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For the Love of Horror: With each new installment I’ll be diving into the numerous things that make horror great. Whether it be the setting, the writing, the gore, or the mystery, if it has to do with horror, I’m going to talk about it.
Lately there have been quite a few characters that have entered the public domain and as any horror fan will tell you, that means that there will be a horror movie coming of said characters, any day. Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey parts 1 and 2, Popeye The Slayer Man, Peter Pan Neverland Nightmare, and Screamboat (a horror retelling of Steamboat Willie, the famous black and white Disney animation) are all films that have released or are releasing soon. You would think something like this would fall squarely in the horror comedy bin at your local video store (assuming there is still a video store near you) but you would be wrong. These movies are made and played completely down the middle with very few to no winks at all to the audience. They want you to buy into the horror coming from these beloved childhood characters, that the things we grew up with grew up too… and became monsters.
source: Iconic Events
This isn’t a new phenomenon, as far back as there have been stories, there has been parody. One of the earliest examples of this comes from Greece (because of course it does) in 405 BCE. Batrachomyomachia (The Battle of Frogs and Mice) was written by an anonymous poet in the style of Homer, proving that even then, no one was safe from satire. They say (again, I have no idea who they are) that imitation is the greatest form of flattery but in all honesty, are artists meant to be flattered? Are writers and filmmakers meant to be overwhelmed with joy that their creations were essentially ripped off? There is obviously a super fine line between copy and homage- between parody, satire, and a stolen idea used for their own purposes. That’s where ideas and characters entering the public domain comes in. After so long the copyright runs out and people are free to do with them as they please. So why horror? Well, to put it simply- horror is fun.
The Law Of Averages
Rule of the internet number 34 states that “if it exists, there is a porn version” and, not being all brushed up on internet rule lore myself, I don’t know for certain, but I’m going to say that rule 93 is, “if it exists, there is a horror movie version.” If you look hard enough, you can find a horror version of almost anything. People will unapologetically take something that was once benign and docile and turn it into a bloody romp through a haunted forest. This is the way of the world. Sometimes that can turn out great or at least confusing enough that it’s fun (I’m looking at you here, Pride And Prejudice And Zombies), other times (most times) we are left wondering why such a thing needed to exist at all.
Take Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey for example. Written by and directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the British independent slasher film took characters that suddenly found themselves in the public domain and turned them into the stars of an 80 minute blood-soaked hike through the 100 Acre Wood. It featured many brutal death scenes (at the hands of Pooh and Piglet specifically) and the ongoing torture of Christopher Robin, simply because he left them alone for 5 years while he went off to college. It got so bad while he was away that they were forced to eat Eeyore, thanks for gnawin’ on me. Now, was it a good movie? The internet doesn’t seem to think so judging by its Letterboxd and Rotten Tomatoes scores but when I watched it, I didn’t think of them as the classic characters from my childhood, they had people hands for goodness sake, I thought of them as serial killers in masks. I know that wasn’t the intention of the filmmakers but somehow that made the movie decently enjoyable for me. It was creative and gory, it told a cohesive horror narrative… what more could you want?
source: Altitude Film Distribution
The Other Side Of The Coin
Flipping this on its head, Night Of The Living Dead, Carnival Of Souls, The Little Shop Of Horrors, even Nosferatu, are all in the public domain now. A filmmaker could choose any or all of those stories to completely redo for their own benefit- we did just get a new Nosferatu from Robert Eggers. The difference I think is that these are already considered horror classics by anyone who loves film or horror and to do that to them would almost be sacrilegious, complete and total blasphemy. The horror community would riot. No one wants to see a modern day version of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the film already exists and its perfect. Of course, I say this knowing that horror movies, most movies, can and are being remade (most for no reason) as we speak. How many Texas Chainsaw starts and stops has there been? Not that that movie is subject to being in the public domain, its just kind of a known cash cow (sometimes).
In the end, characters are going to be entering the public domain and you can pretty much put money down that when they are, some form of horror movie will be produced and shared with the world. We have a Sherlock Holmes horror slasher coming our way soon already and in the 2070’s we will be getting horror based on Inspector Gadget. We can all look back at this article then (if we are still around and kicking) and laugh at how right that last sentence was. My point is, if I ever had a point, that anything and everything that can be made into a horror movie or book or comic, will be made into a horror movie, book or comic. Even if it doesn’t need to exist, it will exist. There’s no way that anyone can fight this, so why should we fight it? We might as well try to have fun with it. There’s nothing that says that we can’t enjoy the ride.
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