HILF 24: Horror Movies with Jose Barrientos

HILF: History I'd Like to F**k

Guest, Jose Barrientos is a stand-up comedian and professional hacker - who also happens to love Horror Movies. He begins by telling Dawn what a 'professional hacker' does - and yes, it is a bit more like Jason Bourne than you may be prepared for.

00:08:15 - Dawn and Jose discuss their favorite horror movies and why. Inevitably, part of the reason any given movie scares us more than another has a lot to do with when and where we first saw it. Jose saw his while alone in a war zone, Dawn saw hers while at a slumber party. Harrowing, both...

00:10:50 - Dawn lays out her sources of research for this episode:

• BOOK - Lost in the Dark by Brad Weismann
• DOCUMENTARY SERIES - The Movies That Made Us
• ESSAY - A Brief History of Horror Films (Albany County Public Library)

00:12:28 - Dawn lays out her plan for the episode: We are going decade-by-decade from the first 'scary movie' in 1896 all the way to NOPE with is in theaters as we record. As we go, we'll discuss what events in history and other elements of the zeitgeist inform the way movies are made and seen.

00:20:12 - After a discussion of our favorite horror films, we get to THE HAUNTED CASTLE (1896) and how this French film laid the way for the horror movies to come.

00:20:45 - The 1920's kick us off in the silent era with NOSFURATU (1922) and THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920).

00:22:29 - The 1930's introduce the big Universal Monsters, FRANKENSTEIN (1931), DRACULA (1931), THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933) and THE MUMMY (1932). Coming out of World War I and entering a period of facism and another global war, what scared us had to level up a little... and it did. Too much, apparently for some because it is also when we introduce the crippling, Hays Code. This new set of rules drastically restricted what films were allowed to portray, including anything "gruesome."

00:25:50 - The 1940's, thanks to The Code and (and another World War) many people consider it something of a drought of Horror Film. Dawn discusses THE WOLFMAN (1941) which came out the weekend after Pearl Harbor was bombed and was written by a Curt Siodmak, a Jew who had escaped Germany as Hitler rose to power. Siodmak was unambiguous about where the monsters he wrote about came from. "...the moon represents the swastika..."

00:28:03 - After Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945) our horror films from the 1950's are as atomic as our nightmares have become. Our creatures get less man-like and their origins get scientific. GODZILLA (1954) and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)

00:31:18 - The 1960's finally lose The Code and shit get's really good. PSYCHO (1960), ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968), NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)

00:36:50 - The 1970's bring us revolutions in so many ways and when it came to Horror, some of the greats really came into their stride. HALLOWEEN (1978), TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974), and THE EXORCIST (1973).

--BREAK--

00:44:40 - Back from the break, Dawn and Jose discuss the first horror movie they saw as kids... and why it is probably still why they're damaged people.

00:46:05 - The 1980's are also known as 'The Carnival of Horror' because there was a huge boom around the world in the production of horror films. One of the primary reasons was the expansion of the Home Video and, of course, the VHS Rental. There are far too many movies in the decades to come to highlight them all - including Dawn's favorite: NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984).

00:56:31 - The 1990's had a lot to deal with. The technical end of The Cold War and a hard realization that as we head into a new millennium - things might not be as peaceful as the seem, and the kids are definitely not alright: SCREAM (1996), and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999).

01:05:50 - If the 1990's were sensing that the new millennium had some horror in store they were proven right on September 11th, 2001. The event shifted our films into a noticeably more apocalyptic lane in the 00's. 28 DAYS LATER (2002), SAW (2005), and Jose's favorite film, THE FOURTH KIND (2009).

01:11:37 - The 2010's bring us horror from voices that have been previously underrepresented in film (and everywhere) with Jordan Peele's horror debut GET OUT (2017) and PARASITE (2019) which won Best Picture in 2019 and THE PURGE (2013).

01:16:23 - And here we are in the 2020's which, regardless of where you may be personally, everyone can agree is something of a horror show of it's own. We've had some spooky hits this decade already: NOPE (2022) and Squid Game (2022). Between disease, climate change and war - one would think we'd be flush with scary tales - but so far we seem to be largely recycling old franchises. But who knows what lays right around the corner.

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