In Search of California Gothic

I first heard the term “California Gothic” in the bonus features of the Spider Baby DVD. Jack Hill’s weird comedy horror from the 1960s fits the bill because it’s set in a creepy old house in California. But is that it? Is that all it takes for a film to be considered “California Gothic?”

I thought about other films that are set in California and set in, or at least feature, old Victorian homes, haunted houses, or otherwise creepy residences. Psycho, though initially set in Phoenix, moves the action to California early on. The motel may be modern, but that house is surely the epitome of a Gothic architectural nightmare. Psycho has a few scenes in sunny daylight, as does Spider Baby. That’s a nice contrast to the darkness of the plot, so I decided that a true California Gothic film needs at least one scene in the California sunshine.

Many movies come close but just miss the mark. The Sci-Fi classic Tarantula, despite being sci-fi, does have certain classic horror elements. But it’s set in Arizona. So close and yet so far. A lesser-known Arizona film, The Name of the Game is Kill is a classic normal-guy-meets-a-bizarre-family story, but despite a plan to move to San Francisco, he never gets there.

Over the years I have tried to take note of every movie that counts as California Gothic. There are eight of them. I wish there were more. I do consider the classic California Gothic era to have been the 1960s, but my list includes a 1950 classic, as well as a spooky 1980 movie that has too many big names attached to it to overlook. As for more modern movies, if there are any that fit the criteria, I haven’t found them.

The eight films, in chronological order:

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Ancient movie star Norma Desmond is 50 years old. (Now really, if this movie were made today, she’d be 75 at least?) Norma is not yet over the fact that she was a beautiful Hollywood star once; she thinks she still is. She also thinks she can get a young screenwriter into bed — and keep him there. Silent star Gloria Swanson was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for playing a character who could be construed as herself. She was a huge star in her younger days, and she really was 50 when this film was made. But unlike poor Norma Desmond, Swanson did become even more famous — and cemented her place in pop culture history — with this movie made in her later years. Directed by Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard is a later entry in the film noir cannon, but it’s a horror movie too.

Psycho (1960)

Phoenix office worker Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) has a boyfriend named Sam (John Gavin). Sam is divorced, and he tries to make it as a hardware store owner while paying alimony to his ex-wife. He won’t marry Marion until he has more money and can afford to support her. When $40,000 cash lands on Marion’s real estate office desk, she gets an idea… Meanwhile, in the town of Fairvale, California, a single young man (Anthony Perkins) takes care of his elderly mother while running a motel. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Homicidal (1961)

Schlockmeister William Castle’s wild corruption of Psycho. The story is entirely different, but the Psycho vibe is there, with knives, romance, and — surprises. The story involves a complicated family history and isn’t that memorable in its own right, except for that one thing… No big names in the cast, but a lot of familiar faces for classic TV watchers.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

The legendary story of the hatred between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford erupted from the making of this movie. While the origin of the real actresses’ loathing for each other is obscured by time, in the movie, the sisters they portray hate each other because of guilt, rivalry, and obligation. A car accident in which both women were injured and one (Crawford) was permanently disabled, led to guilt and a sense of obligation on the part of the other (Davis.) But the dutiful sister, Jane, resents the wheelchair-bound Blanche. Blanche in her later years is outwardly a nice and well-kempt woman, whereas Jane is a mess. Still dressing as the doll-like child star she once was, she curses and cackles her way through the movie until a big reveal, which arrives too late to help either of these women, comes crashing down.

Spider Baby (1964 and Beyond)

Filmed over 12 days in 1964 then released in 1967 or 1968, then lost, then found and rereleased (with a bonus scene) in the 1990s.. We’re all very lucky to have Spider Baby. Writer and director Jack Hill didn’t even seem to realize what he had here until he discovered a bad VHS copy in the 90s and decided to add an old cut scene and market it as a Director’s Cut on DVD. Spider Baby is a terribly weird movie about a “cursed” family and their efforts to survive. Starring Lon Chaney, Jr. (who sings the theme song!) and a young (but familiarly bald) Sid Haig, this almost-lost-forever black comedy horror has become a cult classic.

Targets (1968)

The Gothic part of this Peter Bogdanovich film is only half the story. There’s a classic old house on the set of the movie in the movie, which stars aging horror icon Byron Orlok, played by real aging horror icon Boris Karloff. While Orlok’s last film is being made, a young man in the L.A. suburbs is having a psychotic break that will lead to violence and death. The suburban nightmare in Targets is actually the better part of the movie. While it’s really not very Gothic overall, movies set in suburban California, especially in the 60s, have a very certain feel that is both cozy and anguished. It’s the feeling of realizing the American dream, and then experiencing the emptiness that comes with it.

Burnt Offerings (1976)

Bette Davis didn’t like her co-stars in this movie much better than she liked Joan Crawford. Those co-stars, English actor Oliver Reed and TV movie favorite Karen Black play a married couple who rent a summer home for themselves, their young son, and the family’s elderly, meerschaum cigarette holder-wielding aunt (Davis.) The movie was filmed at Dunsmuir House in Oakland (later Phantasm would be filmed there as well.) The old house belongs to a pair of siblings with the memorable name Allardyce (Burgess Meredith and Oscar-winner Eileen Heckart), who rent the family estate at a bargain price, in exchange for the renters providing meals for their elderly mother who lives secluded upstairs. And anyone who agrees to something like that in a movie is surely in for a bad time of it. Director Dan Curtis also directed Karen Black in the stuff of childhood nightmares, Trilogy of Terror, and created and produced the ever-popular Gothic horror soap opera, Dark Shadows.

The Fog (1980)

John Carpenter’s classic coastal horror features not only scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis but also her mom, Psycho’s Janet Leigh (the only other movie the two appeared together in was Halloween: H20 in 1998.) The Fog is filled with Halloween and other horror movie easter eggs and stars Carpenter’s wife (at that time), Adrienne Barbeau. The movie begins at nighttime on the beach, where an old captain (John Houseman) is telling a campfire ghost story to children. His story tells the audience what they need to know about the supernatural horror that is to come. Rather than being a slasher or stomach-churning body horror as some of Carpenter’s more popular films are, The Fog is a subtle ghostly revenge story in the tradition of old sea horror.

Honorable Mention: Night Tide (1961)

Another sea tale, Night Tide is not quite gothic, but it’s worthy of a mention here. Dennis Hopper, in his first starring role in a feature film, plays a sailor on leave in Santa Monica. He ventures to an amusement pier and meets a girl who plays a mermaid in a pier attraction. He’s instantly smitten, but her adopted father warns him off. The girl herself is a bit odd. She eats fish for breakfast and is overly fond of the ocean. Linda Lawson, mostly known for her television work, turns in a great performance as the mysterious femme fatale.

Originally published on scream.blog