Scary Shadows

Val Lewton.

Remember that name.

He’s considered to be in behind-the-scenes guy as an American screenwriter and producer who made a series of excellent horror films during the 1940s.

You might not know his name.

But you’ll know the movies he was involved with.

He produced several films including both Cat People films, “I walked with a Zombie” and “The Body Snatcher” which remains the more well known titles. There are others that didn’t get as much notoriety as these did. But all of the nine horror films in which he was involved with were known for one thing: a stark sense of atmosphere bleeding through the shroud of black and white footage.

He was able to create a scenes with plenty shadows and lighting, always in conflict with each other. And you can feel the unease which spreads through the background like a greater blackness. I have just re-watched the 1942 version of the film “The Cat People” which holds up so very well. Some of the brilliant use of atmosphere rarely shows the horror in its physical sense. It leaves you to use your imagination to think about the horror that lives in shadows.

There is a great scene with a pursued woman in a swimming pool in “The Cat People” as the whirling of darkness comes close to attacking her, growing more wild, disturbing. But it’s all in the mind.

This is what Lewton does best.

He doesn’t throw things at you in the movie. He has a sense of poetry which builds stronger, bringing the feeling of claustrophobia to you. And it strangles you with its closeness.

“I Walked with a Zombie” is a beautiful mood piece set in the African world of voodoo magic and ghostly images. And yet, some of the most stark scenes in the film is the portion where the lead female antagonist wielding her way through the sugar cane plantation where the weeds stand taller than she. Then she runs into the tall, gaunt voodoo figure in the outdoors field. It gives a notion of impeding doom to her.

Val Lewton worked with a ton of very intelligent directors during the time he brought to the screen these horror films: Robert Wise and Jacques Tourneur (Who also worked on another well known horror film “Night of the Demon” in which Lewton did not work on). However, Lewton did work with many good actors such as Boris Karloff.

Lewton was asked to work under certain time constraints and a very clipped budget when doing this series of movies. Every movie must run under seventy five minutes. Each film must be under the budget of $150,000. It’s a very good rule for modern day directors who run amok with their blatantly insane budgets and let string a series of awful movies that are far too expensive to make. Here the Lewton movies are made with excellent restraint. And with a considerably small amount of money, he was able to create movies that leaves an etching memory on your thoughts.

Here’s a very nice strategy in how to make money the right way. The film “I walked with the Zombie” was made at a very small $134,00 or somewhere around that area. It’s small potatoes, isn’t it? Then the movie went off to make something like $4 million which is a far wide margin. Now that’s big potatoes. You can see the difference in how much money is made here.

But it’s the exact opposite these days. Some movies are made at such a mind numbing budget like the fool director Michal Bay and his ultra-awful “Armageddon” has. Sure, it’s made plenty of dough. But they didn’t have to spend so much money on it. In fact, they could have avoided those issues. But today’s answer to making movie: throw some money into it so it’ll make some money back. Isn’t that what the politicians do when they go on their campaign runs?

So well done were Lewton’s horror movies that it was all he was known for. Lewton tried bravely to make a break from the cycle of horror movies to produce something that was considered a drama set in the World War II period. But the film did not receive the audience attention as did the horror films. Which was unfortunate.

Maybe he was able to make such a remarkable production out of nothing. This is where his horror films come in. I’m able to remember the blackness that seeps into his movies as a river of night rather than anything the new movies are able to create these days.

I’ll tell you what new movies make today… a lot of computer graphics and special effects. And very little else. Sometimes the eye candy of FX is all what carries today’s horror movies.

I miss Val Lewton.

So does Hollywood.

It was during the time of Lewton when horror movies were created with an intelligent approach, good stories and a remarkable use of back-story to create a monster that exists only in our minds. The imagination can become an effective tool when handled properly. Many modern day directors, too stupid to list here, should learn well from one of the masters of American cinema.

Lewton could charm the socks off you when you’re watching one of his films and still manage to scare you out of your wits. So I suggest renting any one of the Lewton movies tonight, and see how long you can keep the lights off while watching. It’ll be a contest of wills.

Good old Lewton. I wish there were more like him these days. But I find myself pining for the old memories of yesterday’s movies. Not a very good sign for today’s horror movies being cranked out these days. Or any movie for that matter.