A look at 8 non-horror movies made by famous horror movie directors
Genre is a funny thing, an easily thrown around marketing term that exhibitors and distributors perpetuated to easily sell their movies. But it’s a meaningless word, really. I mean, how do you define a genre? What are the rules?
Truth is, there are no rules and really, the very idea of genre probably does more harm than good when it comes to the actual men and women who work in cinema and whose aim is – or should be – to create good art. Not product, art. This is true particularly when it comes to horror. Because when a director makes a horror film and if that horror film is a hit, then he or she is chained to that genre for life.
But a good horror movie is a good movie first. Look at the iconic horror pictures. The Exorcist is a character piece about a mother trying to make sense of her daughter’s illness. The Omen is about a family man refusing to believe his child could be a bad seed. Night of the Living Dead is about how civilization breaks down internally under external pressure. Jaws is about a man confronting his fears as much as it is a geek show about a killer fish. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre…okay, well that’s about a guy in a flesh mask carving up human meat but it’s a film whose classic status rests on the fact that it’s a work of great craft and dark humor with not-to-subtle social commentary.
The point is all the people who made these great works of commercial and artistic horror are locked into horror history. But many of these auteurs also made other kinds of films that didn’t rely on torrents of gore and abstract, supernatural frissons and many of them are among their makers best works, despite the fact that most of these pictures made only a fraction of the money their gruesome counterparts made, thus dooming these artists to the “horror ghetto” forever.
Here, we look at 8 major names in horror who also made at least one non-horror film that, despite its quality, never sits high on their respective resumes, for whatever reason.
Kenny and Company (1976)
Before he shook horror up with his ballsy flying balls horror movie Phantasm in 1979, Don Coscarelli and his crew, including Reggie Bannister and A. Michael Baldwin, made his hilarious and touching little coming of age comedy. Gentle, charming and meandering indie movie that needs much more love.
Fast Company (1978)
After breaking all the rules with his 1975 medico-horror masterpiece Shivers and continuing to transgress with 1977`s Rabid, Canadian blood-slinger David Cronenberg took a sharp detour with his ultra obscure 1978 car-racing romp Fast Company. Nobody cared, but the film is ample fun and you can feel DC`s adoration for the sport shine through. Thankfully, he turned back to the macabre and bizarre with 1979`s The Brood and never looked back. Even his contemporary non-horror work is still dark and challenging and nihilistic.
Manny`s Orphans (1978)
Before Sean S. Cunningham set the course for the violent, body count slasher flick in 1980 with Friday the 13th, he made this shameless Bad News Bears rip-off that also features Ari Lehman - the first Jason - in a small role. The movie stinks however, a cheap and lifeless and mirthless bit of tone-deaf junk. The same, year Cunningham made his other brainless BNB riff, Here Comes the Tigers. This one is marginally better.
Elvis (1978)
The very same year he altered horror history with his juggernaut indie slasher Halloween, John Carpenter made one of his greatest films, this mesmerizing story of the life of The King of Rock`n`Roll. Starring a young, post-Disney Kurt Russell as Elvis, the film also marked the first film where the director and star worked together, one of the most important genre film collaborations in history.
Knightriders (1981)
After the worldwide success of Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero rolled the dice for this magnificent and totally underrated bit of oddball irreverence, a King Arthur tale re-invented with motorcycles and sheer storytelling innovation. Romero has had his share of early career dalliances with non-horror like the weird psych-comedy There`s Always Vanilla and his O.J. Simpson documentary but Knightriders is a smashing success. Shame it never found its audience.
Music of the Heart (1999)
Wes Craven parlayed his wild success in the `90s with the Scream films to make this gentle, passionate docu-drama starring Meryl Streep as the real life Roberta Guaspari, who tirelessly fought for musical education in inner-city public schools. Craven got a lot of flack from hardcore horror fans for this unorthodox (for him) picture, but it`s a lovely, well crafted picture.
The Straight Story (1999)
Though he`s not traditionally called a horror director, almost all of David Lynch`s films tread deep into the genre and have propelled and progressed the genre. But his beautiful 1999 film The Straight Story is an anomaly, a sweet, melancholy tale of ageism and brotherly love that is gently absurd but genuinely beautiful. A million miles away from Blue Velvet and Eraserhead.
Death Sentence (2007)
Not counting his recent work in the Fast and the Furious franchise, James Wan (Insidious, Saw), is primarily noted for his work in horror. His work in 2005`s Death Sentence goes generally unnoticed and it offers some of his best directorial work while also giving us a solid, fearless turn by Kevin Bacon as a man pushed well-passed the edge into violence.
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