A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss 2010: The American Scream. English subtitles. Субтитры к фильму на английском языке.

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In 1960, a young woman
was running away from something.

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Something that she shouldn't
have done.

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Everything would have been fine, if it
hadn't been for her choice of accommodation.

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After that, horror cinema, and taking a
shower, would never be quite the same again.

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SHE SCREAMS

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'Mother! Oh, God! Mother, blood!
Blood!'

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Psycho casts a long shadow over American horror
cinema, and not just because of its shocking set pieces.

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Its commercial and critical success
gave filmmakers permission

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to break the established rules
of storytelling.

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You fancy killing off your lead halfway
through the picture? By all means.

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Psycho promised to make the cinema a far more
dangerous place, where anything could happen.

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Mrs Bates?

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SHE SCREAMS

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'It took a few years for this promise
to be fulfilled, but when it was,

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'an explosion of American films dragged horror
kicking and screaming into the present day.

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'With their contemporary settings and
uncompromising content, they remain controversial. '

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For me, this was a new golden age
of horror cinema,

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but it also left
a rather troubling legacy.

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SHE SCREAMS

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'It's a May weekend in Los Angeles,
and I'm learning the correct way

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'to film someone stabbing you
with a large twig.

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'It's all down to getting the correct
angle for the blood splatter. '

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60 degree boil wash,
or she's had it.

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'This is a horror convention,
where fans from across America

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'have gathered for a festival of
shopping, film screenings and fancy dress.

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'Horror cinema now has a loyal
following that protects it

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'from the periodic slumps
of its earlier years.

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'More than anything else, it was
the new wave of American films

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'that emerged after the late '60s
that made this possible.

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'Thanks to their fearsome
reputation,

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'these films are often seen as only
being for hardcore horror fans.

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'But I think they deserve
a wider audience.

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'To find out why,
let's flip back to 1968,

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'when a small independent film appeared
almost completely out of nowhere

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'and put American horror
back on the map. '

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There we are, the very thing.

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'They're coming to get you,
Barbara!'

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Stop it! You're acting like a child.

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They're coming for you.

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Look! There comes one of them now.

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In Night of the Living Dead, director
George A Romero reinvented zombies

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as a non-supernatural,
thoroughly modern menace.

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I was very struck, watching it recently,
how really, really good the zombies are.

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Everything which now people do as their
standard zombie is absolutely there.

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What did you actually ask them to do
to be the living dead?

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Right from the pop, I've said,
"Just do your best dead".

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Don't do Frankenstein,
just if you were dead and weak,

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and you were having
a hard time walking,

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and just do what you'd like, and I find
that people are just so creative with it.

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Like Psycho, Night of
the Living Dead was made cheaply

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and resourcefully, shot by Romero
and a group of friends at weekends.

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But unlike Psycho, it was made
independently of the big studios.

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Free from the constraints of Hollywood, Romero
could test the limits of on-screen horror.

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We decided from the beginning that we
were gonna push the envelope a bit,

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that we weren't gonna cut away, we
were actually gonna show some of this.

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We didn't know how much, we didn't know
how much the actors would be willing to do.

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And there's a shot that I particularly
remember where this zombie has a liver.

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The thing is obviously real,
and it's squishy.

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I mean, it gave me a bit of pause.

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Then we said,
let's let it all hang out.

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But the film challenged audience
expectations in even more important ways.

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I think the biggest reason that Night
of the Living Dead was talked about

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as sort of essential American
cinema, particularly of that decade,

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was because the lead actor
was an African-American.

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And that, I have to say,
was damn near pure accident.

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Dwayne Jones was the best actor
from among our friends.

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When John Russo and I wrote the script, we
were thinking of this guy as a white guy.

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It's all right.

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But when he became an African-American,
the film became so much stronger.

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Night of the Living Dead
is raw and violent.

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But not, I think, gratuitous, because it
feels true to the era in which it was made,

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one of civil rights protests, political
assassinations and the Vietnam war.

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This is the horror film as social commentary,
a metaphor for America turning against itself,

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enhanced by Romero's satirical, but
quite convincing, fake newsreel footage.

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OK, Chief. If were surrounded by six or eight of
these things, would I stand a chance with them?

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If you have a gun, shoot 'em in the
head. That's a sure way to kill 'em.

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If you don't, get yourself a club or a torch.
Beat 'em or burn 'em. They go up pretty easy.

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We knew that there was some anger in the
film, what we were talking about mostly was

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the disintegration of the family unit and of the
communal, the community, the disintegration of community

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was what we felt. Also a bit of anger that peace and
love had not worked as well as we might have liked,

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and all of a sudden, the world
was still in the same state

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of collapse and chaos
that we'd all been trying to repair.

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Romero's zombies owe nothing
to the supernatural.

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It's suggested that this outbreak of the undead
may be the result of radioactive contamination,

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and somehow this just adds to the
film's unflinchingly bleak tone,

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in which even children turn against
their parents. No, no, no, no!

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Taking a cue from Hitchcock, Romero
is unsentimental about the fate

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of even his most
sympathetic characters.

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You! Drag that out of here
and throw it on the fire.

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Nothing down here. All right,
go ahead down and give him a hand.

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Check out the house. There's
something there, I heard a noise.

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All right, hit him in the head.
Right between the eyes.

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We were able to actually completely finish the film,
make an answer print, the first print of the film,

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and we were driving into New York,
one of my partners and I,

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and the first print of Night of the
Living Dead is in the trunk of our car,

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and on the radio along the drive, we heard
that Martin Luther King had been assassinated.

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Good shot!

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The success of Night of the Living
Dead changed the horror business model.

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It showed that low-budget, independent
films could turn a decent profit.

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'Other young directors picked up their
lightweight cameras and followed Romero's lead.

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'I've come to a Los Angeles suburb
to meet the mild-mannered gentleman

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'responsible for perhaps the most
notorious of these films.

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'He says it goes back to stories from his childhood
about infamous real life killer, Ed Gein. '

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My Wisconsin relatives would tell me
about this man,

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Ed Gein, that had been taken
into custody

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and that they found human-skin
lampshades and human-skin furniture.

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Maybe there were body parts in the
refrigerator. It seemed like THE Bogeyman.

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I had enough information
to scare the hell out of me.

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The same case inspired both Psycho and
Hooper's 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,

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which presents itself as a true story, a
kind of Crimewatch reconstruction from hell.

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There's nothing supernatural or
even science fiction about the film.

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But its characters find themselves
trapped in a backwoods America

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which seems to have been
bypassed by progress,

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a place where a family house can also be
a slaughterhouse, a place that's atavistic

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and cannibalistic.

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Before making Chainsaw,
I started really considering

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what makes horror work, based on
my experiences seeing films.

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And I found, to me,
that films set in and around death

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gave it an additional tone, because
death is the ultimate monster.

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Also, I wanted to show that the
process of death wasn't as simple

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as sticking someone with a knife,
and two frames later, they expire.

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Hello?

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The film's bogeyman is Leatherface,

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a massive, former slaughterhouse
worker forever hidden behind a mask

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made from someone's skin, and perhaps the first
iconic American horror monster since the 1940s.

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Leatherface himself, going back to the classic
monster tradition, is quite Karloff-like,

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from an initially terrifying, hulking brute,
he has moments of pathos, absolute farce.

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It's all about a very bad day.

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It's a bad day for everyone.
It's a terrible day for Leatherface.

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Leatherface keeps wondering, "Where the
hell are all these kids coming from?"

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To the point, he goes and sits by the window
and looks out, and then starts patting his face,

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because he knows his ass
is in such terrible trouble.

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This dark strain of humour came as something
of a surprise when I eventually saw the film,

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having always been
slightly scared off by the title.

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Surely one of the starkest and
most perfect in cinema history.

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And I was also surprised
by the lack of gore.

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This is a film where it's not what you see,
but what you hear, that's truly terrifying.

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EVERYBODY SCREAMING

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The sound design is so great.

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There's a pneumatic drill, almost
subliminal, sort of pounding away

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and Sally's screams become so endless
that it starts to freak you out.

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The whole thing becomes like
a genuine nightmare.

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The screams that she was making
were so real

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that you felt the sound
went into you

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and you knew it was
the sound of truth.

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Had those been fake Hollywood
screams, it would have meant nothing.

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It had to be someone that just knew
she was going to be ripped apart.

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Rest assured, gentle viewer, you don't see anyone
being ripped apart in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

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For all its reputation, this is a film about
psychological rather than physical torture,

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although the actual filming seems
to have involved a bit of both.

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The real sense of insanity came from the
fact it was 117 degrees in that house.

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The hot lights
started cooking the props.

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The cast and crew would run
to the window and heave,

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because of this nauseous odour
of dead things.

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Give me that hammer!

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That length of time, under those conditions
- everybody got a little crazy.

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They all hated me
at the end of the movie.

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I mean, there were two
wrap parties going on.

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The groups were split, and my wrap party was
sitting on the porch of the house, all by myself.

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Low budget, independent films brought
a new realism and immediacy to horror,

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taking their inspiration from television news
and documentary rather than the Gothic tradition.

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But horror was also getting
proper money behind it once more.

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The big Hollywood studios
had been rediscovering horror.

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Unlike the independents, they didn't
want to let the supernatural go.

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But even their glossiest productions
now had a fresh, contemporary edge.

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At the forefront of this new cycle of Hollywood
horror was Paramount Pictures' Rosemary's Baby.

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Released in 1968, it's the story of a young
couple who move into a New York apartment,

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unaware that their elderly
neighbours are Satanists.

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It was the first American picture by an
acclaimed European director, Roman Polanski,

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and it starred a fashionable young
actress, Mia Farrow, as Rosemary,

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sporting an equally fashionable
Vidal Sassoon haircut.

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Rosemary's Baby had
an interesting, topical subtext

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about women's independence
and control over their bodies.

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But it also served up
a classic horror climax,

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where some delicious dialogue helps Polanski get
away with not actually delivering a shock reveal.

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What have you done to it?!

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What have you done to its eyes?!

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He has his father's eyes.

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What are you talking about?
Guy's eyes are normal!

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What have you done to him,
you maniacs?!

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Satan is his father, not Guy.

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He came up from Hell and begat
a son of mortal woman.

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Hail, Satan! Hail, Satan!

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Satan is his father.

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Hail Satan indeed.

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Rosemary didn't just give birth
to the Devil's baby.

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She spawned a whole brood of films
about demonic children.

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Looking back, it's clear why this theme
may have resonated with American audiences.

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At the time, a generation gap appeared to be opening
up between the establishment and young people.

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The model clean-cut youth of America
seemed increasingly to have been replaced

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by shouting, swearing,
angry young men and women.

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It was like they'd become...
possessed.

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But who would have thought that one
of the most disturbing screen monsters

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of all time would be played by a
wholesome-looking 14 year-old called Linda Blair?

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"Tubular Bells"
by Mike Oldfield

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While Rosemary's Baby
has a sly sense of humour,

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The Exorcist takes good, evil
and religion very seriously.

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It depicts, in graphic detail, the
transformation of a loving daughter

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into a hideous,
demon-possessed creature.

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It's a tough film to watch at times,
even for hardened horror fans.

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It's burning! It's burning!

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Do something, Doctor.
Please, help her!

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Please, Mother!

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In scenes like this one, director William Friedkin
veers between an intensely physical evocation of

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the child's pain and suffering and bursts
of unexpected, foul-mouthed violence.

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All right, young lady,
let's see what...

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Keep away! The sow is mine!

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The Exorcist was one of the most
widely seen films of its time

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and its projectile vomiting and rotating heads
have become part of the lexicon of popular culture.

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But I think that lurking beneath the set pieces
is an even richer and more disturbing film.

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There's one particular set-up and
pay-off that I find very effective.

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This is Father Damien Karras, the
closest thing the film has to a hero,

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a man wrestling with his own guilt
and doubts.

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Father?

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Could you help an old altar boy?
I'm a Catholic.

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00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:19,360
'It's not until an hour of screen time later
that Karras finally meets the possessed Regan. '

220
00:21:19,395 --> 00:21:22,960
Well then, let's introduce
ourselves. I'm Damien Karras.

221
00:21:22,995 --> 00:21:26,645
And I'm the Devil!
Now, kindly undo these straps.

222
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:29,760
If you're the Devil, why not make
the straps disappear?

223
00:21:29,795 --> 00:21:32,960
That's much too vulgar
a display of power, Karras.

224
00:21:32,995 --> 00:21:37,680
Where's Regan? In here, with us.

225
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:41,960
Show me Regan and I'll loosen
one of the straps.

226
00:21:41,995 --> 00:21:44,360
Can you help an old
altar boy, Father?

227
00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:49,765
"Can you help an old
altar boy, Father?"

228
00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:54,560
For me, that simple, echoed line is
the most disturbing moment in the film.

229
00:21:54,595 --> 00:21:58,257
Perhaps because it suggests
an omnipresence of evil,

230
00:21:58,292 --> 00:22:01,920
that the Devil is always
watching us and taking notes.

231
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:07,640
Helped by some enthusiastic
endorsement from Catholics -

232
00:22:07,675 --> 00:22:10,605
after all, it's a film where
priests save the day -

233
00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:14,440
The Exorcist proved even more
successful than its makers had expected.

234
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:25,525
'Satan had cemented his position
at the head of the box office,

235
00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:31,000
'and Hollywood now felt confident enough
to put big money and big stars behind him. '

236
00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:39,920
1976 saw the arrival of what is
arguably the first horror blockbuster.

237
00:22:39,955 --> 00:22:43,205
Even though it was an American
production with American stars,

238
00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:48,200
the film boasted a fine British supporting
cast and a host of memorable British locations,

239
00:22:48,235 --> 00:22:52,680
such as this, All Saints Church in
Fulham, site of a memorable impaling.

240
00:22:52,715 --> 00:22:55,800
The film is of course
the fantastic The Omen.

241
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:03,200
"When the Jews return to Zion
and a comet rips the sky,

242
00:23:03,235 --> 00:23:07,645
"and the Holy Roman Empire rises,
then you and I must die.

243
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:12,120
"From the eternal sea, he rises,
creating armies on either shore.

244
00:23:12,155 --> 00:23:17,040
"Turning man against his brother
till man exists no more. "

245
00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:22,320
OMINOUS CHORAL MUSIC

246
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:29,405
The Omen purports to be based
on Biblical prophecy,

247
00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:33,600
but you'll struggle to find its most
famous verses in the Book of Revelation.

248
00:23:33,635 --> 00:23:36,560
They were a complete invention
by writer David Seltzer.

249
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:47,060
Digging into the Book of Revelation,
I just fell in love with the mythology,

250
00:23:47,095 --> 00:23:52,920
and the characters, and the plots, and
the preposterousness of the whole thing.

251
00:23:52,955 --> 00:23:55,520
I thought, "I'm going to do
something preposterous

252
00:23:55,555 --> 00:23:57,040
"and it's going to look real".

253
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:07,085
Seltzer uses the myth of the
Apocalypse to create a plot in which

254
00:24:07,120 --> 00:24:13,240
the American ambassador to London, played by
Gregory Peck, no less, adopts the Antichrist.

255
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:19,805
Satan has determined
to place his child

256
00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:25,720
in a position of political influence
and power in the United States.

257
00:24:25,755 --> 00:24:30,160
He uses me,
my wife, Lee Remick and me,

258
00:24:30,195 --> 00:24:34,605
as vehicles, dupes, so to speak,

259
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:38,160
and we don't know
that it's the Devil's child.

260
00:24:38,195 --> 00:24:41,137
# Happy Birthday, Dear Damien

261
00:24:41,172 --> 00:24:44,045
# Happy birthday to you! #

262
00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:46,800
How did you feel
when Gregory Peck came on board?

263
00:24:46,835 --> 00:24:49,405
Gregory Peck made the movie happen.

264
00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:55,840
Before Greg... I knew him! Before Gregory Peck -
I don't want to be one of these Hollywood assholes -

265
00:24:55,875 --> 00:25:00,360
before Gregory Peck came aboard, it was a
whole different kind of movie. It was a B-movie.

266
00:25:00,395 --> 00:25:05,440
The original cast was Charles
Bronson in the Gregory Peck role,

267
00:25:05,475 --> 00:25:09,320
playing the Ambassador
to the Court of St James.

268
00:25:09,355 --> 00:25:11,805
I don't think so!

269
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:15,840
Suddenly, Gregory Peck agreed
to do it. He was in love with it.

270
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:25,080
The fact that he brought this straight face to
it, this incredible dignity, is what made it work.

271
00:25:25,115 --> 00:25:27,485
Charles Bronson
would have made it a joke.

272
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:31,405
A supporting cast of
respectable British actors,

273
00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:36,885
including David Warner,
lent The Omen added gravitas.

274
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:41,720
Do you think a key to the film's success is the
fact that everyone plays it with a straight bat?

275
00:25:41,755 --> 00:25:44,205
Absolutely.
There was no tongue in cheek.

276
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:47,960
There was no sending up.
It was played absolutely for real.

277
00:25:47,995 --> 00:25:51,325
Peck, before one scene, just said,

278
00:25:51,360 --> 00:25:56,040
"If we can convince them
with this...

279
00:25:56,075 --> 00:25:57,937
"we all deserve Oscars".

280
00:25:57,972 --> 00:25:59,800
That's what he said.

281
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:08,160
You can see the challenge Warner and Peck
faced in this piece of textual exegesis.

282
00:26:08,195 --> 00:26:11,840
As for the rise of the Roman Empire,
scholars think that could well mean

283
00:26:11,875 --> 00:26:14,680
the formation of the Common Market,
the Treaty of Rome.

284
00:26:14,715 --> 00:26:16,885
Bit of a stretch.
Yes, well, what about this?

285
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:20,520
In Revelations, it says, "He shall
rise from the eternal sea".

286
00:26:20,555 --> 00:26:23,877
Well, that's the poem again.
"From the eternal sea he rises,

287
00:26:23,912 --> 00:26:27,165
"creating armies on either shore".
That's the beginning.

288
00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:32,640
And theologians already interpreted "the
eternal sea" as meaning the world of politics.

289
00:26:32,675 --> 00:26:36,600
The sea that constant rages
with turmoil and revolution.

290
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:42,640
So the Devil's child will rise
from the world of politics.

291
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:51,400
The Omen is all the more effective
for the fact that we never see

292
00:26:51,435 --> 00:26:54,245
anything explicitly supernatural
happen on screen,

293
00:26:54,280 --> 00:27:01,840
just a series of rather unfortunate events, such
as a nanny hanging herself at a children's party.

294
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:09,920
The reason it felt so frightening
is there was a critical mass

295
00:27:09,955 --> 00:27:14,685
and accumulation of coincidental,
horrific accidents.

296
00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:20,000
Any one of which, out of context, could
have looked like it could have happened.

297
00:27:20,035 --> 00:27:23,565
But then you began to get
the accumulation,

298
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:26,845
and you understand there was
this wave of evil coming towards

299
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:30,360
these characters that they would
ultimately not be able to escape.

300
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:37,320
The film really begins to raise its game with
the death of a priest - and former Doctor Who -

301
00:27:37,355 --> 00:27:41,160
staged here in Fulham
with an almost operatic flamboyance.

302
00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:45,765
Were you there for the spearing
of Patrick Troughton?

303
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:49,160
I was there on the day that
Patrick Troughton was speared.

304
00:27:49,195 --> 00:27:52,520
And I think, these days,
it would have all been done CGI,

305
00:27:52,555 --> 00:27:56,480
but we were just a bunch of kids
putting on a show

306
00:27:56,515 --> 00:27:59,325
with cardboard and Scotch tape.

307
00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:02,640
There was a fishing line that went
from the top of the church

308
00:28:02,675 --> 00:28:05,845
and was anchored in the ground
behind Patrick.

309
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:11,045
And on cue, it was sent
sliding down and there was just

310
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:15,160
a little wooden spear, very light,
sent sliding down that fishing line,

311
00:28:15,195 --> 00:28:17,125
and as it supposedly came through,

312
00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:20,085
it was really landing behind him,
Patrick just went...

313
00:28:20,120 --> 00:28:26,280
That's an effect that would cost
200,000 today. It cost about seven bucks.

314
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:36,280
NO-O-O-O-O!

315
00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:46,880
Of course, it could be argued that next
to The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby,

316
00:28:46,915 --> 00:28:51,240
The Omen is rather unsophisticated
fare. But it's really a different beast.

317
00:28:51,275 --> 00:28:55,485
It's a compact, highly efficient
studio thrill ride that owes more

318
00:28:55,520 --> 00:29:00,800
to the set pieces of films like Jaws than it
does to the slow-burning traditions of Val Lewton.

319
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:08,480
But what the film does share with Lewton is panache
and ingenuity, no more so than in one of the greatest

320
00:29:08,515 --> 00:29:16,040
on-screen deaths in horror cinema, staged by
director Richard Donner with startling originality.

321
00:29:16,075 --> 00:29:20,765
The way I'd written it was that the
David Warner character is bending

322
00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:27,200
down to pick up these daggers and a construction
crane carrying a huge piece of glass drops it.

323
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:33,320
And Dick put it
on a horizontal plane.

324
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:45,085
When I saw that head twirling

325
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:48,725
and I saw the dailies of it twirling
in slow motion...

326
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:52,160
I thought, "Oh, yeah. Dick is doing
something very special here!"

327
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:02,640
Do you have any idea what
happened to your severed head?

328
00:30:02,675 --> 00:30:04,760
I lost it in the divorce!

329
00:30:04,795 --> 00:30:08,840
< MARK LAUGHS

330
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:14,325
Unlike in The Exorcist,
good does not triumph in The Omen.

331
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:19,080
Excuse me, Mr President, when you're ready
to leave, your car's right over there.

332
00:30:19,115 --> 00:30:21,565
In a moment. Yes, sir.

333
00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:26,045
'At the end of the tale, Damien the
Antichrist is the last character standing.

334
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:31,960
'But in its very final shot, the film does
something highly daring for a '70s horror film.

335
00:30:31,995 --> 00:30:34,120
'It breaks the fourth wall.

336
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,600
'Does that smile mean
we're all in on the joke...

337
00:30:38,635 --> 00:30:41,840
'or that the Devil
knows we're watching?'

338
00:30:41,875 --> 00:30:43,880
But you don't believe in the Devil?

339
00:30:43,915 --> 00:30:45,765
No. No, certainly not.

340
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:48,840
I wouldn't be messing around
with stuff like this if I did!

341
00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:58,600
The figures spoke for themselves,
and Hollywood now felt able to

342
00:30:58,635 --> 00:31:04,205
embrace horror to an extent
unmatched since the 1930s.

343
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:08,205
There's a fascinating footnote
to these big studio extravaganzas.

344
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:12,520
Independent film-makers hadn't
entirely given up on the supernatural.

345
00:31:12,555 --> 00:31:14,965
One of my favourite
horror pictures of the '70s

346
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:19,200
is a little-known, low budget effort
from George Romero called Martin.

347
00:31:19,235 --> 00:31:24,440
It's a vampire film, but with
an intriguingly modern twist.

348
00:31:24,475 --> 00:31:27,445
Martin is a vampire who
looks like a teenage boy,

349
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:31,920
or possibly just a teenage boy
who thinks he's a vampire.

350
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:52,245
SHE SCREAMS

351
00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:55,605
Please don't scream.
I just want you to go to sleep.

352
00:31:55,640 --> 00:32:01,840
With no obvious supernatural powers, he
subdues his victims using drugs and violence.

353
00:32:04,360 --> 00:32:06,400
SCREAMS CONTINUE

354
00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:12,040
I didn't want to do another strictly
horror film,

355
00:32:12,075 --> 00:32:15,277
and so I initially said, well,
let's do a spoof.

356
00:32:15,312 --> 00:32:18,445
Initally that was my idea,
let's do a spoof.

357
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:24,565
A vampire who is having
problems living in the modern age.

358
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:29,880
Somewhere along the way, it came to
me that this could be quite tragic.

359
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:38,040
The film cleverly straddles
the classic supernatural

360
00:32:38,075 --> 00:32:41,280
and contemporary secular strands
of horror cinema.

361
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:44,525
Martin.

362
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:51,240
Martin is haunted by memories, or maybe
just fantasies, of a romantic, gothic past.

363
00:32:55,760 --> 00:33:02,240
But in reality he's a shy, deeply lonely
figure who struggles to communicate with women.

364
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:10,540
Uh, you must be Martin.

365
00:33:10,575 --> 00:33:14,440
Is Tada Cuda home yet?

366
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:24,045
I said, what if
this is some kid who just is...

367
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:31,800
he is attracted to women, but doesn't
know how to approach it, it's this mystery.

368
00:33:31,835 --> 00:33:36,960
How do I get there? I mean, he keeps
saying, I'd love to do the sexy stuff,

369
00:33:36,995 --> 00:33:40,365
when someone is awake.

370
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:44,765
But he feels he has to knock
them out in order to do it.

371
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:49,000
I was just trying, all across
the way, to sort of work it out.

372
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:56,605
Romero confronts head-on what other
film-makers were only prepared to imply,

373
00:33:56,640 --> 00:34:02,680
that vampirism is little different from rape, no
matter how much Martin tries to romanticise his actions.

374
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,500
Is he a fantasist who
thinks he's a vampire?

375
00:34:13,535 --> 00:34:16,165
Oh gosh, I think completely.
He is, completely.

376
00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:22,280
You have to make a decision, when you're doing a
film like that, where you want it to be ambiguous.

377
00:34:22,315 --> 00:34:26,400
But you have to make a decision, so
that you don't violate your own rules.

378
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:32,605
But while George Romero is
deconstructing traditional horror,

379
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:37,400
a Canadian director was taking the
genre in an entirely new direction.

380
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:48,525
Even the mention of the name
David Cronenberg,

381
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:51,760
is enough to strike terror into
the hearts of lesser mortals.

382
00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:58,205
Where better to contemplate the work
of David Cronenberg than here,

383
00:34:58,240 --> 00:35:03,000
at the Canadian Academy for Erotic Inquiry,
the subject of one of his early short films.

384
00:35:03,035 --> 00:35:06,160
It's not real, of course,
but Cronenberg's work is replete

385
00:35:06,195 --> 00:35:08,365
with fictitious clinics
and institutes

386
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:13,600
where outlandish research results in
physical and often sexual transformations.

387
00:35:13,635 --> 00:35:16,817
Perhaps it's true to say that
if there was a Canadian Academy

388
00:35:16,852 --> 00:35:20,000
for Erotic Inquiry, Cronenberg
would definitely be in charge.

389
00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:25,000
But then he tells me that...

390
00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:28,005
everything is erotic.

391
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:31,200
That everything is sexual.

392
00:35:31,235 --> 00:35:33,080
You know what I mean?

393
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:41,605
He tells me that even old flesh
is erotic flesh.

394
00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:46,600
And disease is the love to two alien
kinds of creatures for each other.

395
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:50,000
That even dying...

396
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:53,280
is an act of eroticism.

397
00:35:55,720 --> 00:35:57,720
That talking...

398
00:35:57,755 --> 00:36:00,285
is sexual.

399
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:03,365
That breathing is sexual.

400
00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:06,840
That even to physically exist
is sexual.

401
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:11,445
And I believe him.

402
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:14,920
And we make love beautifully.

403
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:21,840
Shivers, also known as The Parasite
Murders and They Came From Within,

404
00:36:21,875 --> 00:36:24,325
was Cronenberg's first
full-length feature,

405
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:29,320
and it perfectly encapsulates his abiding
preoccupation with sex and body horror.

406
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:36,040
It explores what happens to the inhabitants
of a plush Montreal apartment block

407
00:36:36,075 --> 00:36:40,200
when they're infected by an
outbreak of venereal parasites.

408
00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:47,360
I take a walk nearly every day.

409
00:36:47,395 --> 00:36:49,440
Oh, this is a very...

410
00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:52,365
HE RETCHES

411
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:56,725
Oh! Oh, good heavens!

412
00:36:56,760 --> 00:37:00,620
It's fair to say that Cronenberg's
cast, which included horror queen

413
00:37:00,655 --> 00:37:04,480
Barbara Steele, may not have quite
realized what they were in for.

414
00:37:04,515 --> 00:37:06,845
I don't think I read
the script carefully enough.

415
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:11,220
I just thought, oh, well, that will
be a nice little trip to Canada.

416
00:37:11,255 --> 00:37:15,560
Cronenberg loves bodily fluids,
as we found out in subsequent movies!

417
00:37:15,595 --> 00:37:19,405
They materialise all over the place
and he certainly

418
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:24,720
pulled it off with the Parasite
Murders, or Shivers, with these

419
00:37:24,755 --> 00:37:29,440
repulsive creatures coming out
of the bathtub,

420
00:37:29,475 --> 00:37:32,885
and this insane kind of disgusting,

421
00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:38,485
falling apart, parasitical
thing that looks like

422
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:43,320
the crown jewels coming up
towards me! I just thought, God!

423
00:37:43,355 --> 00:37:46,320
What am I doing here?
This is insane!

424
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:14,840
SHE GASPS AND SCREAMS

425
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:25,500
Watching Shivers is a strange
experience,

426
00:38:25,535 --> 00:38:27,927
as if we're observing
a live experiment

427
00:38:27,962 --> 00:38:30,320
at the Canadian Academy
for Erotic Inquiry.

428
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:36,780
Cronenberg makes no real effort
to get us to sympathise with his

429
00:38:36,815 --> 00:38:40,680
characters, many of whom start off
as a rather bland, repressed lot.

430
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:46,560
The effect is to make us watch
with fascination as much as fear,

431
00:38:46,595 --> 00:38:50,600
as the parasites spread by
releasing everyone's sexual urges.

432
00:38:50,635 --> 00:38:53,040
Make love to me.
Make love to me. Let's kiss...

433
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:10,125
He's more comfortable when filming
things which were important to him,

434
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:16,600
which were in fact of course all the
parasites and all the repellent stuff.

435
00:39:19,960 --> 00:39:21,925
Alright now.

436
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:26,040
The relentless, squelchy detail of Shivers
was pioneering stuff in the mid-70s,

437
00:39:26,075 --> 00:39:30,120
easily written off as a gratuitous
way of achieving shock through disgust.

438
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:41,405
What really depresses me about
that film is that it's so unhealthy.

439
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:45,085
It's not going to corrupt anybody, but
it's not going to do anybody any good.

440
00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:49,680
Its after effect is to leave you with a memory
of obscene and ugly images, and who needs that?

441
00:39:49,715 --> 00:39:54,525
But Cronenberg's later films,
such as Scanners and The Fly,

442
00:39:54,560 --> 00:40:00,160
show that the effect of physical and psychological
transformation is an abiding theme in his work.

443
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:07,280
He often suggests it should be
accepted, rather than feared,

444
00:40:07,315 --> 00:40:11,205
perhaps like our own
experience of disease and ageing.

445
00:40:11,240 --> 00:40:17,760
Of all the film-makers to emerge during this
era, Cronenberg has the most intellectual agenda.

446
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:29,640
The film ends with the parasites
triumphant, free to spread

447
00:40:29,675 --> 00:40:31,640
and infect the rest of society.

448
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:49,240
Shivers boasts a classic
'70s downbeat ending.

449
00:40:49,275 --> 00:40:50,805
Or does it?

450
00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:56,400
What's particularly chilling is that Cronenberg
is at best ambivalent towards the parasites.

451
00:40:56,435 --> 00:41:00,325
Perhaps his characters have
been strangely liberated.

452
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:04,240
Most horror movies have a pretty
clear sense of defeat or victory.

453
00:41:04,275 --> 00:41:08,480
Few end on such a disturbingly
ambiguous note.

454
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,640
Remarkably, Cronenberg's
full-frontal assault

455
00:41:16,675 --> 00:41:19,245
on Canadian values
was partially bankrolled by

456
00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:23,325
taxpayers' money, through
the National Film Development Fund.

457
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:28,200
Questions were asked in parliament, but the fuss
died down when it emerged that Shivers had become

458
00:41:28,235 --> 00:41:31,560
one of the most profitable
Canadian pictures ever made.

459
00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:44,120
Back in Los Angeles, a long way
from Cronenberg's wintry Montreal,

460
00:41:44,155 --> 00:41:47,800
a strange ritual is being enacted
at the horror convention.

461
00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:56,980
This is a Zombie Walk, an
increasingly popular phenomenon amongst

462
00:41:57,015 --> 00:42:01,800
fans who delight in dressing down
and letting their inner ghoul rip.

463
00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:10,480
They're going too quickly.
This is not 28 Days Later!

464
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:14,845
He's doing it properly!

465
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:21,360
It's hard to imagine Cronenbergian parasites or
demonic children inspiring this kind of affection.

466
00:42:21,395 --> 00:42:23,880
But zombies have now
become A-list monsters.

467
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:29,885
And the turning point was in 1978,
when George Romero made a second,

468
00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:35,400
ground-breaking zombie picture, Dawn of the
Dead, that taught us to love the walking dead.

469
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:41,205
I was so cowed by the things that
had been written about

470
00:42:41,240 --> 00:42:46,005
Night Of The Living Dead, that for
years I resisted doing another one.

471
00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:50,620
I didn't want to do another one which
was just zombies in a little farmhouse.

472
00:42:50,655 --> 00:42:55,200
I thought that I needed some sort of a
really central theme of the heart of it.

473
00:42:55,235 --> 00:42:59,097
And then I socially knew

474
00:42:59,132 --> 00:43:02,826
the people who developed

475
00:43:02,861 --> 00:43:06,485
this big shopping centre.

476
00:43:06,520 --> 00:43:11,600
It was the first indoor shopping
mall anywhere near Pittsburgh.

477
00:43:11,635 --> 00:43:14,845
Now they're on every street corner.

478
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:20,280
I said, oh, here's something that I
can really have a little fun with!

479
00:43:20,315 --> 00:43:22,045
What the hell is it?

480
00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:26,280
Looks like a shopping centre,
one of those big indoor malls.

481
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:39,485
This was the first one of these.

482
00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:46,640
Kids, this was not the social hang out, this is not where all the teenagers went every night
- yet.

483
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:54,760
Romero's heroes take refuge in the
mall, surrounded by ravenous zombies.

484
00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:03,280
The film is almost prophetic as a satire
on, quite literally, mindless consumerism.

485
00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:06,540
They're still here.

486
00:44:06,575 --> 00:44:08,405
They're after us.

487
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:13,000
They know we're still in here.
They're after the place.

488
00:44:13,035 --> 00:44:15,877
They don't know why,
they just remember.

489
00:44:15,912 --> 00:44:18,720
Remember that they
want to be in here.

490
00:44:18,755 --> 00:44:20,937
What the hell are they?

491
00:44:20,972 --> 00:44:23,085
They're us, that's all.

492
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:25,085
There's no more room in hell.

493
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:29,000
I suppose the zombies
are the ultimate consumer!

494
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:35,040
Do they go back to the mall because
it's what they have always known?

495
00:44:35,075 --> 00:44:37,920
It's their sort of Valhalla?

496
00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:42,325
Seeing them walking the corridors,

497
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:47,920
it actually occurred to me that
this is us. This really is us.

498
00:44:56,560 --> 00:45:00,120
There's something about desire.

499
00:45:00,155 --> 00:45:02,537
Zombies desire to be us.

500
00:45:02,572 --> 00:45:04,885
They desire to eat us.

501
00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:12,080
And we desire running shoes and,
you know, candles that smell nice!

502
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:24,085
Is the comedy, the satire,
very important?

503
00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:27,960
I've tried to put it in there
from the pop into my films.

504
00:45:27,995 --> 00:45:32,365
I think it helps soften it.

505
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:38,365
It makes it more of a
conversation between you and I.

506
00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:42,960
It's a little joke, it's like a joke
before an important speech,

507
00:45:42,995 --> 00:45:45,325
you know? It says, wait a minute,

508
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:50,640
we're friends here, you know, let's
chuckle about this and not get too upset.

509
00:45:50,675 --> 00:45:52,840
And I think it's quite important.

510
00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:59,720
Lest this is all sounding too
respectable, it should be observed that

511
00:45:59,755 --> 00:46:03,920
Dawn of the Dead mixes its satire
with an unprecedented dose of gore.

512
00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:09,420
It had one of the highest body
counts of any film to date,

513
00:46:09,455 --> 00:46:12,960
although in fairness, most
of the bodies were already dead.

514
00:46:16,280 --> 00:46:20,480
OK, when the door opens, push, push.
That's it. Push.

515
00:46:24,240 --> 00:46:27,605
You know the Coyote and Roadrunner
cartoons? Yeah, yeah.

516
00:46:27,640 --> 00:46:32,240
I think the zombies are the coyoties of
monster land! They are there to be damaged.

517
00:46:32,275 --> 00:46:33,960
Say goodbye, creep.

518
00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:46,120
I don't know what
forgives it, what makes it...

519
00:46:46,155 --> 00:46:49,805
they're just so sort of zlubby!

520
00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:54,400
There's a certain kind of enjoyment that
comes from seeing the coyote fall of the cliff.

521
00:46:57,480 --> 00:47:01,760
But take it from me, they're
still best kept at a distance.

522
00:47:01,795 --> 00:47:04,480
Oh, it's you guys!

523
00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:10,920
Not this suit! It's Armani!

524
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:18,160
THEME FROM HALLOWEEN

525
00:47:25,160 --> 00:47:29,360
Dawn of the Dead's blend of
slapstick gore and social satire

526
00:47:29,395 --> 00:47:33,525
showed just how much horror
films had evolved in the 1970s.

527
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:37,600
But the shadow of Norman Bates
was about to fall across small-town

528
00:47:37,635 --> 00:47:41,160
America in a film which
went right back to basics.

529
00:47:41,195 --> 00:47:44,640
Its sole aim -
to scare us out of our wits.

530
00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:54,800
The final destination on my horror itinerary
is the scene of the crime of Halloween.

531
00:47:57,240 --> 00:48:02,120
Made in 1978, it sees the murderous
masked figure of Michael Myers stalk

532
00:48:02,155 --> 00:48:06,080
babysitters in the Midwestern
town of Haddonfield, Illinois.

533
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:12,600
It's one of the most convincing locales ever
featured in a horror movie, but most of it was filmed

534
00:48:12,635 --> 00:48:17,800
by director John Carpenter in the
Californian suburbs of South Pasadena.

535
00:48:17,835 --> 00:48:22,440
John, what drew you
to Pasadena for a location?

536
00:48:22,475 --> 00:48:24,565
Well, if we look around,

537
00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:28,060
it's the trees,
it's the houses, it's the feeling of

538
00:48:28,095 --> 00:48:31,520
the streets, it's the way
the lawns are kept up...

539
00:48:31,555 --> 00:48:35,600
It feels very Middle America, to me,

540
00:48:35,635 --> 00:48:38,685
in a kind of idealised way.

541
00:48:38,720 --> 00:48:43,040
I mean, truly, there are not houses
like this, it's just a beautiful area

542
00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:49,245
There's something about my youth
in Halloween night,

543
00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:53,760
in the little town I grew up in in
Kentucky, it's the same feeling.

544
00:48:53,795 --> 00:48:55,917
Nobody was around.

545
00:48:55,952 --> 00:48:58,005
Nobody went out.

546
00:48:58,040 --> 00:49:00,405
The bleakness is the issue.

547
00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:06,440
I wanted the empty streets, I wanted
it quiet, almost like a ghost town.

548
00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:14,820
Carpenter uses the empty streets
to build up a pervasive sense that

549
00:49:14,855 --> 00:49:18,800
his characters are under surveillance
from a barely-glimpsed figure.

550
00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:31,720
We just didn't have any money, so you had to rely
on seeing him, not seeing him, all sorts of tricks.

551
00:49:40,040 --> 00:49:42,440
Oh, look. Look where?

552
00:49:42,475 --> 00:49:45,045
Behind the bush.

553
00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:49,840
I don't see anything. The guy who
drove by so fast, the one you yelled at.

554
00:49:49,875 --> 00:49:51,480
Oh, subtle, isn't he?!

555
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:01,605
Halloween wasn't the first
film to have a faceless killer

556
00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:06,005
terrorizing a bunch of teenagers,
but its sheer visceral power and the

557
00:50:06,040 --> 00:50:11,440
skill of Carpenter's direction, gave it an impact
and a success beyond any of its predecessors.

558
00:50:11,475 --> 00:50:16,760
More than any other film, Halloween
ushered in the age of the slasher movie.

559
00:50:20,520 --> 00:50:24,280
The scariest scene in Psycho is
when Arbogast comes up the stairs.

560
00:50:41,720 --> 00:50:46,160
That moment of coming out of
nowhere influenced me for Halloween.

561
00:50:46,195 --> 00:50:50,005
I thought well, if
you establish this guy,

562
00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:52,600
and you establish he can
be anywhere, the audience

563
00:50:52,635 --> 00:50:55,160
is going to start to believe
he's in any shadow.

564
00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:00,720
SHE SINGS AND WHISTLES

565
00:51:15,320 --> 00:51:19,040
It's with this increasing sense
that the killer is omnipresent

566
00:51:19,075 --> 00:51:21,565
that Halloween becomes
a true horror film,

567
00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:25,640
something much more than
just a well-executed thriller.

568
00:51:25,675 --> 00:51:30,157
Like the Devil in The Exorcist,
Michael Myers is anywhere

569
00:51:30,192 --> 00:51:34,640
and everywhere, and seems
unstoppable by any physical means.

570
00:51:34,675 --> 00:51:39,000
It makes the film
an immensely scary watch.

571
00:51:49,560 --> 00:51:53,840
I watched it with an audience, and
I'd never heard screaming like this.

572
00:51:53,875 --> 00:51:58,160
Just out and out screaming.

573
00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:15,645
The scene after the closet scene,
it's a Panavision shot,

574
00:52:15,680 --> 00:52:19,080
so she's in the foreground in the
doorway, we're focused on her.

575
00:52:19,115 --> 00:52:22,480
And in the background, his body
is out of focus, and he sits up.

576
00:52:22,515 --> 00:52:24,320
The place goes nuts.

577
00:52:39,240 --> 00:52:41,840
It's been a long time since
I've been here.

578
00:52:41,875 --> 00:52:44,365
So this is
Laurie Strode's house?

579
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:47,920
It is, it is. Wow.
We have a little shrine set up here.

580
00:52:47,955 --> 00:52:50,045
A little shrine.

581
00:52:50,080 --> 00:52:57,880
On its perfectly-timed release at Halloween in
1978, Carpenter's film became an enormous success.

582
00:52:57,915 --> 00:53:01,357
Apparently there are Halloween
tours, Stab-athons...

583
00:53:01,392 --> 00:53:04,765
around this neighbourhood!
How do you feel about that?

584
00:53:04,800 --> 00:53:10,120
I had no clue at the time that any
of this would be taking place, because

585
00:53:10,155 --> 00:53:14,600
all I wanted to do, all we
wanted to do was make a movie.

586
00:53:14,635 --> 00:53:18,045
We were young,
the future was ahead of us,

587
00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:21,520
life was great, and all we cared
about was getting the movie done.

588
00:53:21,555 --> 00:53:23,280
I had no idea this would happen.

589
00:53:26,920 --> 00:53:30,020
Halloween
is the consummate slasher movie.

590
00:53:30,055 --> 00:53:33,085
But I'm not so enthusiastic about
its legacy -

591
00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:37,160
a slew of lower quality,
increasingly gory, serial killer

592
00:53:37,195 --> 00:53:41,200
outings that would overwhelm
the genre for years to come.

593
00:53:41,235 --> 00:53:44,080
Like horror's equivalent
of Dutch elm disease.

594
00:53:45,720 --> 00:53:47,765
One of the reasons that

595
00:53:47,800 --> 00:53:54,640
Halloween ushered in so many horror films was
because it was cheap, and it made a lot of money.

596
00:53:54,675 --> 00:54:00,117
So others said, oh, great,
what a great way to make some money.

597
00:54:00,152 --> 00:54:05,525
Just because I opened the door,
doesn't mean that every person

598
00:54:05,560 --> 00:54:10,760
that steps through is going to take
the horror film to its next plateau.

599
00:54:10,795 --> 00:54:14,200
But I could... you can blame
me for anything you want to!

600
00:54:14,235 --> 00:54:16,560
I take full responsibility!

601
00:54:22,320 --> 00:54:24,525
Back at the Los Angeles
horror convention,

602
00:54:24,560 --> 00:54:27,760
the zombies are having a lie-in,
and I'm looking at a roll-call of

603
00:54:27,795 --> 00:54:31,000
more than half a dozen actors who've
played Michael Myers

604
00:54:31,035 --> 00:54:34,080
in what's become an unkillable
Halloween franchise.

605
00:54:36,480 --> 00:54:39,600
Sometimes it doesn't feel like
things have moved on much

606
00:54:39,635 --> 00:54:42,797
since 1978, which for me,
marks the end of the

607
00:54:42,832 --> 00:54:45,925
last sustained period
of horror creativity.

608
00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:49,205
Today's directors often
seem content just to follow,

609
00:54:49,240 --> 00:54:53,840
zombie-like, in the footsteps
of Carpenter, Hooper and Romero.

610
00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:02,605
Yes, there have been
standout single films.

611
00:55:02,640 --> 00:55:09,600
And some splendid flourishings in
places like Japan, Spain and Mexico.

612
00:55:09,635 --> 00:55:13,097
But in America and Britain,
too much horror seems like

613
00:55:13,132 --> 00:55:16,560
more of the same fare,
spiced up with pointless torture.

614
00:55:16,595 --> 00:55:19,240
And at the risk of sounding
like an old curmudgeon,

615
00:55:19,275 --> 00:55:21,885
I have little appetite for it.

616
00:55:21,920 --> 00:55:28,000
I think the older you get, the more you feel
your own mortality, the more your tastes shift.

617
00:55:28,035 --> 00:55:32,777
And mine have certainly shifted
more towards a love of

618
00:55:32,812 --> 00:55:37,520
ghosts and spookiness and away from
blood and gore,

619
00:55:37,555 --> 00:55:41,920
which as a teenager
I sort of lapped up,

620
00:55:41,955 --> 00:55:45,405
for want of a better expression.

621
00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:51,045
I don't in any way impugn
anyone's thrill and fun, but I'm

622
00:55:51,080 --> 00:55:56,925
very much with George Romero that
without satire, without a context,

623
00:55:56,960 --> 00:56:03,080
it can be just exactly what it looks like,
which is just people having their throats slit.

624
00:56:04,600 --> 00:56:10,140
Back when I was a young horror fan, it
felt like a somewhat solitary existence.

625
00:56:10,175 --> 00:56:15,680
Now there's a huge, thriving horror
subculture, a kind of constituency of horror.

626
00:56:15,715 --> 00:56:20,040
They're the loyal custodians of the
genre, but I worry that horror cinema

627
00:56:20,075 --> 00:56:23,085
feels it no longer needs
to reach out beyond them.

628
00:56:23,120 --> 00:56:27,320
And many ordinary filmgoers feel
excluded from today's horror pictures.

629
00:56:35,240 --> 00:56:39,080
Making this series has
reminded me that great horror

630
00:56:39,115 --> 00:56:42,920
can be highly personal
and speak to a wide audience.

631
00:56:45,440 --> 00:56:50,400
And I hope I've been able to share my enthusiasm
and even make some converts to the horror cause.

632
00:56:54,600 --> 00:56:59,160
After all, it's always nicer to
have plenty of company in the cinema.

633
00:56:59,195 --> 00:57:02,840
Otherwise, who knows
what could be lurking

634
00:57:02,875 --> 00:57:05,805
in the shadows?

635
00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:08,200
Could you help an
old altar boy, Faddah?

636
00:57:21,880 --> 00:57:25,440
Just a moment,
ladies and gentlemen...

637
00:57:27,520 --> 00:57:31,120
We hope that the memories of

638
00:57:31,155 --> 00:57:34,365
zombies, Leatherface,

639
00:57:34,400 --> 00:57:38,480
Michael Myers and company
won't give you...

640
00:57:38,515 --> 00:57:40,485
bad dreams.

641
00:57:40,520 --> 00:57:42,400
So a word of reassurance -

642
00:57:44,080 --> 00:57:46,560
when you switch off the television,

643
00:57:48,080 --> 00:57:51,045
and the lights have been turned up,

644
00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:54,805
and you dread
to look behind the curtain

645
00:57:54,840 --> 00:57:59,605
in case you see a face
appear at the window, well,

646
00:57:59,640 --> 00:58:05,600
just pull yourself together
and remember that, after all,

647
00:58:07,120 --> 00:58:10,000
there are such things.

648
00:58:17,560 --> 00:58:21,780
Subtitles by Red Bee Media

649
00:58:21,815 --> 00:58:26,000
E- mail subtitling@bbc. co. uk

 
 
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