Unwelcome Caller

In 1942, RKO Pictures set up a horror unit under producer Val Lewton, a former journalist, novelist and poet who had gone on to become a story editor for David O. Selznick. It was his job to develop low budget horror pictures for under 150,000 dollars, with the studio providing the titles for the films. His first task, the strangely named Cat People, almost seems like a joke. A way for RKO to compete with the popular Universal horror films of the time, Lewton hired writer DeWitt Bodeen (I Remember Mama), director Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past), cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca (I kid you not, both Out of the Past and I Remember Mama), and composer Roy Webb (Notorious, Marty) – a quality ensemble. And, Lewton supervised everything, the type of producer who would do re-writes on scripts, aid with editing and be involved in every other minute detail of the production process. In a unique twist, the films Lewton created with RKO have become synonymous with him and his distinct style, rather than the directors’, a rare occurrence to be sure.

A wonderful feel-good story, Swedish director Davis F. Sandberg, now known for his 2016 full length feature debut Lights Out and the currently-in-theatres horror prequel Annabelle: Creation, started as an animator and documentary/short filmmaker. In a dangerous amount of debt back in 2013, he wrote and directed a short film titled, perhaps you’ve guessed it, Lights Out. Released at the Bloody Cuts Horror Challenge Film Festival, it made it to the finals, and won Sandberg the Best Director award. Then, the power of the Internet kicked in, and Lights Out shot from thousands of views to millions – and Hollywood higher ups came scrambling. The man, formerly in financial difficulties, has now become a name to watch in this recent renaissance of the horror genre out of Tinseltown.

It’s funny how the brain works. As I sat waiting for Andy Muschietti’s It to project onto the screen, I thought of what a disappointment it would be for the crowd if they had misconstrued the title – in for an unwelcome surprise as “I.T.”, the story of an ordinary Information Technology guy who struggles with work on a daily basis, popped up onscreen instead. Thankfully, that was not the case. It is very much a two-pronged film; a coming of age dramedy and a horror flick, the former works extremely well, the latter falls more into the average range. Set in the late 1980s, the town of Derry, Maine (Port Hope, Ontario a perfect stand-in the for the quaint locale that holds multiple mysteries) has six times the national average when it comes to disappearances and murders.

If thou darest, journey into the darkest depths of the supernatural gothic giallo thriller, Lucio Fulci’s 1981 horror feature The Black Cat, loosely based upon the Edgar Allan Poe short story that analyses the “spirit of PERVERSENESS” found deep within every human. A warning for those with a feline phobia, this can be seen as the Cujo of cat films. Available in either Italian or the English language, the meandering tale is absurd in a sense, but a whole lot of fun. For the first fifteen or so minutes, we are not exactly sure what is happening, yet Fulci develops an intoxicating aura. Set in the English countryside, it seems like a black cat, with eerie yellow eyes, is killing people in the quaint little village. Often showing the feline’s perspective, we swiftly stock its prey too, eyeing the next kill.

Perhaps the beginnings of a new sub-genre of horror, André Øvredal’s 2016 offering, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, follows up the similarly set The Corpse of Anna Fritz with another claustrophobic, morgue-centric tale. Perhaps we could drop the ‘rue’ from the classic Edgar Allen Poe tale and call them "Murders in the Morgue". With a cleverly concocted set up, the first half of the film toys with us, introducing not only the main characters, but the little threads that will come into play later on. Beginning with a gruesome murder scene (dead bodies are scattered throughout a house), Sheriff Burke (Michael McElhatton – Roose Bolton in Game of Thrones) is stymied when he discovers a half buried body of a young woman – the only one with not a thing wrong with it (seemingly). In a bizarre twist, it seems like those murdered were trying to escape the abode – and that no one broke in.

Mixing horror and a long unsolved murder mystery with clever touches of comedy throughout, the 2014 New Zealand film Housebound, written and directed by Gerard Johnstone, is a twisty tale that constantly keeps you guessing. Playing with his audience, Johnstone provides little teases and possible red herrings as we go along: a mother, Miriam (Rima Te Wiata), phoning into a late night program telling of her run in with a ghost in her own home, a rough around the edges hoarder of a neighbour whose pastime just happens to be skinning animals, a murder that took place in the house the story is set in, an orthodontic retainer that may be a clue to who committed said murder, an agoraphobic neighbour who disappeared years ago, bizarre power outages, a missing cellphone, a creepy toy bear that keeps reappearing, as well as a supposedly haunted basement – all play their part in building the tense, suspenseful atmosphere.