October is now half way over which makes Slasher Studios both excited for Halloween and sad that winter is right around the corner. For our brand new Inspiring Scares edition we are taking a look at filmmaker Gordon Bressack (writer of Pinky & The Brain and Animaniacs) who has a new thriller coming out soon entitled KEEPER. Check out his classic tale before one one of the very first horror movies released.
“The horrors of childhood are the horrors that stay with you for the rest of your life. We remember nightmares we had when we were five years old and though the images no longer frighten us how well we remember the sheer dread of those sleepless nights. I first saw Frankenstein as a young child and I don’t think any subsequent horror in my life could match the sheer terror of that first encounter with unimaginable horror. The scene when the monster appears in the doorway back to camera and slowly turns around to reveal Karloff in that amazing makeup, the half-lidded eyes that could only be the eyes of a dead man, the silence of the moment unembellished by any musical underscoring. sent shivers down my five year old spine.
When you would have your nightmares your mother would comfort you and make you feel safe, but there is no safety for children in Frankenstein. I watched with abject fear and terror as the little girl, Maria, is killed, however innocently, by the monster. No happy comfortable end of the nightmare for that kid!
Finally, the scene when the drugged monster is lying on the slab about to be dissected and he slowly regains consciousness and his hand begins to move toward the throat of the old doctor is nothing short of nailbiting. This same effect was used a year or so later in The Mummy when Karloff comes alive. The slow building of suspense and horror is unmatched by any of today’s forays into the macabre.
I know younger fans poo poo the older films first of all because they’re old, in black and white and the acting is rather arch, but seen through the eyes of a child, these are great films, ultimately creepy and actual scary films and Frankenstein is the very best of them.
If the hallmark of a horror movie is how much it scared you I don’t think I’ve ever been as scared watching any movie since. That may be because I’m older now or it may be that director James Whale captured the perfect horrific image in that 1930 movie.”
Gordon Bressack’s IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0107780/