Do you like weddings, Freudian psychology, inheritances, and people talking in Trans-Atlantic accents? And most importantly, do you like classic horror movie monsters? Then listen in to Episode XXV where we discuss the rise and fall of the first age of Horror movies!
In Episode XXII of the Scariest Things Podcast, we explored the birth of horror in film, and Eric and Mike agreed that Universal’s first great horror icon The Phantom of the Opera represents the start of the Golden Era. Though it wasn’t the first, it was a pivotal moment that reached, and scared, a large American audience, ensuring that horror movies were here to stay.
The rise of the Talkies in the 1930’s brought us some of the great horror movies of all time. Though they are by today’s standards rather quaint, (Except perhaps Freaks which is anything but), the movies of the Golden Age of Horror still entertain. Mike and Eric binged the beautiful black and white offerings from the depression era, and discuss the peak and the end of the gilded great films. There were so many great horror movies between 1930 to 1935 that it was hard to pick a fearsome foursome! This was the ground floor from which all future horror movies come from, and the honorable mentions from these five years could form up a walk of fame as well.
We talk about the Hays Code, and how the morality police managed to stifle and inhibit horror movies for generations to come. the movies of the 1940’s, as the Golden Age began to wane showed the limitations of what the code had done, as the horror movies had to be very careful about how much violence and sexual content was in their movies, and still, some clever producers like Val Lewton managed to squeeze out some terrific offerings of the era, like I Walked With A Zombie, Cat People, and the Uninvited.
Get ready to listen in to some olde-tyme escapism, featuring: Mad scientists! Angry mobs! Exotic European and Polynesian locales! And Eric talking like an RKO radio broadcaster!
It’s Alive! It’s ALIVE! IIIIIT’S ALIIIIIIIVEEEE! Muaahahahaha!
(Ahem)
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