When people say "it is/isn't like old school horror; it rules/sucks!", where do you draw that line?
For example, is Halloween more old school than Friday the 13th? Or is Psycho old school? Is Dracula too old to be old school, but maybe The Horror of Dracula fits?
Taking the general understanding of "old school", which would be in reference to hip hop (ergo 1970s early 80s) out of the equation, what do you consider personally to be the best decade for horror, and why?
Are you a fan of the "classic" Universal era from the 30s and 40s? Maybe your thing is more the "giant monster" era from the 50s? Do you go all the way back, Caligari-style, or rock out with Nosferatu? Or does the slasher boom of the late 70s and early 80s really scratch your itch?
Cult fan? Camp fan? Dig that stuff from the 60s that no one's seen but you? Roger Corman type? Into the obscure foreign horror films from the 60s? Satanic possession films of the early 70s? Maybe the horror comedies of the mid-to-late 80s? Big into the Carpenter 80s? The Argento 70s? The Polanski era? Down with the Cannibal genre? The Cap'n wants to know, so get your comment on. I'll reply with some picks and we'll keep this going for as long as you're interested, dear reader.
Since I'm starting all of this, it's only fair for the Cap'n to start with his two cents, so for me "old school" ought to be something that you can trace a clear lineage back to, beyond just remakes. Since I'm not really that down with the whole "TP" genre, I'm going to focus on another current trend in horror right now:
The Obscuremake
It doesn't get the kind of outrage that I normally reserve for "classics" like Friday the 13th or The Massacre or Nightmare, but there's seems to be a particular brand of "old school", understood as the early-to-mid-eighties, which is drawing all kinds of strange remakes lately.
We've already seen The Hitcher, Prom Night, Day of the Dead, April Fool's Day, and The Hills have Eyes. In the coming months / year we'll see Night of the Demons, The Stepfather, My Bloody Valentine, Children of the Corn, Maniac, It's Alive, Poltergeist, Child's Play, and Troll.
So what do these movies all have in common? Well, they were all released between 1980 and 1990, done for reasonably low budgets, a few of them have sequels (okay, more than a few), but predominantly they all have the following similarity:
Not everyone knows them. At best, they might remember seeing the title from the olden days of a video store (if someone wants to make a case about "old school" involving the VHS rack at your local video store, I think you've got a good case). They saw a lurid cover and the title, along with movies like Gore Met: Zombie Chef from Hell, Piranha, and Bloodsucking Freaks, and thought "wow, someday I might rent that" or, more likely "that's kind of fucked up and I don't think I should watch it."
This particular brand of "old school" is something I remember from Video Bar and Carbonated video as "the section I'd go look around in but could never rent from" and every single one of those movies is something I remember seeing on the shelf, along with The Toxic Avenger and The Evil Dead (the most recent dvd version has the cover I remember seeing; the one of the woman being dragged into the grave). They were movies I didn't see until much later on, when I was a teenager and no longer freaked out by horror movies*.
Mostly this type of remake puzzles me, because these are the exact sort of movies that snuck under the radar the first time around. With the exception of Child's Play and Poltergeist, I'm not even sure any of them registered with most audiences. Why they would suddenly do so is equally curious; the aficionado, who owns all of those dvds now is probaly not going to see them in theatres, and unless they're all rated PG13, teenagers won't be able to get into them legally.
Still, it's kind of strange to hear those names again associated with new movies. It was probably like what a teenager thought when looking at the listings for his drive-in or local theatre: "awesome, dude! that sounds rad and gory!!!" while he waited for the next Freddy or Jason movie.
It's a weird variation on "old school", but I think it counts. The era produced random movies, many of which we only saw on fuzzy vhs tapes, but hearing them again brings me back...
*EDIT* Now includes original comments from original post:
The Rianimator Said:
It seems to me that the phrase "old school" is being turned not in reference to a period that is well known and foundational to one's tastes, but rather to a period juuust before their memory starts really kicking in. Where old school is used to mean "better than bad, it's good!" people want it to signify something they know only secondarily, and isn't tied whatsoever to any objective timeline of the genre or whathaveyou. Old school will be what your slightly older sibling was into, in whatever instance.
So the period of horror to which you refer would be my old school, in that case.
I think that the referred-to in "old school" has to be pretty similar to one's, uh, current school. In that way it's foundational. But if you remember it too well, it's not cool enough to be old school. Nosferatu has to be, like, Academy of the Ancient Ones.
This is all bullshit. Schneetzah wrote it.
The Cap'n Replied:
It's not bullshit. You have an interesting point; the use of "old school" for me is this curious interest in recycling the names and plots of movies that people just barely remember. On the other hand, I think that the Hammer period also counts as "old school" because it's a transition from the cutesy "teen horror" of the 50s and the now family friendly "classic" horror to what Cranpire is discussing below.
On the other hand, movies like Hatchet proudly proclaims on the cover "Old School American Horror". Does this mean that "old school American horror" is exclusively the domain of slasher movies, as it borrows heavily from Friday the 13th? Or are there different phases of "old school" that really define how someone relates to the genre?
Speaking of which, since you brought it up: how would you qualify the current "school" of American horror; one dominated by horror films, homages (Hatchet, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer), deconstructions (Behind the Mask) and films about home invasion, torture, and the occasional hulking wrestler-turned-monster?
The Cranpire posted a comment which has been removed. The Cap'n replied:
For your sake I hope that's something you don't remember tomorrow. And check the front of the car before anyone else wakes up. I'm just saying is all I'm saying...
I agree with you to a degree, if only because that era does signify the explosion of American exploitation of nudity and gore. As I mentioned briefly in The Rianimator's comment, I think that Hammer was already doing that in the late sixties and well into the seventies (the studio ended right around To the Devil... A Daughter, released in 1976). Jess Franco was beginning to explore similar violence and nudity, and Argento was heading in that direction as well. Tombs of the Blind Dead, which I mentioned the other day, is not only gory, but also features scenes of rape and hints at a lesbian relationship early in the film. But then again, this is easily understood to be different because it's "European".
But as American films go, I think you're on the right track. Roger Corman and Hammer were easing the mores of American horror, so that you could make the leap from something like The Blob to Blood Feast. You didn't mention it, but that period also covers movies like The Thing, Videodrome, and An American Werewolf in London. I feel like they helped push horror in other directions while the series were building or going strong.
Speaking of The Thing, I must admit a preference for the period between 1950 and 1968, where independents mingled with movies like The Thing. Carnival of Souls, Night of the Living Dead, The Blob, and even horror-comedies like A Bucket of Blood. Not to mention all of the Vincent Price activity going on...
* yes, the cap'n is admitting in front of all of you that he once could not watch horror movies because they scared him. mock on.
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