If you want to send a message, call Western Union …
Sam Goldwyn’s moldy quote still applies to modern movies.
Films like “Lions for Lambs” all but drowned their dramatic arcs in drippy lecturing. And audiences stayed away in response.
Horror movies are a different matter. The gore-soaked genre routinely slips messages into the stories, and film fans rarely seem to mind.
Zombie king George A. Romero may be the king of this technique, using the undead to share his thoughts on consumerism, racism and other societal issues in films like “Dawn of the Dead.”
A new horror movie opening Friday promises to keep true to Romero’s technique.
“The Crazies,” a remake of Romero’s non-zombie thriller from 1973, tells the story of a tranquil town transformed by a runaway virus.
WWTW spoke to the film’s director, Breck Eisner, recently, and he promised the film would have some social commentary in the mix.
A recent New York Times story expounds on that fact, detailing how the producers behind “The Crazies” pick projects with a social conscious.
But do horror movie junkies want to get political with their shock favorites? Do the messages fly over their heads, or do they appreciate the extra depth?
Film critics appreciate the addition, in part because the messages they’re likely to find reflect their world view. If a film critic has a leaning, it’s traditionally to the left.
As for me … I say, bring it on, but do so sparingly.
As a right of center critic I’ve grown used to seeing political messages in mainstream movies that clash with my own beliefs. To revolt against them would be silly … I’d have very little to watch if I tried.
But if a zombie film can make me think or question my own beliefs, then the film is arguably richer for it.
Just don’t skimp on the entrails and severed heads.
(Photo: The upcoming film “The Crazies” promises more than just horror movie chills./Overture Films)
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Rule #1: Scare me. Rules 2 through 10: See rule #1. Then you can slide in some message about universal health care or some other left wing talking point. And that’s okay – as long as you stick to rule # 1. But if I read reviews that consistently refer to ‘The Crazies’ as a message movie, then I’ll stay home and watch one of the 10 films that are resting on my DVR. I love it when I hear people say that ‘Night of the Living Dead’ was about race relations or something. And I say, “really? I was WAY to scared to even think about that stuff”. So, if you’re a film maker in any genre, please remember to entertain us first.
I guess Romero was anti-consumerism as long as people consumed his movies. Hollywood “message” movies are usually good for showing up the people who make them for the hypocrites they are if nothing else.
Romero’s Dead movies don’t really have a message besides misanthropy. The only characters he ever truly roots for are the zombies.
That’s becoming more evident with every film, JIC. Not sure where he’ll push that theme with his new “Dead” film, coming out in two or so months.
I love horror movies, but I do resent the heavy handed sermonizing that permeates so many of them. It sure doesn’t help that 99% of the time, it’s one particular political view that’s rammed down the audience’s throats.
A balance of thought sure would be wonderful. It would challenge conventional thinking and force filmmakers to be more creative – and more introspective – about their movies.
Don’t hold your breath, though.
Why shouldn’t there be social preaching in horror movies? Two words: “The Happening.”
In a more serious vein now, I believe horror films are only as strong as your sympathy to the characters. If you don’t care about the characters, you’re never scared by their situations. Just to give an illustration, I personally felt more fear for what would happen to Tom Hank’s character (Michael Sullivan, Sr) in “Road to Perdition” than I felt for any of the characters in “Thirty Days of Night” or “28 Days Later”, despite the fact that “Road to Perdition” is not even a horror film. I actually *cared* about Sullivan. But I can’t even remember the names of any of the characters in the other films, so what do I care if they got killed by vampires or turned into virus-zombies?
If you get the characters to where your audience cares about them, then you can preach. But the writer and/or director has to realize that part of what makes a character likable is how they relate to the audience. And when you think of who relates to the most people, the first thing that comes to mind is *not* “the bombastic guy who treats everything as a political manifesto.”
I’ve seen Romero’s upcoming zombie film. While there is definitely some sympathy for zombies, it’s a bit more complex than that. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll leave it there.
Peter
What’s happened in horror movies over the past thirty years is what’s happened in every other type of film. The heros have become the villians and the villians become the heros. The victims of monsters are shown to have somehow been deserving of their fate.
Fascinating. Just found the original Samuel Goldwyn quote that is actually paraphrased by everyone else….
I don’t like movie messages , I just wont the zombies lots of blood and destruction.
Romero is a mixed bag. The “message” in Night of the Living Dead was about racism and all but Romero said himself that he didn’t intend to cast a black man in the lead, just turned out the guy was the best actor. So was the message was constructed after the fact by reviewers?
Dawn of the Dead is a bit more blatant but it misses the point. Hiding out in a mall makes sense if the mall (a) has food (b) has a gun shop. Yeah maybe the zombies are showing up because they ‘remember’ liking the place, or maybe they are showing up because they heard the gunshots when you practiced shooting mannequins (shooting zombies in the parking lot would be too uncivilized wouldn’t it).
Day of the Dead had the age-old military vs science angle but it was a bit stupid as both sides were played as insane and were written as if the the author knew nothing about either.
Land of the Dead’s rich vs poor was simply moronic. There is no way Dennis Hopper is going to run things and throw people into arenas when his own guards are likely to simply kill him and take everything. There was no rational for the survival of the ’society’ created.
Its like Romero was priased for his messages (which started off accidental) and then he started ramming them in more and more and they got stupider and more forced with each installment. The movies are still entertaining despite all that.
I agree with you all entertainment first, don’t get politics involved the messages are normally for a US consumer, and they are global films, it makes no sense.
All it is, is unimportant people trying to make the world better, Its kind of like the live band appeal , pointless when it comes down to it.
Yeah, those who “don’t want messages” in their horror films are simple. Because our fears manifest in a variety of ways, the genre must reflect that. So, too, is the genre at the mercy of cultural shifts. What makes the best so unnerving is that they provide the surface creep/gore/anxiety, while complex themes/social commentary live at their core (ex: The Shining, The Fly… I mean, basically any horror movie, well regarded or no). No one wants heavy handed messaging, but horror has to challenge our conventions and/or hold a mirror up to society to make us feel uncomfortable and, in the end, unsafe.