1 00:00:18,540 --> 00:00:24,459 It's probably very cathartic why horror works. 2 00:00:24,589 --> 00:00:25,547 It takes you to the edge of life. 3 00:00:28,767 --> 00:00:31,248 It's one of the few genres that can get an audience 4 00:00:31,379 --> 00:00:34,556 to react viscerally. 5 00:00:34,686 --> 00:00:36,819 That's all horror is. 6 00:00:36,949 --> 00:00:39,648 These six kids are gonna die, one by one. 7 00:00:39,778 --> 00:00:41,650 Maybe one schmo will make it to the end. 8 00:00:41,780 --> 00:00:44,348 But it's all life and death. 9 00:00:44,479 --> 00:00:46,829 For over a century, horror films have been 10 00:00:46,959 --> 00:00:50,050 an essential part of American culture. 11 00:00:50,180 --> 00:00:53,357 They have thrilled us. They have entertained us. 12 00:00:53,488 --> 00:00:57,753 And they have also exorcised our collective demons. 13 00:00:57,883 --> 00:01:01,713 The horror genre has always reflected our shared fears 14 00:01:01,844 --> 00:01:04,455 and anxieties. 15 00:01:04,586 --> 00:01:05,804 People-- they want to be scared. 16 00:01:05,935 --> 00:01:08,285 They're coming to get you, Barbara. 17 00:01:10,070 --> 00:01:11,854 The world is always throwing up new terrors 18 00:01:11,984 --> 00:01:14,378 that we can turn into horror movies. 19 00:01:16,946 --> 00:01:19,601 Blumhouse's Compendium of Horror examines 20 00:01:19,731 --> 00:01:22,908 how those films have held a mirror up to society 21 00:01:23,039 --> 00:01:28,262 and allowed us to experience and purge our national fears 22 00:01:28,392 --> 00:01:30,307 in the shared experience of cinema. 23 00:01:30,438 --> 00:01:33,397 The scariest fucking thing. 24 00:01:33,528 --> 00:01:34,790 We wanted Blair Witch to come from a place 25 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:37,358 of that primal motivation. 26 00:01:37,488 --> 00:01:40,274 Really get under your skin and really scare you. 27 00:01:40,404 --> 00:01:42,276 From the brutality of war 28 00:01:42,406 --> 00:01:44,669 to national financial disasters, 29 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:46,932 foreign or alien threats, 30 00:01:47,063 --> 00:01:50,849 uncomfortable challenges to the social fabric, 31 00:01:50,980 --> 00:01:53,374 to the struggle for progress, 32 00:01:53,504 --> 00:01:56,507 all these cultural shifts and movements 33 00:01:56,638 --> 00:02:01,425 have manifested in our collective fears. 34 00:02:01,556 --> 00:02:04,559 They have inspired horror's greatest filmmakers 35 00:02:04,689 --> 00:02:06,909 and resulted in the creation of some of the most 36 00:02:07,039 --> 00:02:11,435 terrifying and unforgettable films of all time. 37 00:02:13,524 --> 00:02:14,830 Invasion of the Body Snatchers-- 38 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:18,355 one of the most disturbing movies ever made. 39 00:02:18,486 --> 00:02:19,965 I was not ready for it. 40 00:02:20,096 --> 00:02:21,793 Of course, Leatherface was terrifying. 41 00:02:21,924 --> 00:02:24,796 He was just this awful, faceless entity 42 00:02:24,927 --> 00:02:28,844 that was in this house killing teenagers. 43 00:02:28,974 --> 00:02:31,803 We've got no money, but we scare the hell out of you. 44 00:02:31,934 --> 00:02:33,457 They don't make that movie, 45 00:02:33,588 --> 00:02:35,938 I don't get inspired to make mine. 46 00:02:36,068 --> 00:02:38,723 I came up with the title Friday the 13th, 47 00:02:38,854 --> 00:02:40,682 and I took out a big ad in Variety. 48 00:02:40,812 --> 00:02:44,642 "The most terrifying film ever made-- Friday the 13th." 49 00:02:44,773 --> 00:02:46,905 And I didn't have anything. 50 00:02:47,036 --> 00:02:49,604 Nightmare on Elm Street. It's so simple. 51 00:02:49,734 --> 00:02:51,388 Somebody that terrorizes you in your dreams. 52 00:02:51,519 --> 00:02:53,564 And if he gets to you, you die. 53 00:02:55,653 --> 00:02:57,960 Sleep kills. 54 00:02:58,090 --> 00:03:00,615 Horror fans-- they want to be scared. 55 00:03:02,660 --> 00:03:04,184 Anybody with a video camera can make a horror film. 56 00:03:06,838 --> 00:03:11,191 There's a certain dedication to it that no other genre has. 57 00:03:15,934 --> 00:03:18,372 They wanted to bump it up and like, 58 00:03:18,502 --> 00:03:21,766 "Whoa, did you see that?" 59 00:03:21,897 --> 00:03:24,291 The communal experience of screaming together 60 00:03:24,421 --> 00:03:25,944 in a dark theater 61 00:03:26,075 --> 00:03:28,904 is an experience that draws us back again and again. 62 00:03:29,034 --> 00:03:31,820 Big old monster walks in the room, we all jump. 63 00:03:31,950 --> 00:03:33,517 Aah! 64 00:03:33,648 --> 00:03:35,737 Fear and fun are co-mingled. 65 00:03:35,867 --> 00:03:40,524 And the audience gets to sit and scream and yell 66 00:03:40,655 --> 00:03:43,658 and come out of the theater unharmed at the end. 67 00:04:50,072 --> 00:04:52,596 My folks are big movie buffs. 68 00:04:54,946 --> 00:04:58,123 So we saw everything. 69 00:04:58,254 --> 00:05:02,911 For me, as a kid, I was fascinated with monsters. 70 00:05:03,041 --> 00:05:07,959 I was just absolutely enthralled with Frankenstein, 71 00:05:08,090 --> 00:05:10,701 The Wolf Man, 72 00:05:10,832 --> 00:05:12,573 Dracula, 73 00:05:12,703 --> 00:05:15,010 all the Universal monster movies. 74 00:05:15,140 --> 00:05:18,622 I was kind of the weird kid in high school. 75 00:05:18,753 --> 00:05:20,537 I was into monsters 76 00:05:20,668 --> 00:05:23,584 and I was into all this kind of strange stuff 77 00:05:23,714 --> 00:05:27,109 back before nerds or geeky people 78 00:05:27,239 --> 00:05:30,895 that loved this kind of stuff were embraced. 79 00:05:35,247 --> 00:05:36,945 There was one guy that I hung out with, 80 00:05:37,075 --> 00:05:39,687 and we saw every movie together. 81 00:05:39,817 --> 00:05:42,603 But other than that, people were just-- didn't get it. 82 00:05:42,733 --> 00:05:44,474 I got it. 83 00:05:48,913 --> 00:05:50,915 I am Dracula. 84 00:05:54,919 --> 00:05:56,921 The most iconic horror characters 85 00:05:57,052 --> 00:05:58,836 come from the best imaginations, 86 00:05:58,967 --> 00:06:00,838 but also, they come from the culture. 87 00:06:00,969 --> 00:06:02,623 Dracula. 88 00:06:02,753 --> 00:06:04,755 the Creature from the Black Lagoon... 89 00:06:04,886 --> 00:06:06,670 ...Leatherface, 90 00:06:06,801 --> 00:06:08,629 Jason, 91 00:06:08,759 --> 00:06:10,457 Michael Myers, 92 00:06:10,587 --> 00:06:11,588 Freddy, 93 00:06:11,719 --> 00:06:12,981 Candyman, 94 00:06:13,111 --> 00:06:14,809 Pennywise, 95 00:06:14,939 --> 00:06:16,506 and Red in Us... 96 00:06:16,637 --> 00:06:18,987 Little girl, 97 00:06:19,117 --> 00:06:21,337 run! 98 00:06:21,468 --> 00:06:24,645 ...are all uniquely American monsters. 99 00:06:28,823 --> 00:06:31,129 Sometimes, the divide between the real world 100 00:06:31,260 --> 00:06:35,264 and a horror movie is a very, very thin line. 101 00:06:35,395 --> 00:06:38,572 The birth of the American horror experience 102 00:06:38,702 --> 00:06:41,792 dates back nearly 100 years. 103 00:06:41,923 --> 00:06:44,229 In the wake of World War I, 104 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:48,190 German artists created seminal horror films 105 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:53,238 that echoed societal fears overwhelming the population. 106 00:06:53,369 --> 00:06:57,939 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu 107 00:06:58,069 --> 00:07:00,855 were dark and disturbing stories 108 00:07:00,985 --> 00:07:05,903 that expressed audiences' shared sense of dread. 109 00:07:06,034 --> 00:07:10,299 The idea that audiences would embrace unsettling films 110 00:07:10,430 --> 00:07:15,652 which allowed them to experience and purge those fears 111 00:07:15,783 --> 00:07:18,002 quickly caught on in America. 112 00:07:18,133 --> 00:07:22,790 The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. 113 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:25,923 The '20s and '30s were a really interesting time 114 00:07:26,054 --> 00:07:29,057 for the United States with post-World War I. 115 00:07:29,187 --> 00:07:31,015 They needed escapist. 116 00:07:31,146 --> 00:07:35,193 They needed something to get away to. 117 00:07:35,324 --> 00:07:37,805 More than 70 million people in the United States 118 00:07:37,935 --> 00:07:40,155 go to the movies each week. 119 00:07:40,285 --> 00:07:43,985 Horror films function as, like, a mirror of society. 120 00:07:48,206 --> 00:07:50,774 They're gonna reflect whatever is going on. 121 00:07:50,905 --> 00:07:53,734 So whatever political, whatever national trauma, 122 00:07:53,864 --> 00:07:55,953 whatever wartime we are seeing, 123 00:07:56,084 --> 00:07:58,652 we're gonna see horror reflect what's going on. 124 00:07:58,782 --> 00:08:00,610 Good day, Herr Baron. 125 00:08:00,741 --> 00:08:02,699 Well, what do you want? 126 00:08:02,830 --> 00:08:05,702 If it's trouble, go away. I've trouble enough. 127 00:08:05,833 --> 00:08:07,051 Oh, there's no trouble, sir. 128 00:08:07,182 --> 00:08:09,010 What do you mean, no trouble? 129 00:08:09,140 --> 00:08:10,881 There's nothing but trouble. 130 00:08:11,012 --> 00:08:13,057 America and the rest of the world 131 00:08:13,188 --> 00:08:16,757 were barely recovering from the horrors of World War I 132 00:08:16,887 --> 00:08:18,280 when a new threat was unleashed-- 133 00:08:18,410 --> 00:08:21,805 the terror of financial catastrophe 134 00:08:21,936 --> 00:08:25,156 in the form of the Great Depression. 135 00:08:25,287 --> 00:08:28,812 It's interesting. In tough times, horror thrives. 136 00:08:33,121 --> 00:08:35,950 The monsters of the era of right around the Depression 137 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:39,170 were relatable to all of us. 138 00:08:39,301 --> 00:08:42,043 There's pathos in these characters. 139 00:09:06,328 --> 00:09:11,202 The 1930s saw the birth of the American horror movie. 140 00:09:11,333 --> 00:09:13,204 Carl Laemmle Jr., son of Carl Laemmle 141 00:09:13,335 --> 00:09:16,730 who founded Universal, made a big bet on horror, 142 00:09:16,860 --> 00:09:18,688 and his instincts were right. 143 00:09:22,344 --> 00:09:26,783 He put together adaptations of Dracula and Frankenstein. 144 00:09:26,914 --> 00:09:29,786 Before Dracula and Frankenstein 145 00:09:29,917 --> 00:09:31,962 became iconic movie monsters, 146 00:09:32,093 --> 00:09:34,878 Carl Laemmle Jr. had to find a way 147 00:09:35,009 --> 00:09:37,925 to make these large-scale, ambitious films 148 00:09:38,055 --> 00:09:40,231 in the midst of financial hardship. 149 00:09:40,362 --> 00:09:44,322 The stock-market crash of 1929 devastated the global economy 150 00:09:44,453 --> 00:09:46,934 and decimated movie budgets. 151 00:09:47,064 --> 00:09:50,894 But nothing-- nothing could kill the pictures. 152 00:09:51,025 --> 00:09:55,246 Carl Laemmle Jr. found a workaround by optioning plays 153 00:09:55,377 --> 00:09:58,989 that were easily adapted into film scripts. 154 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:01,252 With these ready-made stories in hand, 155 00:10:01,383 --> 00:10:06,170 Laemmle tapped directors with dark sensibilities. 156 00:10:06,301 --> 00:10:09,260 Laemmle recognized that audiences wanted horror movies 157 00:10:09,391 --> 00:10:12,655 to purge their fears now more than ever, 158 00:10:12,786 --> 00:10:17,181 and he tasked his directors to fulfill that vision. 159 00:10:17,312 --> 00:10:20,358 But they needed the perfect leading men 160 00:10:20,489 --> 00:10:25,233 to bring the monsters to life. 161 00:10:25,363 --> 00:10:28,410 He hired James Whale to direct Frankenstein 162 00:10:28,540 --> 00:10:30,847 and Tod Browning to direct Dracula. 163 00:10:30,978 --> 00:10:32,240 Tod Browning, the director, 164 00:10:32,370 --> 00:10:34,503 as a kid, worked in carnivals, 165 00:10:34,634 --> 00:10:38,942 and one of his shticks was he was the living corpse. 166 00:10:42,990 --> 00:10:45,296 He would get buried alive for hours at a time 167 00:10:45,427 --> 00:10:47,429 and then dug up, sometimes overnight. 168 00:10:47,559 --> 00:10:50,084 And so he was someone who was very acquainted 169 00:10:50,214 --> 00:10:53,304 with living death and being in a coffin. 170 00:10:53,435 --> 00:10:56,525 Director James Whale was a World War I vet. 171 00:10:56,656 --> 00:10:59,354 He spent a lot of his war in a German prisoner-of-war camp. 172 00:10:59,484 --> 00:11:01,965 He was a tremendously troubled individual. 173 00:11:02,096 --> 00:11:03,358 Carl Laemmle Jr.-- 174 00:11:03,488 --> 00:11:06,056 he also approved casting Bela Lugosi 175 00:11:06,187 --> 00:11:08,189 and Boris Karloff in those films. 176 00:11:08,319 --> 00:11:10,191 Frankenstein. 177 00:11:10,321 --> 00:11:12,715 Dracula. 178 00:11:12,846 --> 00:11:16,980 And those actors are still synonymous with 1930s horror. 179 00:11:17,111 --> 00:11:18,895 Dracula and Frankenstein, which really do kind of become 180 00:11:19,026 --> 00:11:21,376 an embodiment of society 181 00:11:21,506 --> 00:11:26,947 where it is these very wealthy people in these castles. 182 00:11:27,077 --> 00:11:28,949 But the castles are all crumbling. 183 00:11:31,603 --> 00:11:33,867 And the townsfolk are all down below, struggling. 184 00:11:33,997 --> 00:11:36,565 Castle Dracula? 185 00:11:36,696 --> 00:11:38,132 Yes. That's where I'm going. 186 00:11:41,396 --> 00:11:44,094 No, you mustn't go there. 187 00:11:44,225 --> 00:11:45,922 And this is what we see in Dracula. 188 00:11:48,359 --> 00:11:50,753 In 1931, 189 00:11:50,884 --> 00:11:53,364 the world was introduced to the first Universal monster. 190 00:11:53,495 --> 00:11:55,671 I bid you welcome. 191 00:11:55,802 --> 00:11:59,980 The sinister Count Dracula. 192 00:12:00,110 --> 00:12:01,242 Ouch! 193 00:12:06,508 --> 00:12:08,510 Oh, it's nothing serious. 194 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:11,078 Just a small cut from that paperclip. 195 00:12:11,208 --> 00:12:13,428 It's just a scratch. 196 00:12:13,558 --> 00:12:17,258 The notion of Dracula as a character 197 00:12:17,388 --> 00:12:21,262 is that he is an eternal evil. 198 00:12:21,392 --> 00:12:25,832 To die, to be really dead-- that must be glorious. 199 00:12:27,747 --> 00:12:32,882 He's someone who takes great pleasure in the victimization 200 00:12:33,013 --> 00:12:35,145 of mostly female victims. 201 00:12:40,107 --> 00:12:43,545 He has a sadistic love affair 202 00:12:43,675 --> 00:12:46,330 with other people's pain and humiliation. 203 00:12:56,601 --> 00:13:00,040 Bela Lugosi's Dracula is very revolutionary for me 204 00:13:00,170 --> 00:13:02,216 in that he's the one Universal monster 205 00:13:02,346 --> 00:13:04,784 that's not tormented at what he is. 206 00:13:08,613 --> 00:13:12,269 He's actually enjoying himself as best he can and go, "Well, 207 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:15,403 since whatever can't be remedied must be endured. 208 00:13:15,533 --> 00:13:17,579 And if I have to endure it, I may as well enjoy it." 209 00:13:17,709 --> 00:13:21,322 Excuse me. Count Dracula, Professor Van Helsing. 210 00:13:21,452 --> 00:13:26,153 A most distinguished scientist whose name we know. 211 00:13:26,283 --> 00:13:31,027 Even in the wild Transylvania. 212 00:13:31,158 --> 00:13:32,376 Bela Lugosi-- 213 00:13:32,507 --> 00:13:35,379 he was kind of an evil Rudolph Valentino. 214 00:13:35,510 --> 00:13:36,772 He was originally written 215 00:13:36,903 --> 00:13:41,081 as an aristocrat back in the old days. 216 00:13:41,211 --> 00:13:44,127 For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, 217 00:13:44,258 --> 00:13:47,130 you are a wise man. 218 00:13:47,261 --> 00:13:50,307 Slicked-back hair, and he was all-- got the girls. 219 00:13:50,438 --> 00:13:52,527 You see, I am 30 years here in America. 220 00:13:52,657 --> 00:13:55,530 And eight months ago, I was called to come to England 221 00:13:55,660 --> 00:13:57,445 to revive the American version of Dracula. 222 00:13:57,575 --> 00:13:59,360 Doesn't Dracula ever end for you? 223 00:13:59,490 --> 00:14:02,276 No, no. Dracula will never end. 224 00:14:04,539 --> 00:14:07,150 I always was scared of Dracula 225 00:14:07,281 --> 00:14:10,153 because there was something very sensuous about him. 226 00:14:10,284 --> 00:14:13,243 He was the most sexual of our sort of monsters. 227 00:14:17,465 --> 00:14:19,075 It's, you know, the power of seduction, 228 00:14:19,206 --> 00:14:21,469 the power of the danger. 229 00:14:21,599 --> 00:14:24,080 You know, he is there to either kiss or kill you, 230 00:14:24,211 --> 00:14:25,516 and you don't know which. 231 00:14:25,647 --> 00:14:27,954 And in the moment, you don't really care. 232 00:14:28,084 --> 00:14:29,999 Come here. 233 00:14:30,130 --> 00:14:32,436 Come... 234 00:14:32,567 --> 00:14:33,873 here. 235 00:14:39,443 --> 00:14:41,184 I think the reason sex is so connected to Dracula 236 00:14:41,315 --> 00:14:43,099 and to vampires 237 00:14:43,230 --> 00:14:44,535 is that a lot of people's kink 238 00:14:44,666 --> 00:14:47,321 is being completely dominated and drained 239 00:14:47,451 --> 00:14:49,758 and used up as someone else's fuel. 240 00:14:49,889 --> 00:14:52,979 There's something really kind of beautiful about that. 241 00:14:54,241 --> 00:14:57,635 There's something about the notion of the vampire. 242 00:14:57,766 --> 00:15:02,292 The thing that, in this case, literally sucks your blood 243 00:15:02,423 --> 00:15:07,602 but, in other ways, can get in your head, 244 00:15:07,732 --> 00:15:10,170 can change you from the inside out. 245 00:15:12,737 --> 00:15:17,481 Can make you a version of the monster he is. 246 00:15:17,612 --> 00:15:20,310 No, master, please. 247 00:15:20,441 --> 00:15:22,399 Please don't ask me to do that. 248 00:15:24,227 --> 00:15:26,229 That, to me, says a lot 249 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:30,190 about the corrupting power of power. 250 00:15:31,147 --> 00:15:32,583 In the wake of the Great Depression, 251 00:15:32,714 --> 00:15:34,890 Americans were angry 252 00:15:35,021 --> 00:15:37,371 at the corrupt and selfish wealthy class 253 00:15:37,501 --> 00:15:39,590 that they blamed for the economic crash 254 00:15:39,721 --> 00:15:42,724 that left 12 million Americans without work. 255 00:15:42,854 --> 00:15:49,339 A staggering 12,000 jobs were lost every day. 256 00:15:49,470 --> 00:15:55,302 Over 20,000 Americans committed suicide. 257 00:15:55,432 --> 00:16:01,264 And Hollywood delivered them a monster fit for the times. 258 00:16:01,395 --> 00:16:05,486 The money-sucking upper class was personified 259 00:16:05,616 --> 00:16:10,404 by the handsome and wealthy, bloodsucking nobleman 260 00:16:10,534 --> 00:16:13,668 feeding on his less fortunate victims. 261 00:16:13,798 --> 00:16:15,844 Dracula resonated with a lot of people 262 00:16:15,975 --> 00:16:18,368 because here comes this man who's just sucking the life 263 00:16:18,499 --> 00:16:20,544 out of us, and I think 264 00:16:20,675 --> 00:16:23,243 people living in that time felt like 265 00:16:23,373 --> 00:16:26,986 life was sucking the life out of them. 266 00:16:27,116 --> 00:16:28,726 Everyone was thirsty and hungry for food, 267 00:16:28,857 --> 00:16:30,554 so they understood the need for blood. 268 00:16:33,949 --> 00:16:37,518 Dracula was an overnight success, 269 00:16:37,648 --> 00:16:39,476 selling 50,000 tickets 270 00:16:39,607 --> 00:16:42,392 within days of its opening in New York. 271 00:16:45,526 --> 00:16:48,529 Here is Bela Lugosi, the screen's numbere vampire 272 00:16:48,659 --> 00:16:50,357 who's decided to pay back some of that blood 273 00:16:50,487 --> 00:16:52,489 that he's borrowed. 274 00:16:52,620 --> 00:16:53,751 I can't help thinking what a perfect payoff 275 00:16:53,882 --> 00:16:55,666 it would be if Dracula Lugosi, 276 00:16:55,797 --> 00:16:57,712 after all the jugular veins he's tapped, 277 00:16:57,842 --> 00:17:00,149 should be found too anemic to donate blood. 278 00:17:02,847 --> 00:17:05,763 The success of Dracula gave Universal confidence 279 00:17:05,894 --> 00:17:09,593 to greenlight its next monster movie, Frankenstein... 280 00:17:12,074 --> 00:17:16,513 based on a play and inspired by Mary Shelley's novel from 1818. 281 00:17:16,644 --> 00:17:20,865 The brain you stole fits the brain of a dead man, 282 00:17:20,996 --> 00:17:25,218 waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands. 283 00:17:25,348 --> 00:17:26,610 With my own hands. 284 00:17:34,618 --> 00:17:38,492 It's alive! It's alive! It's alive! 285 00:17:38,622 --> 00:17:42,539 Imagine being in a movie theater, seeing Boris Karloff 286 00:17:42,670 --> 00:17:44,585 lumber out of the dark for the first time. 287 00:17:46,804 --> 00:17:48,676 You know, they do that great cut 288 00:17:48,806 --> 00:17:51,418 where it just goes boom, boom-- right into his face. 289 00:17:52,854 --> 00:17:55,422 It's so scary. 290 00:17:55,552 --> 00:17:57,598 There's something very taboo 291 00:17:57,728 --> 00:18:01,384 about a mad scientist screaming about playing God. 292 00:18:06,476 --> 00:18:07,825 There was that moment, too, that was always cut, 293 00:18:07,956 --> 00:18:09,653 where Frankenstein meets a little girl 294 00:18:09,784 --> 00:18:12,308 who's picking flowers and throwing them into the lake. 295 00:18:12,439 --> 00:18:13,614 Would you like one of my flowers? 296 00:18:17,357 --> 00:18:18,706 See how mine floats? 297 00:18:18,836 --> 00:18:21,230 No, you're hurting me! 298 00:18:21,361 --> 00:18:22,492 No! 299 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:29,456 And then it all suddenly cut to 300 00:18:29,586 --> 00:18:31,719 her dad carrying her corpse through the village. 301 00:18:35,810 --> 00:18:37,899 There is something scary about 302 00:18:38,029 --> 00:18:40,336 something that is unstoppable and... 303 00:18:40,467 --> 00:18:42,512 Maria-- she's drowned. 304 00:18:47,387 --> 00:18:48,605 ...and pursues you... 305 00:18:52,783 --> 00:18:54,481 ...and is relentless. 306 00:18:57,701 --> 00:18:59,268 And that's what I kind of love about it. 307 00:19:02,706 --> 00:19:06,449 For audiences in 1931, 308 00:19:06,580 --> 00:19:11,411 Dr. Frankenstein and the monster he pieced together 309 00:19:11,541 --> 00:19:13,674 were another potent symbol 310 00:19:13,804 --> 00:19:16,590 of the relentless evil that had ruined their lives 311 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:19,462 through war and financial hardship. 312 00:19:20,246 --> 00:19:26,469 Frankenstein really created the text for horror 313 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:27,688 for many decades. 314 00:19:31,344 --> 00:19:34,869 Basically, every era remakes Frankenstein. 315 00:19:34,999 --> 00:19:36,392 Back into the closet. Back, back. 316 00:19:36,523 --> 00:19:39,569 Back, back, back, back, back! 317 00:19:39,700 --> 00:19:43,051 They were there to lay the foundation for what works. 318 00:19:43,182 --> 00:19:45,227 Dr. Frankenstein, I presume. 319 00:19:54,323 --> 00:19:57,979 Frankenstein is a story about a mad scientist 320 00:19:58,109 --> 00:20:00,547 whose greatest dream is to create life. 321 00:20:04,812 --> 00:20:07,641 And he does so by cobbling together a body, 322 00:20:07,771 --> 00:20:10,209 galvanizing that body with the use of a lightning storm. 323 00:20:12,863 --> 00:20:14,822 Child's Play. 324 00:20:14,952 --> 00:20:17,346 Hi. I'm Chucky. Wanna play? 325 00:20:20,828 --> 00:20:22,743 The Chucky films are Frankenstein movies... 326 00:20:25,963 --> 00:20:31,099 about a doll that comes to life after the warehouse 327 00:20:31,230 --> 00:20:34,581 that the doll is stored in is struck by lightning. 328 00:20:39,977 --> 00:20:41,675 That's a Frankenstein myth. 329 00:20:41,805 --> 00:20:43,024 I said talk to me, damn it, 330 00:20:43,154 --> 00:20:45,505 or else I'm gonna throw you in the fire. 331 00:20:45,635 --> 00:20:47,550 I mean, look at Michael Myers. 332 00:20:47,681 --> 00:20:50,031 Michael Myers is the perfect example. 333 00:20:50,161 --> 00:20:53,600 You can't stop him. You can't kill him. 334 00:21:00,824 --> 00:21:03,305 Michael Myers was written as a blank. 335 00:21:05,829 --> 00:21:08,354 He had no defining characteristics, really. 336 00:21:08,484 --> 00:21:10,007 He had no face. 337 00:21:10,138 --> 00:21:12,706 It was a thing without a face. 338 00:21:12,836 --> 00:21:15,709 Almost a force of nature, as opposed to a human being. 339 00:21:18,799 --> 00:21:20,714 You can draw a direct line from Frankenstein's monster 340 00:21:20,844 --> 00:21:22,455 to Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 341 00:21:25,936 --> 00:21:27,547 Frankenstein's monster is always terrified, 342 00:21:27,677 --> 00:21:28,504 jumping at the light, at fire. 343 00:21:30,811 --> 00:21:33,988 He's tormented by the other characters. 344 00:21:34,118 --> 00:21:35,859 And there's a scene in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 345 00:21:35,990 --> 00:21:39,080 where Leatherface is genuinely frightened and agitated 346 00:21:39,210 --> 00:21:40,429 that why are so many people coming into his house. 347 00:21:46,479 --> 00:21:50,483 You actually kind of feel bad for him in a weird way 348 00:21:50,613 --> 00:21:51,527 because he's frightened. 349 00:21:52,354 --> 00:21:53,790 Because we're all rooting 350 00:21:53,921 --> 00:21:57,011 for the Frankenstein monster 351 00:21:57,141 --> 00:21:59,883 who's pulled into this world and abandoned, 352 00:22:00,014 --> 00:22:02,495 and we all feel bad for him. 353 00:22:03,626 --> 00:22:06,760 Like Dracula, Frankenstein also told a tale 354 00:22:06,890 --> 00:22:09,589 of elites unleashing a horror on the masses. 355 00:22:09,719 --> 00:22:14,811 In this case, a scientist who wanted to play God. 356 00:22:14,942 --> 00:22:19,642 It was the perfect allegory for a traumatized America 357 00:22:19,773 --> 00:22:22,341 still reeling from facing its own monsters-- 358 00:22:22,471 --> 00:22:25,866 the First World War, financial disaster, 359 00:22:25,996 --> 00:22:30,697 and the prospect of another global conflict on the horizon. 360 00:22:30,827 --> 00:22:35,005 The movie struck a chord. 361 00:22:35,136 --> 00:22:39,662 Frankenstein became a huge, huge hit, 362 00:22:39,793 --> 00:22:43,927 because I think it tapped into a lot of these fears. 363 00:22:44,058 --> 00:22:46,713 Frankenstein-- it's almost like an autobiography 364 00:22:46,843 --> 00:22:48,541 by director James Whale. 365 00:22:48,671 --> 00:22:51,718 It is a cry for help. 366 00:22:51,848 --> 00:22:53,676 James Whale. 367 00:22:53,807 --> 00:22:55,852 He was a war veteran who saw a lot of combat. 368 00:22:58,768 --> 00:22:59,900 He had a hard time sleeping without being drunk 369 00:23:00,030 --> 00:23:01,945 or doped up on pills. 370 00:23:02,076 --> 00:23:04,557 These things haunted him. 371 00:23:04,687 --> 00:23:08,169 He talked a lot about suicide. 372 00:23:08,299 --> 00:23:12,260 He didn't like water, yet he had a swimming pool 373 00:23:12,391 --> 00:23:16,046 and would ultimately kill himself with that swimming pool, 374 00:23:16,177 --> 00:23:18,048 almost like he had the instrument 375 00:23:18,179 --> 00:23:21,965 for his own self-destruction there at his house, 376 00:23:22,096 --> 00:23:24,403 waiting until he was ready for it. 377 00:23:28,755 --> 00:23:30,626 Universal saw the success 378 00:23:30,757 --> 00:23:32,846 of Dracula and Frankenstein. 379 00:23:32,976 --> 00:23:35,283 They hit, and they exploded. 380 00:23:35,414 --> 00:23:38,895 And so in the 1930s, that's what we see is Universal 381 00:23:39,026 --> 00:23:41,245 owns the game with these movie monsters. 382 00:23:41,376 --> 00:23:43,944 And with that, they keep just churning them out 383 00:23:44,074 --> 00:23:44,901 as fast as they can. 384 00:23:59,220 --> 00:24:00,047 Stop where you are. 385 00:24:05,139 --> 00:24:06,445 Oh, no! 386 00:24:08,838 --> 00:24:09,622 No! 387 00:24:13,930 --> 00:24:16,585 Inspector Crow, District Police. 388 00:24:16,716 --> 00:24:18,892 Smoke. 389 00:24:19,022 --> 00:24:19,849 What strange-looking country. 390 00:24:32,035 --> 00:24:34,995 I saw The Mummy on television. 391 00:24:35,125 --> 00:24:39,173 I was pretty familiar with all of the Universal monsters 392 00:24:39,303 --> 00:24:41,871 because they did the best job selling them. 393 00:24:45,962 --> 00:24:47,137 I mean, they had the package. 394 00:24:47,268 --> 00:24:50,793 If you wanted horror, it was Universal. 395 00:24:50,924 --> 00:24:53,013 They treated their genre seriously. 396 00:24:58,148 --> 00:25:01,891 I told you not to disturb me. 397 00:25:02,022 --> 00:25:03,371 The Invisible Man, 398 00:25:03,502 --> 00:25:07,157 adapted from H.G. Wells' horror novel of the same name. 399 00:25:07,288 --> 00:25:08,898 There must be a way back. 400 00:25:09,029 --> 00:25:10,813 After Frankenstein, 401 00:25:10,944 --> 00:25:13,599 audiences were hungry for more monster movies. 402 00:25:13,729 --> 00:25:15,296 Only, this time, 403 00:25:15,426 --> 00:25:19,256 the monster literally was the mad scientist himself. 404 00:25:19,387 --> 00:25:23,043 A scientist playing dangerously with nature. 405 00:25:23,173 --> 00:25:27,177 An arrogant, elite doctor, indulging his dark impulses 406 00:25:27,308 --> 00:25:30,485 and, as a result, unleashing horror 407 00:25:30,616 --> 00:25:34,141 on an unsuspecting and innocent public. 408 00:25:34,271 --> 00:25:37,187 You're crazy to know who I am, aren't you? 409 00:25:37,318 --> 00:25:40,364 All right, I'll show you. 410 00:25:40,495 --> 00:25:44,194 There's a souvenir for you, and one for you. 411 00:25:44,325 --> 00:25:46,719 I'll show you who I am and what I am. 412 00:25:50,070 --> 00:25:52,768 Look. He's all eaten away. 413 00:25:52,899 --> 00:25:54,944 How do you like that, eh? 414 00:25:58,687 --> 00:26:04,040 Ironically, the most effective killer 415 00:26:04,171 --> 00:26:06,739 of every Universal monster is the Invisible Man. 416 00:26:22,145 --> 00:26:23,930 Invisible Man, like, derails a train. 417 00:26:32,155 --> 00:26:33,635 And the entire train goes off a cliff. 418 00:26:36,377 --> 00:26:39,249 It kills a whole trainload full of people. 419 00:26:39,380 --> 00:26:42,165 And basically, he's the one that's not a monster. 420 00:26:42,296 --> 00:26:43,950 He's the one that's a human being, 421 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:45,908 which I always find fascinating. 422 00:26:46,039 --> 00:26:48,389 Thank God for the fire. Sit down. 423 00:26:48,519 --> 00:26:49,869 Unless you want me to knock your brains out. 424 00:26:51,261 --> 00:26:53,046 Sit down! 425 00:26:53,176 --> 00:26:56,049 You're frightened out of your wits, aren't you? 426 00:26:56,179 --> 00:26:58,051 When I was growing up... 427 00:26:58,181 --> 00:27:00,923 Oh, it's no good talking like this. 428 00:27:01,054 --> 00:27:03,273 ...there was a show that used to come on, 429 00:27:03,404 --> 00:27:04,971 I think it was Friday nights and Saturday nights, 430 00:27:05,101 --> 00:27:06,929 called Shock Theater. 431 00:27:11,194 --> 00:27:14,633 And that's when I first saw the old Universal horror films. 432 00:27:17,331 --> 00:27:19,159 Frankenstein, Dracula, 433 00:27:19,289 --> 00:27:21,291 The Invisible Man, 434 00:27:21,422 --> 00:27:22,379 The Wolf Man. 435 00:27:22,510 --> 00:27:24,773 Yeah, I loved The Wolf Man. 436 00:27:26,253 --> 00:27:27,994 Larry Talbot, man. 437 00:27:28,124 --> 00:27:29,648 Talbot Castle, Mr. Larry. 438 00:27:32,389 --> 00:27:34,522 You know, he was just so cool. 439 00:27:34,653 --> 00:27:37,351 The Wolf Man gave us yet another monster 440 00:27:37,481 --> 00:27:41,050 who represented audiences' fear of the unknown events 441 00:27:41,181 --> 00:27:42,878 that continued to upend their lives. 442 00:27:45,272 --> 00:27:47,883 The Wolf Man was the monster 443 00:27:48,014 --> 00:27:51,147 who could not control his own actions. 444 00:27:51,278 --> 00:27:55,108 It was in the Wolf Man's nature to kill. 445 00:27:55,238 --> 00:27:56,849 Go ahead and shoot before he bites you. 446 00:27:56,979 --> 00:27:59,329 A monster too many could relate to. 447 00:27:59,460 --> 00:28:01,375 It shows the wolf in the pentagram. 448 00:28:01,505 --> 00:28:04,247 - The sign of the werewolf. - Werewolf? What's that? 449 00:28:04,378 --> 00:28:06,336 Oh, that's a human being who, at certain times of the year, 450 00:28:06,467 --> 00:28:07,990 changes into a wolf. 451 00:28:22,352 --> 00:28:24,267 Sir John! 452 00:28:24,398 --> 00:28:25,094 - Master Larry, what happened? - He was bitten by a wolf. 453 00:28:25,225 --> 00:28:27,227 - A wolf? - Yes. 454 00:28:27,357 --> 00:28:28,271 Nonsense. Haven't been wolves around here for years. 455 00:28:28,402 --> 00:28:29,490 Where did all this happen? 456 00:28:29,620 --> 00:28:31,753 By the marsh. That woman came to help. 457 00:28:31,884 --> 00:28:34,016 The main thing that the Lon Chaney Jr. Wolf Man 458 00:28:34,147 --> 00:28:36,279 did was, if you're gonna do a werewolf movie, 459 00:28:36,410 --> 00:28:39,239 you'd better have the transformation scene, 460 00:28:39,369 --> 00:28:41,328 and it better be something amazing. 461 00:28:57,083 --> 00:28:58,345 That is the sizzle. 462 00:29:02,436 --> 00:29:04,220 So that became the standard for a long time. 463 00:29:16,755 --> 00:29:21,150 The Wolf Man is a really interesting monster. 464 00:29:21,281 --> 00:29:24,371 He's completely innocent of anything. 465 00:29:24,501 --> 00:29:26,547 Richardson was killed last night. The gravedigger. 466 00:29:26,677 --> 00:29:29,202 The tracks lead up to this house. 467 00:29:29,332 --> 00:29:31,030 Footprints? 468 00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:33,162 No. Animal tracks. A wolf. 469 00:29:33,293 --> 00:29:35,164 He got bitten by a werewolf. 470 00:29:35,295 --> 00:29:37,297 What the hell, man? 471 00:29:37,427 --> 00:29:39,255 You killed the wolf. 472 00:29:39,386 --> 00:29:42,084 Well, there's no crime in that, is there? 473 00:29:42,215 --> 00:29:43,520 Bela became a wolf. 474 00:29:43,651 --> 00:29:45,827 - And you killed him. - You're insane. 475 00:29:45,958 --> 00:29:48,395 I tell you, I killed a wolf. A plain, ordinary wolf. 476 00:29:48,525 --> 00:29:51,659 It's unbelievably depressing. 477 00:29:51,790 --> 00:29:55,228 It's like what was going on in the culture at the time. 478 00:29:55,358 --> 00:29:58,318 Hell, I'm out of a job. Why? 479 00:29:58,448 --> 00:30:01,060 Why am I a werewolf? 480 00:30:01,190 --> 00:30:04,106 And it's-- you know, it's tragic. 481 00:30:04,237 --> 00:30:06,152 Your suffering is over. 482 00:30:08,371 --> 00:30:11,418 Now you will find peace for eternity. 483 00:30:22,559 --> 00:30:24,387 And then there was kind of, like, another wave. 484 00:30:25,562 --> 00:30:28,261 There was another boom, and you saw movies like 485 00:30:28,391 --> 00:30:30,306 the Universal classic movie-monster sequels. 486 00:30:32,787 --> 00:30:36,312 Bride of Frankenstein is considered by many 487 00:30:36,443 --> 00:30:39,838 to be a perfect sequel. 488 00:30:39,968 --> 00:30:42,231 It picks up where Frankenstein left off, 489 00:30:42,362 --> 00:30:46,496 scaring audiences with its tale of unnatural monsters 490 00:30:46,627 --> 00:30:48,847 threatening the world around them... 491 00:30:51,371 --> 00:30:53,373 and ups the ante with spectacular 492 00:30:53,503 --> 00:30:55,418 and unnerving effects 493 00:30:55,549 --> 00:30:58,247 unlike any that were seen at the time. 494 00:30:58,378 --> 00:30:59,901 I think Bride of Frankenstein is one of the best films, 495 00:31:00,032 --> 00:31:00,859 period. 496 00:31:07,300 --> 00:31:08,649 Baron Frankenstein. 497 00:31:08,779 --> 00:31:12,305 - What do you want? - We must work together. 498 00:31:12,435 --> 00:31:14,307 Bride of Frankenstein is super interesting 499 00:31:14,437 --> 00:31:18,789 because it's modeled on a piece from the Mary Shelley story. 500 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,096 I give you the monster. 501 00:31:21,227 --> 00:31:22,489 Frankenstein, the scientist, 502 00:31:22,619 --> 00:31:26,362 decides he should make a mate for his monster. 503 00:31:26,493 --> 00:31:29,061 Oh, I thought I was alone. 504 00:31:29,191 --> 00:31:34,022 You make man like me? 505 00:31:34,153 --> 00:31:35,719 No. 506 00:31:35,850 --> 00:31:38,897 Woman. Friend for you. 507 00:31:40,333 --> 00:31:42,335 Woman. Friend. 508 00:31:42,465 --> 00:31:44,598 Why? 509 00:31:44,728 --> 00:31:48,384 James Whale takes up Mary Shelley's lost plot 510 00:31:48,515 --> 00:31:49,342 and brings it to life. 511 00:31:51,213 --> 00:31:53,389 Isn't it amazing, Henry? 512 00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:55,739 Bride of Frankenstein is genuinely frightening 513 00:31:55,870 --> 00:31:58,133 when you realize what a scientist wants to do 514 00:31:58,264 --> 00:32:00,527 is to make a world of gods and monsters. 515 00:32:00,657 --> 00:32:04,400 To a new world of gods and monsters. 516 00:32:04,531 --> 00:32:09,536 Universal Horror really nailed the idea of the monster 517 00:32:09,666 --> 00:32:11,538 is never really the evil perpetrator. 518 00:32:12,191 --> 00:32:14,149 Keep still! 519 00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:16,369 If anything, they're the biggest 520 00:32:16,499 --> 00:32:18,588 and most frightened victim in the film. 521 00:32:18,719 --> 00:32:20,460 Oh! 522 00:32:20,590 --> 00:32:22,592 I'd hate to find him under my bed at night. 523 00:32:22,723 --> 00:32:24,638 Bride of Frankenstein is amazing. 524 00:32:24,768 --> 00:32:27,684 It is a feminist film without ever even realizing 525 00:32:27,815 --> 00:32:29,599 that it is a feminist film. 526 00:32:34,822 --> 00:32:38,217 We see this woman who has been created for the sole purpose 527 00:32:38,347 --> 00:32:40,436 of being a mate for this monster. 528 00:32:43,613 --> 00:32:46,442 She's alive. Alive! 529 00:32:46,573 --> 00:32:49,054 The bride of Frankenstein. 530 00:32:57,671 --> 00:33:01,457 But once she's born to light, she looks at him and she's like, 531 00:33:01,588 --> 00:33:03,242 "Nah, I'm not into that." 532 00:33:08,769 --> 00:33:10,510 "This is not what I want. I don't want to do this." 533 00:33:13,643 --> 00:33:16,820 So we're seeing this beautiful feminist reaction in a movie 534 00:33:16,951 --> 00:33:20,128 that no one really kind of perceived it being in. 535 00:33:22,696 --> 00:33:25,438 She hate me. 536 00:33:25,568 --> 00:33:28,354 Get away from that lever. You'll blow us all to atoms. 537 00:33:28,484 --> 00:33:29,703 Henry! Undo the door! 538 00:33:29,833 --> 00:33:31,183 But I can't leave them. 539 00:33:31,313 --> 00:33:33,446 Yes, go. You live. 540 00:33:34,708 --> 00:33:36,840 You stay. 541 00:33:36,971 --> 00:33:39,017 We belong dead. 542 00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:47,025 It's the most nihilistic ending. 543 00:33:57,426 --> 00:33:59,559 Universal making those movies 544 00:33:59,689 --> 00:34:02,562 gave all the other studios permission to go, 545 00:34:02,692 --> 00:34:04,259 "Horror movies are lucrative." 546 00:34:06,522 --> 00:34:08,394 It gave, like, you know, 547 00:34:08,524 --> 00:34:10,570 Paramount the right to go make a slate of horror movies. 548 00:34:13,921 --> 00:34:16,184 Give MGM the right to go make some films. 549 00:34:20,754 --> 00:34:23,322 It's like the landscape just opened up. 550 00:35:06,669 --> 00:35:08,889 After he directed Dracula, 551 00:35:09,019 --> 00:35:11,370 Tod Browning went on to make Freaks. 552 00:35:16,244 --> 00:35:19,943 An incredibly important, unique early horror movie. 553 00:35:20,074 --> 00:35:23,382 Freaks was based on the short story Spurs, 554 00:35:23,512 --> 00:35:27,908 written by American horror author Tod Robbins. 555 00:35:28,038 --> 00:35:33,348 Director Tod Browning, regarded as the Edgar Allan Poe of film, 556 00:35:33,479 --> 00:35:35,524 had worked for a traveling carnival 557 00:35:35,655 --> 00:35:37,918 and urged MGM to secure the rights 558 00:35:38,048 --> 00:35:40,964 to a story some considered grotesque, 559 00:35:41,095 --> 00:35:44,446 thus putting his reputation on the line. 560 00:35:44,577 --> 00:35:46,666 ♪ We accept her, we accept her ♪ 561 00:35:46,796 --> 00:35:48,624 ♪ Gooble, gobble, gooble, gobble ♪ 562 00:35:48,755 --> 00:35:50,626 ♪ One of us, one of us 563 00:35:50,757 --> 00:35:53,629 When looked at through the lens of the Great Depression, 564 00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:57,459 Freaks is about the class struggle. 565 00:35:57,590 --> 00:35:59,635 The supposedly normal characters, 566 00:35:59,766 --> 00:36:01,898 Cleopatra and Hercules, 567 00:36:02,029 --> 00:36:05,772 have disdain for the people that make their carnival possible. 568 00:36:05,902 --> 00:36:10,168 The so-called freaks are the working man. 569 00:36:16,826 --> 00:36:18,611 ♪ Gooble, gobble, gooble, gobble ♪ 570 00:36:18,741 --> 00:36:20,787 No! 571 00:36:20,917 --> 00:36:22,528 Dirty! 572 00:36:22,658 --> 00:36:24,312 Slimy! 573 00:36:24,443 --> 00:36:25,487 Freaks! 574 00:36:25,618 --> 00:36:27,359 Freaks! Freaks! 575 00:36:27,489 --> 00:36:29,622 Get out of here! 576 00:36:29,752 --> 00:36:31,014 Freaks disturbed me. 577 00:36:31,145 --> 00:36:33,756 Get out. You heard her! Get out! 578 00:36:35,758 --> 00:36:39,458 And I think it did it in a way that was probably 579 00:36:39,588 --> 00:36:42,504 really advanced for its time. 580 00:36:46,726 --> 00:36:49,859 And a lot of that, I'm sure, had to do with the casting. 581 00:36:49,990 --> 00:36:53,428 The cast of Freaks was groundbreaking-- 582 00:36:53,559 --> 00:36:55,300 putting people on screen who'd never been seen 583 00:36:55,430 --> 00:36:57,215 in movies before. 584 00:36:57,345 --> 00:36:59,217 I mean, it really felt like, "Oh, wow, 585 00:36:59,347 --> 00:37:03,395 we're hearkening back to a time where creepiness 586 00:37:03,525 --> 00:37:08,051 and exploitation was acceptable 587 00:37:08,182 --> 00:37:10,010 and thrived upon." 588 00:37:10,140 --> 00:37:13,753 Watching it, I found myself kind of like, 589 00:37:13,883 --> 00:37:15,711 "This is a little bit more than exploitation. 590 00:37:15,842 --> 00:37:19,367 There's actual story going on with a lot of layers to it." 591 00:37:23,023 --> 00:37:25,460 Freaks follows a trapeze artist who joins a group 592 00:37:25,591 --> 00:37:27,680 of carnival sideshow performers 593 00:37:27,810 --> 00:37:29,682 with a plan to murder a little person 594 00:37:29,812 --> 00:37:31,684 in the troupe for his inheritance. 595 00:37:33,860 --> 00:37:35,688 Any horror filmmaker wants to set out 596 00:37:35,818 --> 00:37:39,561 to give you a level of discomfort. 597 00:37:52,313 --> 00:37:55,708 Make you confront feelings that you don't normally confront. 598 00:38:18,165 --> 00:38:19,949 Sometimes when you're a horror fan, 599 00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:21,734 you have to listen a little deeper 600 00:38:21,864 --> 00:38:23,779 than what people automatically lead with, 601 00:38:23,910 --> 00:38:25,738 which is, "This movie's exploitive." 602 00:38:28,175 --> 00:38:32,048 In the end, it becomes this kind of, like, revenge movie, 603 00:38:32,179 --> 00:38:33,876 almost in a way like I Spit on Your Grave. 604 00:38:37,053 --> 00:38:38,794 It's a rape revenge film. 605 00:38:46,193 --> 00:38:48,935 These movies are that window into the darkness of the world. 606 00:38:52,852 --> 00:38:54,114 At the same time, 607 00:38:54,244 --> 00:38:55,898 Freaks came out in a time period 608 00:38:56,029 --> 00:38:57,683 where we're having people return from war. 609 00:38:59,902 --> 00:39:01,687 Terrible was the price to be paid. 610 00:39:01,817 --> 00:39:04,516 A million men laid dead. 611 00:39:05,517 --> 00:39:07,910 Hospitals coped with the unending flow of wounded. 612 00:39:09,172 --> 00:39:13,960 Plenty of soldiers came back with whatever had happened 613 00:39:14,090 --> 00:39:16,832 to them-- their injuries-- and felt less than. 614 00:39:21,359 --> 00:39:25,580 They felt marginalized. They felt they didn't fit in. 615 00:39:25,711 --> 00:39:26,799 They weren't worthy anymore. 616 00:39:29,845 --> 00:39:32,021 They weren't the high school quarterback they were 617 00:39:32,152 --> 00:39:33,371 when they left. 618 00:39:35,982 --> 00:39:38,767 They're not just externally injured. 619 00:39:38,898 --> 00:39:40,856 They're internally injured. 620 00:39:40,987 --> 00:39:44,773 And nobody knows about it, and nobody ever talked about it. 621 00:39:44,904 --> 00:39:48,777 And then along comes a movie like Freaks, where... 622 00:39:48,908 --> 00:39:51,040 they can identify with these people 623 00:39:51,171 --> 00:39:53,956 that are being marginalized and looked down on 624 00:39:54,087 --> 00:39:55,784 and just don't make the cut anymore. 625 00:39:55,915 --> 00:39:56,872 And they're the heroes. 626 00:39:59,048 --> 00:40:00,049 We are actually seeing 627 00:40:00,180 --> 00:40:01,964 these body horrors firsthand 628 00:40:02,095 --> 00:40:04,750 of people coming over, missing limbs, 629 00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:08,667 and so seeing it up on screen in an almost exploitive manner, 630 00:40:08,797 --> 00:40:10,930 no one really knew what to do with it. 631 00:40:13,106 --> 00:40:14,847 Freaks was also a film 632 00:40:14,977 --> 00:40:17,153 that when MGM initially test screened it, 633 00:40:17,284 --> 00:40:19,417 there are anecdotes that people got up and ran out. 634 00:40:22,768 --> 00:40:24,030 They didn't just leave. 635 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:25,814 They literally ran out of the theater. 636 00:40:25,945 --> 00:40:28,861 There was a backlash to that. 637 00:40:28,991 --> 00:40:30,645 After the test screening, 638 00:40:30,776 --> 00:40:32,995 MGM removed more than 30 minutes of footage 639 00:40:33,126 --> 00:40:35,955 from Tod Browning's original cut. 640 00:40:36,085 --> 00:40:37,696 Despite the changes, 641 00:40:37,826 --> 00:40:40,916 Freaks was not a commercial success 642 00:40:41,047 --> 00:40:43,919 and was outright banned in some places. 643 00:40:46,356 --> 00:40:49,011 With its failure at the box office 644 00:40:49,142 --> 00:40:51,100 and the controversy surrounding it, 645 00:40:51,231 --> 00:40:55,801 the film essentially ended Tod Browning's career. 646 00:40:55,931 --> 00:40:59,021 Although it is now in the National Film Registry, 647 00:40:59,152 --> 00:41:00,936 at the time of its release, 648 00:41:01,067 --> 00:41:04,113 Freaks was a prime example of why the Hays Code 649 00:41:04,244 --> 00:41:06,333 was enacted just a few years earlier. 650 00:41:06,464 --> 00:41:07,943 At the time, 651 00:41:08,074 --> 00:41:10,163 people did not know what kind of impact 652 00:41:10,293 --> 00:41:13,079 the cinema might have on the mass audiences 653 00:41:13,209 --> 00:41:15,995 who were all going to see the same material. 654 00:41:16,125 --> 00:41:18,998 So the question is, would people be so mesmerized 655 00:41:19,128 --> 00:41:21,043 by what they saw in the cinema 656 00:41:21,174 --> 00:41:25,134 that they would immediately go out and mimic what they saw? 657 00:41:25,265 --> 00:41:27,876 And if so, was there a responsibility 658 00:41:28,007 --> 00:41:31,706 within the community of filmmaking 659 00:41:31,837 --> 00:41:33,839 to regulate what was shown? 660 00:41:33,969 --> 00:41:37,233 Hollywood, the glamour capital of the world. 661 00:41:37,364 --> 00:41:40,193 Hollywood reaches far, carrying its cargo of dreams 662 00:41:40,323 --> 00:41:43,283 to almost every city and village in America. 663 00:41:43,413 --> 00:41:45,677 ♪ Clean as a whistle, fresh as a daisy ♪ 664 00:41:45,807 --> 00:41:48,027 ♪ Brand-new, clean through 665 00:41:48,157 --> 00:41:51,987 ♪ On my way just wearing that smile of mine ♪ 666 00:41:52,118 --> 00:41:54,250 The Hays Code was this reaction 667 00:41:54,381 --> 00:41:56,252 by the film industry to police themselves 668 00:41:56,383 --> 00:41:59,342 before the government started policing them. 669 00:41:59,473 --> 00:42:01,214 Things got so hot in the movies 670 00:42:01,344 --> 00:42:04,130 that the reputable producers signed up Will Hays 671 00:42:04,260 --> 00:42:07,873 at 100 grand a year to clean up the picture business 672 00:42:08,003 --> 00:42:11,137 and yet keep the busybodies off the industry's neck. 673 00:42:11,267 --> 00:42:17,535 Pre-Code movies had cocaine use, drinking, wild partying. 674 00:42:17,665 --> 00:42:20,146 Pretty racy stuff that maybe wasn't quite nudity 675 00:42:20,276 --> 00:42:22,714 but was getting awful close. 676 00:42:22,844 --> 00:42:23,976 I'm ready now. 677 00:42:27,153 --> 00:42:28,850 They looked at Hollywood and said, 678 00:42:28,981 --> 00:42:30,330 "All of the questionable stuff that you've been 679 00:42:30,460 --> 00:42:33,159 doing for years, we're done with that." 680 00:42:33,289 --> 00:42:35,291 And they really started to regulate 681 00:42:35,422 --> 00:42:39,731 not just things like violence or murder or nudity on screen, 682 00:42:39,861 --> 00:42:40,949 but also morality. 683 00:42:42,995 --> 00:42:46,172 Crime must not pay. 684 00:42:46,302 --> 00:42:48,914 You cannot show sexual intercourse. 685 00:42:49,044 --> 00:42:50,872 You can't show drug use. 686 00:42:51,003 --> 00:42:53,919 I mean, really specific stuff that you could not do. 687 00:42:54,049 --> 00:42:57,096 And that steamrolled all the joy out of movies for a while. 688 00:42:59,315 --> 00:43:03,102 There were many ways in which filmmakers figured out 689 00:43:03,232 --> 00:43:05,234 how to circumvent the rules 690 00:43:05,365 --> 00:43:07,454 and the regulations of the Hays Code, 691 00:43:07,585 --> 00:43:12,241 and that was to eschew realism for the supernatural 692 00:43:12,372 --> 00:43:15,549 or the extraordinary, the fantastical. 693 00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:17,159 A lot of the studios pulled back 694 00:43:17,290 --> 00:43:18,900 from doing overt horror 695 00:43:19,031 --> 00:43:22,817 because they felt that people had enough death 696 00:43:22,948 --> 00:43:24,645 and destruction in their lives. 697 00:43:28,301 --> 00:43:30,956 You know, you can't depict violence, 698 00:43:31,086 --> 00:43:34,089 and it puts a damper on horror. 699 00:43:34,220 --> 00:43:35,874 What you do get is very psychological horror. 700 00:43:36,004 --> 00:43:38,441 You get Val Lewton and his whole stable 701 00:43:38,572 --> 00:43:42,489 of psychological thrillers like Cat People. 702 00:43:42,620 --> 00:43:47,320 He kind of reinvents horror to be this more subtle genre. 703 00:43:47,450 --> 00:43:49,365 Cat People is incredibly groundbreaking 704 00:43:49,496 --> 00:43:52,455 and has a lot to say about what it means to be a female. 705 00:43:52,586 --> 00:43:55,894 It explores a lot of kind of marriage basis, 706 00:43:56,024 --> 00:43:57,156 like, our ground rock of society, 707 00:43:57,286 --> 00:43:58,940 like what does marriage mean? 708 00:43:59,071 --> 00:44:00,855 What does it mean to be in love with someone? 709 00:44:00,986 --> 00:44:02,640 The studio RKO 710 00:44:02,770 --> 00:44:06,121 gave director Val Lewton the title Cat People 711 00:44:06,252 --> 00:44:08,471 and told him, "Develop a film around it." 712 00:44:08,602 --> 00:44:10,343 Cat People is about a fashion illustrator 713 00:44:10,473 --> 00:44:13,085 obsessed with the idea that she is descended 714 00:44:13,215 --> 00:44:15,174 from an ancient tribe of cat people 715 00:44:15,304 --> 00:44:18,394 who turn into panthers when they're aroused. 716 00:44:18,525 --> 00:44:21,484 While it didn't claw its way to success at the time, 717 00:44:21,615 --> 00:44:24,313 Cat People did fulfill the Hays Code edict 718 00:44:24,444 --> 00:44:27,099 to ensure the audience is always aware that 719 00:44:27,229 --> 00:44:29,188 in the battle of good versus evil, 720 00:44:29,318 --> 00:44:32,191 evil is always wrong. 721 00:44:32,321 --> 00:44:35,673 The film did this, in part, by illustrating one of society's 722 00:44:35,803 --> 00:44:39,285 most notoriously dangerous temptations-- 723 00:44:39,415 --> 00:44:42,680 female sexuality. 724 00:44:42,810 --> 00:44:45,160 Cat People is also one of the pioneers 725 00:44:45,291 --> 00:44:47,467 of what we know in horror as the jump scare. 726 00:44:49,382 --> 00:44:51,210 But like all things, you know, 727 00:44:51,340 --> 00:44:55,997 there's times that horror boom started to wane a little bit. 728 00:44:56,128 --> 00:44:58,260 You weren't getting really beautiful works of art 729 00:44:58,391 --> 00:45:00,132 that, like, Val Lewton was creating. 730 00:45:02,264 --> 00:45:03,918 With Hitler on the rise 731 00:45:04,049 --> 00:45:05,485 and the threat of another World War 732 00:45:05,615 --> 00:45:09,489 creating tremendous stress in people's lives, 733 00:45:09,619 --> 00:45:13,188 the great release that horror provided 734 00:45:13,319 --> 00:45:15,016 was on the decline. 735 00:45:15,147 --> 00:45:18,150 We started getting more tepid scary movies. 736 00:45:21,066 --> 00:45:23,242 Some were just incredibly awful. 737 00:45:25,461 --> 00:45:27,246 How can you defile this sacred house 738 00:45:27,376 --> 00:45:30,162 with the body of that evil man, that servant of the devil? 739 00:45:36,516 --> 00:45:38,213 This house is full of it-- something evil. 740 00:45:38,344 --> 00:45:39,998 Evil? Yes, it's you. 741 00:45:43,653 --> 00:45:45,568 At that particular time, 742 00:45:45,699 --> 00:45:48,746 Universal had sort of been cycling through their monsters. 743 00:45:53,446 --> 00:45:55,753 Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. 744 00:46:00,627 --> 00:46:02,020 And then it was House of Frankenstein. 745 00:46:04,544 --> 00:46:08,287 Don't go this way. Quicksand. Quicksand. 746 00:46:10,115 --> 00:46:11,420 They shouldn't have come here. 747 00:46:11,551 --> 00:46:13,292 And then House of Dracula. 748 00:46:21,430 --> 00:46:24,694 They were getting a little fatigued. 749 00:46:24,825 --> 00:46:28,046 They didn't know what to do with those monsters after a while. 750 00:46:32,790 --> 00:46:36,054 Yesterday, the United States of America 751 00:46:36,184 --> 00:46:38,404 was suddenly deliberately attacked. 752 00:46:39,361 --> 00:46:42,625 With America's entry into World War II, 753 00:46:42,756 --> 00:46:47,195 vampires, werewolves, and man-made monsters 754 00:46:47,326 --> 00:46:50,546 like Frankenstein and Invisible Man-- 755 00:46:50,677 --> 00:46:54,463 well, they had run their course. 756 00:46:54,594 --> 00:46:59,251 The audiences were engrossed in a new kind of horror. 757 00:46:59,381 --> 00:47:02,384 Realities of war. 758 00:47:02,515 --> 00:47:06,040 People are seeing stories unfold on a big screen 759 00:47:06,171 --> 00:47:09,478 with sound in black and white 760 00:47:09,609 --> 00:47:13,569 and seeing things they had never seen before. 761 00:47:13,700 --> 00:47:16,529 People were genuinely afraid. 762 00:47:16,659 --> 00:47:19,662 They were afraid because now there was nowhere safe. 763 00:47:19,793 --> 00:47:22,230 They couldn't just go into their bedroom and slam the door shut 764 00:47:22,361 --> 00:47:25,320 and be safe from the monster. 765 00:47:25,451 --> 00:47:27,322 Because the monster could get through the wall. 766 00:47:30,673 --> 00:47:33,285 It's hard to know where the true monsters are. 767 00:47:33,415 --> 00:47:35,983 It's sort of like they're everywhere you look. 768 00:47:40,205 --> 00:47:43,208 A short time ago, 769 00:47:43,338 --> 00:47:48,169 an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima. 770 00:47:50,563 --> 00:47:51,999 The atomic bomb kind of changed everything. 771 00:47:55,307 --> 00:47:59,572 Changed people's world view, perspectives. 772 00:47:59,702 --> 00:48:04,098 I think people were just like, "Okay, you know what? 773 00:48:04,229 --> 00:48:07,449 There is clearly a greater force at work here 774 00:48:07,580 --> 00:48:10,148 and bigger things to be afraid of." 775 00:48:17,459 --> 00:48:20,114 "Not only do we have to worry about World Wars, 776 00:48:20,245 --> 00:48:21,507 but there is another threat." 777 00:48:26,642 --> 00:48:28,166 Holy shit.