The Morbid Imagination

Upon the passing of Dennis Hopper, I spent a while on Youtube running some of my favorite Dennis Hopper moments. The brilliant monologue with Christopher Walken in True Romance, the campfire scene from Easy Rider and about 10 terrifying moments from Blue Velvet. Amazing.

I had previously spotlighted one of Hopper’s early movies, Night Tide. Check out my review and check out the movie. A fine, understated movie with a fine understated performance from one of America’s best actors.

Sadly, we have regressed to a society where list-making substitutes for real writing, where entire magazines are nothing more than pictures, lists, and five paragraph “articles.” A lot of “Best” lists are generated with rigged, questionable choices designed to generate controversy and attention.

But one list that I have no qualms about is Bravo’s “100 Scariest Movie Moments.” It’s an excellent, well considered list with top-notch commentary from a lot of interesting people. I don’t have any complaints about any of the movies that are included on the list and I commend Bravo for having mixed artsy, more obscure choices with obvious, popular moments.

I’ve trimmed the list down to ten of my favorite moments that artfully scare:

10. (97) Cat People (1942) – The pool scene, a masterpiece that should be taught in film school…

9. (49) Les Diabolique (1955) – The final shock that kills Christina…

8. (15) Freaks – The final scene, in the rain, with the freaks crawling and hopping, amazing that it was made in the 1930s…

7. (38) Peeping Tom – A movie so disturbing that it ruined the career of the director…

6. (84) Blue Velvet – Where do I start? One disturbing scene after another…

5. (26) Seven – The guy on the bed…

4. (45) The Wicker Man (1973)- A skillful build to a horrifying ending made more believable by Edward Woodward’s performance…

3. (55) The Vanishing (1988) - I saw the end coming, but it still creeped me out…

2. (11) Audition – The scenes in her apartment, the guy in the bag…

1. (5) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) – The greatest horror movie ever made…

What all of these moments have in common is that they aren’t merely well crafted shocks or jolts, they are culminating or key moments in deeply involving stories. Some of them are dislocating endings that leave you walking out of the theater in a daze. It’s the implications and the dawning awareness of greater horrors that make more than a momentary impact. These are moments that linger…

…who doesn’t love a shiver of remembered horror?

Night Tide

Written and directed by Curtis Harrington, Night Tide proves that, even on a Roger Corman level budget, quality writing, solid acting, and restrained direction can yield superior results.

Dennis Hopper plays a sailor on leave who falls in love with girl who works in a waterfront side show and who may or may not be a mermaid. The mysterious Mora (Linda Lawson) is suspected in the deaths of two of her previous suitors but Hopper pursues her in spite of the warnings of everyone around him.

Night Tide is a quiet movie that progresses at a measured pace, sustaining an atmosphere of unease with only half-hearted efforts at shock (the rubber octopus in a dream sequence doesn’t work any better than the rubber octopus in Bride of the Atom). Best of all, the movie resolves itself believably in a way that reinforces the underlying human tragedy.

Harrington had art movie cred; he had worked with Kenneth Anger and had produced several avant garde shorts prior to this, his feature directorial debut. Night Tide is clearly a nod to Val Lewton’s Cat People (1942) and it has much of the same quiet power as that masterpiece. Like Cat People, Night Tide draws its tension and tragedy from the vulnerability of lonely people reaching out to each other, heedless of warnings of imminent doom. Sometimes, the best love stories are tragic, and sometimes the best chills spring from pathos.

“I still think the Val Lewton approach is the best one, and that is the power of suggestion. What you don’t see is more unsettling than what you do see.”
Curtis Harrington