I am going
to take a different approach today in my Halloween picks.
Earlier I
wrote an essay about the legend of Sleepy Hollow and the various incarnations
of the story on the screen.
Last year
around Halloween I had seen a documentary on the Chiller Channel titled the
future of fear and I noticed some things.
I noticed
that my generation is the future of horror and that we have been inspired by
the films of the past.
Last year
after Halloween a friend of mine came into my home and I was told that no filmmaker watches the movies of the past that
other people have done and they go nowhere. He also told me that Fanboys go
nowhere.
Well I have
done some research of my own and I have found out that it is the reverse is
also true.
The Future
of the horror genre are the people that were influenced by the past.
We are the
children that have grown up with the movies of the past like the generation that
came before us.
Many of my
own heroes in the genre were influenced by the classic movies of their
childhood. They have all spoke about going to their local movie houses and
watching the films of Roger Corman, Vincent Price, Ray Harryhausen. Lucas, Spielberg,
Carpenter, Craven, and many others have cited the films of the past as the
inspirations of the movies that they have made.
Their movies
have inspired a generation of young filmmakers to make the films that they
make. I have seen many cite Jaws, Halloween and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre as the
inspiration for the films and the directions that their careers have taken.
The other
place that a filmmaker can find inspiration is in books. Many have been inspired
by Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, among others.
I have taken
a look at many of the films and Television shows that are on now and I can see where
some of the inspirations come from.
To some of us those inspirations came when we were in Elementry School with ghost stories and urban legends and folklore.
One such
series of books that was an inspiration for me was a series written in the 1980s
by Alvin Schwartz titled Scary Stories to tell in the Dark.
Scary Stories
was a series of books consisting of short stories with a strong emphasis on
Folklore and Urban Legends.
Stories like
the Hook which is by far one of the most famous urban legends which I know that
many of you have heard as well as frightening stories like the Thing and funny
stories such as The Ghost with Bloody Fingers.
Scary Stories
also features songs and games that can be played or sung at parties around Halloween
or late at night at a campout or a sleep over.
The best
part of Scary Stories to tell in the dark is the fact that the stories are accompanied
with two important elements. The first element is the inclusion of instructions
by the author on how the reader should tell these stories to their friends around
the campfires or by candlelight.
Some of the
stories have a strong emphasis on lines in the stories where the teller needs
to shout out certain words after reading the stories in a soft tone.
There are
other stories where the reader is told to pause and ask why a character screams
and then you are instructed to say “Well you would scream too if you stepped on
a nail in your bare feet.
The other
element that makes the appeal of these books also led to a controversy, which I
will allude to later on and that is the illustrations from artist Stephen
Gammell.
In my
opinion the artworks is far more frightening than the stories and are the perfect
companions to the Schwartz’s writing.
In the
series the books are separated into many different chapters such as the jump
stories, the funny stories, and the ghost stories. With the exception of the
third book the chapters are marked by the Gammell’s artwork.
The first
book the chapter marks all feature a strange ghoul wearing a hat doing various
activities that are relevant to the chapter. The second book the chapters are
all marked by a bat like creature.
As I said
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was highly popular among young readers across
the country and the sequel More Scary Stories to tell in the Dark was made and
the third Scary Stories 3 followed in 1991, both books were written by Schwartz
and featured Gammell’s illustrations.
Sadly
Schwartz passed away in 1992 I year after the publication of Scary Stories 3
bringing the series to an end.
However the
popularity of the series was an issue with PTAs and school administrators and
the book was often banned from school libraries and was one of the books most challenged
by the American Library Association for the violence and the macabre artwork.
All three of
the books were given the books on tape treatment and were read by stage actor George
S. Irving.
Recently I
was surfing around on the internet and I found some short films on YouTube that
are based on the Scary Stories to tell in the Dark series.
Many of them
feature the audio stories with Irving’s narration and Gammel’s artwork while others
feature 3d modeling.
Some of the videos are clearly ameturish but they are still entertaining.
There are
even some that are actual films featuring no narration but is a decently made
film of the film school variety as well as some animations.
Recently the
publishing company decided to release a 30th anniversary edition but
many of us that were fans of the original works are boycotting the release
because the decision was made not to include the original artwork.
The artwork
that is being included is drawn by Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate
Events artist Brett Helquist.
Personally
the original artwork should be included for the anniversary edition as the fans
of the original should have that option to have that edition as well as the
choice to show our children those works.
