100 Years of Horror

Ted Newson made a wonderful, lengthy documentary on the horror film with this 13 volume set narrated by the great Christopher Lee. The videos are basically divided into sub-genres within the horror film such as witches, ghosts, dinosaurs, Frankenstein, vampires, etc... In each video, the ever urbane and deadpan Lee narrates the evolution of that particular horror strand from its roots to modern times. Without a doubt the series is dedicated to older horror films from the silent era, the Universal era, the Hammer era, and the huge field of B pictures(which for some reason garnered more attention than all the others it seems). We get glimpses of old interviews with deceased stars such as Karloff, Lugosi, Chaney Jr., John Carradine, and Vincent Price, as well as interviews with living legends such as Lee himself, John Carpenter, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, and many others. An obvious flaw with the series is that it definitely seems to be under budgetary constraints. Most of the clips, if not all, come from movie trailers rather than the films themselves. Although there are 13 tapes, many of them are barely 45 minutes in length. And Lee himself uses the same catch-phrases throughout the series, thus letting us know that the producers had only a certain time with his services. This is not really a complaint, as I am glad the project was done....just an observation. There are some obvious films missing in the series(probably because they didn't have the trailers) and they are only mentioned in passing. The two that really stand out are Psycho and Night of the Living Dead. But again, overall this is a must-see for the student of the horror film and a very entertaining series as well. I can't remember ever seeing Mr. Lee so funny before as he talks about some of the films he made. One in particular line I found very amusing was when he mentioned that his only brush with film lycanthropy was The Howling II...and then he said in a very Jack Benny manner.."The less said about that the better."

I saw an edited version of this that was made into a 2 hour movie and it was super choppy and disjointed, jumping around all over the place with no flow or purpose. There were some neat clips and Lee is always great but it was pretty hard to watch overall. Maybe as a series it worked better?

Just saw the DVD, which only contains the two general episodes of this series and enjoyed it immensely. And since I'm a HUGE Abbott&Costello fan I was pleasantly surprised to see some outtakes from 'Abbott&Costello meets Frankenstein', one of their best films for sure.

But aside from that, Lee guides us through the history of horror movies using the trailers of the movies themselves. Not bad, all the exciting shots are there, but also the the very misplaced music and captions that accompanies the trailers. Silencing the music and removing the captions would have earned this otherwise wellmade documentary a 8/10, but now I think a 7 will be quite enough.

A few years ago I picked up a bargain DVD called the 100 Years of Horror. It was a 2 hour documentary about the history of horror films. It was hosted by Christopher Lee and consisted of clips and trailers from classic films, public domain films, interviews (both new and old) to tell the 100 year history of horror films. I liked it a great deal but always thought it was missing something.

It was, it was missing the rest of the 26 part series. Now Passport Video has put it all out and boy is it a treat.

This is a 26 part series that is a really good over view of horror films from the silent days until now. Its very informative, even for those who already know a great deal. One of the strengths of the series is that it puts many things with in a real context historical so you see the evolution of characters and the genre. The series does this not only through the narration but also by allowing the people who were there to speak. Christopher Lee's narration not only informs but also entertains with personal anecdotes since he has had a close association to many of the topic covered. And lets not forget that it reveals great little tidbits such as Bela Lugosi signing to be a TV horror host just weeks before his death.

No, its not perfect, the films covered tend to be those that they have footage from either because they are in public domain or because they have trailers (which are used because they are also in the public domain). Its a clever dodge and may annoy some people but at the same time it allows a good number of films from a good many studios to be covered. The interviews are for the most part very good, with some relating to the Hammer films come from the excellent Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror, which is also by the same director. Additionally we get clips from various TV shows, Climax, Thriller, Route 66, This is Your Life. Its an amazing collection of material that in a better funded documentary would probably have been left out for time constraints if nothing else.

Thats one of the real joys here-the staggering amount of material, this is 10 or so hours of reasonably in depth discussion. Certainly there is repetition, as subjects repeat in episodes we get repeated footage and bits of interviews, but at the same time the makers of this series always give you a bit of new material to chew on. For example in the episode on Bela Lugosi his son tells how Bela and Boris never really had a bad word to say about each other. In the Boris Karloff episode part of the same clip is used, but this time with addition information. Its amazing what you find in this series, I mean where else would you get an old TV appearance with Boris Karloff singing? Best of all this is a series that builds understanding the more episodes you see. Since the series is so long you really get a feeling for how the genre has grown over the years. As you watch it things that may make little sense in one episode will have a greater resonance the more episodes you watch. Comments about Karloff being in a great mood during the filming of Son of Frankenstein in one of the Frankenstein episodes because his daughter had just been born resonates at the end of the episode entirely devoted to the man when we see him playing joyfully with his little girl. Its a nice touch that would be lost had I just seen one of the episodes alone. You also get a real sense of how the tastes changed for example take the story of say Lugosi's desire to do a color version of Dracula was crushed by the studios only to have Christopher Lee rise to prominence two years after his death in a color version of the story. Its a small little bit related by Lee at the end of the Lugosi episode, but which makes much more sense if you've seen the Dracula and vampire episodes that start the series.

This is a wonderful overview of horror films to date, or at least when it was made circa 1996. Certainly the series concentrates on the years prior to 1970, but there is enough information to keep it feeling current.

Highly recommended.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the birth of horror and how it has grown up to 1996. Listening to the actors like Vincent Price, Robert De Niro and Brinke Stevens, directors like Herschell Gordon Lewis, companies like Hammer Films, and others involved in the business was entertaining and informative.

It was fascinating to see how well known characters like Frankenstein changes over the years. I didn't even know that Robert De Niro did the character in 1994. From Frankenstein and the Wolf-man, we move to Hellraiser and Michael Myers, discovering along the way how some films were meant to be a one-time deal and ended up a franchise, and why we are so fascinated with demons. And, then there are dinosaurs, from 1 Million Years BC to Jurrasic park. I love a good Godzilla movie!

Christopher Lee does a great job of narrating.