Why I Love Old Horror Movies and Their Wonderful Imperfections
Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf-Man, The Mummy and The Invisible Man
The gray and grainy picture, the crackle of the audio and the all-too-often falsehood of the scenery.
What makes me love these qualities so much?
It’s the invitation to make them my own that draws me.
More than anything else I enjoy using my imagination and the classics provide a fantastic vehicle for that.
Dracula has a straightforward storyline and iconic imagery, but with the application of imagination you can enjoy several tangential threads. Why the dubious addition of animals not known to inhabit Transylvania alone gives you tons of material to work with. Are these opossums and armadillos supposed to represent other animals or are we to believe that they are exotic imports…perhaps they’re part of a side business of the Count’s? The hilarious possibilities are endless.
Another example is the 1955 movie Tarantula .
Admittedly not exactly a classic but, it works beautifully for my point. On the face of it, this is a typical sci-fi creature feature. Low budgets result in some unusual camera effects intended to increase the size and menace of the creature being featured. However, if you choose to, you can imagine your own storyline to accompany the on-screen antics.
Imagine things from the poor spider’s perspective. One day he’s being raised, cared for and fed by a questionable scientist and the next a laboratory accident has increased his size by a hundred-fold. His only thought is to return to the place he knows as home, but he’s huge now and not used to maneuvering this way. He crushes the laboratory and the farmhouse. The movie wants us to see a monster! I see Lassie in tarantula form…poor lost dear.
I have even enjoyed finding patterns among the genres. These movies often rely on our acceptance of questionable science, terrible decision making, the insistence that death is the only logical answer to the problems created by the above-mentioned questionable science and terrible decisions that followed.
Women are helpless, they will scream at almost anything and must faint at least once. Sidenote on the fainting: leading man requirements include the ability to effortlessly lift and carry said faint female without dropping her or tripping.
Using my imagination is why I write. I love to see where an idea can lead and in my imagination anything is possible. If you enjoy stories that are meant to entertain and spark your own imagination, check out my fictitious Vermont town of Eldersburg.
Inside you’ll have a chance to meet some of the characters that populate the town and get to explore the places that provide the backdrop for this community.
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