A Filmmaker's Review: "100 Years of Horror" S1, E1-13 (Amazon Prime)

I absolutely love this show because it goes through the very best of old and obscure horror movies, concepts, actors and how horror films were introduced, loved and feared by all. There are some that I haven't heard of and some that I have watched mentioned, but most importantly - there is a lot to learn for someone who has spent a vast majority of their lives studying the art of horror movies both old and new. When I was studying horror, I loved to concentrate on two things: 1) how do films play on common themes of phobia between human beings and 2) how does the audience get satisfaction out of something so incredibly tragic as death, destruction and possession? Those were two questions that, in my time I wanted to answer. But, in this series it seems to answer both of those questions by reminding us of horror films gone by. Some of which the critics panned and some which they adored.

Summary and Review

The series starts off with one of the most adapted and most well-known characters from horror history: Bram Stoker's Dracula. It goes through the various approaches to the films including the copyright infringing epic "Nosferatu" (1922). It also looks in great detail at the famed Bela Lugosi's Dracula and sees exactly why it was so very successful. This was one of my favourite episodes because of the sheer depth it goes into. From Bela Lugosi to Francis Ford Coppola directing Gary Oldman. There's something still very striking about the blood-drinking vampire.

Another one of my favourite episodes were the two episodes dedicated purely to the man and his monster: Frankenstein. Episodes 3 and 4 are just about how Frankenstein lived, got its name into the industry and how different adaptations have changed the way we see the man and monster. This includes going through the great adaptation starring Boris Karloff and it runs through all the way to Kenneth Branagh's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." (1994).

In future episodes, there are in detail looks at famous adaptations of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in which we see various great moments in cinema history in which a massive spider overtakes the body of Jekyll, rendering him helpless against his own evil. A brilliant scene in an old adaptation, it is the pure personification of possession that we see later on in film history with the likes of The Exorcist and The Omen. The episodes on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde I really enjoyed because there's not many adaptations as there are for Frankenstein and Dracula and so, there's more of an in-depth look into the ones we already have though not many. Expansive research has clearly been done on this part.

After an episode on Werewolves, we get to the actors who gave us great horror films. There's one on Boris Karloff and one on Bela Lugosi. Analysing how they built their careers on horror films and what kind of characters they created, it is such a lovely detailed analysis of their expansive careers. I think it was great to mention that Lugosi was in a film directed by Ed Wood, because normally people either forget it, or want to forget it.

The episode on Ghosts was amazing. Now I love a good ghost and when this episode begins to go through these strange spectres, it immediately takes us back to a time when ghosts weren't visible and horrifying. But they were invisible, making small changes, driving the occupant insane and finally, oppressing the protagonist to lead to the climax of the film. It is pure cinematic brilliance and I think it definitely deserves some recognition.

My favourite episode is episode 10, Phantoms. Now, when I was a tiny (or tinier) being - as in a toddler probably, I was terrified of the Phantom of the Opera (1925) because it had come on TV at some point and it scared me to death. Lon Chaney is pure genius and I have come to respect, honour and appreciate his daring, strange and physically psychotic performance. Possibly one of the greatest performances of its era, Lon Chaney's "Phantom of the Opera" (1925) will always remain timeless and is immortalised in this episode of 100 Years of Horror. I normally say that you haven't watched a horror film until you've seen Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera (1925).

In the coming three episodes, we get a look at three common characters that changed the face of cinema forever. First of all it is witches. We go through what witches are, how they appeared and why they are so very important. We then get a look at demons, demonic possession and the very best of films associated past and present (oh yes, we get all the good films in that episode!) and finally, we get mutants. And from "Creature of the Black Lagoon" to other righteous characters of antagonism, I think these final three episodes of the first half of S1 do pretty well to round off our background knowledge nicely.

You should definitely check out this series if you haven't already. Narrated and hosted by the late veteran of horror, Christopher Lee - even if you are at Master's Degree level like myself - there is still a lot to learn. The best thing about this series is that it looks like it's made for anyone and everyone. There's no esoteric language, nothing that you can only understand if you've done this and that qualification. It's fun, it's dark and it's all about horror filmmaking and it's possibly one of my favourite things to absolutely binge watch over and over again.

Stay tuned for a review of S1, E14-26.