It Came From Hollywood sends us this terrifying pressbook from Crown International.
Terrified is a proto-slasher (sounds cool, right?). It is a transitional movie that, just barely, embraces a few tropes of the slasher genre that would kick into gear in the 1970s. Unfortunately, it is also a half-shoestring budgeted production that Lew Landers (The Raven, The Return of the Vampire) can barely keep credible with his fear-inducing environs because the script is under-baked and wordy and ponderous; but still very interesting in its exploration of fear and the killer’s modus operandi.
Shot at the Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, and on location at a left-over Western ghost town, the sets are sparse: two small tablecloth joints for closeups and mid-shots as people are introduced and the story is set up; the Western ghost town and nearby blacked-out (as in no frills set dressing and background) cemetery where the killer prowls and young people keep winding up and run scared, a lot, with tight camerawork that chills the atmosphere; and a blacked-out car interior where the main young couple drive, back and forth, while talking a lot too, as they go to the spooky ghost town…at night…looking for someone. Then back again, looking for someone. While the nighttime scenes are effective, they are mainly used to hide the budget shortcomings, but Landers still keeps it all cool and effective.
Meanwhile, the killer, dressed in a suit and tie and wearing a knitted head mask that only shows his piercing maniacal eyes, delights in scaring people off the road and burying young guys in shallow graves while laughing and taunting them. Of course, since only one other guy in the movie wears a suit and tie, you kind of know who the crazy killer is early on. We just don’t know why he’s acting so crazy until the end.
An interesting point to make here: we tend to not give movie serials much attention when talking about the evolution of horror (or movies in general), especially slashers, but looking at the killer’s fashion sense in this movie, he reminded me of the criminal masterminds found at the center of various serials’ plots (The Crimson Ghost, Mysterious Doctor Satan), driving fear through hidden identities and evil actions. That dangerous-presenting persona resonates through to today’s pivotal menacing characters in many horror movies. Each set-piece too, where the hero (who can also be a victim) is confronted by the menace, triggering an action from fear and survival, is reminiscent of the serial chapter-play structure that was capped with the cliff hanger. Just a thought.
While the movie is more rational than an Ed Wood opus, it falls short because the dialog gets in the way. There’s just too much of it at the wrong times and then not helped much by the lengthy discussions on the psychology of fear. And yet, this movie should be seen and studied. It stands out because of its 1950s cliches (how adults and young people interact) and nascent slasher tropes that would become more nasty and gory in the following decades.
Those tropes include the fear-inducing and anonymizing black mask (The Collector, The Toolbox Murders), the slasher stomping ground (like Haddonfield, Crystal Lake, or Bates Motel) that provides the killer with a home advantage, and a victim pool of youthful people making the necessary questionable decisions to enable the deadly set-pieces. And, of course, there’s the clueless police force, mostly absent, while the killer goes about his business. One scene has the main youth couple finding the body of the cemetery caretaker (or town drunk, I wasn’t sure) and notifying the police about it. The deputy answering the call hears about the death and opines “gee, I’ll miss that old geezer.” The police eventually show up at the end, but like in your typical slasher movie, they are not key players to the action.
Terrified is not a perfect movie in many ways, but in many ways it is worthy of attention as an important transitional step between the precursors of slashers like The Leopard Man, House of Wax 3D, and even the Kharis Mummy movies, and the more slasher-likes that eventually solidified into the formula we know and love, beginning with Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween.
