Horror is a troubled genre; Because the emotion it names is evoked primarily through directorial skill, it requires clever but naive or superficial filmmaking. Generally speaking, type is both a marketing tool and a truism in advertising: If a menu offers a sandwich, it should include two slices of bread. But in horror movies, the footage often takes center stage, while both filmmakers and fans pay less attention to the substance. But there are happy exceptions, where the filmmakers’ observations and reflections are rich, and their unique styles result in films of beauty and depth. I’m excited to put together a few of my favorites—two ’70s classics and a fervently political zombie comedy from 2019—that deliver the shock and fun of the genre while expanding and transforming it.
you can watch video on our Instagram , or read my edited and condensed picks below.
“Ganja and Hess” (1973)
The film was directed by Bill Gunn, one of the few black directors at the time. Set in an upper-middle-class setting, the show tells the story of Dr. Hess Green, played by Duane Jones, whose assistant, played by Gunn, stabs Hess with a dagger belonging to an ancient Nigerian blood-drinking tribe. This is a play that addresses, both in style and content, the cultural contradictions faced by black Americans at the time. As a director, Gunn found a remarkable visual and dramatic style to embody these contradictions.
“The Scream” (1978)
This is a British film directed by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski. The film is centered around sound. Anthony is a sound engineer and church organist in a small town on the coast of England. He lived with his wife Rachel and they were a happy couple until the day Charles Crossley came along. Charles, who lived in the Australian outback for eighteen years, claimed to have a special gift – or curse – of being able to emit what he called a “shriek of terror” that would kill anyone who heard it. Of course, Anthony, a healthy man, could not resist the temptation. Skolimowski is having the best time of his life. He privately discovered that the story was an absolute joke and filmed it with insane enthusiasm.
“The Dead Are Not Dead” (2019)
There’s also a lot of horror in our time, and Jim Jarmusch’s 2019 film tackles these issues head-on. This is a true post-apocalyptic movie set in the present. Due to so-called “polar fracking”, the Earth has been tilted off its axis and, as a result, the daylight cycle has changed, with the result that the dead emerge from the Earth and behave like zombies from classic movies – slow, relentless and deadly.
What’s wonderful about this film is its combination of comedic detail and extreme political combativeness. It’s a rich, wacky, deadpan, hysterical film that gets weirder as it reveals more and more clearly the short-sighted and narrow-minded policies that are destroying the world.
Photo by Brittany Gleeson for The New Yorker
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