October is the month for terror, and at the Weekly Triple Feature we have you covered. Each week we’re offering up horror selections from throughout film history that range from spine-tingling to bloody, to downright hilarious. Whatever your particular flavor of horror is, you’ll find it here this month.
THIS WEEK: HAUNTED HOUSES
THE FILMS: The Amityville Horror (1979, Stuart Rosenberg), The Conjuring (2013, James Wan), House (Hausu) (1977, Nobuhiko Ôbayashi)
Of all the sub-genres of horror, the haunted house might be the most universal. We don’t all go to summer camp or have a cursed video tape we have to pass on before it kills us, but we do all live in a home. So the idea that some dark thing is around us when we’re at our most vulnerable, watching us while we sleep, is terrifying because, who knows, maybe it could happen. Maybe it is happening right now.
Haunted House horror has been around almost as long as film itself. In 1898 George Mellies directed Le Manoir du Diable (The House of the Devil), a three-minute short set in a castle complete with skeletons, flying bats, disappearing devils, and all the other spooky accoutrements we’ve come to expect in such a setting. These things were primitive then, of course. But over the years, as cinema grew out of its infancy and special effects along with it, these films have become more elaborate and, as you’ll see in our three selections, more intense.
All of this week’s films are high-octane rides into homebound terror that tell the haunted house story in their own unique way. One is over the top, while another is delicately detailed, and the last is straightforward terror. They all look different and have their own elements, but at their core, each is about doing battle with the space you feel safest in—a premise that is terrifying to ponder. That’s why this sub-genre is so great and why these three films will make you feel just a little bit uncomfortable.
The Amityville Horror, Stuart Rosenberg, 1979
Horror films do a great job of commenting on the world around them. And it’s possible that no other time inspired the genre more than 1970s America. As the ghost of Vietnam lingered, Americans lived through economic and energy crises; watched their disgraced president resign; divorced at a much higher rate; and mourned the death of the nuclear family, which took Christian morals along with it. This might sound bleak—and it was. But it led to some of the most influential horror films of all time, including The Amityville Horror.
Set in 1975, the story follows newlyweds George (James Brolin) and Kathy Lutz (Margot Kidder) as they (along with her three children from a previous marriage) start their lives together in a gorgeous Long Island home, unfazed by the realtor’s admission that one year prior the home’s previous owner murdered his family in it. But to be on the safe side, the Lutzes call upon the local priest to bless their new digs. As soon as he arrives, a disembodied voice urges him to “get out!” His health declines for the duration of the story. From there, all the things we’ve come to expect from a haunted house film begin happening: a frantic pet detects danger and is ignored; things go missing or are moved; doors open and close on their own. Of course, these minor occurrences build up, and eventually George, possessed, takes on the same murderous role as the previous homeowner.
The Amityville Horror isn’t the first haunted house film ever made, but it is one of the most iconic and sets the table for everything that follows (including the second film in this week’s triple feature). But it stands apart for two reasons: First, it’s based on a true story, which, when mentioned at the front of a horror film, plants a seed that makes all that comes next a little more terrifying (it happened to someone else, so it could happen to you!). The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, released the year the real-life Amityville murders took place, might be the first example of this phenomenon. And second, it comes at the end of a decade when Hollywood benefitted from the disintegration of the Hayes Code. Almost anything was on the table now, including religion. Some of the biggest films of those 10 years were The Exorcist and The Omen, which have heavily religious themes. The battle between heaven and hell was played out onscreen and audiences were eating it up. The Amityville Horror isn’t as overt as those films, but it’s clear that there’s a demon in the Lutzes’ home and it’s not fond of the priests and nuns who stop by.
Just eight months before this film was released, John Carpenter introduced Michael Myers to the world and ushered in the slasher era. Halloween set the tone for horror for the next decade, leaving religious overtones in the ’70s. The haunted house sub-genre hung around for a few years in films like The Changeling and Poltergeist—and even the House horror comedy franchise. But ultimately it gave way to the VHS-fueled world of serial killer gore of the 1980s (the invention of the VCR expanded its audience) and wouldn’t find a place in mainstream horror again until Paranormal Activity in 2007.
The Conjuring, James Wan, 2013
In the 2000s Hollywood rang in the new century with a relentless string of horror remakes. Using material from all over the cinematic timeline and countries around the world, American audiences were presented with generally bad reimaginings of the genre’s most beloved titles.
One of them, released in 2005, was a new version of The Amityville Horror directed by Andrew Douglas. It did a good bit of business at the box office ($65 million domestic) but was not reviewed well and fell to the bottom of star Ryan Reynolds’s résumé, right above Green Lantern. What that film hoped to be is what this week’s second film became. Director James Wan’s The Conjuring is a box office hit that’s adored by critics and moviegoers alike.
The story isn’t much different from The Amityville Horror: In 1971 a family sinks their savings into a too-good-to-be-true home that comes equipped with malevolent forces. The group soon sees and hears (and dismisses) unusual things, while one family member is gradually possessed. But where it differs from its predecessor is that it’s the mother, not the father, who falls prey to whatever’s in the house. This gives the whole thing a different tone, especially when she seeks help in the form of paranormal investigators (Ed and Lorraine Warren).
Played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, the Warrens were real-life ghost and demon hunters who worked on famous cases—including the Amityville house. In The Conjuring (which is also based on a true story), when the Warrens get involved, the film turns into a ghost hunter show you’d find on The Travel Channel. But instead of infrared cameras and fancy digital recording devices (this is supposed to be the ’70s, after all), they tie flash cameras to doorknobs and use a reel-to-reel recorder with a boom operator.
It’s details like this that make The Conjuring such a great film. Director Wan and cinematographer John Leonetti do a fantastic job of telling the story through long takes, roving cameras, and outstanding lighting. In one scene, in a bedroom shared by two sisters, one stares into the darkness behind the door and asks the other if she can see the figure there. “He’s looking right at us,” she says, her voice trembling. Is there someone in the shadows? It’s hard for the viewer to say. This kind of mind game is what made Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People from 1942 a beloved horror film. It’s also what makes The Conjuring super scary.
Watching this after The Amityville Horror is such a treat. They essentially tell the same story 30 years apart, so the beauty is in how they do it. Amityville is a real ’70s film with quick cuts, not a lot of effects, and ruggedness. Whereas The Conjuring relies on sitting inside a scene to build tension, seamless CGI to up the fright, and a level of compassion for the characters and their plight that is much needed. Overall the two are a bit like a delicious appetizer followed by the main course.
House (Hausu), Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, 1977
While the two other films in this week’s triple feature are serious, scary tales of haunted homes, House is—on its surface—a horror comedy that takes no prisoners with its maximalist approach to dark storytelling.
Set in present-day Japan, House follows Gorgeous, a young woman upset that her father is remarrying after the death of her mother, as she travels to her aunt’s home for summer vacation. Five of her friends come with her, and what happens once they arrive resembles what we’ve seen in both The Amityville Horror and The Conjuring: small occurrences are dismissed by characters, while the audience recognizes them as precursors to something bigger and more sinister. Our main tip-off is Blanche, a white cat whose eyes suddenly flash green every time something scary happens.
We learn the aunt is not quite what she seems, and these minor incidents become all-out mayhem as the house consumes its visitors one by one, an event portrayed in some of the most elaborate and fantastical ways ever put onscreen. There are floating severed heads, a piano that eats people, giants, dancing skeletons, a blood flood, and just about anything else you can think of.
The effects in this film could easily be created on a computer today. But in the mid-’70s it took a lot of compositing shots and hands-on work; it’s more Le Manoir du Diable than The Conjuring. And yet almost every frame of the film is packed to the gills with visual chaos. It’s a real feat of filmmaking, perhaps to the detriment of its themes.
Director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, who was born in Hiroshima, has said this film is about the atomic bomb, which killed many of his childhood friends. And while that incident is only mentioned briefly in the first act, the film clearly serves as a metaphor for both pre- and post-bomb life in Japan. Before arriving at the house, everything is bright and happy. But once they’ve arrived, all hell breaks loose and things get dark and terrifying, albeit hilariously.
While House was well-received by Japanese audiences upon its release, critics panned it. It didn’t reach America until 2009 when it was distributed to theaters and became beloved. Today it’s a cult hit thanks to midnight screenings and Criterion’s championing. Within 10 minutes of starting it, you’ll see why. Even though its themes are sincere and serious, it’s a party for the eyeballs and a fun palate cleanser after the previous two films in this week’s triple feature.
FURTHER READING (LISTENING, AND WATCHING):
- The Amityville Horror Part 1: The Defo Family Murders (Even the Podcast is Afraid)
- “The True Story of The Conjuring,” USA Today
- “Nobuhiko Ôbayashi and Crew on House,” (Criterion Channel)
WHERE TO WATCH: