The beginning of this movie was actually pretty good; I enjoyed the discussion (albeit brief) of the birth of horror films. It got a bit muddled when it entered the 30's and 40's...I feel like they were trying to make too many political points where none really existed.
When it got to the 50's, that's really when the politics overtakes the discussion of the movies. This is partially because most of the directors grew up in or started directing in the 60's and they were all counter-culture types.
Normally when you watch a documentary about something, you get a full view, not an utterly biased piece of propaganda...
I'm sorry, comparing Ronald Reagan to Freddy Krueger as the scariest person in the 80's? Really??? Most Americans would disagree - I mean other than the staunchest leftists who see Obama as too conservative still hold any sort of vindictiveness for Reagan.
If you were looking for a documentary about how these films came into being or where the horror genre has been and where it's going...eh, you'll get a very thin layer of that. The directors they have in here spend way too much time discussing how important their relatively unimportant films were in establishing the political tones (who really looks at horror movies for politics?) and too little time actually discussing American horror films.
It would have been nice for them to discuss how British horror films influenced American horror films (Universal competing against Hammer for instance) or how authors like Edgar Allen Poe, Shirley Jackson, and Richard Matheson provided much of the fodder for the horror films in the 50's and 60's...other than a passing mention of Poe, there is no mention of any author other than Stephen King.
This is a poor attempt to document the history of the horror film genre. There are plenty of clips from films, but they are far too brief to really enjoy. Too little time is given to too many films for there to be any real depth here. Ironically, there is almost no mention of contemporary horror films that actually are worthwhile...namely independent directors and films that aren't just blood and gorefests.
Oh well! Don't bother with this.
When it got to the 50's, that's really when the politics overtakes the discussion of the movies. This is partially because most of the directors grew up in or started directing in the 60's and they were all counter-culture types.
Normally when you watch a documentary about something, you get a full view, not an utterly biased piece of propaganda...
I'm sorry, comparing Ronald Reagan to Freddy Krueger as the scariest person in the 80's? Really??? Most Americans would disagree - I mean other than the staunchest leftists who see Obama as too conservative still hold any sort of vindictiveness for Reagan.
If you were looking for a documentary about how these films came into being or where the horror genre has been and where it's going...eh, you'll get a very thin layer of that. The directors they have in here spend way too much time discussing how important their relatively unimportant films were in establishing the political tones (who really looks at horror movies for politics?) and too little time actually discussing American horror films.
It would have been nice for them to discuss how British horror films influenced American horror films (Universal competing against Hammer for instance) or how authors like Edgar Allen Poe, Shirley Jackson, and Richard Matheson provided much of the fodder for the horror films in the 50's and 60's...other than a passing mention of Poe, there is no mention of any author other than Stephen King.
This is a poor attempt to document the history of the horror film genre. There are plenty of clips from films, but they are far too brief to really enjoy. Too little time is given to too many films for there to be any real depth here. Ironically, there is almost no mention of contemporary horror films that actually are worthwhile...namely independent directors and films that aren't just blood and gorefests.
Oh well! Don't bother with this.