shiny.
I had never built an
animatronic creature before.
So I called Rob Bottin
on the phone.
Took me to his house.
He tore the skins off
to show me
how the mechanisms worked
in the heads,
the fake heads
that he was making.
[suspenseful music]
As great as "The Crate" is,
nothing quite prepares you
for E.G. Marshall's performance
as Upson Pratt.
"This is Upson Pratt,
the Upson Pratt."
Well, I found another
cockroach this evening, George.
Oh, no.
One of those big ones
right here in my $3,200-a-month
penthouse apartment.
♪♪
narrator: Upson Pratt is a
wealthy and vicious germaphobe
who treats everyone
like vermin.
You might go far, boy.
I've noticed that,
in service jobs,
people like yourself often do
people of color.
You know, the Marshall story
does represent
a lot
of the sociopolitical things
that were going on at the time,
you know,
with him being
a blatant racist character
who is trying to live
in this sort of protected
white bubble, literally,
in his compound,
and he's terrified
of other things
getting into that world.
[bugs squeaking]
Damn bugs ugh!
Bugs! [shouts]
Now you'd have
a digital cockroach.
Back then, you really had
to do it with cockroaches.
Cockroaches.
They were everywhere, Eli!
- Yeah.
Those cockroaches
were everywhere.
[ominous music]
[cockroaches chittering]
- [screaming]
And when we did the
final scene, where the b
he just sort of explodes
with bugs all inside him
everybody was, like, right
nervous, scared to death.
It could be one take.
- Yeah.
That's the only thing
you could do.
There were, I,
5,000 cockroaches
and they were gonna blow 'em
through this this tube.
Quiet on the set,
get the cockroaches ready.
[chuckling]
You know, cue the cockroaches.
[eerie music]
♪♪
[screaming]
And it was perfect
and everybody in the ple
just exploded into applause.
It's one of the
it's one of the great,
great moments in movies.
[cockroaches chittering]
"Creepshow" was
was way ahead of its time
in terms of George
and Steve King's
sort of love letter
to EC comics.
[cackles]
[thunder booms]
Doing "Creepshow" reay
was was their opportunity
to pay tribute to the stuff
that inspired them.
[tense musical sting]
- [screams]
narrator:
In "Creepshow,"
bad people are punished
with gruesome deaths.
The violence upset audiences
expecting a
lightweight comic book movie,
but to really upset Americans,
do what Brian De Palma did:
make a horror film about sex.
[gasps]
[dramatic music]
[gagging]
narrator: Few things
provoke audiences more
than sexual violence.
It's a taboo region
that horror films
are uniquely able to explore
because horror goes
where the timid fear to tread.
[screams]
narrator: And even
a comically bad slasher
can carry a surprising message
about toxic masculinity.
Where did this filth
come from?
[grunts]
[screaming]
"Pieces" is one of the
greatest WTF horror films
of all time.
[saw scraping]
[telephone ringing]
For me, it might be
my favorite horror movie
of all time
after all these years
because it just defies
every rule
of what you're supposed t do.
[dramatic synthesized music]
[weeps]
It is so absurd
that, if you put it on
with a room of people,
you will guarantee to have
the whole audience come ot
of it going,
"That's the best movie
I've ever seen."
[dramatic music]
- [screaming]
[mirrors shattering]
Horror is the genre that
gave us the idea of bad-good.
[screams]
[chainsaw revving]
Like, there can be
a really great horror movie,
and that's fun to watch,
but a really bad horror movie
can be fun to watch too.
[shrieking]
Bastard!
Bastard!
[suspenseful music]
Bastard!
[booming musical sting]
narrator: The plot of "Piec"
follows a campus stud
and an undercover policewoman
trying to catch
a mysterious chainsaw killer.
[screaming]
[chainsaw revving]
It's got all the classic
tropes of slasher movies.
[chainsaw revving]
You!
They have these
beautiful Spanish girls
that always get naked right
before they're chopped.
[dramatic music]
- [gasps]
The deaths
are so over-the-top.
♪♪
At the end of the film,
the police catch the killer
and they're about to leave
and they open the door
and the body falls out.
Really
[screaming]
[screams]
And you realize
this guy's been making
a human jigsaw puzzle.
It's an incredible
shock moment.
[screaming]
[sobbing]
And then at the very end,
Ian Sera comes back
'cause he forgot his coat
and the hand of the body
comes out
and just rips
his genitals off.
[screaming]
[flesh squelches]
You can watch the move
on one level
and go, "This is a grade-Z
slasher movie."
Or you could say,
"This is a subversive
work of art
"by a master director
who's making a comment
on this character who uses
women like pieces of meat."
These girls are then killed
and the body
is the residual anger.
The anger of these girls
and the resentment
of these girls
of being used by this guy
all boils up
and they castrate him
at the end of the movie.
narrator:
You don't expect great depth
from a movie like "Pieces."
More confounding to critics
is when a brilliant filmmaker
deliberately challenges
an audience
by fusing sex and violence
with high cinematic style.
♪♪
Exhibit A: Brian De Palmas
"Dressed to Kill,"
a provocative film
about the corrosive effects
of sexual repression.
"Dressed to Kill"
is an interesting juxtaposition
of two women's expression
of their own sexuality
one being
a conservative housewife
who is oppressed
by her sexuality
and one being
a young sex worker
who is empowered
by her sexuality
and the man who
is a psychiatrist
who is his own worst patient
who's trying
to draw the bridge
between his own relationship
with his sexuality
and these two women.
narrator:
Sexually frustrated Kate,
played by Angie Dickinson,
acts the part of
the perfect wife and mother,
but she yearns
for a more stimulating life.
Kate confides her feelings
to her psychiatrist,
arousing his own
secret desires.
[sweeping music]
Would you want to sleep
with me?
Yes.
[tense dramatic music]
[gasps]
[screaming]
♪♪
narrator:
Then, in a shocking twist,
Kate is brutally murdered
by a mysterious
black-gloved killer
[screaming]
narrator: A crime witnessed
by the movie's other heroine,
Liz Blake,
played by Nancy Allen.
I think my nightmares
on "Dressed to Kill"
really started when they did
the [imitates slashing]
[soft eerie music]
It's so strange
because it's all so technical.
♪♪
But emotionally,
it really does
somehow, it gets in.
At least with me,
it gets back in there.
♪♪
Maybe it's all "Psycho's" fault
for making me so scared.
["The Murder"]
- [screaming]
narrator:
Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho"
famously kills off
its protagonist
more than half an hour
into the film.
♪♪
"Dressed to Kill" both updates
and parodies "Psycho."
De Palma turns
the trail blazed by Hitchcock
into a slyly satirical
boulevard,
going places
Hitchcock couldn't in 1960.
[soft ominous music]
narrator: The second half
of "Dressed to Kill"
is a detective story
led by two amateur sleuths:
Liz Blake
and Kate's adoring son Peter,
played by Keith Gordon.
Every scene is enhanced
by De Palma's vast knowledge
of film technique.
♪♪
Obviously,
the story involves
a lot of double and mirror
and two people looking alike
and, you know, having
two personalities and splits.
[tense music]
Really good visual directors
will find themes
and then they'll continue
to find places to inject it
where maybe they hadn't
even planned ahead of time,
but they keep
seeing opportunities.
When I speak
of transsexuals,
I tend to speak
of male-to-female
because there are
a whole lot more of them
than the going the other way.
The scene I remember the most
is the television
where Donahue
is interviewing someone
and Michael Caine
is watching it.
Just the the lighting,
the way it's photographed,
and as kid,
split screens drive me crazy.
You're like,
"What am I supposed to watch?
What am I supposed to watch?"
But you just
sort of give over to it.
It's got a very,
very interesting effect
on the audience.
More than that, I've alwas
been a devout heterosexual.
[chuckles]
The interview
with the transsexual woman
signals to the audience
that Kate's psychiatrist,
played by Michael Caine
is also the killer.
The cinematography
is absolutely gorgeous.
It's breathtaking.
So it's unfortunate
that I it sits on a foundation
of transphobia
in a really big way,
in a really blatant way.
It played into a lot
of clichés.
I mean, there were, you know
trans people as being weird,
being dangerous, being other,
being crazy.
Because "Dressed to Kill"
came out at a time
when trans people were
still thought of as illegal,
making us murderers
made perfect sense.
It wasn't a big stretch
to think that we would go
from jail to killing someone.
[eerie music]
I don't think
that's what Brian's intention
of making the film was about.
Doesn't mean it's cool.
I mean, you know, I mean,
that part of the film,
I feel like yeah,
that has not dated well.
narrator:
In 1980,
far more people were upset
by the character of Liz Blake,
a sex worker the movie
never judges or shames.
Well, hi.
I'm Lz
from the escort service.
I love Liz Blake.
She's smart.
She has a sense of humor.
She's comfortable
with her sexuality.
She's not afraid of it
or feels like she has
to cover it up.
She just she's a free s
kind of free spirit.
Do you think
you could put together
a a coffee break
and a hot lunch?
For tomorrow?
Yeah, I need a thousand dollars
for my mother's operation.
Which was somewhat reflective
of my own personality,
but not completely, you know?
I am a child of the '50s.
So I do have that repression.
[chuckles] Liz still lives
in me a little bit.
Thank God straight (bleep)s
are still in style.
♪♪
That's why the film doesn't
smack of misogyny to me
because it feels like
Brian De Palma
trying to understand
why people are so hung up
on their sexuality.
♪♪
And it is designed to get you
to question
your own relationship
with your sexuality.
narrator:
In the hands of a master,
graphic scenes of violence
become stylish explorations
of the language of cinema,
but film can also
be a blunt instrument
[screams]
♪♪
narrator:
Using violent horror
to make us face
the worst parts of ourselves.
♪♪
[screaming]
narrator: My great love
is Italian horror.
[screaming]
Italian horror, as opposed
to American horror
they're like horror movies
with no rules.
There were no limits on gore.
[indistinct chatter]
[dramatic music]
[gasps]
[screams]
narrator:
In the '70s and '80s,
directors like Mario Bava,
Lucio Fulci,
and Dario Argento
[sobbing]
narrator:
Took the conventions of horror
and dialed them up
to operatic intensity.
[intense dramatic music]
- [ries out]
They didn't know
you weren't allowed
to have eyeballs exploding
and eviscerations,
whereas American movies or
Canadian movies like "Scanners"
had one big moment
or a couple of big moments.
[loud pops]
[howling bestially]
The Italian movies,
it's just like one after
another after another.
narrator:
Dario Argento's debut film,
"The Bird
with the Crystal Plumage,"
took the brutal Italian
crime genre called giallo
[horn honks]
narrator:
And turned it into high art.
[screaming]
[suspenseful music]
So there was certain tropes
you had to follow
for it to be a giallo.
You had to have red herrings.
You had to be guessing who the
killer was the whole movie.
The killer had to wear gloves.
♪♪
Dario Argento rewrites
the rules
with "The Bird
with the Crystal Plumage."
[shrieking]
It's got all of
the signature things
from Argento and the mot
fantastic score by Morricone.
The black-gloved killer
that, most of the time,
was Dario Argento's hands
'cause it had
to be done right.
[screaming]
Penetrating the victim
with a knife
[shrieking]
But very, very stylish.
[intense music]
"Bird with the Crystal
Plumage" really announces
the era
of the modern horror film
♪♪
narrator: And was a big
influence on Brian De Palma.
You look at
"Dressed to Kill"
and you look at "Bird
with the Crystal Plumage"
you could put the movies
on top of each other.
♪♪
narrator:
But the most groundbreaking,
provocative Italian horror
film of all time
Is Ruggero Deodato's
"Cannibal Holocaust."
♪♪
Deodato apprenticed under
two master directors,
Sergio Corbucci
and Roberto Rossellini.
Francesco!
Francesco! Francesco!
Think of the violence
and the realism
of "Rome, Open City"
[gunfire]
Mama! Mama!
♪♪
And the violence and
politics of Corbucci's films.
[gunshot]
- [shouting and moaning]
And you combine them
and you get Ruggero Deodato.
[people chanting]
You're about to witness
an ancient ritual
never before seen
by civilized man.
And that's why "Cannibal
Holocaust" is so effective.
It's no accident.
[music rushing]
♪♪
Today is, uh,
Saturday the 25th.
If I were in New York
right now,
I'd probably be out shopping.
"Cannibal Holocaust" is
the first
kind of found-footage movie.
[wailing]
[cries out in Spanish]
♪♪
"Cannibal Holocaust"
starts out
with a group
of documentary filmmakers
who went down to the jungles
of the Amazon
to make a movie about cannibals
and never returned.
"Cannibal Holocaust" narrator:
Are they still alive?
And if so, where are they?
They've disappeared
and we don't know
what happened to them,
so then Professor Monroe
goes through
and kind of retraces
their steps
and finds all these clues
until he finally finds
the skulls of the people,
and they're dead and there are
all the film cans there.
♪♪
[eerie whirring]
- Okay.
The second half of the moe
is him back in New York City,
watching the footage,
and what he sees is shocking.
[intense ominous music]
♪♪
You know this
is gonna make us famous.
Yeah, you think so, huh?
- Yeah.
- How famous?
Real famous and real rich.
[gunshot]
- Die!
But Professor Monroe
discovers
that it wasn't that these
documentary gr filmmakers
were preyed on by cannibals
and eaten by cannibals.
They were actually
te manipulators.
[Riz Ortolani's
"Love with Fun"]
[slow upbeat music]
♪♪
narrator: Deodato has said
the film was a reaction
to the media's
sensationalized coverage
of Italian terrorists.
[eerie music]
But for many viewers,
the political message
was overshadowed
by the film's
extremely realistic violence.
[tragic music]
Everyone thought
"Cannibal Holocaust" was real,
and this was years before
"Blair Witch."
"Cannibal Holocaust"
was so shocking
that Ruggero Deodato was
brought up on murder charges.
♪♪
But when he actually
ended up in court,
Deodato was acquitted
on the the human killing
because he actually brought
out the actors and said,
"Okay, you
you think these guys are dead.
Here they are."
[indistinct shouting]
narrator: "Cannibal Holocau"
deeply affected me,
so much so that I had
to make my own cannibal movie.
[all shrieking]
The documentary
that the kids in
"Cannibal Holocaust" are making
is called "The Green Inferno."
So I named my movie
"The Green Inferno"
as a nod
to "Cannibal Holocaust."
[man screaming,
flesh squelching]
This was the feature-film
version of that.
[man screaming,
flesh squelching]
[exclaims in language]
narrator:
Some artists are compelled
to challenge their audience,
but how far is too far?
For me, "Cannibal Holocaust"
is right at the edge.
For others, it's way over it.
I really think it's a movie
that is so offensive
and so horrific
and really has something
to offend everybody.
[dissonant music]
It's supposed to be shocking.
You're not supposed
to just watch it
and then move on
to something else.
You know,
if you can get through
"Cannibal Holocaust,"
you see some
of the most incredible,
incredible filmmaking ever.
♪♪
[eerie music]
narrator: Horror is where
our nightmares come to life.
It reveals humanity
at its best and its worst
♪♪
What we desire
and what we dread,
who we are
[gunshot]
And what
we're afraid we might be.
[grunts]
narrator:
If we have the courage
to face our nightmares,
we can conquer
our deepest fears.
[creaming]
male narrator:
I'm Eli Roth.
I want to introduce you
to nine uncategorizable films
that pushed the boundaries
of horror
[terrifying music]
Nine films that tell us
dark truths about society
and ourselves.
[screams]
narrator:
Nine films filled with fear
and fun.
[screaming]
narrator: Nine nightmars
you'll never forget.
[tense music]
[screams abruptly]
[eerie music]
♪♪
[screams]
[chainsaw revving]
narrator: Horror is the
outlier genre of cinema.
Some people fear it.
Others don't respect it,
but that renegade status
lets it go places
no other genre can reach.
Great horror films
entertain us and provoke us.
They put society
under a microscope
Sam?
narrator: Making us questn
not just what we fear
[bell rings]
- [screams]
narrator:
But why we fear it.
[suspenseful music]
And there's
no better recent example
than Jordan Peele's "Us."
♪♪
In 2017, Jordan released
his first film, "Get Out,"
an Oscar-winning
commercial and critical hit
satirizing racism in America.
♪♪
The Armitages are so good
to us.
What you experienced
in your first movie is, like,
to come up
with the Academy Award,
to make a movie that is, like,
probably the most culturally
significant horror film
since
"Night of the Living Dead,"
and then you're like,
"Now I have to follow that up."
The expectations
were a bitch.
As you know, you, like
you kind of have to say,
"Okay, well what got me here
in the first place?"
looking at "Get Out"
and imagining
what people are expecting.
[ominous notes]
[heart pounding]
If I can kind of start
to understand or pinpoint
what I think people
are expecting,
I can start to plot
how to suvert that.
♪♪
[deep ominous notes]
♪♪
There is a Black family
vacationing in Santa Cruz
at their summer home,
basically the only
Black family you can see
on this beach.
So it speaks to isolation
almost immediately.
And over the course of a normal
evening, the young son, Jason,
realizes there's
a family standing outside.
♪♪
[dramatic musical sting]
And once the family breaks
into the house,
we realize
these are doppelgangers,
that everyone who's broken
into the house
is a mirror image
of this family.
♪♪
You know, I think both films,
in a strange way,
are about losing your identity
and sort of who you are
like,
what the external world sees
and what you are on the inside.
Both of these movies
became clear to me
when I decided
to be vulnerable
and and and
look look within.
[shouts unintelligibly]
[pants wheezily]
Asked myself
what really scares me,
asked myself
what I'm not ready to face.
What are you people?
Which felt related to what
we're not ready to face.
[hoarsely]
We're Americans.
[ominous music]
What would it be like
to see someone
who looked exactly like you?
Who is that person?
What does that mean?
Are they taking something away
from you,
or are you taking something
away from them?
- [hoarsely] Run!
- [yelping]
narrator:
At first,
the film seems to be about
one family in peril
[roaring]
narrator:
Then we discover
everyone has a doppelgangr
living underground,
invisibly tethered to their
counterparts on the surface.
Now, our tethered twins
have emerged
to murder us.
[sharp musical sting]
[suspenseful music]
I remember you telling me after
we shot last year
that you were gonna go
shoot something
that felt like "Lost Boys"
♪♪
Yeah,
we're in the same place
Santa Cruz Boardwalk
the exact same location.
Did you hear the line
about "Lost Boys" in there?
You know, they're filming
something about a carousel.
You should see
if they're looking for extras.
[screams]
[shouts unintelligibly]
[dramatic music]
But I always thought
this idea of "Lost Boys"
that there's a monster
up here,
and so I thought,
with that same location,
what if there's a monster
underneath as well?
- Mm-hmm.
- On the opposite side.
Yeah.
[hoarsely]
They created the Tethered
so they could use them
to control the ones above.
[unsettling music]
Like puppets.
I was thinking
about, uh, incarceration.
I was thinking about class.
- Mm-hmm.
I I was thinking about
the term "us and them,"
the the idea of "us and them"
and the the the division
when when you
sort of identify an "us."
You create a "them."
You create an other.
Don't waste your strength.
Don't try to fight it.
You can't stop the inevitable.
Much like "Get Out,"
this is a a systemic monster
we're dealing with.
It really does appear to be,
on a fairly
straightforward level,
a story about the haves
and the have-nots.
[pleasant orchestral music]
♪♪
Sort of existing
with a privilege
and and a privilege
that many of us enjoy
is a violent act.
And that's that's
the central theme of "Us,"
is this idea that,
when we look at the mirror,
both individually
and collectively,
we might realize, well,
it's not as simple as,
"I'm the good guy."
You know,
we're all part of a system.
There's a story
behind everything we enjoy.
There's a factory.
There's a a line.
There's there's somebody
working overtime,
you know,
to to try to make us happy
if we can afford it.
♪♪
Our little pleasures
are coming
at the cost
of invisible people
that we really don't want
to acknowledge or see
because it's inconvenient.
[ominous notes]
narrator: The family
at the center of the film
are better equipped
to handle the Tethered
than most horror fim
protagonists
[shrieks]
narrator: Partly becaus,
as Black people in America,
they are always on guard.
Let's make some traps
or something,
like some
"Home Alone"-type stuff.
That way if she comes
Tell me you did not
just reference "Home Alone."
Well, having
a Black protagonist
in in a horror movie,
as a writer, is a trap
because you can't have them do
the stupid response.
They have the upper hand.
This is the time to run,
not to be sprinkling
Micro Machines on the floor.
What are Micro Machines?
What's "Home Alone"?
It's it's partly
a satirical comment,
but partly very grounded
in real real life.
This country is is a
is a horror show
- Yeah.
- For Black people, you know?
This is
we're in a horror movie.
[eerie music]
I try and access
what I'm actually afraid f
or what I'm you know.
Mm-hmm.
And that part of the process
of making these movies,
I swear, I kind I
I overcome my fear.
[match snaps and hisses]
[rasping]
narrator:
Race and class divisions
can turn everyday lives
into horror movies,
but what about people
in the most privileged
position in society?
What nightmares stalk
the ruling class?
[screams wildly]
narrator:
In the year 2000,
Christian Bale gave
an unforgettable performance
as the antihero
of "American Psycho"
[chainsaw revving]
A dark satire
of human behavior
at the top
of the economic ladder.
[suspenseful music]
"American Psycho,"
based on the notorious novel
by Bret Easton Ellis,
is about a young,
wealthy businessman
who seems
to have a perfect life.
I work on Wall Street.
So he's, uh, very handsome;
he has a perfect apartment;
he has a
you know, a high-paying job.
So it's about someone
whose life is full
of perfect surfaces
and who is so filled wi,
sort of, rage and emptiness
that he disembowels
young women.
I like to dissect girls.
Did you know
I'm utterly insane?
Uh [chuckles]
Uh, great tan, Marcus.
I mean, really impressive.
Where do you tan?
- Salon.
[musical sting]
"American Psycho" is one f
the best satires of all time.
You can always be thinner,
look better.
To me, it really, really
caught what the '90s was about.
♪♪
Suddenly,
metrosexuality came in
and men became obsessive
with grooming products,
skin care, waxing,
tanning booths.
What beautiful skin
you have, Mr. Bateman.
And what suits
you were wearing,
the kind of explosion
in fashion and commerce
and restaurants and status.
It was just
this Wall Street world.
Gene, great jacket.
Matsuda?
Valentino Couture.
It's really a satire
of consumerism
Where did you get
that overnight bag?
[car trunk slams]
- Jean Paul Gautier.
You know,
American vulture capitalism
at the end of the 20th century.
And it's all expressed
in this person who looks good,
but is actually a monster.
[hollowly]
I guess you could say
I just wat
to have meaningful relationship
with someone special.
I wanted Bateman
to be the object of fear.
[tense music]
When Christian and I
were in preparation
for "American Psycho,"
we talked about him
as being like a a Martian
someone from another planet
who doesn't know how
to be a human being.
♪♪
So when Bateman's going
to have sex with someone,
he watches a porno movie.
[chainsaw revving
and woman screaming on TV]
If he's gonna, uh,
commit a murder,
he's gonna watch
a a faous horror movie.
[chainsaw revving
and woman screaming on TV]
The fact that it was
directed by a woman, I think,
ws such an interesting
counterbalance to the book.
Even though he's doing all
of these crazy things,
there isn't this misogynist,
anti-woman, kind of gross tone
about the movie.
Jean?
Sorbet?
When we were filming
"American Psycho,"
I realized that
the fear a woman has
of going on a date
or going to a guy's apartment
and something bad happening
or him suddenly transforming
from one kind of person
into another
is
is a very strong female fear.
Can we go now?
We're not through yet.
Movies are a way
of exploring those fears.
[chainsaw revving]
- [yelps]
[wet impact]
- [screams]
We don't want to admit it,
but all of us
there's a part of us
that is like Patrick Bateman,
that is obsessive,
that wants things.
It's like this personification
of all the greed
and the vanity
and the consumption
and the vapidness
all the stuff
that we suppress;
that we say we don't have;
that we say,
"That's just other people";
it's all reflected
in Patrick Bateman,
but we're watching him
and there is a part of him
that's in all of us.
[laughing]
I
[gasps]
Just have to kill
a lot of people!
And um
[tense music fades]
[stutters and sniffles]
I'm not sure I'm gonna get awy
with it this time.
He's not punished at the end,
so you're not giving
the audience that satisfaction,
actually.
But I felt like the
the satirical
and also of the moral point
of Bret Easton Ellis's book
was that
he wouldn't get found out
because society didn't care
to find him out.
I chopped Allen's
(bleep) head off.
The whole message I left
on your machine was true.
Excuse me.
I really must be going now.
Society just didn't care
as long as he conformed
to the perfect, you know,
surfaces and perfect, uh,
stereotypes
of of
the successful businessman.
No one would bother.
This confession
has meant nothing.
[unsettling music]
[musical sting]
narrator: Faced with the
emptiness of consumer culture,
many turned to the spiritual
comforts of religion.
accursed!
♪♪
narrator:
But there can be a fine line
between a religion
and a death cult.
- No!
- No!
narrator: Most religions
teach the way of peace,
yet religious differences
have led
to an almost unthinkable
amount of bloodshed.
He brought you up
to be a pagan.
[eerie music]
narrator:
This paradox is at the heart
of two films about faith
[musical sting]
"Midsommar" from 2019
and "The Wicker Man"
[all gasp]
From 1973.
♪♪
"The Wicker Man"
has the reputation
for being the greatest British
horror film of all time.
[goat shrieking]
It was one of those movies
I didn't see until late in life
because I would look
at the video box and go,
"What's scary
about a wicker man?"
Oh, God!
Oh, Jesus Christ!
[single drum beating ominously]
I finally saw it,
and it's one of those movies
that changed my life.
[organ playing hymn]
all: In pastures green ♪
He leadeth me ♪
It has to do with
Christianity versus paganism.
[tense music]
A police inspector is sent
to this remote isle
of Summerisle
to investigate the
disappearance of a young girl.
[chalk scraping]
- Rowan Morrison.
And he's
this repressed, uh, Christian
coming to grips
with this society
that is the total opposite
of everything he believes in.
I find degeneracy,
and there is brawling in bars.
There is indecency
in public places.
Open sex and wild dancing
and all this uninhibited
craziness that he's not used to
and he has a hard time
adjusting to that.
Can I do anything for you,
sergeant?
Oh, I doubt it
seeing you're all raving mad.
And the fun of the film
is watching him getting
taken down a notch or two.
They do love
their divinity lessons.
But they they are
are naked.
Naturally.
It's much too dangerous
to jump through the fire
with your clothes on.
Oh, Christopher Lee did that
picture for almost no money
because he liked the pat
so much.
And I think it was
his favorite part
of anything he'd ever done.
[peaceful music]
It's a truly weird, pagan,
fascinating movie.
It's almost a musical.
I mean, it's got all
these Paul Giovanni songs.
[pianist playing slow song]
- She took the tinker ♪
By the hand ♪
They created a score
that are folk songs integral
to this island
to tell the story
of their religion
and their culture.
together: For patching ♪
And plugging is his
delight ♪
[echoing musical sting]
The lyrics
of these songs are so
everything's a double entendre
and everything's sexual.
[musicians playing upbeat
folk music]
And it's a very,
very subversive, sexual movie.
[raps loudly on bar]
[music stops]
This police officer
is unwittingly being led,
thinking he's
on an investigation,
thinking he's gonna catch
the killer of a little girl,
until he realizes
that he's been a sucker
this entire time.
[ominous musical sting]
It's about faith
and how faith doesn't really
pan out for you.
There is no sun god!
There is no
goddess of the fields!
I wouldn't say it's
on the side of the pagans,
but it certainly comes close,
because as devout
as the hero is,
it doesn't save him.
No! No!
Think!
Just think what you're doing!
[words echoing]
Think what you're doing!
Think!
The reason "The Wicker Man"
has such staying power is
you look at this cult
that believes that burng
and sacrificing a virgin
is going to bring back
the crops.
That makes perfect sense
to them.
pagans: [together]
Summer is a-comin' in ♪
To this other person,
it's absolutely insane
because everything he believes
is from a Christian
perspective
pagans: [together]
And blows the mead ♪
And these are coming
from a pagan perspective.
What is totally normal
to one person
is absolutely terrifying
to another,
and I think there's something
very real about that.
[suspenseful music]
The culture clash
captured by "The Wicker Man"
was a big influence
on my film "Hostel."
So I visually paid tribute
to it.
♪♪
And you can see elements
of both films
in Ari Aster's "Midsommar."
♪♪
In the wake
of a devastating loss,
a young woman joins
her self-absorbed boyfriend
and his fellow grad students
on a trip
to the Swedish countryside.
They've been invited
to witness
an annual folk celebration.
[locals whoop]
The writing of "Midsommar"
was pretty therapeutic.
I was going through a breakup
and was looking for, uh,
kind of an angle
on a breakup movie.
♪♪
What's, like,
the evil version of that?
[echoing scream]
narrator: The students enter
what at first appears to be
a peaceful community
of nature-worshipping pagans.
[bell dings]
I love that it is,
like "The Wicker Man,"
set in this isolated,
very homogenous community
that is supposed
to signify safety
[gasps]
And then have it
completely turn around.
- No!
- No!
[gasps]
The Americans are trying
to be cool,
and they want to be open
and they want to embrace it
and they want
to understand it
and they don't quite get
what's going on.
What's going on?
[claps]
[ethereal whooshing]
But they get caught up
in the ritual
and the pomp
and the circumstance
and they don't want
to offend the culture
and, you know, they wind p
paying the price for it.
[blows]
♪♪
narrator: The film's
protagonist is gradually drawn
into what turns out
to be a death cult
♪♪
And the other travelers
are ritual sacrifices.
She ends up finding,
in this community,
what might be a home.
You are the family now, yes?
Yes, you are the family!
And of course,
the irony is that they are
a eugenicist community
of murderers.
[shrieking]
But they're also
much more empathic,
they're they're much more
compassionate.
[all wailing]
And that's why people
join cults.
[eerie music]
People don't join cults because
they want to be mass murderers.
[ominous droning music]
♪♪
They join cults because
they need connection.
[peaceful droning music]
♪♪
narrator: "Midsommar"
was a slow-burn film
that built
to a fiery conclusion.
But horror can also go way
over the top to make a point.
[rushing music]
narrator: When you think
of a morality tale,
you might picture something
like this.
[speaking Swedish]
Amen.
others:
Amen.
[suspenseful music]
♪♪
I hope you rot in hell.
narrator:
But in horror,
stories about suffering
terrible consequences
for your poor behavior
can be scary and fun,
like "Creepshow."
"Creepshow"
was a horror fan's dream.
It still is.
It's the combination
of George Romero,
Stephen King, and Tom Savini.
Me,
as a 12-year-old horror fan,
knowing that this
was the director
of "Dawn of the Dead"
♪♪
This was the guy that did
all the gore
in "Dawn of the Dead"
and "Friday the 13th."
[intense string music]
And Stephen King writing
these stories?
This was gonna be
the greatest movie ever made.
[sparse ominous music]
♪♪
Well, my first thing
with George was he said,
"Why don't we do
a number of stories
like 'Tales from the Crypt'?"
And I went, "Yeah,
let's let's do that."
- It's a comic book.
- What?
- It's a comic book!
- It's a comic book!
[musical sting]
- Look.
Because really,
what is a comic book?
It's a storyboard
for a movie, right?
narrator:
"Creepsow" is presented
like an EC comic book
from the 1950s,
with five macabre stories
♪♪
[shouts]
narrator:
And an all-star cast.
Stephen King himself
plays the doomed hayseed,
Jordy Verrill.
♪♪
I'm a goner already, Daddy
ain't I?
♪♪
narrator:
Each story was a moral tale
in which sinners were rewarded
with ironic deaths,
and sometimes,
ironic afterlives.
The teenaged Greg Nicotero
was a frequent visitor
to the "Creepshow" set.
I remember seeing them
shooting the actors
with the colored lights
in the background.
I got my cake.
All of a sudden, like,
there's a bunch of guys
on dimmers, and they'd go
[imitates electricity]
- [screaming]
- Happy Father's Day.
Then they would turn it
and the lights would change.
They were trying to immerse
you into the comic book world.
♪♪
narrator: One of my favore
stories is "The Crate,"
where
a henpecked college professor
comes into possession
of a vicious animal
- a couple of emeralds!
- Don't!
narrator:
With a thirst for human blood.
[screaming]
[laughing deliriously]
I don't even know what it was.
And it's Hal Holbrook
and Fritz Weaver
and Adrienne Barbeau
and this old crate,
and you're just waiting
for Fluffy.
[roars]
I remember, as a kid,
I read "Fangoria" magazine
and I saw pictures
of the monster
that they called Fluffy.
And when that thing comes out
of the crate
♪♪
The fun is inventing how
to do this stuff.
♪♪
You know, the script, kind of,
is sometimes very vague.
"We see a flash
of fur and teeth."
[dramatic tense music]
Well, I gotta create
a creature from that
that comes out of a crate
underneath steps
in "Creepshow," you know?
Something shiny.
I had never built an
animatronic creature before.
So I called Rob Bottin
on the phone.
Took me to his house.
He tore the skins off
to show me
how the mechanisms worked
in the heads,
the fake heads
that he was making.
[suspenseful music]
As great as "The Crate" is,
nothing quite prepares you
for E.G. Marshall's performance
as Upson Pratt.
"This is Upson Pratt,
the Upson Pratt."
Well, I found another
cockroach this evening, George.
Oh, no.
One of those big ones
right here in my $3,200-a-month
penthouse apartment.
♪♪
narrator: Upson Pratt is a
wealthy and vicious germaphobe
who treats everyone
like vermin.
You might go far, boy.
I've noticed that,
in service jobs,
people like yourself often do
people of color.
You know, the Marshall story
does represent
a lot
of the sociopolitical things
that were going on at the time,
you know,
with him being
a blatant racist character
who is trying to live
in this sort of protected
white bubble, literally,
in his compound,
and he's terrified
of other things
getting into that world.
[bugs squeaking]
Damn bugs ugh!
Bugs! [shouts]
Now you'd have
a digital cockroach.
Back then, you really had
to do it with cockroaches.
Cockroaches.
They were everywhere, Eli!
- Yeah.
Those cockroaches
were everywhere.
[ominous music]
[cockroaches chittering]
- [screaming]
And when we did the
final scene, where the b
he just sort of explodes
with bugs all inside him
everybody was, like, right
nervous, scared to death.
It could be one take.
- Yeah.
That's the only thing
you could do.
There were, I,
5,000 cockroaches
and they were gonna blow 'em
through this this tube.
Quiet on the set,
get the cockroaches ready.
[chuckling]
You know, cue the cockroaches.
[eerie music]
♪♪
[screaming]
And it was perfect
and everybody in the ple
just exploded into applause.
It's one of the
it's one of the great,
great moments in movies.
[cockroaches chittering]
"Creepshow" was
was way ahead of its time
in terms of George
and Steve King's
sort of love letter
to EC comics.
[cackles]
[thunder booms]
Doing "Creepshow" reay
was was their opportunity
to pay tribute to the stuff
that inspired them.
[tense musical sting]
- [screams]
narrator:
In "Creepshow,"
bad people are punished
with gruesome deaths.
The violence upset audiences
expecting a
lightweight comic book movie,
but to really upset Americans,
do what Brian De Palma did:
make a horror film about sex.
[gasps]
[dramatic music]
[gagging]
narrator: Few things
provoke audiences more
than sexual violence.
It's a taboo region
that horror films
are uniquely able to explore
because horror goes
where the timid fear to tread.
[screams]
narrator: And even
a comically bad slasher
can carry a surprising message
about toxic masculinity.
Where did this filth
come from?
[grunts]
[screaming]
"Pieces" is one of the
greatest WTF horror films
of all time.
[saw scraping]
[telephone ringing]
For me, it might be
my favorite horror movie
of all time
after all these years
because it just defies
every rule
of what you're supposed t do.
[dramatic synthesized music]
[weeps]
It is so absurd
that, if you put it on
with a room of people,
you will guarantee to have
the whole audience come ot
of it going,
"That's the best movie
I've ever seen."
[dramatic music]
- [screaming]
[mirrors shattering]
Horror is the genre that
gave us the idea of bad-good.
[screams]
[chainsaw revving]
Like, there can be
a really great horror movie,
and that's fun to watch,
but a really bad horror movie
can be fun to watch too.
[shrieking]
Bastard!
Bastard!
[suspenseful music]
Bastard!
[booming musical sting]
narrator: The plot of "Piec"
follows a campus stud
and an undercover policewoman
trying to catch
a mysterious chainsaw killer.
[screaming]
[chainsaw revving]
It's got all the classic
tropes of slasher movies.
[chainsaw revving]
You!
They have these
beautiful Spanish girls
that always get naked right
before they're chopped.
[dramatic music]
- [gasps]
The deaths
are so over-the-top.
♪♪
At the end of the film,
the police catch the killer
and they're about to leave
and they open the door
and the body falls out.
Really
[screaming]
[screams]
And you realize
this guy's been making
a human jigsaw puzzle.
It's an incredible
shock moment.
[screaming]
[sobbing]
And then at the very end,
Ian Sera comes back
'cause he forgot his coat
and the hand of the body
comes out
and just rips
his genitals off.
[screaming]
[flesh squelches]
You can watch the move
on one level
and go, "This is a grade-Z
slasher movie."
Or you could say,
"This is a subversive
work of art
"by a master director
who's making a comment
on this character who uses
women like pieces of meat."
These girls are then killed
and the body
is the residual anger.
The anger of these girls
and the resentment
of these girls
of being used by this guy
all boils up
and they castrate him
at the end of the movie.
narrator:
You don't expect great depth
from a movie like "Pieces."
More confounding to critics
is when a brilliant filmmaker
deliberately challenges
an audience
by fusing sex and violence
with high cinematic style.
♪♪
Exhibit A: Brian De Palmas
"Dressed to Kill,"
a provocative film
about the corrosive effects
of sexual repression.
"Dressed to Kill"
is an interesting juxtaposition
of two women's expression
of their own sexuality
one being
a conservative housewife
who is oppressed
by her sexuality
and one being
a young sex worker
who is empowered
by her sexuality
and the man who
is a psychiatrist
who is his own worst patient
who's trying
to draw the bridge
between his own relationship
with his sexuality
and these two women.
narrator:
Sexually frustrated Kate,
played by Angie Dickinson,
acts the part of
the perfect wife and mother,
but she yearns
for a more stimulating life.
Kate confides her feelings
to her psychiatrist,
arousing his own
secret desires.
[sweeping music]
Would you want to sleep
with me?
Yes.
[tense dramatic music]
[gasps]
[screaming]
♪♪
narrator:
Then, in a shocking twist,
Kate is brutally murdered
by a mysterious
black-gloved killer
[screaming]
narrator: A crime witnessed
by the movie's other heroine,
Liz Blake,
played by Nancy Allen.
I think my nightmares
on "Dressed to Kill"
really started when they did
the [imitates slashing]
[soft eerie music]
It's so strange
because it's all so technical.
♪♪
But emotionally,
it really does
somehow, it gets in.
At least with me,
it gets back in there.
♪♪
Maybe it's all "Psycho's" fault
for making me so scared.
["The Murder"]
- [screaming]
narrator:
Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho"
famously kills off
its protagonist
more than half an hour
into the film.
♪♪
"Dressed to Kill" both updates
and parodies "Psycho."
De Palma turns
the trail blazed by Hitchcock
into a slyly satirical
boulevard,
going places
Hitchcock couldn't in 1960.
[soft ominous music]
narrator: The second half
of "Dressed to Kill"
is a detective story
led by two amateur sleuths:
Liz Blake
and Kate's adoring son Peter,
played by Keith Gordon.
Every scene is enhanced
by De Palma's vast knowledge
of film technique.
♪♪
Obviously,
the story involves
a lot of double and mirror
and two people looking alike
and, you know, having
two personalities and splits.
[tense music]
Really good visual directors
will find themes
and then they'll continue
to find places to inject it
where maybe they hadn't
even planned ahead of time,
but they keep
seeing opportunities.
When I speak
of transsexuals,
I tend to speak
of male-to-female
because there are
a whole lot more of them
than the going the other way.
The scene I remember the most
is the television
where Donahue
is interviewing someone
and Michael Caine
is watching it.
Just the the lighting,
the way it's photographed,
and as kid,
split screens drive me crazy.
You're like,
"What am I supposed to watch?
What am I supposed to watch?"
But you just
sort of give over to it.
It's got a very,
very interesting effect
on the audience.
More than that, I've alwas
been a devout heterosexual.
[chuckles]
The interview
with the transsexual woman
signals to the audience
that Kate's psychiatrist,
played by Michael Caine
is also the killer.
The cinematography
is absolutely gorgeous.
It's breathtaking.
So it's unfortunate
that I it sits on a foundation
of transphobia
in a really big way,
in a really blatant way.
It played into a lot
of clichés.
I mean, there were, you know
trans people as being weird,
being dangerous, being other,
being crazy.
Because "Dressed to Kill"
came out at a time
when trans people were
still thought of as illegal,
making us murderers
made perfect sense.
It wasn't a big stretch
to think that we would go
from jail to killing someone.
[eerie music]
I don't think
that's what Brian's intention
of making the film was about.
Doesn't mean it's cool.
I mean, you know, I mean,
that part of the film,
I feel like yeah,
that has not dated well.
narrator:
In 1980,
far more people were upset
by the character of Liz Blake,
a sex worker the movie
never judges or shames.
Well, hi.
I'm Lz
from the escort service.
I love Liz Blake.
She's smart.
She has a sense of humor.
She's comfortable
with her sexuality.
She's not afraid of it
or feels like she has
to cover it up.
She just she's a free s
kind of free spirit.
Do you think
you could put together
a a coffee break
and a hot lunch?
For tomorrow?
Yeah, I need a thousand dollars
for my mother's operation.
Which was somewhat reflective
of my own personality,
but not completely, you know?
I am a child of the '50s.
So I do have that repression.
[chuckles] Liz still lives
in me a little bit.
Thank God straight (bleep)s
are still in style.
♪♪
That's why the film doesn't
smack of misogyny to me
because it feels like
Brian De Palma
trying to understand
why people are so hung up
on their sexuality.
♪♪
And it is designed to get you
to question
your own relationship
with your sexuality.
narrator:
In the hands of a master,
graphic scenes of violence
become stylish explorations
of the language of cinema,
but film can also
be a blunt instrument
[screams]
♪♪
narrator:
Using violent horror
to make us face
the worst parts of ourselves.
♪♪
[screaming]
narrator: My great love
is Italian horror.
[screaming]
Italian horror, as opposed
to American horror
they're like horror movies
with no rules.
There were no limits on gore.
[indistinct chatter]
[dramatic music]
[gasps]
[screams]
narrator:
In the '70s and '80s,
directors like Mario Bava,
Lucio Fulci,
and Dario Argento
[sobbing]
narrator:
Took the conventions of horror
and dialed them up
to operatic intensity.
[intense dramatic music]
- [ries out]
They didn't know
you weren't allowed
to have eyeballs exploding
and eviscerations,
whereas American movies or
Canadian movies like "Scanners"
had one big moment
or a couple of big moments.
[loud pops]
[howling bestially]
The Italian movies,
it's just like one after
another after another.
narrator:
Dario Argento's debut film,
"The Bird
with the Crystal Plumage,"
took the brutal Italian
crime genre called giallo
[horn honks]
narrator:
And turned it into high art.
[screaming]
[suspenseful music]
So there was certain tropes
you had to follow
for it to be a giallo.
You had to have red herrings.
You had to be guessing who the
killer was the whole movie.
The killer had to wear gloves.
♪♪
Dario Argento rewrites
the rules
with "The Bird
with the Crystal Plumage."
[shrieking]
It's got all of
the signature things
from Argento and the mot
fantastic score by Morricone.
The black-gloved killer
that, most of the time,
was Dario Argento's hands
'cause it had
to be done right.
[screaming]
Penetrating the victim
with a knife
[shrieking]
But very, very stylish.
[intense music]
"Bird with the Crystal
Plumage" really announces
the era
of the modern horror film
♪♪
narrator: And was a big
influence on Brian De Palma.
You look at
"Dressed to Kill"
and you look at "Bird
with the Crystal Plumage"
you could put the movies
on top of each other.
♪♪
narrator:
But the most groundbreaking,
provocative Italian horror
film of all time
Is Ruggero Deodato's
"Cannibal Holocaust."
♪♪
Deodato apprenticed under
two master directors,
Sergio Corbucci
and Roberto Rossellini.
Francesco!
Francesco! Francesco!
Think of the violence
and the realism
of "Rome, Open City"
[gunfire]
Mama! Mama!
♪♪
And the violence and
politics of Corbucci's films.
[gunshot]
- [shouting and moaning]
And you combine them
and you get Ruggero Deodato.
[people chanting]
You're about to witness
an ancient ritual
never before seen
by civilized man.
And that's why "Cannibal
Holocaust" is so effective.
It's no accident.
[music rushing]
♪♪
Today is, uh,
Saturday the 25th.
If I were in New York
right now,
I'd probably be out shopping.
"Cannibal Holocaust" is
the first
kind of found-footage movie.
[wailing]
[cries out in Spanish]
♪♪
"Cannibal Holocaust"
starts out
with a group
of documentary filmmakers
who went down to the jungles
of the Amazon
to make a movie about cannibals
and never returned.
"Cannibal Holocaust" narrator:
Are they still alive?
And if so, where are they?
They've disappeared
and we don't know
what happened to them,
so then Professor Monroe
goes through
and kind of retraces
their steps
and finds all these clues
until he finally finds
the skulls of the people,
and they're dead and there are
all the film cans there.
♪♪
[eerie whirring]
- Okay.
The second half of the moe
is him back in New York City,
watching the footage,
and what he sees is shocking.
[intense ominous music]
♪♪
You know this
is gonna make us famous.
Yeah, you think so, huh?
- Yeah.
- How famous?
Real famous and real rich.
[gunshot]
- Die!
But Professor Monroe
discovers
that it wasn't that these
documentary gr filmmakers
were preyed on by cannibals
and eaten by cannibals.
They were actually
te manipulators.
[Riz Ortolani's
"Love with Fun"]
[slow upbeat music]
♪♪
narrator: Deodato has said
the film was a reaction
to the media's
sensationalized coverage
of Italian terrorists.
[eerie music]
But for many viewers,
the political message
was overshadowed
by the film's
extremely realistic violence.
[tragic music]
Everyone thought
"Cannibal Holocaust" was real,
and this was years before
"Blair Witch."
"Cannibal Holocaust"
was so shocking
that Ruggero Deodato was
brought up on murder charges.
♪♪
But when he actually
ended up in court,
Deodato was acquitted
on the the human killing
because he actually brought
out the actors and said,
"Okay, you
you think these guys are dead.
Here they are."
[indistinct shouting]
narrator: "Cannibal Holocau"
deeply affected me,
so much so that I had
to make my own cannibal movie.
[all shrieking]
The documentary
that the kids in
"Cannibal Holocaust" are making
is called "The Green Inferno."
So I named my movie
"The Green Inferno"
as a nod
to "Cannibal Holocaust."
[man screaming,
flesh squelching]
This was the feature-film
version of that.
[man screaming,
flesh squelching]
[exclaims in language]
narrator:
Some artists are compelled
to challenge their audience,
but how far is too far?
For me, "Cannibal Holocaust"
is right at the edge.
For others, it's way over it.
I really think it's a movie
that is so offensive
and so horrific
and really has something
to offend everybody.
[dissonant music]
It's supposed to be shocking.
You're not supposed
to just watch it
and then move on
to something else.
You know,
if you can get through
"Cannibal Holocaust,"
you see some
of the most incredible,
incredible filmmaking ever.
♪♪
[eerie music]
narrator: Horror is where
our nightmares come to life.
It reveals humanity
at its best and its worst
♪♪
What we desire
and what we dread,
who we are
[gunshot]
And what
we're afraid we might be.
[grunts]
narrator:
If we have the courage
to face our nightmares,
we can conquer
our deepest fears.
[creaming]