films, page 30 of 31

The Dreams in the Witch House has never been, for me, one of Lovecraft’s better stories, though more because it reads like a first draft, with no attempt to bring the story alive for the reader. Its main idea, that the dark powers of witchcraft can be linked with the then-cutting-edge mathematics of non-Euclidean geometry, is the bit that lingers in the memory (that and the creepy witch-familiar Brown Jenkin). Stuart Gordon’s adaptation updates the science (non-Euclidean geometry becomes String Theory — to which Brian Greene’s book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, is an excellent introduction), and of course can’t help but make the story more accessible in this, his contribution to the Masters of Horror series.

Gordon’s previous Lovecraft adaptations include Reanimator, From Beyond and Dagon (actually The Shadow Over Innsmouth). Although he could be described as the most faithful adaptor of Lovecraft’s work in terms of sticking to the events described in the text, he can’t exactly be said to be the most Lovecraftian in tone. You couldn’t, for instance, imagine him adapting The Colour Out Of Space, which is the real essence of Lovecraft’s bleak cosmic horror. But Gordon obviously has fun. The camp and humorous aspects of horror are never too far away, as he himself points out in the commentary for one scene where the protagonist wakes up to find himself in Arkham University’s Restricted Reading Room with a skin-bound copy of the Necronomicon on the table in front of him… in nothing but his underwear.

It’s interesting, actually, to see how the emphasis in a horror story changes when it’s adapted to film. Some ideas that read as horrific on the page (Brown Jenkin, a rat with a human face), come out as more humorous when actually seen. (Gordon’s Brown Jenkin works for me, but more in a dream-like than scary way.) Others, though, are suddenly more horrific. The aspect of child sacrifice comes across as pretty conventional in Lovecraft’s story, but here, where we actually get to see it, is almost unbearable. Gordon says, jokingly or not, that his wife threatened to divorce him because of this aspect of his 50-minute film, and I can quite believe it.

I can’t remember why I put the original Japanese version of Godzilla on my Amazon list — it was a recommendation from either Ramsey Campbell or Mark Kermode — but I’m glad I got to see it. As ever with a cult film like this, you can think you know what it’s about without seeing it, but usually you’re wrong.

For instance, it’s generally accepted that Godzilla’s levelling of Tokyo is all about the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but what actually sparked the film off, and what resonates more with the plot, was an incident in March 1954, when the supposedly safe test of a 15-megaton bomb on Bikini Island resulted in a Japanese tuna-fishing boat being showered in radioactive dust (eventually killing one of the crew), as well as having a serious effect on the fishing industry, with whole shoals of fish being found to be highly radioactive. (There’s a contemporary 10-minute documentary about the incident on this BFI DVD.) The Japanese attitude to the bombs dropped during the war was along the lines of “let it stop with us”, and Godzilla is all about the unlooked-for effects of continued experimentation with A- and H-bombs rather than their initial use.

Compared to the US monster movies of the period, Godzilla presents a far darker and more thoughtful exploration of its themes. Of the two scientists in the film, Doctor Yamane (played by Takashi Shimura, direct from finishing Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai) represents the old world of science-for-science’s sake, and although this blinds him to the danger they’re in (he wants the monster to be studied, not killed), Shimura’s acting keeps you sympathetic with the role, as he goes around shellshocked and depressed by, but unable to face, the horror that has been unleashed. The younger Doctor Serizawa, meanwhile, has in his researches discovered how to create an Oxygen Destroyer — the perfect weapon to use against the amphibious Godzilla — but at first hides it away, afraid that once it is known about, it will be used on people next.

Despite Godzilla’s (apparent) death, the film ends on a gloomy note. As pointed out in the interesting commentary, Doctor Yamane’s final remark, that if atomic testing continues there could well be more Godzillas, would be interpreted nowadays as simply leaving the door ajar for a sequel, but at the time was meant seriously as the film’s warning of very real dangers to come should the world continue to play with such powerful but little-understood forces.

The first 18-rated film I saw was Alien. I’d been dying to see it ever since seeing its poster on display at the old East Grinstead cinema. A glowing green egg, and the words “In space no one can hear you scream”. It seemed like the perfect recipe for an SF movie, and the fact that they didn’t show the alien on the poster just made me all the more keen to see it. (I have a real hunger for monsters.)

Unfortunately, I was only 8 years old at the time. I couldn’t believe I had 10 years to wait. At one point it came on TV. I savoured reading the article in the TV Times that said even the film’s writer had nightmares about his creation, but my Mum wouldn’t let me watch it for that very reason. Another time, I walked into a model shop in Croydon and was amazed to see they had an action figure of the alien. How could that be? Surely the appearance of the alien ought to be some closely-guarded secret? I was disappointed to find the alien had a basically human shape, but managed to convince myself they’d altered it for the action figure; the real alien in the film would be something much stranger, less human…

And then finally I got my chance to see it. My brother and I were on holiday with my Dad in Scotland. We were visiting some people Dad knew who lived in a large country house (which I for some reason insist on remembering as being a castle, but that can’t be right). Someone there had a video of Alien. My chance to see it at last.

One thing marred that first viewing. Halfway through, the VCR was commandeered by a mum whose young boy just wouldn’t go to bed without watching his favourite video. So, shortly after the alien actually got on board Nostromo, we had an intermission of The Little Donkey, which sort of broke the mood a bit. Then it was back to the film. I can’t remember if I was disappointed to finally see the alien itself, but having subsequently watched the film countless times, I can’t believe I was. What I do remember is, having watched what must be the scariest film I’ve ever seen (bar The Sixth Sense, I suppose), was that we then had to go to bed, and our beds were not in the large country house itself, but in a building a short walk away. Nothing to worry about, surely. We said our goodnights, then left the building… And found ourselves in absolute darkness. That must have been the first time I realised that out in the country, when it’s dark, it’s dark.