HOUSE OF USHER, and the other series of Poe films directed by Corman, have the distinction of being part of the brief revival of American gothic horror that had been fueled by television broadcasts of the Universal Studios horror films of the 1930s and 1940s, as well as the fresh interpretations of these classics by Britain’s Hammer Films. While this classification has some merit, HOUSE OF USHER may also be understood as a hybrid in keeping with another trend in horror from the period. HOUSE OF USHER is in a sense Gothic, in that it takes place against the backdrop of a mansion that appears at first glance to be a haunted house; however, it is not haunted in typical supernatural fashion by ghosts or poltergeists. Instead, the haunting of the Usher House takes place through the troubled psyches of the homeowners who wrestle with their family legacy. In this sense it is similar to another classic of 1960 cinema, PSYCHO, which signaled a shift from supernatural horror in the 1930s and 1940s, and the science-fiction-horror of the 1950s, to an internalization of horror (horror is not the supernatural other; it is us) that would later take a quantum leap forward with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

House of Usher can be purchased through the TheoFantastique Store at this link, or it can be viewed online via Amazon’s Video on Demand.

For those fellow Apes fans who can’t get enough of this long-lived franchise, here is the information on the forthcoming Blue-Ray release:

Humans are even uglier in High-Def when Planet Of The Apes: 40 Year Evolution Blu-ray Collection takes over the Earth November 4^th in North America and throughout the Fall Internationally from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. This spectacular set includes all five hair – raising Planet Of The Apes films on Blu-ray for the first time, including Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, Escape From The Planet Of The Apes, Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes, Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, and the 1968 original Planet Of The Apes, which stunned audiences with its now-iconic conclusion and shockingly dystopian view of humanity’s fate. From an age of film when science fiction served as allegory in addition to providing thrilling spectacle and edge-of-your-seat adventure, the Planet Of The Apes franchise set the gold standard for Sci-Fi films. Now the films that changed the face of science fiction forever will be available in the ultimate home viewing format. This year’s Comic Con International 2008 provided fans a first look at some of the exciting extras to be featured on the Blu-ray discs.

Planet Of The Apes: 40 Year Evolution Blu-ray Collection is packed with exclusive new High-Def content. As a special treat for Apes fans, the collection includes an unrated version of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Previously unreleased in the United States, this version includes eight minutes of unrated footage. Other new special content includes an “Evolution of the Apes” documentary chronicling the evolution of the Apes universe from novel to the big screen, an “Impact of the Apes” featurette exploring the cultural impact of the franchise and a never-before-seen public service announcement from ANSA about the seminal flight of the “Project Liberty” crew. Each Planet Of The Apes sequel included in the beautifully packaged collection will contain brand new High-Def making-of featurettes and will be available for the suggested retail price of $159.98 U.S.

In addition, the previously released Limited Edition Planet Of The Apes Ultimate Collection will be available in the uniquely packaged ape head just in time for the holidays at a more attractive price.

Planet Of The Apes: 40 Year Evolution Blu-ray Collection Blu-ray Disc Special Features:

Each Planet Of The Apes Blu-ray Disc will be authored in Java on a double-layer disc presented in widescreen (2.35:1 aspect ratio) with newly mastered English 5.1 DTS Master Audio, English, Spanish and French Mono and includes English and Spanish subtitles. All new special features will be presented in High-Def. Bonus features include:

ƒ NEW Science of the Apes BONUSVIEW – Scientists, anthropologists and sociologists discuss the facts and fiction of the first film

ƒ NEW “Beyond the Forbidden Zone” Adventure Game

ƒ NEW “A Public Service Announcement From ANSA” in HD – A mission report from the agency regarding their brave astronauts

ƒ NEW “Evolution of the Apes”- HD featurette tracing the apes story from the original novel to the screen

ƒ NEW “Impact of the Apes” – HD featurette on how to market a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. The story behind the marketing and merchandising of one of the first ever film franchises and the series’ lasting influence on pop culture through the years

ƒNEW HD Making-of Featurette for Each Sequel:

ƒ Beneath the Planet of the Apes – “From Alpha to Omega: Building a Sequel”

ƒ Escape from the Planet of the Apes – “ The Secret Behind Escape”

ƒ Conquest of the Planet of the Apes – “ Riots and Revolutions: Confronting the Times”

ƒ Battle for the Planet of the Apes – “ End of an Epic: The Final Battle”

ƒ NEW Each Apes sequel will have an isolated score track in 5.1 DTS Master Audio

ƒ Commentary by Composer Jerry Goldsmith

ƒ Commentary by Actors Roddy McDowall, Natalie Trundy, Kim Hunter and Makeup Artist John Chambers

ƒ Text Commentary by Eric Greene and Author of “Planet of the Apes as American Myth”

ƒ Behind the Planet of the Apes Documentary – Includes all new interactivity and timeline

ƒ Behind the Planet of the Apes Promo (1988)

ƒ Planet of the Apes Makeup Test with Edward G. Robinson (1966)

ƒ Roddy McDowall On-set Footage

ƒ Planet of the Apes Dailies and Outtakes (No Audio)

ƒ Planet of the Apes NATO Presentation (1967)

ƒ Planet of the Apes Vintage Featurette (1968)

ƒ A Look Behind the Planet of the Apes (1972)

ƒ Don Taylor Directs Escape from the Planet of the Apes

ƒ J. Lee Thompson Directs Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

ƒ Original Theatrical Trailers

ƒ Original Sketches by Costume Designer Morton Haack

ƒ Photo Gallery

ƒ Planet of the Apes Timeline

ƒ Interactive Pressbooks

ƒ Vintage Apes Newspaper Galleries

ƒ Advertising and Lobby Card Galleries

ƒ Behind-the-Scenes Galleries

Hostel

The League of Tana Tea Drinks (LOTT D) elite group of blogging horrorheads is putting together another unity blog, and one of the topics for discussion involved an invitation to complete the following sentence: “The problem with today’s horror movies is…” Contributors were given the opportunity to finish this sentence in keeping with its negative connotation, or take another approach that completes it more positively. Given my perspective on the current state of affairs in American horror films I complete this sentence by writing, “The problem with today’s horror movies is our current social and cultural context of postmodernity and the influence of commodification.” No doubt at this point readers are scratching their heads and saying, “What?” Allow me to explain.

Horror is a complex genre involving multiple layers of interpretation, and as Stephen King has noted it “is extremely limber, extremely adaptable, extremely useful.” One of the ways in which horror demonstrates its adaptability is that it provides a means of not only entertainment, but also an expression and means grappling with some of our greatest fears as individuals and cultures. It should come as no surprise then that as individuals and cultures change so do their fears, and these changes result in differing cinematic expressions of horror. Earlier in the modern period horror helped express fears of the Other in its various manifestations that were symbolized in the monster. But with late modernity or postmodernity, a post-1960s phenomenon which is often tied cinematically to films like Psycho (1960), The Night of the Living Dead(1968), or The Exorcist (1973), there has been a shift from the monster as Other to an internalization process whereby the monster is us. The shift from the externalized monster as the locus of horror to an internalized terror is the result of social forces and perceptions that in turn colored interpretation of the self. Lianne McLarty discusses this in her chapter “‘Beyond the Veil of the Flesh’: Cronenberg and the Disembodiment of Horror” as part of The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film, edited by Barry Keith Grant (University of Texas Press, 1996):

This ‘delegitimization’ of social institutions and the ‘instability’ of subjectivity finds expression in the ways in which these films depict both the monstrous threat and its consequences for protagonists. In contemporary (postmodern) horror, the threat is ‘not simply among us, but rather part of us, caused by us.’ Institutions (like the church and the military) that were once successful in containing the monster and restoring order are at best innefectual (there is often a lack of closure) and at worst responsible for the monstrous. Contemporary horror also tends to collapse the categories of normal and monstrous bodies; it is said to dispense with the binary opposition of us and them, and to resist the portrayal of the monster as a completely alien Other, characteristics of such 1950s films as The Thing (from Another World) (1951), Them! (1954), and The Blob (1958). This tendency to give the monster a familiar face (the monster is not simply among us, but possibly is us) is tied, in postmodern horror, to the focus on the body as site of the monstrous.

This shift from modern horror with the monster as external Other to the internal us with a related emphasis on the body has resulted in the continued tendency toward the production of slasher films beginning in the 1970s and gaining steam in the 1980s and beyond. A further development of this may be found in more recent films where the monster is not the lone psychological deviant such as Michael Myers of Halloween, but a group dynamic (in terms of the perpetrators) of psychological deviance as in Saw (if not in the original at least in the sequels), and Hostel, where the body most strongly becomes the site of the monstrous through graphic depictions of torture and mutilation.

I am not a prude when it comes to violence in film, but I do have my preferences in expressions of horror, no doubt due to the influences of my social environment as I was growing up. I first encountered horror in the late 1960s and early 1970s through horror’s twins in science fiction and fantasy films that depicted the monsterous Other as alien invader, the result of science gone awry, or prehistoric beast meets modern society. Later I encountered the classic Universal and Hammer horror films which again depicted the monster externally, and it was only in my later teens that I engaged postmodern horror with its emphasis on psychological deviance, the internalization of horror, and bodily mutilation as the primary expression of the horrific. In essence I suppose I was inculturated in a particular expression of horror, the early modern expression with the externalized monster, and as a result I have always found this expression of horror more frightening, indeed, more appealing. I think I might also find the complete internalization of horror within myself extremely distasteful. I recognize that human beings are indeed a curious mix of greatness and tragedy, but for me, postmodern horror’s revelry in human evil and bodily mutilation presents an overly dark and nihilistic expression of human nature and horror that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Related to these social and cultural considerations that result in a struggling horror market is its connection to commodification. Horror films are commodities designed to provide the highest return on investment possible, at least in those films produced by Hollywood and mainstream studios, and the emphasis on horror as commodity often leaves creativity and good storytelling by the wayside. In my view, some of the best contemporary horror comes from independent filmmakers and from the international market, with directors from Asia and Mexico, not the United States. In regards to independent filmmakers, the priority is given to good stories and frights, and while international horror is just as connected to commodification as the American horror market, somehow they have manged to provide a fresh infusion of creativity and conceptualization into the American horror market.

I recognize that my preferences for horror cause me to lean largely toward the Gothic, although my preferences for an early modern form of horror certainly go beyond this specific expression of horror. I am not alone in such preferences, as evidenced by others such as Bruce Lanier Wright in his book Nightwalkers: Gothic Horror Movies (Taylor Publishing Company, 1995):

..I believe that ideas have consequences, and I do worry about the idea embodied both in gore-porn and a good many modern ‘horror’ films. The underlying theme of Grand Guignol entertainment can be stated quite simply: You and I are pieces of meat, and all our interactions – anything we do to or for one another – are merely the random collisions of pieces of meat, without meaning or significance. This is a legitimate artistic position, and one developed with some brilliance by George Romero and others. It’s also a tremendously popular idea in mass media. The handful of individuals how decide what appears on television and in our theaters, not being particularly altruistic by nature, must believe it’s what you want to see.

The Gothic position, by contrast, is that good and evil do exist, and that men’s actions carry a moral weight; that our choices count. And if our actions have some sort of importance, maybe we do, too. Maybe we’re more than just the some of our desires and hatreds.

This post will likely be a little more “heady” than many of my fellow LOTT D unity post bloggers, but I think there’s something worth thinking about here. If horror is indeed an adaptable and useful genre we might be thinking about not only why it entertains, but also why it changes in its expression, and what the internalized “monsterous us” of contemporary, postmodern, nihilistic horror says about us as individuals and as a culture.

(For those readers interested in reading more of McLarty’s thoughts on Cronenberg and the body as site/sight of horror, as well as the other contributors to The Dread of Difference, or Wright’s further thoughts on Gothic horror in Nightwalkers, these books can be found as part of the TheoFantastique Amazon.com store.)

The first is titled “Dark Shadows and People in the Shadows.” It refers to the television series Dark Shadows that ran on daytime television from 1966-1971 and which involved a fictional family known as the Collinses and which included active involvement with the supernatural. Ellwood writes that this clan was “involved in everything that made up the Sixties spiritual counterculture,” including astrology, time-travel, and the appropriation of Gothic horror themes. Ellwood attributes the shows success, in part, to “its enactment of archetypal images,” and that the show “reflected a widespread worldview emerging in reaction against the rationalism” of the establishment culture in a shift toward “magical mystery theater.” Ellwood places this within a cultural milieu of “postmodern neoromantic subjectivism.”

A little later in the book Ellwood includes another “counterpoint,” and one titled “New Mythologies, Easy Rides in Space and Time.” This piece looks at the religious or spiritual significance of science fiction and fantasy in the late 1960s and quotes Michel Butor to the effect that “science fiction is ‘the normal form of mythology of our time.’” Ellwood discusses “the creation of new mythologies from the fabrics of science fiction and fantasy,” and he notes the “time of shifting religious imagination” of the Sixties “may yet turn out to be among the most far-reaching developments of the decade.”

I find all of this discussion, and its cultural context of the 1960s counter-culture, of great interest as it connects with a previous post of mine on the Sci Fi Boys program where I raised the question as to what cultural and social forces might be at play in the large numbers of young males in the late 1950s through the 1970s who connected deeply with science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Along with Ellwood, I’d suggest that the religious milieu of this location and time period was formative and significant in terms of the significance of these genres as the containers for the creation of new myths and the expressions of archetypal images.