John Whitehead's Commentary

I know I'm human, and if you were all these Things, you would just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This Thing doesn't want to show itself. It wants to hide inside an imitation. -- MacReady, The Thing

The great horror and science fiction monsters are considerably more than the sum of their mutilated body parts. Most of all, monsters represent repression, generally of the sexual and moral kind. In short, the horror film is a sign that the moral sources of human behavior have been either repressed or forgotten or never clearly acknowledged by the culture. This repression invariably involves the return of the repressed in a disguised form such as film monsters--creatures not bound by the laws of nature as we know them. Indeed, in times such as ours when the sense of moral distinction has faded and new evils are afoot, the proliferation of horror films and novels--as well as primetime television shows that focus on horror--is an indicator of a massive subconscious confusion.

And there are some definite subconscious themes that flow through such films. With the advance of science and technology, there is a definite threat to the very nature of what it means to be human. The 1996 photographs of a live mouse with a human ear grafted onto its back are an uneasy reminder of how far we have come. But there is a pattern reflected in the films that has roots in the culture. For instance, with the post-'60s films and especially those of the mid-'70s, the story of man's desperate attempt to preserve his masculinity in the face of sexual liberation, emerging feminism and related issues such as abortion are pushed to the forefront in horror films. The '80s films often delve into the sacrifice of the soul in the pursuit of pleasures and riches epitomized by the rise of Reaganism. And the '90s films onward are populated by ghosts and hobgoblins that follow us wherever we go and even crawl from inside our television sets to kill and maim.

These films invade our minds, drawing on a vocabulary exceeding far beyond the language of the rational. They speak to us of the fears and desires which lie buried deep within the shadows of our subconscious.

The great films of this genre, however, are things of strange and terrible beauty. And although there are many bad ones, there are also films that speak to us in ways that nothing else can.

Following are ten films that I rank as some of the best I have ever seen. To receive the full impact of what they have to offer, I suggest watching them in the dark with a good sound system. And, by all means, have someone you trust to hold onto.

The Exorcist (1973). This is a truly terrifying story of a young girl possessed by a demon. Based on the bestseller by William Peter Blatty and directed by William Friedkin, it created mass hysteria when it was released in theaters. This film, as I have written elsewhere (www.gadflyonline.com), effectively halted the death-of-God movement that emerged out of the late 1960s. Very gory and violent.

Halloween (1978). John Carpenter's low-budget horror classic is the most successful independent film of all time. A deranged maniac escapes from a mental asylum and returns to his hometown to wreak havoc. Carpenter's creepy score keeps you on the edge of your seat. This is a film that you feel more than see. Very violent.

The Shining (1980). This Stanley Kubrick film, loosely based on the Stephen King novel, focuses on a writer and his family snowbound and stranded in a huge hotel. Although they believe they're alone, they soon discover that the place is haunted by bloodthirsty ghosts. Violent and gory.

Alien (1979). Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic about an intergalactic spaceship invaded by a carnivorous alien is one of the most suspenseful films ever made. Scott does a masterful job of maintaining a tense, claustrophobic environment where the human crew is up against what seems to be an insurmountable monster. Very gory and violent.

The Thing (1982). John Carpenter's remake of the 1951 classic diverts from the original but maintains a similar storyline. A team of scientists at an arctic outpost discover that they are not alone. A spaceship buried in the ice has brought an alien presence among them. And once the alien invades their compound, it begins a steady process of first possessing and then eliminating each crew member. Very claustrophobic and an excellent foray into what it means to be human. Very violent and gory.

The Sixth Sense (1999). M. Night Shyamalan's thriller about a nine-year-old boy who communicates with the dead challenges the perception of what our existence is all about. Well written with a great plot twist at the end. Violent.

Dog Soldiers (2001). A British army squad finds refuge in a cabin in the woods, only to be besieged by beasts. Written and directed by Neil Marshall, this is the best of recent werewolf films and provides a metaphor for modern warfare. Claustrophobic with quick-paced violence. Very gory and somewhat nauseating.

Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Director Wes Craven gives us Freddy Krueger, a scarred maniac with a fingered, razor-sharp glove. A vision straight out of hell, Krueger kills teens in their dreams--and subsequently in the "real" world. This film and its sequels undermine the psychological and spiritual divide that supposedly exists between reality and the dream world. Krueger, adeptly played by Robert Englund, is the monster that won't die. Very violent and gory.

Night of the Living Dead (1968). Radiation from space experiments causes the newly dead to return to life with a great hunger for human flesh. The focus is on a small group of people trapped in a farmhouse besieged by a multitude of ghouls. This film is in a long line of revenge of nature films. Claustrophobic and so gruesome that it has turned some people into vegetarians. Violent and gory.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). When I saw this Don Siegel film as a kid, it so scared me that I couldn't sleep. Pods from outer space invade a small California town and begin taking over human bodies. Siegel's other great film, Dirty Harry (1971), and this one have similar themes--the fear that the country is being taken over, or already has been, by alien forces that look just like human beings but are intent on destroying us. Carmen Dragon's music score increases the intensity in this frightening exercise in paranoia. It spawned a very good remake in 1978. Violent. (View original theatrical trailer here.)

These films are more than a frightening foray into cinema. Indeed, they are a testament to the human spirit battling against insurmountable odds in a hostile environment. They express our repressed fears and expose us to the dark side of human nature--something so destructive that it cannot be controlled. And once it is unleashed, all hell breaks loose.

ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

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