Today’s episode of Sounds of Cinema continued this month’s Halloween theme with a look at movies about the horrors of real life. The show featured movies that were based on or inspired by true stories. Below is a recap of the films discussed on the show as well as a few additional titles.
The Amityville Horror (1979)
The phrase “based on a true story” is one of the most abused taglines in Hollywood with many films incorporating that claim into their marketing campaigns while having little or nothing to do with the facts. One of the most contentious feature films to be “based on a true story” was 1979’s The Amityville Horror. Based on the bestselling book, the film depicts the Lutz family being terrorized by evil spirits after moving into their Long Island home. The house had been the scene of a gruesome mass murder in which Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr. killed his entire family. Although the DeFeo murders were real, the claims of supernatural activity were disputed. As is to be expected, the film version of The Amityville Horror embellished the supernatural events. The dramatic license and the film’s many sequels have further obscured the truth of the matter.
Apocalypto (2006)
Mel Gibson followed The Passion of the Christ with Apocalypto. The movie takes place in ancient Mesoamerican society in which religious mania has taken over. Tribes wage war on each other and the indigenous religious leaders perform human sacrifices. A young father gets swept up in the events and must save his wife and young son. Apocalypto is a relentless action film and a brutal story of a civilization in decline. However, the film was criticized for racism and historical inaccuracy.
Caligula (1980)
Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione made a grab for mainstream Hollywood glory by producing 1980’s Caligula, a historical drama about the insane Roman emperor. The film had impressive cinematic pedigree, including lavish production values, a script written by Gore Vidal, and a cast that included Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole, and Helen Mirren. But Guccione’s bigger plan was to bridge pornography and mainstream moviemaking and Caligula included hardcore scenes that were intercut into the drama. The result was a controversial mess that was sexual and violent but also tacky and clumsy. However, the messiness of Caligula suited its subject matter and in some respects the picture was ahead of its time; it’s not too much to argue that the legacy of Caligula can be seen in HBO dramas like Rome, Deadwood, and Game of Thrones.
Cannibal! The Musical (1993)
Four years before South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone created Cannibal! The Musical. The film was a comic retelling of Alferd Packer, an American settler who was part of a prospecting party that got stranded in the Colorado wilderness in the winter of 1874. Packer was the lone survivor, having sustained himself through anthropophagy. Cannibal! The Musical put a comic spin on the grotesque elements of the story and it foreshadowed Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s later work such as the Broadway musical Book of Mormon.
Compliance (2012)
Compliance was based on real life incidents in which a caller claiming to be a police officer contacted a fast food restaurant and advised the manager to interrogate an employee. In most cases, the manager would comply and the interrogation would take a degrading turn. The film is difficult to watch but it is a well-acted and subversive piece about how we transfer responsibility to authority figures.
The Devils (1971)
The Devils was adapted from the play of the same name by John Whiting and from the nonfiction book The Devils of Loudon by Aldous Huxley. Set in 17th century France, the film tells the true story of demonic possession among a convent of nuns and the prosecution of a Catholic priest for witchcraft. The movie, directed by Ken Russell, was extreme in content and in style and it failed at the box office. In the years since, The Devils has been hailed as a masterpiece of British cinema. But despite calls for its release by film critics such as Mark Kermode and moviemakers like Guillermo del Toro, Warner Bros. refuses to make The Devils available to the public.
Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971)
In 1962 Italian filmmakers Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi made Mondo Cane. The picture was the opening salvo in a wave of mondo or “shockumentary” titles in which the filmmakers traveled to developing countries, photographed the practices of native cultures, and offered them up for first world audiences. These movies usually depicted non-Western peoples as exotic savages and Jacopetti and Prosperi were accused of exploitation and racism. In an effort to dispel that, the filmmakers produced 1971’s Goodbye Uncle Tom. The movie was a mix of documentary and feature filmmaking in which Jacopetti and Prosperi travel back in time to the antebellum American south and document the slave trade. This is mixed with contemporary portrayals of 1970s black nationalists. Although Goodbye Uncle Tom was ostensibly an attempt to disprove charges of racism, this film validated most of the criticisms of Jacopetti and Prosperi’s work. It’s a clumsy and salacious film that seems to endorse the idea of a race war. But Goodbye Uncle Tom is also fascinating as a media artifact from the early 70s that is as ambitious as it is problematic.
Helter Skelter (1976)
One of the most frequently dramatized true crime stories is the murder spree committed by Charles Manson and his followers in 1969. The first and still among the best of the Manson movies is 1976’s Helter Skelter, a made for television production which was based on the book by prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. This film dramatizes the investigation and the murder trial and it has a magnetic performance by Steve Railsback as Charles Manson. Helter Skelter was remade in 2004.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990)
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer was based on the confessions of real life serial murderer Henry Lee Lucas and his partner Ottis Toole. Originally shown at the Chicago Film Festival in 1986, Henry was quite different from any other serial killer movie released at that point. The film was a serious look at the life of a psychopath and it was shot in a grim cinema verite style. The Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings board gave Henry an X-rating for what it called an unacceptable moral tone and the film languished for years before finally getting released in 1990.
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
The Last King of Scotland takes place in Uganda during the presidency of Idi Amin. A Scottish doctor traveling through Uganda is recruited to become part of Amin’s administration but he gradually discovers that Amin is a violent and erratic tyrant. Although the doctor was a fictional character, many of the events in The Last King of Scotland were rooted in history and the film features a tremendous performance by Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin.
Open Water (2004)
Open Water was based upon the true story of vacationing scuba divers who were accidently left behind by their tour boat. The couple was never found and so the movie is a speculative drama about what might have happened. To tell the story of a husband and wife stranded in shark infested waters the filmmakers hired a scuba certified acting couple and put them in the ocean among real sharks. Like The Blair Witch Project, Open Water is an example of low budget filmmakers turning limited resources into a strength instead of a weakness.
Party Monster (2003)
Party Monster was a story of murder amid the club scene of the 1980s. Based on the memoir Disco Bloodbath by James St. James, Party Monster takes place within the Club Kids subculture which was characterized by outrageous costumes, self-conscious superficiality, and rampant drug use. Following the structure of a showbiz cautionary tale, Party Monster dramatizes the rise and fall of Michael Alig who rose to the top of the New York City club scene while his drug use spiraled out of control. Like the Club Kids themselves, Party Monster has a glittery but grotesque aesthetic that’s as fun as it is obnoxious.
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
The story of Jesus Christ has been dramatized on screen many times and in most versions the crucifixion represents the climax of the story. However, Mel Gibson’s 2004 picture The Passion of the Christ narrowed the story down to just the scourging and execution of Jesus and it featured moments of gore and torture that rivalled anything in the Saw horror series. The Passion of the Christ was lauded for its historical fidelity but the violence overwhelmed every other aspect of the film.
The Sacrament (2014)
Released in 2014, The Sacrament is a fictional film that is closely based upon the events at the Jonestown religious compound in 1978. A pair of reporters travels to a United States-based religious community that has set itself up in South America. What initially appears to be an idyllic setting is later revealed to be something else and the climax of the picture recreates the mass suicide that made Jonestown one of the most shocking stories of religious devotion gone wrong.
Witchfinder General (1968)
Witchfinder General [also known as The Conqueror Worm] was based upon the real life of Matthew Hopkins, a 17th century British witch hunter who was empowered by Parliament to prosecute sorcery. Released in 1968, this film was a transitional title in the horror genre. To this point, most horror movies were retellings of gothic stories often starring Vincent Price and they relied upon traditional Christian iconography. Witchfinder General took place in the same gothic settings as those older movies and featured Price in the title role but it had (for its time) unusually gruesome violence and cast a religious zealot as the villain. Along with George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Witchfinder General was a first step in the new direction the horror genre would take throughout the 1970s.
Zodiac (2007)
Filmmaker David Fincher has made two great serial killer movies. The first was Se7en and the other was Zodiac. The latter was a dramatization of the investigation into the Zodiac killer who terrorized San Francisco in the 1970s. This is one of the best procedural crime films ever made and it finds the drama in collecting evidence, corroborating testimony, and building a case.
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