My Favorite Horror Films

#1

An American Werewolf in London

• Released in 1981 & written & directed by John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Coming to America, ¡Three Amigos!, Into the Night, & Innocent Blood), An American Werewolf in London stars David Naughton (My Sister Sam), Jenny Agutter (Logan’s Run, The Six Million Dollar Man—“Deadly Countdown”), & Griffen Dunne (Johnny Dangerously). An American Werewolf in London was the 23rd-highest domestically grossing film of 1981, taking in $30 million against a $10-million production budget. An American Werewolf in London won the Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup—a category created specifically for the film, but awarded every year since 1981.

• An American Werewolf in London was one of three high-profile “werewolf” films of 1981, the other two being The Howling & Wolfen.
• David Naughton is perhaps best remembered as the actor who appeared on Dr Pepper commercials in the late 1970s singing the “I’m a Pepper” jingle. Naughton also starred in the 1979 sitcom Makin’ It, of which a mere nine episodes were produced & aired, giving the series a run of just eight weeks. Ironically, the theme song, “Makin’ It,” which entered the Billboard Top 40 almost two months after the series’ cancellation & peaked at #5, remained in the Top 40 twice as long (16 weeks) as the series which spawned it remained on television.
• An American Werewolf in London is replete with pop songs containing references to the moon, including several versions of “Blue Moon” & Credence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising.”

• The werewolf is, of course, one of the big three cinematic creatures, in addition to the vampire & Frankenstein’s Monster. Frankenstein’s Monster was more-or-less stripped wholesale from literature without any sort of folkloric tradition. Vampires, on the other hand, had traditions both folkloric & literary from which to draw. Werewolves were unusual in the early days of cinema in that they had no literature from which to draw, only folklore. Consequently, Hollywood essentially took the traits of vampires & applied them to werewolves. Vulnerability to silver & transmission of lycanthropy via biting are directly taken from the vampire traditions & applied to werewolves. Involuntary transformation at the full moon, while not a characteristic of vampires (but is, perhaps, akin to the vampire’s vulnerability to sunlight—itself a cinematic invention—& the vampire’s inherent limitation to nocturnal activity), is nevertheless not a traditional quality of werewolves & was introduced by Hollywood. So it is ironic that in An American Werewolf in London Jack is openly scornful of the notion that werewolves can only be harmed by silver—which makes sense given that this idea came from the early cinematic excursions of lycanthropes. However, An American Werewolf in London adheres to the other two Hollywoodisms regarding werewolves, namely their involuntary transmutation during the full moon & the infectious nature of the werewolf’s bite.

#2

Fright Night

#3

The Lost Boys

#4

Jaws

• Released in 1975 & directed by Steven Spielberg, Jaws stars Roy Scheider (Blue Thunder, seaQuest DSV, The French Connection, Klute), Richard Dreyfuss (CE3K, The Competition), Robert Shaw (From Russia with Love), Robin & Marian, The Sting), & Lorraine Gary. At the time of its release, Jaws was the highest-grossing film ever & the first film to earn over $100 million at the box office. Jaws received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture & won Oscars for Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, & Best Sound. Jaws was the breakout film for Spielberg as well as composer John Williams. Additionally, Jaws was the first film to open initially in wide release & was instrumental in fundamentally changing Hollywood’s marketing & distribution strategy. Jaws was the first summer blockbuster, a model Hollywood has followed ever since.

• The film Jaws was based on the bestselling 1974 novel Jaws written by Peter Benchley. Although the film omits a number of the novel’s subplots (including an extramarital affair between Hooper & Brody’s wife, Ellen), the film is reasonably close to the book in the main action narrative, except that in the novel both Quint & Hooper succumb to the great white shark.
• Benchley has a cameo in the film as a television newsman.
• In the novel, Matt Hooper is described as an icthyologist. In the film, the character is referred to as an oceanographer.

• Jaws was followed by three sequels, none of which matches the original in quality. Jaws 2, released in 1978, was arguably the best of the lot.

#5

Dracula (1979)

#6

The Omen Series

The Omen

• Released in 1976 & directed by Richard Donner (Superman: The Movie , Lethal Weapon, Lethal Weapon 2, Lethal Weapon 3, & Lethal Weapon 4), The Omen stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, & David Warner.
• The Omen received Oscar nominations for Best Original Score & Best Original Song (“Ave Satani”), both written by Jerry Goldsmith, who took home the Academy Award for Best Score.
• The Omen grossed $61 million against a $2.8 million budget & was the fifth-highest-grossing film of 1976.

• The term “antichrist,” as it appears in the Bible (five times in 1 John & 2 John), is rather vague & generally seems to refer to people or groups who, although irreligious & immoral, are not especially evil or in any way supernatural. Nevertheless, antichrist throughout the Middle Ages began to be conflated with Paul’s “man of sin,” (2 Thessalonians), Daniel’s “abomination” & “little horn,” as well as the Beast of Revelation. And increasingly, the Antichrist took on the character of a specific, personal being, who was perhaps supernatural in scope & origin. Protestants in particular identified the Pope & the Papacy itself as Antichrist.
• Ironically, although the idea of a personal Antichrist was not new at the time The Omen was released, the idea that the Antichrist is a literal opposite of Jesus, the son of Satan on Earth & so forth, seems to have originated with the 1967 publication of Rosemary’s Baby, although neither book nor film uses the term “Antichrist.”

• In The Omen, Robert Thorn is said to have been the roommate of the President while they were at Harvard. This seems to be corroborated when Thorn is appointed Ambassador to Great Britain.
• In The Omen, a new Star of Bethlehem appears at the time of Damien’s birth—except it occurs on the opposite side of the Earth. Damien is born on June 25, precisely six months from December 25. And, rather than being born of a virgin, the Antichrist is born of a jackal.
• All of these parallels & juxtapositions of the details of Jesus’ life notwithstanding, the Antichrist is said to be vulnerable only to the sacred Seven Daggers of Megiddo. Of course, nothing like this is ever related in Scripture, & now we have an Antichrist with a very specific weakness likening him to a vampire or even a super-hero.

Omen III: The Final Conflict

• Released in 1981 & directed by Graham Baker, Omen III: The Final Conflict stars Sam Neill as the adult Antichrist, Damien Thorn.
• Omen III: The Final Conflict grossed $20 million, $40 million less than The Omen.

• Veteran character actor Mason Adams plays the small part of the President who is a friend of Damien’s. It is not known what the relationship of this President may be to the President who was the college roommate of Robert Thorn in The Omen. The President appoints Damien Ambassador to Great Britain, the same post held by his foster father. Mason Adams played the voice of the Nazi Atom Man on the radio serial The Adventures of Superman in 1945 & is perhaps best known for his role as Charlie Hume on Lou Grant.
• In The Omen, Bugenhagen states that all seven daggers must be used to destroy the Antichrist. Yet Damien is slain by just one of the daggers in Omen III: The Final Conflict (in the hands of Kate Reynolds). Perhaps this is due to Christ’s weakening influence on the Devil’s son.

• The plot of the film is somewhat conflicted, or rather the actual conflict is unclear. At times, Damien seems to be consumed with counteracting the Second Coming & later with defeating Christ (or “Nazarene,” as Damien calls him). At other times, the antagonists are a group of seven priests, each wielding one of the Seven Daggers of Megiddo. Damien says that as Christ’s power grows, his own wanes, & it is implied that Christ is capable of destroying Damien without the daggers (even though all three films explicitly state that the daggers themselves are the only thing capable of this).
• Furthermore, the film’s plot is biblically unsound. Revelation states that Christ will descend from Heaven in power & glory at the Apocalypse. That He would be reborn as a man again is never hinted at.

Damien: Omen II

• Released in 1978 & directed by Don Taylor, who also directed Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Tom Sawyer (1973), The Island of Dr Moreau (1977), & The Final Countdown, Damien: Omen II stars William Holden & Lee Grant. Damien: Omen II was, in addition, the final screen appearance of Lew Ayres (Battlestar Galactica) & the first of Meshach Taylor (Designing Women, Mannequin). The film also features a small early role for Lance Henriksen (Aliens, The Terminator).
• In Damien: Omen II, Leo McKern reprises the role of Carl Bugenhagen from The Omen. He is the only cast member of the series to appear in more than one installment.

• Damien: Omen II grossed $26 million, against a $4 million budget.

• A high point of Damien: Omen II is the scene in which young Cadet Thorn has a historical dates showdown with one of his teachers in which he fires off dates instantly without understanding how he knows them. It is, of course, in Damien: Omen II that Damien realizes & embraces his heritage & destiny as the Antichrist.

#13

Van Helsing

#25

The Horror of Dracula (1958)

#29

Dracula (1931)