0:00:02 > 0:00:05THIS PROGRAMME CONTAINS SCENES OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE.
0:00:05 > 0:00:11In 1960, a young woman was running away from something.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13Something that she shouldn't have done.
0:00:13 > 0:00:18Everything would have been fine, if it hadn't been for her choice of accommodation.
0:00:23 > 0:00:29After that, horror cinema, and taking a shower, would never be quite the same again.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46SHE SCREAMS
0:01:01 > 0:01:05'Mother! Oh, God! Mother, blood! Blood!'
0:01:08 > 0:01:14Psycho casts a long shadow over American horror cinema, and not just because of its shocking set pieces.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17Its commercial and critical success gave filmmakers permission
0:01:17 > 0:01:20to break the established rules of storytelling.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24You fancy killing off your lead halfway through the picture? By all means.
0:01:24 > 0:01:31Psycho promised to make the cinema a far more dangerous place, where anything could happen.
0:01:31 > 0:01:32Mrs Bates?
0:01:41 > 0:01:43SHE SCREAMS
0:01:47 > 0:01:51'It took a few years for this promise to be fulfilled, but when it was,
0:01:51 > 0:01:56'an explosion of American films dragged horror kicking and screaming into the present day.
0:01:56 > 0:02:03'With their contemporary settings and uncompromising content, they remain controversial.'
0:02:16 > 0:02:19For me, this was a new golden age of horror cinema,
0:02:19 > 0:02:23but it also left a rather troubling legacy.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47SHE SCREAMS
0:02:48 > 0:02:52'It's a May weekend in Los Angeles, and I'm learning the correct way
0:02:52 > 0:02:55'to film someone stabbing you with a large twig.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00'It's all down to getting the correct angle for the blood splatter.'
0:03:00 > 0:03:0360 degree boil wash, or she's had it.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13'This is a horror convention, where fans from across America
0:03:13 > 0:03:17'have gathered for a festival of shopping, film screenings and fancy dress.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22'Horror cinema now has a loyal following that protects it
0:03:22 > 0:03:25'from the periodic slumps of its earlier years.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30'More than anything else, it was the new wave of American films
0:03:30 > 0:03:33'that emerged after the late '60s that made this possible.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37'Thanks to their fearsome reputation,
0:03:37 > 0:03:42'these films are often seen as only being for hardcore horror fans.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45'But I think they deserve a wider audience.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49'To find out why, let's flip back to 1968,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52'when a small independent film appeared almost completely out of nowhere
0:03:52 > 0:03:56'and put American horror back on the map.'
0:03:56 > 0:03:59There we are, the very thing.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02'They're coming to get you, Barbara!'
0:04:02 > 0:04:05Stop it! You're acting like a child.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07They're coming for you.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10Look! There comes one of them now.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15- He'll hear you.- Here he comes now. I'm getting out of here.- John!
0:04:25 > 0:04:28No! Johnny! Help me!
0:04:28 > 0:04:34In Night of the Living Dead, director George A Romero reinvented zombies
0:04:34 > 0:04:38as a non-supernatural, thoroughly modern menace.
0:04:41 > 0:04:47I was very struck, watching it recently, how really, really good the zombies are.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51Everything which now people do as their standard zombie is absolutely there.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55What did you actually ask them to do to be the living dead?
0:04:59 > 0:05:04Right from the pop, I've said, "Just do your best dead".
0:05:04 > 0:05:08Don't do Frankenstein, just if you were dead and weak,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10and you were having a hard time walking,
0:05:10 > 0:05:15and just do what you'd like, and I find that people are just so creative with it.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34Like Psycho, Night of the Living Dead was made cheaply
0:05:34 > 0:05:38and resourcefully, shot by Romero and a group of friends at weekends.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47But unlike Psycho, it was made independently of the big studios.
0:05:47 > 0:05:53Free from the constraints of Hollywood, Romero could test the limits of on-screen horror.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00We decided from the beginning that we were gonna push the envelope a bit,
0:06:00 > 0:06:04that we weren't gonna cut away, we were actually gonna show some of this.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08We didn't know how much, we didn't know how much the actors would be willing to do.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15And there's a shot that I particularly remember where this zombie has a liver.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21The thing is obviously real, and it's squishy.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25I mean, it gave me a bit of pause.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30Then we said, let's let it all hang out.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41But the film challenged audience expectations in even more important ways.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49I think the biggest reason that Night of the Living Dead was talked about
0:06:49 > 0:06:53as sort of essential American cinema, particularly of that decade,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56was because the lead actor was an African-American.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00And that, I have to say, was damn near pure accident.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07Dwayne Jones was the best actor from among our friends.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17When John Russo and I wrote the script, we were thinking of this guy as a white guy.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21It's all right.
0:07:21 > 0:07:27But when he became an African-American, the film became so much stronger.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42Night of the Living Dead is raw and violent.
0:07:43 > 0:07:48But not, I think, gratuitous, because it feels true to the era in which it was made,
0:07:50 > 0:07:57one of civil rights protests, political assassinations and the Vietnam war.
0:07:58 > 0:08:04This is the horror film as social commentary, a metaphor for America turning against itself,
0:08:04 > 0:08:09enhanced by Romero's satirical, but quite convincing, fake newsreel footage.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14OK, Chief. If were surrounded by six or eight of these things, would I stand a chance with them?
0:08:14 > 0:08:18If you have a gun, shoot 'em in the head. That's a sure way to kill 'em.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22If you don't, get yourself a club or a torch. Beat 'em or burn 'em. They go up pretty easy.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26We knew that there was some anger in the film, what we were talking about mostly was
0:08:26 > 0:08:33the disintegration of the family unit and of the communal, the community, the disintegration of community
0:08:33 > 0:08:40was what we felt. Also a bit of anger that peace and love had not worked as well as we might have liked,
0:08:40 > 0:08:46and all of a sudden, the world was still in the same state
0:08:46 > 0:08:51of collapse and chaos that we'd all been trying to repair.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59Romero's zombies owe nothing to the supernatural.
0:08:59 > 0:09:05It's suggested that this outbreak of the undead may be the result of radioactive contamination,
0:09:05 > 0:09:10and somehow this just adds to the film's unflinchingly bleak tone,
0:09:10 > 0:09:14- in which even children turn against their parents.- No, no, no, no!
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Taking a cue from Hitchcock, Romero is unsentimental about the fate
0:09:22 > 0:09:26of even his most sympathetic characters.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31You! Drag that out of here and throw it on the fire.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35- Nothing down here.- All right, go ahead down and give him a hand.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38- Check out the house.- There's something there, I heard a noise.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45All right, hit him in the head. Right between the eyes.
0:09:45 > 0:09:51We were able to actually completely finish the film, make an answer print, the first print of the film,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54and we were driving into New York, one of my partners and I,
0:09:54 > 0:10:00and the first print of Night of the Living Dead is in the trunk of our car,
0:10:00 > 0:10:05and on the radio along the drive, we heard that Martin Luther King had been assassinated.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10Good shot!
0:10:10 > 0:10:15The success of Night of the Living Dead changed the horror business model.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19It showed that low-budget, independent films could turn a decent profit.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34'Other young directors picked up their lightweight cameras and followed Romero's lead.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38'I've come to a Los Angeles suburb to meet the mild-mannered gentleman
0:10:38 > 0:10:42'responsible for perhaps the most notorious of these films.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48'He says it goes back to stories from his childhood about infamous real life killer, Ed Gein.'
0:10:53 > 0:11:00My Wisconsin relatives would tell me about this man,
0:11:00 > 0:11:04Ed Gein, that had been taken into custody
0:11:04 > 0:11:09and that they found human-skin lampshades and human-skin furniture.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13Maybe there were body parts in the refrigerator. It seemed like THE Bogeyman.
0:11:15 > 0:11:17I had enough information to scare the hell out of me.
0:11:26 > 0:11:32The same case inspired both Psycho and Hooper's 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
0:11:32 > 0:11:38which presents itself as a true story, a kind of Crimewatch reconstruction from hell.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44There's nothing supernatural or even science fiction about the film.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48But its characters find themselves trapped in a backwoods America
0:11:48 > 0:11:51which seems to have been bypassed by progress,
0:11:51 > 0:11:56a place where a family house can also be a slaughterhouse, a place that's atavistic
0:11:56 > 0:12:00and cannibalistic.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Before making Chainsaw, I started really considering
0:12:03 > 0:12:07what makes horror work, based on my experiences seeing films.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12And I found, to me, that films set in and around death
0:12:12 > 0:12:19gave it an additional tone, because death is the ultimate monster.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24Also, I wanted to show that the process of death wasn't as simple
0:12:24 > 0:12:31as sticking someone with a knife, and two frames later, they expire.
0:12:33 > 0:12:34Hello?
0:12:57 > 0:12:59The film's bogeyman is Leatherface,
0:12:59 > 0:13:05a massive, former slaughterhouse worker forever hidden behind a mask
0:13:05 > 0:13:11made from someone's skin, and perhaps the first iconic American horror monster since the 1940s.
0:13:14 > 0:13:21Leatherface himself, going back to the classic monster tradition, is quite Karloff-like,
0:13:21 > 0:13:28from an initially terrifying, hulking brute, he has moments of pathos, absolute farce.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32It's all about a very bad day.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36It's a bad day for everyone. It's a terrible day for Leatherface.
0:13:36 > 0:13:42Leatherface keeps wondering, "Where the hell are all these kids coming from?"
0:13:42 > 0:13:48To the point, he goes and sits by the window and looks out, and then starts patting his face,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51because he knows his ass is in such terrible trouble.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58This dark strain of humour came as something of a surprise when I eventually saw the film,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02having always been slightly scared off by the title.
0:14:02 > 0:14:07Surely one of the starkest and most perfect in cinema history.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11And I was also surprised by the lack of gore.
0:14:14 > 0:14:20This is a film where it's not what you see, but what you hear, that's truly terrifying.
0:14:22 > 0:14:24EVERYBODY SCREAMING
0:14:26 > 0:14:29The sound design is so great.
0:14:29 > 0:14:35There's a pneumatic drill, almost subliminal, sort of pounding away
0:14:35 > 0:14:41and Sally's screams become so endless that it starts to freak you out.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45The whole thing becomes like a genuine nightmare.
0:14:49 > 0:14:56The screams that she was making were so real
0:14:56 > 0:15:01that you felt the sound went into you
0:15:01 > 0:15:04and you knew it was the sound of truth.
0:15:10 > 0:15:18Had those been fake Hollywood screams, it would have meant nothing.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22It had to be someone that just knew she was going to be ripped apart.
0:15:23 > 0:15:29Rest assured, gentle viewer, you don't see anyone being ripped apart in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36For all its reputation, this is a film about psychological rather than physical torture,
0:15:36 > 0:15:42although the actual filming seems to have involved a bit of both.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47The real sense of insanity came from the fact it was 117 degrees in that house.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55The hot lights started cooking the props.
0:15:57 > 0:16:02The cast and crew would run to the window and heave,
0:16:02 > 0:16:06because of this nauseous odour of dead things.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08Give me that hammer!
0:16:08 > 0:16:13That length of time, under those conditions - everybody got a little crazy.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20They all hated me at the end of the movie.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24I mean, there were two wrap parties going on.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29The groups were split, and my wrap party was sitting on the porch of the house, all by myself.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37Low budget, independent films brought a new realism and immediacy to horror,
0:16:37 > 0:16:43taking their inspiration from television news and documentary rather than the Gothic tradition.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58But horror was also getting proper money behind it once more.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03The big Hollywood studios had been rediscovering horror.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07Unlike the independents, they didn't want to let the supernatural go.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12But even their glossiest productions now had a fresh, contemporary edge.
0:17:16 > 0:17:22At the forefront of this new cycle of Hollywood horror was Paramount Pictures' Rosemary's Baby.
0:17:22 > 0:17:27Released in 1968, it's the story of a young couple who move into a New York apartment,
0:17:27 > 0:17:32unaware that their elderly neighbours are Satanists.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37It was the first American picture by an acclaimed European director, Roman Polanski,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41and it starred a fashionable young actress, Mia Farrow, as Rosemary,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44sporting an equally fashionable Vidal Sassoon haircut.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Rosemary's Baby had an interesting, topical subtext
0:17:51 > 0:17:54about women's independence and control over their bodies.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58But it also served up a classic horror climax,
0:17:58 > 0:18:04where some delicious dialogue helps Polanski get away with not actually delivering a shock reveal.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15What have you done to it?!
0:18:15 > 0:18:19What have you done to its eyes?!
0:18:19 > 0:18:20He has his father's eyes.
0:18:23 > 0:18:29What are you talking about? Guy's eyes are normal!
0:18:29 > 0:18:32What have you done to him, you maniacs?!
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Satan is his father, not Guy.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38He came up from Hell and begat a son of mortal woman.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40- Hail, Satan!- Hail, Satan!
0:18:40 > 0:18:41Satan is his father.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43Hail Satan indeed.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46Rosemary didn't just give birth to the Devil's baby.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50She spawned a whole brood of films about demonic children.
0:18:50 > 0:18:56Looking back, it's clear why this theme may have resonated with American audiences.
0:18:56 > 0:19:03At the time, a generation gap appeared to be opening up between the establishment and young people.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08The model clean-cut youth of America seemed increasingly to have been replaced
0:19:08 > 0:19:10by shouting, swearing, angry young men and women.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14It was like they'd become... possessed.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27But who would have thought that one of the most disturbing screen monsters
0:19:27 > 0:19:31of all time would be played by a wholesome-looking 14 year-old called Linda Blair?
0:19:34 > 0:19:36MUSIC: "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield
0:19:42 > 0:19:46While Rosemary's Baby has a sly sense of humour,
0:19:46 > 0:19:51The Exorcist takes good, evil and religion very seriously.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55It depicts, in graphic detail, the transformation of a loving daughter
0:19:55 > 0:19:58into a hideous, demon-possessed creature.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02It's a tough film to watch at times, even for hardened horror fans.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04It's burning! It's burning!
0:20:04 > 0:20:07Do something, Doctor. Please, help her!
0:20:07 > 0:20:09Please, Mother!
0:20:09 > 0:20:14In scenes like this one, director William Friedkin veers between an intensely physical evocation of
0:20:14 > 0:20:19the child's pain and suffering and bursts of unexpected, foul-mouthed violence.
0:20:19 > 0:20:21All right, young lady, let's see what...
0:20:21 > 0:20:24Keep away! The sow is mine!
0:20:24 > 0:20:28The Exorcist was one of the most widely seen films of its time
0:20:28 > 0:20:35and its projectile vomiting and rotating heads have become part of the lexicon of popular culture.
0:20:35 > 0:20:41But I think that lurking beneath the set pieces is an even richer and more disturbing film.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52There's one particular set-up and pay-off that I find very effective.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57This is Father Damien Karras, the closest thing the film has to a hero,
0:20:57 > 0:21:01a man wrestling with his own guilt and doubts.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04Father?
0:21:04 > 0:21:08Could you help an old altar boy? I'm a Catholic.
0:21:13 > 0:21:19'It's not until an hour of screen time later that Karras finally meets the possessed Regan.'
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Well then, let's introduce ourselves. I'm Damien Karras.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26And I'm the Devil! Now, kindly undo these straps.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29If you're the Devil, why not make the straps disappear?
0:21:29 > 0:21:32That's much too vulgar a display of power, Karras.
0:21:32 > 0:21:37- Where's Regan?- In here, with us.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41Show me Regan and I'll loosen one of the straps.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44Can you help an old altar boy, Father?
0:21:46 > 0:21:49"Can you help an old altar boy, Father?"
0:21:49 > 0:21:54For me, that simple, echoed line is the most disturbing moment in the film.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57Perhaps because it suggests an omnipresence of evil,
0:21:57 > 0:22:01that the Devil is always watching us and taking notes.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07Helped by some enthusiastic endorsement from Catholics -
0:22:07 > 0:22:10after all, it's a film where priests save the day -
0:22:10 > 0:22:14The Exorcist proved even more successful than its makers had expected.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25'Satan had cemented his position at the head of the box office,
0:22:25 > 0:22:31'and Hollywood now felt confident enough to put big money and big stars behind him.'
0:22:34 > 0:22:391976 saw the arrival of what is arguably the first horror blockbuster.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43Even though it was an American production with American stars,
0:22:43 > 0:22:48the film boasted a fine British supporting cast and a host of memorable British locations,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52such as this, All Saints Church in Fulham, site of a memorable impaling.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55The film is of course the fantastic The Omen.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03"When the Jews return to Zion and a comet rips the sky,
0:23:03 > 0:23:07"and the Holy Roman Empire rises, then you and I must die.
0:23:07 > 0:23:12"From the eternal sea, he rises, creating armies on either shore.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17"Turning man against his brother till man exists no more."
0:23:18 > 0:23:22OMINOUS CHORAL MUSIC
0:23:26 > 0:23:29The Omen purports to be based on Biblical prophecy,
0:23:29 > 0:23:33but you'll struggle to find its most famous verses in the Book of Revelation.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36They were a complete invention by writer David Seltzer.
0:23:41 > 0:23:47Digging into the Book of Revelation, I just fell in love with the mythology,
0:23:47 > 0:23:52and the characters, and the plots, and the preposterousness of the whole thing.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55I thought, "I'm going to do something preposterous
0:23:55 > 0:23:57"and it's going to look real".
0:24:02 > 0:24:07Seltzer uses the myth of the Apocalypse to create a plot in which
0:24:07 > 0:24:13the American ambassador to London, played by Gregory Peck, no less, adopts the Antichrist.
0:24:14 > 0:24:19Satan has determined to place his child
0:24:19 > 0:24:25in a position of political influence and power in the United States.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30He uses me, my wife, Lee Remick and me,
0:24:30 > 0:24:34as vehicles, dupes, so to speak,
0:24:34 > 0:24:38and we don't know that it's the Devil's child.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42# Happy Birthday, Dear Damien
0:24:42 > 0:24:44# Happy birthday to you! #
0:24:44 > 0:24:46How did you feel when Gregory Peck came on board?
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Gregory Peck made the movie happen.
0:24:49 > 0:24:55Before Greg...I knew him! Before Gregory Peck - I don't want to be one of these Hollywood assholes -
0:24:55 > 0:25:00before Gregory Peck came aboard, it was a whole different kind of movie. It was a B-movie.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05The original cast was Charles Bronson in the Gregory Peck role,
0:25:05 > 0:25:09playing the Ambassador to the Court of St James.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11I don't think so!
0:25:11 > 0:25:15Suddenly, Gregory Peck agreed to do it. He was in love with it.
0:25:18 > 0:25:25The fact that he brought this straight face to it, this incredible dignity, is what made it work.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27Charles Bronson would have made it a joke.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31A supporting cast of respectable British actors,
0:25:31 > 0:25:36including David Warner, lent The Omen added gravitas.
0:25:36 > 0:25:41Do you think a key to the film's success is the fact that everyone plays it with a straight bat?
0:25:41 > 0:25:44Absolutely. There was no tongue in cheek.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47There was no sending up. It was played absolutely for real.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51Peck, before one scene, just said,
0:25:51 > 0:25:56"If we can convince them with this....
0:25:56 > 0:25:58"we all deserve Oscars".
0:25:58 > 0:25:59That's what he said.
0:26:02 > 0:26:08You can see the challenge Warner and Peck faced in this piece of textual exegesis.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11As for the rise of the Roman Empire, scholars think that could well mean
0:26:11 > 0:26:14the formation of the Common Market, the Treaty of Rome.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16- Bit of a stretch. - Yes, well, what about this?
0:26:16 > 0:26:21In Revelations, it says, "He shall rise from the eternal sea".
0:26:21 > 0:26:24Well, that's the poem again. "From the eternal sea he rises,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27"creating armies on either shore". That's the beginning.
0:26:27 > 0:26:32And theologians already interpreted "the eternal sea" as meaning the world of politics.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36The sea that constant rages with turmoil and revolution.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42So the Devil's child will rise from the world of politics.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51The Omen is all the more effective for the fact that we never see
0:26:51 > 0:26:54anything explicitly supernatural happen on screen,
0:26:54 > 0:27:01just a series of rather unfortunate events, such as a nanny hanging herself at a children's party.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09The reason it felt so frightening is there was a critical mass
0:27:09 > 0:27:14and accumulation of coincidental, horrific accidents.
0:27:14 > 0:27:20Any one of which, out of context, could have looked like it could have happened.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23But then you began to get the accumulation,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26and you understand there was this wave of evil coming towards
0:27:26 > 0:27:30these characters that they would ultimately not be able to escape.
0:27:31 > 0:27:37The film really begins to raise its game with the death of a priest - and former Doctor Who -
0:27:37 > 0:27:41staged here in Fulham with an almost operatic flamboyance.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Were you there for the spearing of Patrick Troughton?
0:27:45 > 0:27:49I was there on the day that Patrick Troughton was speared.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52And I think, these days, it would have all been done CGI,
0:27:52 > 0:27:56but we were just a bunch of kids putting on a show
0:27:56 > 0:27:59with cardboard and Scotch tape.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02There was a fishing line that went from the top of the church
0:28:02 > 0:28:05and was anchored in the ground behind Patrick.
0:28:05 > 0:28:11And on cue, it was sent sliding down and there was just
0:28:11 > 0:28:15a little wooden spear, very light, sent sliding down that fishing line,
0:28:15 > 0:28:17and as it supposedly came through,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20it was really landing behind him, Patrick just went....
0:28:20 > 0:28:26That's an effect that would cost 200,000 today. It cost about seven bucks.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36NO-O-O-O-O!
0:28:42 > 0:28:46Of course, it could be argued that next to The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby,
0:28:46 > 0:28:51The Omen is rather unsophisticated fare. But it's really a different beast.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55It's a compact, highly efficient studio thrill ride that owes more
0:28:55 > 0:29:00to the set pieces of films like Jaws than it does to the slow-burning traditions of Val Lewton.
0:29:02 > 0:29:08But what the film does share with Lewton is panache and ingenuity, no more so than in one of the greatest
0:29:08 > 0:29:16on-screen deaths in horror cinema, staged by director Richard Donner with startling originality.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20The way I'd written it was that the David Warner character is bending
0:29:20 > 0:29:27down to pick up these daggers and a construction crane carrying a huge piece of glass drops it.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33And Dick put it on a horizontal plane.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45When I saw that head twirling
0:29:45 > 0:29:48and I saw the dailies of it twirling in slow motion...
0:29:48 > 0:29:52I thought, "Oh, yeah. Dick is doing something very special here!"
0:29:59 > 0:30:02Do you have any idea what happened to your severed head?
0:30:02 > 0:30:04I lost it in the divorce!
0:30:04 > 0:30:08< MARK LAUGHS
0:30:10 > 0:30:14Unlike in The Exorcist, good does not triumph in The Omen.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19Excuse me, Mr President, when you're ready to leave, your car's right over there.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21- In a moment.- Yes, sir.
0:30:21 > 0:30:26'At the end of the tale, Damien the Antichrist is the last character standing.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31'But in its very final shot, the film does something highly daring for a '70s horror film.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34'It breaks the fourth wall.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38'Does that smile mean we're all in on the joke...
0:30:38 > 0:30:41'or that the Devil knows we're watching?'
0:30:41 > 0:30:43But you don't believe in the Devil?
0:30:43 > 0:30:45No. No, certainly not.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48I wouldn't be messing around with stuff like this if I did!
0:30:54 > 0:30:58The figures spoke for themselves, and Hollywood now felt able to
0:30:58 > 0:31:04embrace horror to an extent unmatched since the 1930s.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08There's a fascinating footnote to these big studio extravaganzas.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12Independent film-makers hadn't entirely given up on the supernatural.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15One of my favourite horror pictures of the '70s
0:31:15 > 0:31:19is a little-known, low budget effort from George Romero called Martin.
0:31:19 > 0:31:24- It's a vampire film, but with an intriguingly modern twist.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27Martin is a vampire who looks like a teenage boy,
0:31:27 > 0:31:31or possibly just a teenage boy who thinks he's a vampire.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52SHE SCREAMS
0:31:52 > 0:31:55Please don't scream. I just want you to go to sleep.
0:31:55 > 0:32:01With no obvious supernatural powers, he subdues his victims using drugs and violence.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06SCREAMS CONTINUE
0:32:08 > 0:32:12I didn't want to do another strictly horror film,
0:32:12 > 0:32:15and so I initially said, well, let's do a spoof.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18Initally that was my idea, let's do a spoof.
0:32:18 > 0:32:24A vampire who is having problems living in the modern age.
0:32:24 > 0:32:29Somewhere along the way, it came to me that this could be quite tragic.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38The film cleverly straddles the classic supernatural
0:32:38 > 0:32:41and contemporary secular strands of horror cinema.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44Martin.
0:32:44 > 0:32:51Martin is haunted by memories, or maybe just fantasies, of a romantic, gothic past.
0:32:55 > 0:33:02But in reality he's a shy, deeply lonely figure who struggles to communicate with women.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10Uh, you must be Martin.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14Is Tada Cuda home yet?
0:33:20 > 0:33:24I said, what if this is some kid who just is...
0:33:24 > 0:33:31he is attracted to women, but doesn't know how to approach it, it's this mystery.
0:33:31 > 0:33:36How do I get there? I mean, he keeps saying, I'd love to do the sexy stuff,
0:33:36 > 0:33:40when someone is awake.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44But he feels he has to knock them out in order to do it.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49I was just trying, all across the way, to sort of work it out.
0:33:51 > 0:33:56Romero confronts head-on what other film-makers were only prepared to imply,
0:33:56 > 0:34:02that vampirism is little different from rape, no matter how much Martin tries to romanticise his actions.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13Is he a fantasist who thinks he's a vampire?
0:34:13 > 0:34:16Oh gosh, I think completely. He is, completely.
0:34:16 > 0:34:22You have to make a decision, when you're doing a film like that, where you want it to be ambiguous.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26But you have to make a decision, so that you don't violate your own rules.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32But while George Romero is deconstructing traditional horror,
0:34:32 > 0:34:37a Canadian director was taking the genre in an entirely new direction.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48Even the mention of the name David Cronenberg,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51is enough to strike terror into the hearts of lesser mortals.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58Where better to contemplate the work of David Cronenberg than here,
0:34:58 > 0:35:03at the Canadian Academy for Erotic Inquiry, the subject of one of his early short films.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06It's not real, of course, but Cronenberg's work is replete
0:35:06 > 0:35:08with fictitious clinics and institutes
0:35:08 > 0:35:13where outlandish research results in physical and often sexual transformations.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16Perhaps it's true to say that if there was a Canadian Academy
0:35:16 > 0:35:20for Erotic Inquiry, Cronenberg would definitely be in charge.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25WOMAN: But then he tells me that...
0:35:25 > 0:35:28everything is erotic.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31That everything is sexual.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33You know what I mean?
0:35:34 > 0:35:41He tells me that even old flesh is erotic flesh.
0:35:41 > 0:35:46And disease is the love to two alien kinds of creatures for each other.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50That even dying...
0:35:51 > 0:35:53is an act of eroticism.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57That talking...
0:35:57 > 0:36:00is sexual.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03That breathing is sexual.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06That even to physically exist is sexual.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11And I believe him.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14And we make love beautifully.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21Shivers, also known as The Parasite Murders and They Came From Within,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24was Cronenberg's first full-length feature,
0:36:24 > 0:36:29and it perfectly encapsulates his abiding preoccupation with sex and body horror.
0:36:31 > 0:36:36It explores what happens to the inhabitants of a plush Montreal apartment block
0:36:36 > 0:36:40when they're infected by an outbreak of venereal parasites.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47I take a walk nearly every day.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49Oh, this is a very...
0:36:49 > 0:36:52HE RETCHES
0:36:52 > 0:36:56Oh! Oh, good heavens!
0:36:56 > 0:37:00It's fair to say that Cronenberg's cast, which included horror queen
0:37:00 > 0:37:04Barbara Steele, may not have quite realized what they were in for.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06I don't think I read the script carefully enough.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10I just thought, oh, well, that will be a nice little trip to Canada.
0:37:10 > 0:37:15Cronenberg loves bodily fluids, as we found out in subsequent movies!
0:37:15 > 0:37:19They materialise all over the place and he certainly
0:37:19 > 0:37:24pulled it off with the Parasite Murders, or Shivers, with these
0:37:24 > 0:37:29repulsive creatures coming out of the bathtub,
0:37:29 > 0:37:32and this insane kind of disgusting,
0:37:32 > 0:37:38falling apart, parasitical thing that looks like
0:37:38 > 0:37:43the crown jewels coming up towards me! I just thought, God!
0:37:43 > 0:37:46What am I doing here? This is insane!
0:38:10 > 0:38:14SHE GASPS AND SCREAMS
0:38:23 > 0:38:25Watching Shivers is a strange experience,
0:38:25 > 0:38:27as if we're observing a live experiment
0:38:27 > 0:38:30at the Canadian Academy for Erotic Inquiry.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36Cronenberg makes no real effort to get us to sympathise with his
0:38:36 > 0:38:40characters, many of whom start off as a rather bland, repressed lot.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46The effect is to make us watch with fascination as much as fear,
0:38:46 > 0:38:50as the parasites spread by releasing everyone's sexual urges.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53Make love to me. Make love to me. Let's kiss...
0:39:04 > 0:39:10He's more comfortable when filming things which were important to him,
0:39:10 > 0:39:16which were in fact of course all the parasites and all the repellent stuff.
0:39:19 > 0:39:21Alright now.
0:39:21 > 0:39:26The relentless, squelchy detail of Shivers was pioneering stuff in the mid-70s,
0:39:26 > 0:39:30easily written off as a gratuitous way of achieving shock through disgust.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41What really depresses me about that film is that it's so unhealthy.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45It's not going to corrupt anybody, but it's not going to do anybody any good.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49Its after effect is to leave you with a memory of obscene and ugly images, and who needs that?
0:39:49 > 0:39:54But Cronenberg's later films, such as Scanners and The Fly,
0:39:54 > 0:40:00show that the effect of physical and psychological transformation is an abiding theme in his work.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07He often suggests it should be accepted, rather than feared,
0:40:07 > 0:40:11perhaps like our own experience of disease and ageing.
0:40:11 > 0:40:17Of all the film-makers to emerge during this era, Cronenberg has the most intellectual agenda.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29The film ends with the parasites triumphant, free to spread
0:40:29 > 0:40:31and infect the rest of society.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49Shivers boasts a classic '70s downbeat ending.
0:40:49 > 0:40:50Or does it?
0:40:50 > 0:40:56What's particularly chilling is that Cronenberg is at best ambivalent towards the parasites.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00Perhaps his characters have been strangely liberated.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04Most horror movies have a pretty clear sense of defeat or victory.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08Few end on such a disturbingly ambiguous note.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16Remarkably, Cronenberg's full-frontal assault
0:41:16 > 0:41:19on Canadian values was partially bankrolled by
0:41:19 > 0:41:23taxpayers' money, through the National Film Development Fund.
0:41:23 > 0:41:28Questions were asked in parliament, but the fuss died down when it emerged that Shivers had become
0:41:28 > 0:41:31one of the most profitable Canadian pictures ever made.
0:41:39 > 0:41:44Back in Los Angeles, a long way from Cronenberg's wintry Montreal,
0:41:44 > 0:41:47a strange ritual is being enacted at the horror convention.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56This is a Zombie Walk, an increasingly popular phenomenon amongst
0:41:56 > 0:42:01fans who delight in dressing down and letting their inner ghoul rip.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10They're going too quickly. This is not 28 Days Later!
0:42:12 > 0:42:14He's doing it properly!
0:42:14 > 0:42:21It's hard to imagine Cronenbergian parasites or demonic children inspiring this kind of affection.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23But zombies have now become A-list monsters.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29And the turning point was in 1978, when George Romero made a second,
0:42:29 > 0:42:35ground-breaking zombie picture, Dawn of the Dead, that taught us to love the walking dead.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41I was so cowed by the things that had been written about
0:42:41 > 0:42:46Night Of The Living Dead, that for years I resisted doing another one.
0:42:46 > 0:42:50I didn't want to do another one which was just zombies in a little farmhouse.
0:42:50 > 0:42:55I thought that I needed some sort of a really central theme of the heart of it.
0:42:55 > 0:43:00And then I socially knew
0:43:00 > 0:43:02the people who developed
0:43:02 > 0:43:06this big shopping centre.
0:43:06 > 0:43:11It was the first indoor shopping mall anywhere near Pittsburgh.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14Now they're on every street corner.
0:43:14 > 0:43:20I said, oh, here's something that I can really have a little fun with!
0:43:20 > 0:43:22What the hell is it?
0:43:22 > 0:43:26Looks like a shopping centre, one of those big indoor malls.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39This was the first one of these.
0:43:39 > 0:43:46Kids, this was not the social hang out, this is not where all the teenagers went every night - yet.
0:43:47 > 0:43:54Romero's heroes take refuge in the mall, surrounded by ravenous zombies.
0:43:57 > 0:44:03The film is almost prophetic as a satire on, quite literally, mindless consumerism.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06They're still here.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08They're after us.
0:44:08 > 0:44:13- They know we're still in here. - They're after the place.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15They don't know why, they just remember.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18Remember that they want to be in here.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20What the hell are they?
0:44:20 > 0:44:23They're us, that's all.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25There's no more room in hell.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29I suppose the zombies are the ultimate consumer!
0:44:30 > 0:44:35Do they go back to the mall because it's what they have always known?
0:44:35 > 0:44:37It's their sort of Valhalla?
0:44:39 > 0:44:42Seeing them walking the corridors,
0:44:42 > 0:44:47it actually occurred to me that this is us. This really is us.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00There's something about desire.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02Zombies desire to be us.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04They desire to eat us.
0:45:04 > 0:45:12And we desire running shoes and, you know, candles that smell nice!
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Is the comedy, the satire, very important?
0:45:24 > 0:45:27I've tried to put it in there from the pop into my films.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32I think it helps soften it.
0:45:32 > 0:45:38It makes it more of a conversation between you and I.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42It's a little joke, it's like a joke before an important speech,
0:45:42 > 0:45:45you know? It says, wait a minute,
0:45:45 > 0:45:50we're friends here, you know, let's chuckle about this and not get too upset.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52And I think it's quite important.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59Lest this is all sounding too respectable, it should be observed that
0:45:59 > 0:46:03Dawn of the Dead mixes its satire with an unprecedented dose of gore.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08- It had one of the highest body counts of any film to date,
0:46:08 > 0:46:12although in fairness, most of the bodies were already dead.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20OK, when the door opens, push, push. That's it. Push.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27- You know the Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons?- Yeah, yeah.
0:46:27 > 0:46:32I think the zombies are the coyoties of monster land! They are there to be damaged.
0:46:32 > 0:46:33Say goodbye, creep.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46I don't know what forgives it, what makes it...
0:46:46 > 0:46:49they're just so sort of zlubby!
0:46:49 > 0:46:54There's a certain kind of enjoyment that comes from seeing the coyote fall of the cliff.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01But take it from me, they're still best kept at a distance.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04Oh, it's you guys!
0:47:08 > 0:47:10Not this suit! It's Armani!
0:47:14 > 0:47:18THEME FROM HALLOWEEN
0:47:25 > 0:47:28Dawn of the Dead's blend of slapstick gore and social satire
0:47:28 > 0:47:33showed just how much horror films had evolved in the 1970s.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37But the shadow of Norman Bates was about to fall across small-town
0:47:37 > 0:47:41America in a film which went right back to basics.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44Its sole aim - to scare us out of our wits.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54The final destination on my horror itinerary is the scene of the crime of Halloween.
0:47:57 > 0:48:02Made in 1978, it sees the murderous masked figure of Michael Myers stalk
0:48:02 > 0:48:06babysitters in the Midwestern town of Haddonfield, Illinois.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12It's one of the most convincing locales ever featured in a horror movie, but most of it was filmed
0:48:12 > 0:48:17by director John Carpenter in the Californian suburbs of South Pasadena.
0:48:17 > 0:48:22John, what drew you to Pasadena for a location?
0:48:22 > 0:48:24Well, if we look around,
0:48:24 > 0:48:28it's the trees, it's the houses, it's the feeling of
0:48:28 > 0:48:31the streets, it's the way the lawns are kept up...
0:48:31 > 0:48:35It feels very Middle America, to me,
0:48:35 > 0:48:38in a kind of idealised way.
0:48:38 > 0:48:43I mean, truly, there are not houses like this, it's just a beautiful area
0:48:45 > 0:48:49There's something about my youth in Halloween night,
0:48:49 > 0:48:53in the little town I grew up in in Kentucky, it's the same feeling.
0:48:53 > 0:48:55Nobody was around.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58Nobody went out.
0:48:58 > 0:49:00The bleakness is the issue.
0:49:00 > 0:49:06I wanted the empty streets, I wanted it quiet, almost like a ghost town.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14Carpenter uses the empty streets to build up a pervasive sense that
0:49:14 > 0:49:18his characters are under surveillance from a barely-glimpsed figure.
0:49:24 > 0:49:31We just didn't have any money, so you had to rely on seeing him, not seeing him, all sorts of tricks.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42- Oh, look.- Look where?
0:49:42 > 0:49:45Behind the bush.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49- I don't see anything. - The guy who drove by so fast, the one you yelled at.
0:49:49 > 0:49:51Oh, subtle, isn't he?!
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Halloween wasn't the first film to have a faceless killer
0:50:01 > 0:50:06terrorizing a bunch of teenagers, but its sheer visceral power and the
0:50:06 > 0:50:11skill of Carpenter's direction, gave it an impact and a success beyond any of its predecessors.
0:50:11 > 0:50:16More than any other film, Halloween ushered in the age of the slasher movie.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24The scariest scene in Psycho is when Arbogast comes up the stairs.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46That moment of coming out of nowhere influenced me for Halloween.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50I thought well, if you establish this guy,
0:50:50 > 0:50:52and you establish he can be anywhere, the audience
0:50:52 > 0:50:55is going to start to believe he's in any shadow.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00SHE SINGS AND WHISTLES
0:51:15 > 0:51:19It's with this increasing sense that the killer is omnipresent
0:51:19 > 0:51:21that Halloween becomes a true horror film,
0:51:21 > 0:51:25something much more than just a well-executed thriller.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29Like the Devil in The Exorcist, Michael Myers is anywhere
0:51:29 > 0:51:34and everywhere, and seems unstoppable by any physical means.
0:51:34 > 0:51:39It makes the film an immensely scary watch.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53I watched it with an audience, and I'd never heard screaming like this.
0:51:53 > 0:51:58Just out and out screaming.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15The scene after the closet scene, it's a Panavision shot,
0:52:15 > 0:52:18so she's in the foreground in the doorway, we're focused on her.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22And in the background, his body is out of focus, and he sits up.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24The place goes nuts.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41It's been a long time since I've been here.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44So this is Laurie Strode's house?
0:52:44 > 0:52:47It is, it is. Wow. We have a little shrine set up here.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50A little shrine.
0:52:50 > 0:52:57On its perfectly-timed release at Halloween in 1978, Carpenter's film became an enormous success.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01Apparently there are Halloween tours, Stab-athons...
0:53:01 > 0:53:04around this neighbourhood! How do you feel about that?
0:53:04 > 0:53:10I had no clue at the time that any of this would be taking place, because
0:53:10 > 0:53:14all I wanted to do, all we wanted to do was make a movie.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18We were young, the future was ahead of us,
0:53:18 > 0:53:21life was great, and all we cared about was getting the movie done.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23I had no idea this would happen.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30Halloween is the consummate slasher movie.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33But I'm not so enthusiastic about its legacy -
0:53:33 > 0:53:36a slew of lower quality, increasingly gory, serial killer
0:53:36 > 0:53:41outings that would overwhelm the genre for years to come.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44Like horror's equivalent of Dutch elm disease.
0:53:45 > 0:53:47One of the reasons that
0:53:47 > 0:53:54Halloween ushered in so many horror films was because it was cheap, and it made a lot of money.
0:53:54 > 0:53:59So others said, oh, great, what a great way to make some money.
0:53:59 > 0:54:05Just because I opened the door, doesn't mean that every person
0:54:05 > 0:54:10that steps through is going to take the horror film to its next plateau.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14But I could... you can blame me for anything you want to!
0:54:14 > 0:54:16I take full responsibility!
0:54:22 > 0:54:24Back at the Los Angeles horror convention,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27the zombies are having a lie-in, and I'm looking at a roll-call of
0:54:27 > 0:54:31more than half a dozen actors who've played Michael Myers
0:54:31 > 0:54:34in what's become an unkillable Halloween franchise.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39Sometimes it doesn't feel like things have moved on much
0:54:39 > 0:54:42since 1978, which for me, marks the end of the
0:54:42 > 0:54:45last sustained period of horror creativity.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49Today's directors often seem content just to follow,
0:54:49 > 0:54:53zombie-like, in the footsteps of Carpenter, Hooper and Romero.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02Yes, there have been standout single films.
0:55:02 > 0:55:09And some splendid flourishings in places like Japan, Spain and Mexico.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12But in America and Britain, too much horror seems like
0:55:12 > 0:55:16more of the same fare, spiced up with pointless torture.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19And at the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon,
0:55:19 > 0:55:21I have little appetite for it.
0:55:21 > 0:55:28I think the older you get, the more you feel your own mortality, the more your tastes shift.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31And mine have certainly shifted more towards a love of
0:55:31 > 0:55:37ghosts and spookiness and away from blood and gore,
0:55:37 > 0:55:41which as a teenager I sort of lapped up,
0:55:41 > 0:55:45for want of a better expression.
0:55:45 > 0:55:51I don't in any way impugn anyone's thrill and fun, but I'm
0:55:51 > 0:55:56very much with George Romero that without satire, without a context,
0:55:56 > 0:56:03it can be just exactly what it looks like, which is just people having their throats slit.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08Back when I was a young horror fan, it felt like a somewhat solitary existence.
0:56:08 > 0:56:15Now there's a huge, thriving horror subculture, a kind of constituency of horror.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20They're the loyal custodians of the genre, but I worry that horror cinema
0:56:20 > 0:56:23feels it no longer needs to reach out beyond them.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27And many ordinary filmgoers feel excluded from today's horror pictures.
0:56:35 > 0:56:39Making this series has reminded me that great horror
0:56:39 > 0:56:42can be highly personal and speak to a wide audience.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50And I hope I've been able to share my enthusiasm and even make some converts to the horror cause.
0:56:54 > 0:56:59After all, it's always nicer to have plenty of company in the cinema.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02Otherwise, who knows what could be lurking
0:57:02 > 0:57:05in the shadows?
0:57:05 > 0:57:08Could you help an old altar boy, Faddah?
0:57:21 > 0:57:25Just a moment, ladies and gentlemen...
0:57:27 > 0:57:31We hope that the memories of
0:57:31 > 0:57:34zombies, Leatherface,
0:57:34 > 0:57:38Michael Myers and company won't give you...
0:57:38 > 0:57:40bad dreams.
0:57:40 > 0:57:42So a word of reassurance -
0:57:44 > 0:57:46when you switch off the television,
0:57:48 > 0:57:51and the lights have been turned up,
0:57:51 > 0:57:54and you dread to look behind the curtain
0:57:54 > 0:57:59in case you see a face appear at the window, well,
0:57:59 > 0:58:05just pull yourself together and remember that, after all,
0:58:07 > 0:58:10there are such things.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21Subtitles by Red Bee Media
0:58:21 > 0:58:26E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk