1 00:00:11,750 --> 00:00:13,622 The movies have always provided 2 00:00:13,752 --> 00:00:17,626 a safe place to face our fears. 3 00:00:17,756 --> 00:00:19,932 In that dark movie theater, 4 00:00:20,063 --> 00:00:23,501 we deal with the monsters terrorizing us in our real lives 5 00:00:23,632 --> 00:00:27,810 by seeing them defeated up there on the big screen. 6 00:00:27,940 --> 00:00:31,553 Horror films like Dracula, The Invisible Man, 7 00:00:31,683 --> 00:00:34,425 and The Wolf Man provided a useful catharsis 8 00:00:34,556 --> 00:00:36,688 for a frightened populace. 9 00:00:36,819 --> 00:00:39,256 Those movies gave audiences a place 10 00:00:39,387 --> 00:00:40,605 to share their collective fears, 11 00:00:40,736 --> 00:00:44,609 or even national traumas brought on 12 00:00:44,740 --> 00:00:48,483 by financial instability, World Wars, 13 00:00:48,613 --> 00:00:51,703 and the global tensions that followed. 14 00:00:51,834 --> 00:00:53,488 The financial fears 15 00:00:53,618 --> 00:00:56,491 and the wartime terrors of the '30s and '40s 16 00:00:56,621 --> 00:00:58,667 were soon followed by new threats. 17 00:01:00,321 --> 00:01:01,713 A nation horrified 18 00:01:01,844 --> 00:01:05,456 at the thought of nuclear destruction, 19 00:01:05,587 --> 00:01:09,808 of scientists going too far and wreaking havoc with nature, 20 00:01:09,939 --> 00:01:14,639 and by a Cold War between the Soviets and Americans 21 00:01:14,770 --> 00:01:17,729 that threatened global destruction. 22 00:01:17,860 --> 00:01:21,298 National fears of nuclear annihilation, 23 00:01:21,429 --> 00:01:23,779 Communist infiltrations, 24 00:01:23,909 --> 00:01:26,564 and an even more destructive global conflict 25 00:01:26,695 --> 00:01:29,785 than World War II resulted in horror films 26 00:01:29,915 --> 00:01:34,659 about science run amuck, alien invasions from the skies, 27 00:01:34,790 --> 00:01:37,619 and extraterrestrial body snatchers 28 00:01:37,749 --> 00:01:40,839 right here on Earth. 29 00:01:40,970 --> 00:01:44,756 The public, more than ever, were drawn to movies 30 00:01:44,887 --> 00:01:47,585 that help them confront those anxieties. 31 00:02:38,810 --> 00:02:42,727 The drive-in movie takes care of everything. 32 00:02:42,858 --> 00:02:48,733 Courtship, babysitting, shelter, Marilyn Monroe, food and drink. 33 00:02:48,864 --> 00:02:53,303 There's hot, delicious popcorn, lots of candy, and cold drinks. 34 00:02:53,434 --> 00:02:54,391 Now... 35 00:02:54,522 --> 00:02:55,958 It's showtime. 36 00:02:59,614 --> 00:03:02,530 I grew up in the '50s, 37 00:03:02,660 --> 00:03:06,751 so those were my formative years as a moviegoer 38 00:03:06,882 --> 00:03:08,797 and somebody who loved movies at the time. 39 00:03:08,927 --> 00:03:11,103 So I saw a lot of science-fiction films 40 00:03:11,234 --> 00:03:12,714 and all the giant monster movies, 41 00:03:12,844 --> 00:03:15,760 a lot of radiation-did-it movies, 42 00:03:15,891 --> 00:03:16,805 that type of thing. 43 00:03:21,636 --> 00:03:26,771 1951-- went to a theater in Rochester, New York. 44 00:03:26,902 --> 00:03:31,385 I saw It Came from Outer Space in 3-D. 45 00:03:31,515 --> 00:03:33,517 In the opening of that movie, 46 00:03:33,648 --> 00:03:36,564 this big ol' meteor comes out of space, 47 00:03:36,694 --> 00:03:38,696 comes right into the screen 48 00:03:38,827 --> 00:03:40,916 and out of the screen into the audience 49 00:03:41,046 --> 00:03:43,701 and blows up in your face. 50 00:03:43,832 --> 00:03:47,836 And it blew up in my face, and I jumped up and ran. 51 00:03:49,707 --> 00:03:51,535 But then I stopped, and I thought, 52 00:03:51,666 --> 00:03:53,581 "That's the greatest thing I've ever seen. 53 00:03:53,711 --> 00:03:56,192 I've got to go back and see more." 54 00:03:56,323 --> 00:03:59,543 So that was the beginning of it all. 55 00:03:59,674 --> 00:04:00,762 Well, when I was growing up, 56 00:04:00,892 --> 00:04:03,460 horror meant whatever monster movies were on 57 00:04:03,591 --> 00:04:04,809 on a Saturday on the local station. 58 00:04:08,944 --> 00:04:12,687 I grew up in Northern Virginia, so we had WDCA, channel 20, 59 00:04:12,817 --> 00:04:15,646 and that was, Saturday afternoons, 60 00:04:15,777 --> 00:04:16,995 there was a monster movie on. 61 00:04:17,126 --> 00:04:19,737 I've never seen venom in such quantity before. 62 00:04:19,868 --> 00:04:21,565 You know, there's more venom in this test tube 63 00:04:21,696 --> 00:04:23,524 than you'll find in 100 tarantulas. 64 00:04:23,654 --> 00:04:25,830 As a movie fan, it offered me something 65 00:04:25,961 --> 00:04:27,876 beyond watching two adults talking. 66 00:04:28,006 --> 00:04:29,791 It was, two adults would talk, 67 00:04:29,921 --> 00:04:33,708 and then some kind of crazy, engineered creature-- 68 00:04:33,838 --> 00:04:35,884 somebody in makeup or in a costume-- 69 00:04:36,014 --> 00:04:39,148 would show up and bring mayhem. 70 00:04:39,279 --> 00:04:40,889 And that, to me, was hilarious. 71 00:04:45,763 --> 00:04:47,591 To me, monsters were scary. 72 00:04:47,722 --> 00:04:51,813 A giant mutated ant, a lizard man, 73 00:04:51,943 --> 00:04:54,946 fish man coming out of a swamp or lagoon to kill you. 74 00:04:59,081 --> 00:05:01,953 For me growing up, you know, in my mind, 75 00:05:02,084 --> 00:05:04,913 Godzilla or one of the half-dozen monsters 76 00:05:05,043 --> 00:05:07,655 that were on Monster Island were going to, you know, 77 00:05:07,785 --> 00:05:10,919 come tramping across the Northern Virginia suburbs 78 00:05:11,049 --> 00:05:12,703 and wipe everyone out for some reason. 79 00:05:18,056 --> 00:05:20,015 Horror films in the '50s, 80 00:05:20,145 --> 00:05:23,758 I believe their popularity came from the fact 81 00:05:23,888 --> 00:05:25,890 that there was a changing perspective, 82 00:05:26,021 --> 00:05:28,589 that it was a world that was saying, 83 00:05:28,719 --> 00:05:30,678 "It's time to look at the entire world 84 00:05:30,808 --> 00:05:32,854 differently than it's ever been looked at before." 85 00:05:32,984 --> 00:05:35,117 And that was heavy. 86 00:05:40,252 --> 00:05:43,038 And I think horror films, just like movies in general, 87 00:05:43,168 --> 00:05:47,912 provided a level of escapism that was unparalleled. 88 00:05:48,043 --> 00:05:49,914 I think in this country, there were people, 89 00:05:50,045 --> 00:05:51,525 especially with the nuclear threat, 90 00:05:51,655 --> 00:05:52,917 the nuclear scare, 91 00:05:53,048 --> 00:05:55,006 there was this unparalleled fear among everybody, 92 00:05:55,137 --> 00:05:57,531 and so you've got a heightened audience already. 93 00:05:57,661 --> 00:05:59,707 A short time ago, 94 00:05:59,837 --> 00:06:04,059 an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima 95 00:06:04,189 --> 00:06:06,844 and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy. 96 00:06:06,975 --> 00:06:08,759 As the world was reeling from 97 00:06:08,890 --> 00:06:11,980 the frightening destruction caused by the hydrogen bomb, 98 00:06:12,110 --> 00:06:14,722 horror films in the post-nuclear era 99 00:06:14,852 --> 00:06:16,680 began to focus less 100 00:06:16,811 --> 00:06:20,075 on the fantasy of supernatural monsters 101 00:06:20,205 --> 00:06:24,688 and more on the real-life terror that man creates. 102 00:06:24,819 --> 00:06:27,865 I think a lot of horror borrows from its culture 103 00:06:27,996 --> 00:06:31,129 and borrows from its time and makes movies about it 104 00:06:31,260 --> 00:06:34,829 and fashions points of view 105 00:06:34,959 --> 00:06:37,092 that we didn't have when I started. 106 00:06:37,222 --> 00:06:39,790 Got this heightened kind of terror 107 00:06:39,921 --> 00:06:42,053 already instilled in these people, 108 00:06:42,184 --> 00:06:44,752 and now you show them a fucked-up horror movie, 109 00:06:44,882 --> 00:06:47,755 and it strikes a nerve. 110 00:06:47,885 --> 00:06:50,671 But I think that the commentary, especially back then, 111 00:06:50,801 --> 00:06:52,673 allowed people to kind of examine 112 00:06:52,803 --> 00:06:54,762 what struck that nerve in them, 113 00:06:54,892 --> 00:06:57,939 what nerve was struck, how it made them feel. 114 00:06:58,069 --> 00:07:01,986 And I think it allowed people to kind of look at things 115 00:07:02,117 --> 00:07:03,814 a little bit differently and also have some fun 116 00:07:03,945 --> 00:07:06,077 in a time when there wasn't fun. 117 00:07:06,208 --> 00:07:11,082 Everybody was scared all the time, every day, 118 00:07:11,213 --> 00:07:12,649 and there was no fun. 119 00:07:12,780 --> 00:07:14,608 And I think we need to have fun. 120 00:07:14,738 --> 00:07:15,652 We're built for it. 121 00:07:15,783 --> 00:07:17,001 Aah! 122 00:07:17,132 --> 00:07:20,701 As a people, we need to have fun. 123 00:07:27,316 --> 00:07:31,668 In 1954, the horror genre was forever changed 124 00:07:31,799 --> 00:07:34,932 with a Japanese kaiju, 125 00:07:35,063 --> 00:07:39,241 a giant monster film called Godzilla. 126 00:07:39,371 --> 00:07:42,070 The now iconic monster was originally envisioned 127 00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:44,812 as a larger-than-life octopus, 128 00:07:44,942 --> 00:07:47,858 but was redesigned as a mash-up of traits 129 00:07:47,989 --> 00:07:50,078 from prehistoric dinosaurs. 130 00:07:50,208 --> 00:07:51,949 You know, Godzilla, just to me, 131 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:54,604 he just represents something from my childhood 132 00:07:54,735 --> 00:07:55,736 more than anything. 133 00:08:00,915 --> 00:08:02,917 I mean, like, it's one of these characters 134 00:08:03,047 --> 00:08:05,702 that I'll never be able to remember 135 00:08:05,833 --> 00:08:07,008 the first moment that I saw him, 136 00:08:07,138 --> 00:08:09,010 because he was just always around. 137 00:08:09,140 --> 00:08:10,968 He always existed. 138 00:08:11,099 --> 00:08:14,668 And being obsessed with dinosaurs and things like that, 139 00:08:14,798 --> 00:08:16,321 he just-- he fit perfectly in that 140 00:08:16,452 --> 00:08:19,499 'cause he was a dinosaur with a personality and with a name. 141 00:08:21,849 --> 00:08:23,981 As a kid, when you watch movies, 142 00:08:24,112 --> 00:08:26,375 you're not just watching what's in front of you. 143 00:08:26,506 --> 00:08:29,378 Your imagination is still going, 144 00:08:29,509 --> 00:08:33,164 so the monsters in the suits and the costumes and stuff, 145 00:08:33,295 --> 00:08:35,166 they don't just look like guys in suits. 146 00:08:35,297 --> 00:08:38,866 You feel like they are 100% real monsters. 147 00:08:46,308 --> 00:08:49,877 I think that whenever I was making Godzilla vs. Kong, 148 00:08:50,007 --> 00:08:53,228 I remember the debate out on the schoolyard when I was a kid, 149 00:08:53,358 --> 00:08:55,273 and I remember my best friend at the time, 150 00:08:55,404 --> 00:08:58,973 he came in there, and he was talking about how, you know, 151 00:08:59,103 --> 00:09:00,888 King Kong would win in the fight and all this. 152 00:09:01,018 --> 00:09:02,193 And I just thought he was crazy. 153 00:09:02,324 --> 00:09:03,891 I just couldn't believe 154 00:09:04,021 --> 00:09:05,327 that he would think that King Kong would win. 155 00:09:05,457 --> 00:09:08,983 I'm just like, "Godzilla is Godzilla." You know? 156 00:09:09,113 --> 00:09:11,289 "He's not gonna lose to a big monkey." 157 00:09:11,420 --> 00:09:13,248 I think as a filmmaker, it's very important 158 00:09:13,378 --> 00:09:15,337 to always be half in touch 159 00:09:15,467 --> 00:09:18,862 with that sort of half-formed part of your brain 160 00:09:18,993 --> 00:09:21,996 when you're a kid, because there's still like-- 161 00:09:22,126 --> 00:09:24,999 there's a magic there that you can't replicate. 162 00:09:27,392 --> 00:09:29,873 Seeing Godzilla come up over the mountain 163 00:09:30,004 --> 00:09:32,223 for the first time is terrifying. 164 00:09:32,354 --> 00:09:34,008 He's one of my favorite monsters of all time. 165 00:09:38,055 --> 00:09:40,231 I think what audiences love about monster movies 166 00:09:40,362 --> 00:09:45,193 is seeing how characters react to this monstrous threat 167 00:09:45,323 --> 00:09:47,282 and how they all have to come together 168 00:09:47,412 --> 00:09:51,112 to face this thing and understand the rules. 169 00:09:51,242 --> 00:09:54,158 There's always kind of a whole process to a monster movie. 170 00:09:54,289 --> 00:09:55,899 It's like, "What is it? 171 00:09:56,030 --> 00:09:58,336 Oh, my God, that thing can never exist. 172 00:09:58,467 --> 00:10:01,905 Holy crap, it does exist. What are the rules to kill it?" 173 00:10:04,255 --> 00:10:08,172 You know, I think the monster movie as we know it 174 00:10:08,303 --> 00:10:10,435 owes a lot to that original Godzilla. 175 00:10:10,566 --> 00:10:12,916 The original Godzilla was an allegory 176 00:10:13,047 --> 00:10:14,614 for post-war Japan. 177 00:10:14,744 --> 00:10:18,052 Nine years earlier, during the culmination of World War II, 178 00:10:18,182 --> 00:10:20,315 the United States had dropped atomic bombs 179 00:10:20,445 --> 00:10:23,318 on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 180 00:10:23,448 --> 00:10:26,277 killing more than 200,000. 181 00:10:26,408 --> 00:10:29,019 It remains the only time in history 182 00:10:29,150 --> 00:10:31,195 nuclear weapons were used. 183 00:10:31,326 --> 00:10:33,154 The original Godzilla was all about 184 00:10:33,284 --> 00:10:36,331 Japan post-World War II trying to reclaim their identity, 185 00:10:36,461 --> 00:10:39,290 trying to process the aftermath of the atom bomb. 186 00:10:39,421 --> 00:10:41,945 And it really felt like Godzilla was this response 187 00:10:42,076 --> 00:10:44,818 to man's hubris in creating the ultimate weapon. 188 00:10:57,526 --> 00:11:00,834 I can only imagine that watching the original Godzilla 189 00:11:00,964 --> 00:11:02,226 in the '50s in Japan 190 00:11:02,357 --> 00:11:04,098 would have been a pretty intense experience. 191 00:11:04,228 --> 00:11:05,882 I mean, there's images in that film 192 00:11:06,013 --> 00:11:08,145 that are, like, exactly taken 193 00:11:08,276 --> 00:11:12,062 to emulate the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 194 00:11:12,193 --> 00:11:14,282 the explosion of the atomic bomb there. 195 00:11:14,412 --> 00:11:17,894 The atomic bomb was dropped on Japan in, what, 1945, 196 00:11:18,025 --> 00:11:21,637 and the original Godzilla came out in '54. 197 00:11:21,768 --> 00:11:24,379 I mean, that's not very long after. 198 00:11:24,509 --> 00:11:28,078 Godzilla embodied the fear felt by the Japanese 199 00:11:28,209 --> 00:11:30,211 in the wake of these attacks. 200 00:11:33,127 --> 00:11:36,391 A destructive beast that, once unleashed, 201 00:11:36,521 --> 00:11:40,569 could never really be fully controlled again. 202 00:11:40,700 --> 00:11:42,179 It's a cautionary tale 203 00:11:42,310 --> 00:11:45,313 that has taken on new meanings over the years. 204 00:11:45,443 --> 00:11:47,054 What I think is really interesting about Godzilla 205 00:11:47,184 --> 00:11:49,404 is he kind of went from representing the atom bomb 206 00:11:49,534 --> 00:11:52,189 to now kind of being the defender of the earth. 207 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:54,148 Like, there's a lot of allegory for climate change 208 00:11:54,278 --> 00:11:55,758 in the monsterverse right now. 209 00:12:01,372 --> 00:12:03,418 And you can really see that evolve from the '50s. 210 00:12:05,550 --> 00:12:07,335 I think the monster movie as we know it 211 00:12:07,465 --> 00:12:10,642 has changed significantly over the decades. 212 00:12:10,773 --> 00:12:13,123 Throughout the years, monster movies have followed 213 00:12:13,254 --> 00:12:15,386 the evolution of Godzilla, 214 00:12:15,517 --> 00:12:19,216 reflecting what people are most afraid of at any given time. 215 00:12:19,347 --> 00:12:22,219 Mutations are prevalent, 216 00:12:22,350 --> 00:12:27,007 and because of our dabbling in science and playing God, 217 00:12:27,137 --> 00:12:28,312 giant monsters are going to eat us. 218 00:12:28,443 --> 00:12:31,228 And those giant monsters ranged from tarantulas 219 00:12:31,359 --> 00:12:33,535 to giant ants 220 00:12:33,665 --> 00:12:37,321 to giant vulture-looking creature things. 221 00:12:37,452 --> 00:12:39,541 I mean, like, there was just so much out there 222 00:12:39,671 --> 00:12:42,849 that wanted to eat us because of our atomic testing. 223 00:12:53,381 --> 00:12:55,644 One of my favorites from special-effects movies 224 00:12:55,775 --> 00:12:58,255 in the 1950s is 1954's Them!... 225 00:13:01,215 --> 00:13:02,390 ...in which we have a group of ants 226 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:04,566 that get hit with atomic radiation, 227 00:13:04,696 --> 00:13:07,264 and all of a sudden, they go to extreme proportions. 228 00:13:13,357 --> 00:13:14,837 The movie is incredibly effective, 229 00:13:14,968 --> 00:13:18,145 with these giant ants coming after tiny, little people. 230 00:13:18,275 --> 00:13:20,930 Get the other antenna! 231 00:13:21,061 --> 00:13:22,497 Get the other antenna! 232 00:13:22,627 --> 00:13:24,412 He's helpless without them. 233 00:13:24,542 --> 00:13:26,501 It stood out because, suddenly, it was this idea 234 00:13:26,631 --> 00:13:29,634 of the tiniest thing that you can possibly imagine, 235 00:13:29,765 --> 00:13:33,334 an ant, is what is going to stomp on your house. 236 00:13:33,464 --> 00:13:34,770 Like, we did not have 237 00:13:34,901 --> 00:13:38,121 a lot of giant-creature films at this time period, 238 00:13:38,252 --> 00:13:40,254 and so the idea of taking something really small 239 00:13:40,384 --> 00:13:43,213 and blowing it up on screen was awesome. 240 00:13:43,344 --> 00:13:45,520 1954's Them! 241 00:13:45,650 --> 00:13:47,522 was one of the first nuclear monster movies 242 00:13:47,652 --> 00:13:49,306 to be produced in America, 243 00:13:49,437 --> 00:13:52,440 paving the way for countless others to follow. 244 00:13:52,570 --> 00:13:55,399 Released at almost the same time as Godzilla, 245 00:13:55,530 --> 00:13:57,575 the American kaijus were inspired 246 00:13:57,706 --> 00:13:59,534 by newsreels of atomic testing 247 00:13:59,664 --> 00:14:02,493 as countries fortified their nuclear arsenals. 248 00:14:02,624 --> 00:14:04,365 Well, I think a movie like Them! 249 00:14:04,495 --> 00:14:06,323 is just kind of like 250 00:14:06,454 --> 00:14:11,372 that archetypal Atomic Age monster movie. 251 00:14:11,502 --> 00:14:15,637 You know, it's our meddling with atomic testing 252 00:14:15,767 --> 00:14:17,378 out in the middle of some desert. 253 00:14:17,508 --> 00:14:19,597 It's like, Mother Nature, man. Don't mess with it. 254 00:14:19,728 --> 00:14:22,426 Let Mother Nature do its thing. 255 00:14:22,557 --> 00:14:25,560 Horror films tend to revolve around emotional storytelling, 256 00:14:25,690 --> 00:14:28,998 and the emotion that they focus most on is fear, 257 00:14:29,129 --> 00:14:30,217 and fear is a response. 258 00:14:33,568 --> 00:14:35,178 You know, as far back as the 1950s, 259 00:14:35,309 --> 00:14:37,180 there was a fear expressed in horror movies 260 00:14:37,311 --> 00:14:40,488 of the horrors of what atomic radiation might do 261 00:14:40,618 --> 00:14:44,274 and how that might corrupt nature. 262 00:14:44,405 --> 00:14:46,581 Here, gentlemen, is your villain. 263 00:14:46,711 --> 00:14:49,192 They almost never come up unless they're disturbed. 264 00:14:49,323 --> 00:14:51,107 Disturbed? By what? 265 00:14:51,238 --> 00:14:52,413 Hydrogen bombs. 266 00:14:52,543 --> 00:14:55,242 H bombs have been blamed for every freak accident 267 00:14:55,372 --> 00:14:57,157 that's happened since, up to, and including... 268 00:14:57,287 --> 00:14:58,419 Fire! 269 00:14:58,549 --> 00:15:00,638 ...great monsters being disturbed. 270 00:15:00,769 --> 00:15:02,292 Some of that was quite laughable. 271 00:15:02,423 --> 00:15:03,554 Like, we watch those movies now 272 00:15:03,685 --> 00:15:07,428 about giant spiders or ants or whatever. 273 00:15:07,558 --> 00:15:10,735 But what we're dealing with now is, around us, we see 274 00:15:10,866 --> 00:15:13,390 what happens when you slowly poison the earth. 275 00:15:13,521 --> 00:15:14,870 Like, what happens 276 00:15:15,001 --> 00:15:20,528 when you just pump toxic effluents into the water. 277 00:15:20,658 --> 00:15:23,835 Like, things die, things mutate, they stop breeding. 278 00:15:23,966 --> 00:15:28,275 Let us face without panic the reality of our times-- 279 00:15:28,405 --> 00:15:29,624 the fact that atom bombs 280 00:15:29,754 --> 00:15:32,279 may someday be dropped on our cities. 281 00:15:32,409 --> 00:15:34,455 And let us prepare for survival 282 00:15:34,585 --> 00:15:36,631 by understanding the weapon that threatens us. 283 00:15:36,761 --> 00:15:38,589 Here is the motion-picture spectacle 284 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:40,287 of all time. 285 00:15:43,551 --> 00:15:47,555 A million tons of water alive with deadly rays. 286 00:15:47,685 --> 00:15:50,340 Awe-inspiring in its significance for man, 287 00:15:50,471 --> 00:15:52,255 who learned how to control the atom, 288 00:15:52,386 --> 00:15:54,518 but must now learn to control himself. 289 00:15:54,649 --> 00:15:58,218 There was a lot to be afraid of after World War II. 290 00:15:58,348 --> 00:16:00,089 You know, the Atomic Age wasn't just relegated 291 00:16:00,220 --> 00:16:01,830 to giant monsters. 292 00:16:01,961 --> 00:16:07,705 There was also stories about atomic experimentation. 293 00:16:07,836 --> 00:16:10,099 You were dealing with mutations. 294 00:16:10,230 --> 00:16:11,405 And that fear, 295 00:16:11,535 --> 00:16:13,581 that fear of radiation because of power plants, 296 00:16:13,711 --> 00:16:15,452 because of atomic testing, all of that, 297 00:16:15,583 --> 00:16:18,412 that wasn't just exclusive to the '50s, I feel. 298 00:16:18,542 --> 00:16:20,370 Like, even growing up in the '80s, 299 00:16:20,501 --> 00:16:22,111 there were two things I was afraid of-- 300 00:16:22,242 --> 00:16:24,287 quicksand and radiation. 301 00:16:24,418 --> 00:16:25,593 You know? 302 00:16:25,723 --> 00:16:27,290 'Cause you just never knew, 303 00:16:27,421 --> 00:16:29,597 like, when there might be an accident 304 00:16:29,727 --> 00:16:31,860 or if you were gonna get bombed. 305 00:16:31,991 --> 00:16:34,819 Horror films have always stood as a warning, 306 00:16:34,950 --> 00:16:38,214 like, "This is what happens if you transgress." 307 00:16:38,345 --> 00:16:39,563 And it's one thing when it's like, 308 00:16:39,694 --> 00:16:41,565 "Don't go into the woods, young teenagers, 309 00:16:41,696 --> 00:16:44,742 because the ax man will chop off your heads." 310 00:16:44,873 --> 00:16:46,788 But, really, ecological horror 311 00:16:46,918 --> 00:16:49,225 has been telling us for years now 312 00:16:49,356 --> 00:16:50,835 that we are going into the woods, 313 00:16:50,966 --> 00:16:54,187 and we are going to get our species' head chopped off 314 00:16:54,317 --> 00:16:56,189 if we don't take notice 315 00:16:56,319 --> 00:16:59,583 and behave in a more kind 316 00:16:59,714 --> 00:17:02,630 and responsible manner. 317 00:17:04,893 --> 00:17:08,201 Them! is regarded as kind of maybe like a step up 318 00:17:08,331 --> 00:17:09,463 from the other stuff because 319 00:17:09,593 --> 00:17:12,683 there is a little bit of horror filmmaking 320 00:17:12,814 --> 00:17:14,207 that really works, 321 00:17:14,337 --> 00:17:15,773 like that whole opening scene 322 00:17:15,904 --> 00:17:19,603 where there's this little girl left behind, 323 00:17:19,734 --> 00:17:22,171 and all we hear is that high-pitched sound 324 00:17:22,302 --> 00:17:23,564 of the ant making its noise, 325 00:17:23,694 --> 00:17:25,000 and you don't know what's attacking 326 00:17:25,131 --> 00:17:26,349 this little girl's family and whatnot. 327 00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:28,525 Really scary stuff. 328 00:17:28,656 --> 00:17:30,614 It ended up getting nominated for an Academy Award 329 00:17:30,745 --> 00:17:32,660 and lost to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 330 00:17:32,790 --> 00:17:34,705 but still one of the landmark special-effects films 331 00:17:34,836 --> 00:17:36,316 of the 1950s. 332 00:17:39,232 --> 00:17:42,496 Everything that we see in the 1950s is about paranoia. 333 00:17:42,626 --> 00:17:45,673 It is about our sweet, little, bucolic society 334 00:17:45,803 --> 00:17:48,328 somehow being infiltrated, 335 00:17:48,458 --> 00:17:50,765 whether it be via atomic radiation, 336 00:17:50,895 --> 00:17:53,333 monsters from space, monsters from the deep, 337 00:17:53,463 --> 00:17:55,335 the neighbor that you didn't know was evil 338 00:17:55,465 --> 00:17:57,337 who's been living next to you for years. 339 00:17:57,467 --> 00:17:59,730 It was all about paranoia and fear, 340 00:17:59,861 --> 00:18:02,733 and it came out in many different ways on screen, 341 00:18:02,864 --> 00:18:06,389 but it all links back to us just being scared of everything, 342 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:08,522 scared that everything that we believe in, 343 00:18:08,652 --> 00:18:10,611 that we hold true as American values, 344 00:18:10,741 --> 00:18:12,395 it's all nothing. 345 00:18:17,487 --> 00:18:18,662 There's a great deal more 346 00:18:18,793 --> 00:18:20,969 to this American way of life, of course, 347 00:18:21,100 --> 00:18:24,015 and it's all familiar enough. 348 00:18:24,146 --> 00:18:27,845 The Main Street of any town is almost a symbol of America. 349 00:18:27,976 --> 00:18:31,501 That's where the stores are. That's where we go shopping. 350 00:18:31,632 --> 00:18:33,764 Candy and ice cream, buy all you want. 351 00:18:35,723 --> 00:18:37,638 Movies-- come early and get the best seat. 352 00:18:39,030 --> 00:18:41,511 The raw, harsh, unpleasant fact 353 00:18:41,642 --> 00:18:43,731 is that communism is an issue. 354 00:18:43,861 --> 00:18:45,776 Don't let the communists use you. 355 00:18:45,907 --> 00:18:48,779 Please, don't be a dupe. 356 00:18:48,910 --> 00:18:51,652 With the onset of the Cold War, 357 00:18:51,782 --> 00:18:55,699 tensions between the U.S. and Russia began to rise. 358 00:18:55,830 --> 00:18:58,485 Americans were petrified by the notion 359 00:18:58,615 --> 00:19:01,966 that communism was everywhere, hiding in plain sight, 360 00:19:02,097 --> 00:19:04,578 threatening to destroy their way of life. 361 00:19:04,708 --> 00:19:06,101 Many feared that 362 00:19:06,232 --> 00:19:08,930 a Soviet nuclear attack on U.S. soil was imminent 363 00:19:09,060 --> 00:19:10,540 and that their-- their neighbors 364 00:19:10,671 --> 00:19:12,847 could be communist spies. 365 00:19:12,977 --> 00:19:16,677 The mass panic opened the door to horror films 366 00:19:16,807 --> 00:19:21,551 that reflected this escalating national paranoia. 367 00:19:21,682 --> 00:19:24,772 As we move into the 1950s, we see film itself 368 00:19:24,902 --> 00:19:26,513 trying to push into new areas. 369 00:19:26,643 --> 00:19:28,341 We've all been sitting in theaters 370 00:19:28,471 --> 00:19:29,907 for decades at this point, 371 00:19:30,038 --> 00:19:32,562 so the filmmakers and the exhibitors are really looking 372 00:19:32,693 --> 00:19:34,869 for ways to get more people in the seats. 373 00:19:34,999 --> 00:19:36,914 And especially with the advent of television, 374 00:19:37,045 --> 00:19:39,743 they have to find a way to get you off your couch now. 375 00:19:39,874 --> 00:19:41,484 So what we see them doing 376 00:19:41,615 --> 00:19:43,356 is really bringing in all of these new innovations. 377 00:19:43,486 --> 00:19:44,835 Tony, this is important. 378 00:19:44,966 --> 00:19:47,490 And the audience that embraced the innovations 379 00:19:47,621 --> 00:19:50,450 and the gimmicks were America's teenagers. 380 00:19:50,580 --> 00:19:52,147 Shh! 381 00:19:52,278 --> 00:19:53,670 "Let's make the screen wider. 382 00:19:53,801 --> 00:19:56,369 Let's make it bigger. Let's make 3-D. 383 00:19:57,718 --> 00:20:02,026 Let's let you sit in your car so you can watch stuff." 384 00:20:02,157 --> 00:20:04,812 And so we see all of these different new kind of gimmicks 385 00:20:04,942 --> 00:20:08,076 coming into play to bring in theatergoers. 386 00:20:08,207 --> 00:20:13,037 In 1953, Vincent Price's House of Wax 387 00:20:13,168 --> 00:20:18,695 became the first color 3-D film released by a major studio. 388 00:20:18,826 --> 00:20:21,872 3-D movies reached out and grabbed moviegoers, 389 00:20:22,003 --> 00:20:24,527 attracting the growing teenage audience 390 00:20:24,658 --> 00:20:26,921 and making them jump from their seats. 391 00:20:27,051 --> 00:20:29,924 In the America of the 1950s, 392 00:20:30,054 --> 00:20:35,712 everything was consumable, from fast food to fast cars. 393 00:20:35,843 --> 00:20:39,368 But the one thing that teenagers couldn't get enough of 394 00:20:39,499 --> 00:20:41,022 were horror movies. 395 00:20:41,152 --> 00:20:44,678 They were going to the pictures in droves. 396 00:20:44,808 --> 00:20:47,855 Horror producers were happy to accommodate with a series 397 00:20:47,985 --> 00:20:49,900 of in-theater experiences, 398 00:20:50,031 --> 00:20:53,034 hoping to find the next 3-D-like craze. 399 00:20:53,164 --> 00:20:57,430 And one of the more, uh, bizarre gimmicks of the '50s 400 00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:00,041 was Smell-O-Vision, 401 00:21:00,171 --> 00:21:04,828 which began and ended with the film The Scent of Mystery. 402 00:21:04,959 --> 00:21:06,613 In short, it stunk. 403 00:21:06,743 --> 00:21:07,483 Oh. 404 00:21:07,614 --> 00:21:10,138 Then there was The Tingler 405 00:21:10,269 --> 00:21:14,882 which used a device embedded in a seat called Percepto! 406 00:21:15,012 --> 00:21:16,971 This would immerse you in the film 407 00:21:17,101 --> 00:21:22,106 by tingling your seat during an on-screen fright. 408 00:21:22,237 --> 00:21:24,935 It turned out that there were only two senses people 409 00:21:25,066 --> 00:21:28,939 wanted at the pictures-- sight and sound, 410 00:21:29,070 --> 00:21:34,031 and the only gimmick that stuck was the drive-in movie, 411 00:21:34,162 --> 00:21:37,948 a place where families could eat popcorn and drink malts 412 00:21:38,079 --> 00:21:41,909 while watching a movie in their comfortable bucket seats, 413 00:21:42,039 --> 00:21:43,954 and where a guy could hug his girl 414 00:21:44,085 --> 00:21:48,394 during the ultimate camp drive-in horror film The Blob. 415 00:22:13,375 --> 00:22:16,683 So The Blob is a really good example of the Red Scare 416 00:22:16,813 --> 00:22:17,771 being exemplified on-screen. 417 00:22:19,903 --> 00:22:23,994 This thing drops in the middle of our town... 418 00:22:24,125 --> 00:22:26,040 Boy, that was close. 419 00:22:26,170 --> 00:22:27,998 ...and just starts consuming us, 420 00:22:28,129 --> 00:22:30,958 just starts eating us up, and there is no way to stop it. 421 00:22:31,088 --> 00:22:33,221 Steve McQueen's The Blob comes out, 422 00:22:33,352 --> 00:22:36,442 and it's a whole different thing that's scaring you right now. 423 00:22:42,056 --> 00:22:43,753 It's not the goofy Mummy. 424 00:22:43,884 --> 00:22:46,626 It's not Frankenstein anymore. 425 00:22:46,756 --> 00:22:49,498 That no longer touched the same nerve. 426 00:22:49,629 --> 00:22:50,499 But the Blob... 427 00:22:56,026 --> 00:22:57,724 What's the matter? 428 00:22:57,854 --> 00:23:00,422 Something that you can't even wrap your head around. 429 00:23:00,553 --> 00:23:04,687 Something from space. Something like-- I don't know-- 430 00:23:04,818 --> 00:23:08,038 maybe a missile from Russia, is also from space. 431 00:23:08,169 --> 00:23:11,999 And that Blob is very red, just like our enemies. 432 00:23:15,916 --> 00:23:17,961 And suddenly they're in our hometowns, 433 00:23:18,092 --> 00:23:19,659 in our movie theaters, 434 00:23:19,789 --> 00:23:22,401 in our homes coming after us. 435 00:23:22,531 --> 00:23:25,229 Don't go in, Jim. This won't do any good. 436 00:23:25,360 --> 00:23:27,710 It's the most horrible thing I've ever seen in my life. 437 00:23:27,841 --> 00:23:30,713 The Blob is super-campy, but, you know, 438 00:23:30,844 --> 00:23:33,020 through all of its kind of drive-in, 439 00:23:33,150 --> 00:23:35,022 pure drive-in spectacle... 440 00:23:38,242 --> 00:23:39,679 ...at its core, and what people 441 00:23:39,809 --> 00:23:41,245 kind of latch onto about its silliness, 442 00:23:41,376 --> 00:23:47,556 is that it is literally a red blob attacking Americans. 443 00:23:47,687 --> 00:23:48,905 Aah! 444 00:23:51,952 --> 00:23:55,042 Kate, stand still. Don't move. 445 00:23:55,172 --> 00:23:56,957 It must have absorbed the old man completely. 446 00:23:57,087 --> 00:23:59,699 So you couldn't be any more obvious 447 00:23:59,829 --> 00:24:02,745 about the Red Scare than that. 448 00:24:05,269 --> 00:24:10,144 The personification of the Red Scare is an amorphous blob 449 00:24:10,274 --> 00:24:14,540 that will just roll around and absorb you. 450 00:24:17,020 --> 00:24:19,632 - What happened? - It's all over us. 451 00:24:19,762 --> 00:24:20,720 What do you mean, it's all over us?! 452 00:24:20,850 --> 00:24:22,112 - Take it easy. - What's the matter? 453 00:24:22,243 --> 00:24:26,639 I think it put a face or a blob face on the thing 454 00:24:26,769 --> 00:24:28,031 that scared us most 455 00:24:28,162 --> 00:24:30,817 and gave us an enemy we could fight against. 456 00:24:30,947 --> 00:24:32,949 What are they gonna do with that thing, Dave? 457 00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:34,908 Well, the Air Force is sending a Globemaster in. 458 00:24:35,038 --> 00:24:36,997 They're flying it to the Arctic. 459 00:24:37,127 --> 00:24:38,128 It's not dead, is it? 460 00:24:38,259 --> 00:24:40,261 No, it's not. 461 00:24:40,391 --> 00:24:42,742 Just frozen. 462 00:24:42,872 --> 00:24:44,439 I don't think it can be killed, 463 00:24:44,570 --> 00:24:47,137 but at least we've got it stopped. 464 00:24:47,268 --> 00:24:49,749 Yeah, as long as the Arctic stays cold, huh? 465 00:25:04,546 --> 00:25:08,202 The Cold War and the Red Scare, well, they seeped into horror 466 00:25:08,332 --> 00:25:09,899 through movies like The Blob 467 00:25:10,030 --> 00:25:11,771 and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 468 00:25:18,691 --> 00:25:20,867 During that time, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 469 00:25:20,997 --> 00:25:25,785 the original, was sort of a take on McCarthyism of the time, 470 00:25:25,915 --> 00:25:28,309 you know, the conformity of the family unit. 471 00:25:28,439 --> 00:25:30,833 You know, it was a good thing to conform, it was a good thing 472 00:25:30,964 --> 00:25:33,009 to live in suburbia with your two-car garage 473 00:25:33,140 --> 00:25:35,142 and your station wagon and have your two kids 474 00:25:35,272 --> 00:25:36,796 and the perfect American family. 475 00:25:36,926 --> 00:25:39,799 I think Invasion of the Body Snatchers sort of sent that up 476 00:25:39,929 --> 00:25:41,627 and sort of played with it and the idea 477 00:25:41,757 --> 00:25:44,151 that, no, it's not a good thing. It's a really, really bad thing. 478 00:25:44,281 --> 00:25:46,153 I am not insane! 479 00:25:46,283 --> 00:25:48,851 You tell these fools I'm not crazy! 480 00:25:48,982 --> 00:25:50,853 Make them listen to me before it's too late! 481 00:25:50,984 --> 00:25:54,814 The Invasion of the Body Snatchers was the film 482 00:25:54,944 --> 00:25:56,903 that scared me the most when I was a kid. 483 00:26:01,037 --> 00:26:03,257 It was a fascinating concept. 484 00:26:03,387 --> 00:26:08,262 I had never seen something where something is buried 485 00:26:08,392 --> 00:26:11,787 in this thing and it percolates in there, 486 00:26:11,918 --> 00:26:14,442 you know, until it's ready. 487 00:26:14,573 --> 00:26:17,924 And it decides when it's ready, you know, not you. 488 00:26:18,054 --> 00:26:20,840 So that's pretty scary. 489 00:26:20,970 --> 00:26:23,059 It's like kids being afraid 490 00:26:23,190 --> 00:26:25,322 something's in their closet, you know? 491 00:26:25,453 --> 00:26:27,020 There's nothing in the closet, 492 00:26:27,150 --> 00:26:29,413 but it's just as real as if there was. 493 00:26:29,544 --> 00:26:32,591 Stay here and pray they're as human as they sound. 494 00:26:34,331 --> 00:26:37,770 Communism in reality is not a political party. 495 00:26:37,900 --> 00:26:39,119 It is a way of life. 496 00:26:39,249 --> 00:26:41,817 An evil and malignant way of life. 497 00:26:41,948 --> 00:26:45,212 It reveals a condition akin to disease. 498 00:26:45,342 --> 00:26:48,215 Their goal is the overthrow of our government. 499 00:26:48,345 --> 00:26:54,090 The Communists are red fascists. 500 00:26:54,221 --> 00:26:56,484 Joseph McCarthy was a senator from Wisconsin 501 00:26:56,615 --> 00:26:59,879 who definitely became, like, the face of the Cold War. 502 00:27:03,622 --> 00:27:08,583 And he became the face of this brigade to rid out Communism, 503 00:27:08,714 --> 00:27:10,498 that Communism is everywhere in the U.S. 504 00:27:10,629 --> 00:27:12,195 and they are trying to take over 505 00:27:12,326 --> 00:27:14,415 our more capitalistic way of life, 506 00:27:14,545 --> 00:27:16,199 and we have to rid it out at its roots, 507 00:27:16,330 --> 00:27:18,245 and it is everywhere. 508 00:27:18,375 --> 00:27:20,508 Today, the free world and the Communist world 509 00:27:20,639 --> 00:27:24,381 are locked in a peculiar struggle for the minds of men. 510 00:27:24,512 --> 00:27:27,167 We should remember that practically every issue 511 00:27:27,297 --> 00:27:29,125 which we face today, 512 00:27:29,256 --> 00:27:32,999 from high taxes to the shameful mess in Korea, 513 00:27:33,129 --> 00:27:37,264 is inextricably interwoven with the Communist issue. 514 00:27:37,394 --> 00:27:41,007 Frightening, isn't it? 515 00:27:41,137 --> 00:27:42,443 We see McCarthyism and the Red Scare 516 00:27:42,573 --> 00:27:45,185 really coming into horror films in the 1950s 517 00:27:45,315 --> 00:27:47,143 in the form of paranoia, 518 00:27:47,274 --> 00:27:49,232 that we are scared of everything, 519 00:27:49,363 --> 00:27:52,192 from aliens coming down from above, 520 00:27:52,322 --> 00:27:55,935 things coming up from beneath, to our next-door neighbors. 521 00:27:56,065 --> 00:27:58,285 The Red Scare was us being scared to death 522 00:27:58,415 --> 00:28:01,331 that Russia was somehow infiltrating American society, 523 00:28:01,462 --> 00:28:04,944 that Communists were here, that they were a part of us, 524 00:28:05,074 --> 00:28:06,859 that they could be the government officials, 525 00:28:06,989 --> 00:28:08,077 that it could be, you know, 526 00:28:08,208 --> 00:28:09,252 this person that you know from work. 527 00:28:09,383 --> 00:28:11,951 It could even be your next-door neighbor. 528 00:28:12,081 --> 00:28:14,388 And so not only do we see horror films 529 00:28:14,518 --> 00:28:18,000 about a fear of each other, but it's very much 530 00:28:18,131 --> 00:28:21,047 like that we ourselves could be accused for this. 531 00:28:21,177 --> 00:28:24,006 We see these fears come out in a lot of our alien movies, 532 00:28:24,137 --> 00:28:26,269 and it's very much this belief system of, 533 00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:28,315 we're running our normal, everyday lives. 534 00:28:28,445 --> 00:28:29,969 Oh, look how serene it is. 535 00:28:30,099 --> 00:28:32,885 But at any time, boom, aliens are here, 536 00:28:33,015 --> 00:28:33,973 and we're all destroyed. 537 00:28:34,103 --> 00:28:35,148 Listen carefully. 538 00:28:35,278 --> 00:28:37,324 The Martians are coming this way. 539 00:28:37,454 --> 00:28:39,848 We must evacuate the city. 540 00:28:45,724 --> 00:28:49,684 As Americans became increasingly paranoid, 541 00:28:49,815 --> 00:28:53,122 a new otherworldly terror emerged. 542 00:28:53,253 --> 00:28:55,037 After years of investigation, 543 00:28:55,168 --> 00:28:57,170 I believe that the flying saucers 544 00:28:57,300 --> 00:28:59,912 seen by veteran airline and Air Force pilots 545 00:29:00,042 --> 00:29:01,522 are objects from another planet. 546 00:29:01,652 --> 00:29:03,916 A wave of UFO sightings 547 00:29:04,046 --> 00:29:05,134 throughout the country, 548 00:29:05,265 --> 00:29:06,527 which began with the infamous 549 00:29:06,657 --> 00:29:09,573 Roswell, New Mexico flying saucer crash, 550 00:29:09,704 --> 00:29:13,577 invaded America's collective psyche during the 1950s. 551 00:29:13,708 --> 00:29:16,058 The Air Force itself has officially admitted 552 00:29:16,189 --> 00:29:17,625 that flying saucers exist. 553 00:29:17,756 --> 00:29:22,021 I'm here to discuss the so-called flying saucers. 554 00:29:22,151 --> 00:29:23,979 There have been a certain percentage 555 00:29:24,110 --> 00:29:26,416 of this volume of reports 556 00:29:26,547 --> 00:29:30,159 that have been made by credible observers 557 00:29:30,290 --> 00:29:32,466 of relatively incredible things. 558 00:29:32,596 --> 00:29:34,337 With all due respect to the Air Force, 559 00:29:34,468 --> 00:29:36,122 I believe that some of them will prove to be 560 00:29:36,252 --> 00:29:37,819 of interplanetary origin. 561 00:29:37,950 --> 00:29:41,344 And soon the Cold War reached new heights, 562 00:29:41,475 --> 00:29:43,520 literally, when the Soviet Union 563 00:29:43,651 --> 00:29:47,829 launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik. 564 00:29:49,657 --> 00:29:52,703 Sputnik marked the beginning of mankind's space race 565 00:29:52,834 --> 00:29:56,316 and paved the way for a new spate of sci-fi horror films 566 00:29:56,446 --> 00:30:01,234 that played directly upon Red Scare-era fears. 567 00:30:01,364 --> 00:30:05,151 The 1950s were a spectacular era for sci-fi. 568 00:30:05,281 --> 00:30:07,370 Ray Bradbury had published The Martian Chronicles 569 00:30:07,501 --> 00:30:10,199 in the '50s, and magazines were publishing sci-fi work 570 00:30:10,330 --> 00:30:12,332 from different writers in the genre. 571 00:30:12,462 --> 00:30:15,117 The decade saw a wave of horror films set in space 572 00:30:15,248 --> 00:30:18,077 or films that had aliens attacking Earth. 573 00:30:34,615 --> 00:30:37,487 Between the atomic bomb and Roswell, 574 00:30:37,618 --> 00:30:41,491 where we're talking about the first UFO sighting, 575 00:30:41,622 --> 00:30:44,016 people started kind of freaking out, going, 576 00:30:44,146 --> 00:30:46,496 "Oh, my God, we're not alone. 577 00:30:46,627 --> 00:30:49,282 Not only do we have to worry about World Wars, 578 00:30:49,412 --> 00:30:52,589 but there is another threat-- again, the other. 579 00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,462 But the other is coming from outer space. Holy shit." 580 00:30:55,592 --> 00:30:57,420 During a three-year investigation, 581 00:30:57,551 --> 00:31:00,206 I found that many pilots have described objects 582 00:31:00,336 --> 00:31:02,469 of substance and high speed. 583 00:31:02,599 --> 00:31:04,688 One case, pilots reported their plane was buffeted 584 00:31:04,819 --> 00:31:07,387 by an object which passed them at 500 miles an hour. 585 00:31:07,517 --> 00:31:09,824 Obviously, this was a solid object, 586 00:31:09,955 --> 00:31:11,565 and I believe it was from outer space. 587 00:31:11,695 --> 00:31:14,655 There's nothing more intimidating than another person 588 00:31:14,785 --> 00:31:17,527 to a certain degree, and horror is, 589 00:31:17,658 --> 00:31:20,487 by and large, I think, a reflection of that. 590 00:31:20,617 --> 00:31:24,534 You know, like UFO invasion movies from the '50s. 591 00:31:25,448 --> 00:31:27,537 - Where did they come from? - I don't know. 592 00:31:27,668 --> 00:31:29,844 Those films have a very consistent, you know, 593 00:31:29,975 --> 00:31:32,455 sort of Cold War kind of vibe to them. 594 00:31:32,586 --> 00:31:34,370 You can tell, like, the version of people 595 00:31:34,501 --> 00:31:36,416 being scared of each other was very much 596 00:31:36,546 --> 00:31:39,506 based on that sort of like, "Are you a Communist, 597 00:31:39,636 --> 00:31:42,335 are you not a Communist" kind of thing. 598 00:31:49,777 --> 00:31:52,258 I think people in general are just afraid of UFOs 599 00:31:52,388 --> 00:31:56,566 because they're afraid of things they can't understand. 600 00:31:56,697 --> 00:32:00,309 So naturally Hollywood tapped into that, 601 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:04,139 and we started seeing horror evolve 602 00:32:04,270 --> 00:32:08,056 from kind of classic Gothic romps 603 00:32:08,187 --> 00:32:11,930 to sci-fi-infused stories. 604 00:32:13,714 --> 00:32:15,498 Look at it, will you? 605 00:32:15,629 --> 00:32:18,066 Beings from another world. 606 00:32:20,634 --> 00:32:23,593 War of the Worlds was already a well-known story 607 00:32:23,724 --> 00:32:27,119 before the film was released in 1953. 608 00:32:27,249 --> 00:32:29,556 The H.G. Wells 1898 novel 609 00:32:29,686 --> 00:32:31,732 is considered to be one of the earliest 610 00:32:31,862 --> 00:32:34,691 to envision an alien race invading Earth. 611 00:32:34,822 --> 00:32:39,305 And the 1938 Orson Welles radio play was so realistic 612 00:32:39,435 --> 00:32:42,003 it created a widespread panic throughout the nation. 613 00:32:42,134 --> 00:32:48,183 I'm, of course, surprised that the H.G. Wells classic, 614 00:32:48,314 --> 00:32:50,751 which is the original for many fantasies 615 00:32:50,881 --> 00:32:56,148 about invasions by mythical monsters 616 00:32:56,278 --> 00:32:58,324 from the planet Mars, 617 00:32:58,454 --> 00:33:00,630 a story which has become familiar to children 618 00:33:00,761 --> 00:33:02,806 through the medium of comic strips, novels, 619 00:33:02,937 --> 00:33:07,246 and adventure stories, should have had such an immediate 620 00:33:07,376 --> 00:33:09,596 and profound effect upon radio listeners. 621 00:33:10,727 --> 00:33:12,903 The film version took the story and updated it 622 00:33:13,034 --> 00:33:17,212 to reflect the fears that gripped America in the 1950s, 623 00:33:17,343 --> 00:33:18,692 winning an Academy Award 624 00:33:18,822 --> 00:33:21,216 for its use of special effects in the process. 625 00:33:21,347 --> 00:33:22,565 It is incredibly terrifying. 626 00:33:22,696 --> 00:33:26,613 After the pods crashed into the countryside, 627 00:33:26,743 --> 00:33:28,702 you've got three guys, including, like, a priest, 628 00:33:28,832 --> 00:33:30,486 and they're waving the white flag, and they're like, 629 00:33:30,617 --> 00:33:32,619 "See? We're waving the white flag. We're friendly." 630 00:33:32,749 --> 00:33:35,578 And you just see this giant eye on a tentacle 631 00:33:35,709 --> 00:33:36,710 come up out of the ground. 632 00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:38,407 - We welcome you. - We're friends. 633 00:33:38,538 --> 00:33:40,409 And it just blasts. 634 00:33:42,629 --> 00:33:46,763 Footage looks like sparklers. I was freaked out. 635 00:33:46,894 --> 00:33:50,898 I was, like, gripping my seat, like, "What is that thing?" 636 00:33:51,029 --> 00:33:54,423 When you saw the Martian war machine come up out of its shell 637 00:33:54,554 --> 00:33:55,598 and start flying across the city, 638 00:33:55,729 --> 00:33:57,426 I was just, like, in awe. 639 00:33:59,472 --> 00:34:00,734 But that's what they were selling. 640 00:34:00,864 --> 00:34:02,649 They were selling, like, the other 641 00:34:02,779 --> 00:34:06,609 is no longer, you know, in some remote castle. 642 00:34:06,740 --> 00:34:09,047 It's gonna come from the stars, and it's gonna mess you up. 643 00:34:10,309 --> 00:34:11,832 It's dead. 644 00:34:11,962 --> 00:34:13,660 I think audiences were scared of UFOs 645 00:34:13,790 --> 00:34:18,621 because it was the totally unexpected plot twist 646 00:34:18,752 --> 00:34:20,667 of their lives after World War II. 647 00:34:20,797 --> 00:34:23,452 There would be no more peace in our time. 648 00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:29,371 Imagine surviving World War II 649 00:34:29,502 --> 00:34:30,633 and going through the devastation 650 00:34:30,764 --> 00:34:33,419 and emotional journey of all of that. 651 00:34:33,549 --> 00:34:35,725 And then all of a sudden, 652 00:34:35,856 --> 00:34:39,468 you get word that there are flying saucers. 653 00:34:40,948 --> 00:34:42,732 We have come to visit you in peace 654 00:34:42,863 --> 00:34:44,604 and with goodwill. 655 00:34:44,734 --> 00:34:47,650 People have always needed an outlet for their fear. 656 00:34:47,781 --> 00:34:50,392 I think every generation 657 00:34:50,523 --> 00:34:53,613 has their own sort of external terrors. 658 00:34:59,488 --> 00:35:00,663 Well, I think in the '50s, 659 00:35:00,794 --> 00:35:02,578 you're talking about a generation of people 660 00:35:02,709 --> 00:35:05,451 that are around right after World War II. 661 00:35:05,581 --> 00:35:08,671 So there's been a break from real terror and real tragedy 662 00:35:08,802 --> 00:35:10,804 and people coming home in body bags, 663 00:35:10,934 --> 00:35:13,763 and then they're surrounded by this suburbia, 664 00:35:13,894 --> 00:35:17,506 this new thing, this Baby Boomer generation. 665 00:35:17,637 --> 00:35:19,595 And yet they're hardwired for fear. 666 00:35:19,726 --> 00:35:21,858 You know, movies like War of the Worlds 667 00:35:21,989 --> 00:35:23,730 and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers 668 00:35:23,860 --> 00:35:25,688 are two examples of movies 669 00:35:25,819 --> 00:35:28,822 that I think did well with the fear of UFOs 670 00:35:28,952 --> 00:35:31,781 because War of the Worlds, the Martians showed up 671 00:35:31,912 --> 00:35:34,001 and they just started eliminating stuff, 672 00:35:34,132 --> 00:35:36,960 which is, at the time, I'm sure what was prevalent 673 00:35:37,091 --> 00:35:40,703 in everybody's mind, was, "If aliens come to Earth, 674 00:35:40,834 --> 00:35:42,792 they're just gonna, like, go to war with us." 675 00:35:42,923 --> 00:35:45,447 Bilderbeck has calculated how long we have got 676 00:35:45,578 --> 00:35:47,754 until Martians take over the entire world. 677 00:35:47,884 --> 00:35:49,756 You know, The Day the Earth Stood Still 678 00:35:49,886 --> 00:35:53,934 is an alien coming to Earth and basically saying, 679 00:35:54,064 --> 00:35:56,589 "Get your shit together, human race. 680 00:35:56,719 --> 00:35:58,852 If you don't, it's not looking good." 681 00:35:58,982 --> 00:36:02,812 It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet. 682 00:36:02,943 --> 00:36:06,903 But if you threaten to extend your violence, 683 00:36:07,034 --> 00:36:09,776 this earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. 684 00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:16,478 You know, a lot of these movies that we saw during that era, 685 00:36:16,609 --> 00:36:19,699 it was not just aliens coming to us. 686 00:36:19,829 --> 00:36:22,310 It was us heading out into space. 687 00:36:23,877 --> 00:36:28,795 So you saw films like Forbidden Planet, you know, 688 00:36:28,925 --> 00:36:35,715 where it was, in an effort to advance the space race, 689 00:36:35,845 --> 00:36:39,806 we went exploring and came upon something unknown. 690 00:36:39,936 --> 00:36:41,808 You know, an unknown threat. 691 00:36:41,938 --> 00:36:44,680 So it was kind of like the movie 692 00:36:44,811 --> 00:36:47,509 was a direct result of our greed 693 00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,251 and need to beat the Russians at their own game 694 00:36:50,382 --> 00:36:54,429 and get to space first resulted in something catastrophic 695 00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:56,692 or discovering something alien. 696 00:37:03,525 --> 00:37:04,787 In the '60s, 697 00:37:04,918 --> 00:37:06,833 you start getting to the serial killer fear. 698 00:37:06,963 --> 00:37:08,791 It's someone who looks just like us, 699 00:37:08,922 --> 00:37:12,665 who seems nice and polite and does horrible, 700 00:37:12,795 --> 00:37:14,710 horrible things when we're not looking. 701 00:37:14,841 --> 00:37:17,452 And it's that idea of a human predator, 702 00:37:17,583 --> 00:37:19,585 someone who lives amongst us. 703 00:37:26,156 --> 00:37:30,552 After the sci-fi wave of the 1950s started to wane, 704 00:37:30,683 --> 00:37:33,816 horror films began to look closer to home, 705 00:37:33,947 --> 00:37:38,081 at the terror in our own backyard. 706 00:37:38,212 --> 00:37:42,825 In the early 1960s, stories about serial killers 707 00:37:42,956 --> 00:37:47,047 began to creep their way into the news, 708 00:37:47,177 --> 00:37:52,835 pushing an already tense nation closer to the edge. 709 00:37:52,966 --> 00:37:54,576 Ghosts are scary, yeah, 710 00:37:54,707 --> 00:37:56,491 but what's really scary is that guy next door 711 00:37:56,622 --> 00:37:58,101 or that guy you're hitchhiking with. 712 00:37:58,232 --> 00:38:00,626 There was Melvin Rees, the Clutter family killings 713 00:38:00,756 --> 00:38:02,541 that became In Cold Blood, 714 00:38:02,671 --> 00:38:04,847 the Boston Strangler in the early '60s. 715 00:38:04,978 --> 00:38:06,588 And these were all crimes 716 00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:07,850 where people were like, "What is going on?" 717 00:38:07,981 --> 00:38:09,504 These people weren't killing for a reason. 718 00:38:09,635 --> 00:38:10,810 They weren't doing it for money. 719 00:38:10,940 --> 00:38:12,594 They weren't doing it for profit. 720 00:38:12,725 --> 00:38:14,596 They were doing it because they seemed to enjoy it. 721 00:38:14,727 --> 00:38:16,468 These were crimes of passion, not profit. 722 00:38:21,864 --> 00:38:25,912 That coincided with Ed Gein getting arrested. 723 00:38:26,042 --> 00:38:28,871 He was a killer who was arrested for a murder in '57 724 00:38:29,002 --> 00:38:31,439 in a small Wisconsin town. 725 00:38:31,570 --> 00:38:32,745 Police searched his house, 726 00:38:32,875 --> 00:38:34,616 found all these body parts and trophies 727 00:38:34,747 --> 00:38:36,009 and things he made out of his victims 728 00:38:36,139 --> 00:38:39,491 and bodies he'd exhumed from a local cemetery. 729 00:38:41,057 --> 00:38:44,626 He became sort of this-- this bogeyman. 730 00:38:48,238 --> 00:38:52,068 Ed Gein would be the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. 731 00:38:52,199 --> 00:38:54,984 And that really threw everyone for a loop. 732 00:38:55,115 --> 00:38:57,770 Psycho is the beginning of modern horror. 733 00:39:04,037 --> 00:39:05,995 I mean, Psycho is absolutely brilliant. 734 00:39:06,126 --> 00:39:08,781 All of this comes from Hitchcock's Psycho. 735 00:39:08,911 --> 00:39:11,479 That was arguably the first slasher film. 736 00:39:15,875 --> 00:39:19,966 Psycho brought a level of terror to film 737 00:39:20,096 --> 00:39:22,011 that I'd never seen before. 738 00:39:22,142 --> 00:39:26,538 It was the first time that I realized there was editing. 739 00:39:26,668 --> 00:39:28,496 It was because of the montage. 740 00:39:30,106 --> 00:39:32,544 That was the whole change of film. 741 00:39:32,674 --> 00:39:35,198 I'd never seen anything 742 00:39:35,329 --> 00:39:40,856 that was as violent as Psycho was, or as terrifying. 743 00:39:40,987 --> 00:39:43,685 And it was because of the brilliance of Alfred Hitchcock. 744 00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:48,995 The first horror film I saw ever was Psycho, 745 00:39:49,125 --> 00:39:52,651 which I saw on television at a slumber party of girls. 746 00:39:55,915 --> 00:39:58,047 And I remember being terrified. 747 00:39:58,178 --> 00:40:01,964 It began the serial killer, the lone murderer, 748 00:40:02,095 --> 00:40:04,663 the senseless killer genre 749 00:40:04,793 --> 00:40:07,187 with at least one scene with extreme gore. 750 00:40:07,317 --> 00:40:09,668 It's a pretty great film, actually. 751 00:40:09,798 --> 00:40:12,410 It's one of the best horror movies ever made. 752 00:40:14,977 --> 00:40:16,892 The thing I like about Psycho is that-- 753 00:40:17,023 --> 00:40:18,981 I mean, obviously Hitchcock is a master of storytelling, 754 00:40:19,112 --> 00:40:20,766 but he was also a master of marketing. 755 00:40:20,896 --> 00:40:22,071 And so you had Janet Leigh, 756 00:40:22,202 --> 00:40:23,812 who was this huge movie star at the time. 757 00:40:23,943 --> 00:40:24,944 She's all over the posters. 758 00:40:25,074 --> 00:40:26,815 She was top billing of the movie, 759 00:40:26,946 --> 00:40:28,730 and then she's murdered at the end of the first act 760 00:40:28,861 --> 00:40:29,992 in that very famous shower scene. 761 00:40:30,123 --> 00:40:32,168 "Aah! Aah! Aah! Aah!" 762 00:40:32,299 --> 00:40:34,867 And really, that hadn't been done before, 763 00:40:34,997 --> 00:40:38,044 and audiences were fully, completely taken by surprise. 764 00:40:38,174 --> 00:40:39,698 And after that moment, you're like, 765 00:40:39,828 --> 00:40:41,613 "Anything can happen in this movie. 766 00:40:41,743 --> 00:40:44,137 All bets are off." 767 00:40:44,267 --> 00:40:46,095 Psycho has a totally brilliant opening. 768 00:40:46,226 --> 00:40:49,577 It spends a great deal of time with Janet Leigh. 769 00:40:50,317 --> 00:40:54,060 And you're worried because she's stealing money. 770 00:40:54,190 --> 00:40:58,499 She steals some money in the office and then she runs. 771 00:41:00,066 --> 00:41:01,981 So it's like you're already worried for her. 772 00:41:02,111 --> 00:41:03,678 She's on the run. 773 00:41:03,809 --> 00:41:05,724 What's she doing? This is very strange. 774 00:41:05,854 --> 00:41:08,291 And then, you know, the Bates Motel 775 00:41:08,422 --> 00:41:11,991 is not the most reassuring place with all those stuffed animals. 776 00:41:12,121 --> 00:41:13,645 You know it's not going to go well, 777 00:41:13,775 --> 00:41:15,081 but you don't know how. 778 00:41:15,211 --> 00:41:16,996 The idea of getting murdered in the shower, like, 779 00:41:17,126 --> 00:41:19,781 when you're at your most vulnerable is very terrifying. 780 00:41:21,174 --> 00:41:23,916 It's tied, of course, to nudity, to vulnerability, 781 00:41:24,046 --> 00:41:27,528 to being naked in the shower, but interestingly, not to sex. 782 00:41:27,659 --> 00:41:30,879 It's more to the fact of the moment you're most vulnerable, 783 00:41:31,010 --> 00:41:32,707 alone in a shower, you're naked, you know, 784 00:41:32,838 --> 00:41:34,709 have nothing to defend yourself with. 785 00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:37,669 After that, I think that it's waiting 786 00:41:37,799 --> 00:41:39,888 for the next bomb to explode. 787 00:41:43,239 --> 00:41:45,198 Psycho broke out as being incredibly violent 788 00:41:45,328 --> 00:41:48,070 in the one shower scene, but if you watch the film again, 789 00:41:48,201 --> 00:41:49,985 it's really a psychological portrait. 790 00:41:50,116 --> 00:41:52,379 There isn't that much constant violence in it. 791 00:41:52,510 --> 00:41:56,122 And in fact, it is possibly the beginning of the fascination 792 00:41:56,252 --> 00:41:58,820 with the psychology of the killer. 793 00:42:02,781 --> 00:42:04,173 It was voyeuristic, 794 00:42:04,304 --> 00:42:08,874 and so it violated all kinds of social codes 795 00:42:09,004 --> 00:42:12,094 because you were in the position of being the voyeur. 796 00:42:12,225 --> 00:42:13,966 And there was something else he did-- 797 00:42:14,096 --> 00:42:16,925 he made you sympathize with Norman Bates. 798 00:42:17,056 --> 00:42:19,885 He made you sympathize with a psycho killer, 799 00:42:20,015 --> 00:42:24,280 because you knew his mother had driven him to it. 800 00:42:24,411 --> 00:42:29,938 The reviews were so negative, so outraged at Psycho, 801 00:42:30,069 --> 00:42:32,027 that Hitchcock almost pulled it. 802 00:42:32,158 --> 00:42:34,029 He almost thought about pulling and recutting it 803 00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:37,163 and using it as an episode on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, 804 00:42:37,293 --> 00:42:39,426 he was so crushed by the initial reviews. 805 00:42:39,557 --> 00:42:44,126 And then they opened it, and the lines were around the block. 806 00:42:44,257 --> 00:42:46,302 That changed everything. 807 00:42:46,433 --> 00:42:48,914 It also changed filmmaking. 808 00:42:49,915 --> 00:42:52,308 Nobody ever thought about doing what Hitchcock did-- 809 00:42:52,439 --> 00:42:56,051 moving from the point of view of the killer 810 00:42:56,182 --> 00:42:58,140 and making you feel sorry for the killer. 811 00:42:58,271 --> 00:43:01,753 It was just shocking on every level. 812 00:43:01,883 --> 00:43:03,319 And the acting was just great. 813 00:43:03,450 --> 00:43:05,974 The reveal that he's actually his own mother 814 00:43:06,105 --> 00:43:07,715 is pretty frickin' great, let's face it. 815 00:43:09,238 --> 00:43:12,024 I also loved the twist ending, as everyone did in Psycho. 816 00:43:12,154 --> 00:43:13,286 It's now so overdone, but at the time, 817 00:43:13,416 --> 00:43:15,244 obviously, revolutionary. 818 00:43:15,375 --> 00:43:18,030 We have that shot from outside where he's saying, 819 00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:19,292 "Mother, Mother, you shouldn't have done it." 820 00:43:19,422 --> 00:43:22,121 So you think it's his mother that's doing it. 821 00:43:22,251 --> 00:43:24,297 Then it's not until the very end that you realize 822 00:43:24,427 --> 00:43:27,256 he's stark raving mad and he's mummified his mother. 823 00:43:27,387 --> 00:43:29,781 And, you know, and the chair swings around 824 00:43:29,911 --> 00:43:31,739 and there's Mother! 825 00:43:34,524 --> 00:43:39,747 I mean, every code that he could have violated, 826 00:43:39,878 --> 00:43:41,227 Hitchcock violated. 827 00:43:41,357 --> 00:43:42,968 And he did it with his television crew 828 00:43:43,098 --> 00:43:45,361 in black and white for no money. 829 00:43:45,492 --> 00:43:48,103 It felt like after Psycho horror films shifted 830 00:43:48,234 --> 00:43:51,759 much more into kind of the naivety of society. 831 00:43:51,890 --> 00:43:53,195 This is an ax. 832 00:43:53,326 --> 00:43:55,328 The naivety that we all believe 833 00:43:55,458 --> 00:43:59,941 that we live in this perfect little suburban bubble 834 00:44:00,072 --> 00:44:02,465 or that our little upper-middle-class lives 835 00:44:02,596 --> 00:44:04,642 are so sweet. 836 00:44:06,426 --> 00:44:08,297 But they're not. 837 00:44:08,428 --> 00:44:12,040 ...that a ghoul can be killed by a shot in the head. 838 00:44:12,171 --> 00:44:14,129 They're coming to get you, Barbara. 839 00:44:16,566 --> 00:44:18,046 Terror and violence are just knocking at our door 840 00:44:18,177 --> 00:44:19,265 at any time.