Info and Quotes From TCM's A Night At The Movies


October 3rd is going to be great!  That's when TCM is running "A Night at the Movies: Horror with Stephen King." 

The lineup looks awesome!  Interesting, all the movies currently listed are before 1936 and go back as far as 1919.  I guess A Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday the 13th just didn't rank up there for King! 

TCM will first run the documentary, then it's on to a parade of wonderful horror films.  Frankenstein, The Phantom Of The Opera, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

These are the movies TCM will be running in conjunction with the documentary, I'm including TCM's notes on the movies, because I find them helpful:
8:00 PM TCM "Night at the Movies: Horror" (2011)
9:00 PM Frankenstein (1931)  TCM offers this note: Long-censored footage, restored in 1987, enhances the impact of several key scenes, including the drowning of a little girl. Based on Mary Shelley's novel.
10:15 PM Freaks (1932)  A unique movie about a traveling sideshow and the camaraderie of its unusual performers, goaded to vengeance by cruel trapeze star Baclanova. Horror-film master Tod Browning gathered an incredible cast of real-life sideshow freaks for this bizarre and fascinating film. Severely cut in U.S. during release and banned in the U.K. for 30 years, some reissue prints are missing brief epilogue; aka NATURE'S MISTAKES. 
11:30 PM TCM "Night at the Movies: Horror" (1911)
12:30 AM Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)  Exciting, floridly cinematic version of famous story with March in Oscar-winning portrayal of tormented doctor, Hopkins superb as tantalizing Ivy. Beware of 82m. re-issue version.
  2:15 AM Mark of the Vampire (1935)  inspector Atwill, vampire expert Barrymore investigate. Beautifully done, with an incredible ending. Remake of Browning's silent LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.
  3:30 AM The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)  Somewhat stiff but still fascinating German Expressionist film about ``magician'' Caligari and hypnotic victim who carries out his evil bidding. Landmark film still impresses audiences today. Remade in 1962.
  4:45 AM Nosferatu (1922)  Early film version of Dracula is brilliantly eerie, full of imaginative touches that none of the later films quite recaptured. Schreck's vampire is also the ugliest in film history. The making of this film is dramatized in SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE. Remade in 1979.
  6:15 AM Phantom of the Opera (1925)  Classic melodrama with Chaney as the vengeful composer who lives in the catacombs under the Paris Opera House and kidnaps young Philbin as his singing protegee. Famous unmasking scene still packs a jolt, and the Bal Masque is especially impressive in two-color Technicolor. One of Chaney's finest hours. Most prints are of the 1929 reissue version, but the original is available on DVD; running times vary. Remade several times, and transformed into a Broadway musical.

Here are some of King's quotes (from dread central) 

No one really knows what makes horror work:
"The horror genre is an extremely delicate thing. You can talk to filmmakers and even psychologists who’ve studied the genre, and even they don’t understand what works or what doesn’t work. More importantly, they don’t understand why it works when it works."
It's all about the characters:
"Horror movies often work better when we have a stake in the game. The more we care about the characters, the more human they are to us, the more appealing they are to us and the more effective the horror tends to be."
The Changeling Overlooked:
"The ghost story movie that scared me the most was The Changeling with George C. Scott. I think that’s sometimes overlooked, but it’s a wonderful piece of work."
About Carrie:
"Carrie was a terrific piece of work. At the end of the movie comes, when Amy Irving kneels down to put the flowers on Carrie’s grave, a hand comes up through the grave and seizes her by the arm. The audience went to the roof, totally to the roof. It was just the most amazing reaction. And I thought, ‘We have a monster hit on our hands. Brian De Palma has done something new. He’s actually created a shock ending that shocks an audience that was ready for a horror film.’ And there were several people who did it after that."
TCM offers the following information:

Stephen King discusses how he discovered terror at the movie theater. He takes viewers on a journey through many aspects of the horror genre, including vampires, zombies, demons and ghosts. He also examines the fundamental reasons behind moviegoers' incessant craving for being frightened. Along the way, he discusses the movies that have had a real impact on his writing, including Freaks (1932), Cat People (1942), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Changeling (1980).

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