Introduction
Cinema Scholars takes a look at the Spooky Season from the viewpoint of the grown-ups (in the loosest sense of the word) of a certain age bracket: The Kids of the 80s. Otherwise, known as those who occupied the land somewhere between Sesame Street and Elm Street.
We all will feel a certain wave of nostalgia around Halloween, whether we like it or not. Much has been written on how we as a species enjoy, perhaps crave, or even chase fear in the controlled safety of the theatre. Whether it be the chemical reactions of ‘the rush’ and/or our genetic history missing the feeling of fight or flight. There are differing, valid opinions.
Horror Love/Hate
There are, of course, those of us who hate being scared, cannot stand the idea of surprises or turning off the lights in fear we will have a bad dream. We all have a unique account in our memory banks of things our conscious or subconscious minds find frightening. Many relate to a visual medium from our childhoods. We can look back with a smile at certain movies, TV shows, or individual characters.
Then, something changes deep inside us. That fuzzy memory soon manifests physically. Smiles fade away to be replaced by a sudden jolt, shiver, or wave of nausea as we’re transported back to behind the sofa, peeking between our fingers. We cling to the edge of the doorframe watching as long as we could before choosing a flight, away from our screens. What is special about the 80s is that what turned out to scare us most on our screens…was made for kids!
1970s – Genre-Rejuvenating
Without a doubt, the 1970s was a seminal decade for horror cinema. Up until the 70s; horror had arguably been defined by the classic Universal icons (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, etc.) which then developed into the very British Hammer Films Productions, led by Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. The vast majority of the output from these studios was created with great love and attention to detail. Through the smoke, mirrors, plastic, and bright red paint; the filmmakers created fantastical works that eventually became toothless, campy fun.
Then something changed. Instead of looking to literary monsters for inspiration, filmmakers started looking for the monsters among us, internal and external demons, or real-life threats to our safety and status quo. Glancing at the following list of fright fests, we see how real-world influences as inspiration were prevalent:
THE EXORCIST (dir. William Friedkin, 1973): partly inspired by an actual 1949 exorcism of a child from Maryland.
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (dir. Tobe Hooper, 1974): a family of ‘Ed Gein’s,’ who was of course also the real-life inspiration for Norman Bates.
JAWS (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1975): it was no longer safe to go in the water.
CARRIE (dir. Brian de Palma, 1976): for the original novel, King was inspired by two girls he grew up with, as well as indulging in the zeitgeist at the time for “gynaehorror”: works that feature menstruation, pregnancy, reproduction, and puberty.
HALLOWEEN (dir. John Carpenter, 1978): the paranoia of The Bogeyman; someone watching you, following you, ready to attack you in your home…without a definable motive.
ALIEN (dir. Ridley Scott, 1979): Although a science fiction film; much of the underlying terror comes from isolation, claustrophobia, and sexual violation.
Visionary Filmmakers
These visionary filmmakers, along with others including Cronenberg, Kubrick, and Lucas, lead the way for a new wave of creatives to make their mark on the cinematic and televisual landscape. Creatives were inspired to take the various bloody batons and run with them into the new decade.
Fantastic new sub-genres had developed and new Heroes of Horror were born; including Freddy, Jason, and Macready amongst others. There was also a whole new market to tap following the cultural explosion that was the new Star Wars Saga. Kids, specifically those who wanted their imaginations fed throughout their daily routine: from branded pajamas to cereal and lunchboxes, to pre-and post-school cartoons of the space fantasy type.
However, it quickly became clear that the creatives in charge wanted to infuse everything cute and cuddly before, with teeth and claws. Kids had had it too easy for too long. It was time for their universes to be shaken.
1980s – Making Nightmares Real
Just as filmmakers in the 1970s drew inspiration from real-world threats and fears, kids’ film and television writers and directors in the 1980s were exploiting what would rock a child’s world:
– being taken away from our families and home
– being lost in a strange place
– what was safe/secure/trustworthy becoming reversed and corrupted
– dangerous, deformed strangers
It was also a time when two of the first antagonists we ever met were injected with even more menace and became more twisted and dark:
– The Wicked Witch. All deformed, pointed features, using evil spells that wanted to cause harm to us and take us away. Why? It didn’t matter – she just did.
– The Big Bad Wolf. He was big and bad and he wanted to eat us. Animals became more anthropomorphized with big eyes and ears. Their teeth became bigger.
Dark Kid’s Stories
Kids of the 80s were emerging from bedtime stories before lights out, to a VHS before bed and they had plenty of choice with the medium’s boom in the early 80s. One particular powerhouse of children’s entertainment was enjoying the taste of this new audience: Jim Henson.
Henson’s directing doubleheader of Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986) became classic examples of works designed to scare kids to the core with the inclusion of wicked supernatural beings and little critters who would rather kidnap them than cuddle.
Henson was no stranger to ‘monsters’ having devised Sesame Street (1969) and The Muppet Show (1976). It was clear he enjoyed giving kids the creeps rather than teaching them their ABCs. Add to this list The Neverending Story (1984), and we see that there are many themes and tropes that overlap.
Uncle Walt’s Nightmares
Let us not forget Uncle Walt’s hand in our nightmares. The aforementioned VHS Boom saw many a child’s shelves filled with the Walt Disney ‘Classic’ yellow spines. Disney has never made a horror? Try the adaptation of Pinocchio (1940). Chapter after chapter of Wily Anthropomorphic Foxes wanting to take children away. Huge, shouting, furious puppet masters who want to lock children away.
Then we have the demonic coachman: “They don’t come back as…BOYS!” plus Lampwick’s tragic desperation and pleading during his transformation and calls for his Mama. Finally, the huge, roaring, man-eating Monstro. Again, a story made for children. Disney was always a fan of teaching us tough lessons i.e. scarring us for life. The death of Bambi’s Mom and Mufasa. The incarceration of Dumbo’s Mom, just to name but a few.
He seemed to be a fan of scaring us too. Ask any child of the 80s, who emerged into the 90s just in time to enjoy the first Hocus Pocus (1993) film, what scared them whilst growing up, and at first it is surprising that the same movies, shows, and characters appear again and again:
– the monsters at the beginning of Labyrinth
– The transformation scenes in The Incredible Hulk (1977-82) TV show
– Sloth from The Goonies (1985)
– The Gremlins attack in the Peltzer House in Gremlins (1984)
– Dana’s chair traps her in Ghostbusters (1984)
In Closing
When we cross-check with the themes discussed above, we can see writers and directors tapping into the common themes of threats to a child’s home life. Further, they were seeing trusted adults endangered or compromised, meeting deformed strangers (back to the Wicked Witch archetype), and anything with claws and teeth essentially only wanting to eat them.
Children live in the moment. When they get lost in a department store for a minute, they’re never seeing home again. If their plate is empty, it shall never be refilled. When they feel scared, the threat is real, and what is happening on screen is really happening. There is no ‘fun’ being had nor are they looking for any hidden meanings or reflections on modern society, which the best horror offers. Now, we can look back and laugh at what made us scared when we were little, and no doubt there were one or two costumes worn at a party recently where our grins of recognition masked a slight (or major) unease.
The writers and directors of the 80s knew how to freak us out through the facade of fun, family, and fuzzy entertainment. It can be argued that modern audiences’ senses have been dulled by CGI and computer game violence. Their loss. Better to be scared by a felt puppet with sharp tinfoil teeth from a land far, far away than a pixelated gangster! Happy Halloween!
