Simon James
Published: 2021-07-03
Total Pages: 126
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This book is aimed at the modern fan of horror and 'weird' cinema who wants to explore the early silent films in the genre, now routinely assumed to be fit only for academics and historians, and who would appreciate some advice about how and where to begin and what to look out for. Writer Jean Besquith and psychologist Simon James offer their own distinct critical reflections on twenty films that helped to kickstart the horror movie as we know it today, arguing along the way that each one is important not because it is of historical value but because it offers something that is still great in its own right. It's entirely wrong, but unfortunately quite common, to see all films from this period as somewhat primitive first steps in a journey that would eventually lead to the evolved sophistication of modern cinema. Besquith and James argue that to approach them assuming that they are 'missing' sound, or missing anything, is to miss the point. Needless to say, no one called them silent until the technology of synchronised sound became commonplace and the era of the talkies arrived. However, far from merely adding another string to the bow of the filmmaker, the addition of sound to films diverted their energy away from the visual and on to the verbal. No genre was hit harder by this than the horror film, whose impact had always relied, and still relies, less on dialogue and straightforward narrative than any other kind of film. These silent films often feature bravura camerawork, stunning set design, and a haunting, crepuscular atmosphere of the approaching night. The grain of early silent film stock possesses a tactile quality which, rather than obfuscating the images, lends them a particular kind of definition, the ghostly but emotionally vivid quality of repressed memories bursting into the mind's eye. If you are like many horror fans, and feel that the best films often feel like dreams, then you may be pleased to discover that these films are the most compellingly dreamlike of all. In this book the authors therefore celebrate the best of the earliest weird films that were still free of the constraints of synchronised sound in the hope that they will be embraced by newer fans, not as museum pieces but as the vital, living objects they are.