HORROR WEEK

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 411, 9 May 1947, Page 12

HORROR WEEK

T is possibly only by a miracle ] that your film critic is not a mental and physical wreck. That applies also to the Little Man. But as far as he at least is concerned, you can spare your sympathy. It was his bright idea that, in the interests of social science, we should heroically expose ourselves to the full effects of one of those Horror Weeks which the film trade periddically arranges for a section of its customers. We did the thing properly: not content with going to one shocker programme, we went to two, both in the same evening. Even reading the advertisements was bad enough for timid types like ourselves-"FIENDS TO THE LEFT OF YOU.... PHANTOMS TO THE RIGHT OF YOU.... BLOOD AND THUNDER. ... THE SCREEN’S MOST GHASTLY SHRIEK AND SHUDDER SHOW. ... CORPSES CARVED! GRAVES ROBBED! THE DEAD DESPOILED! In keeping with this theatre’s policy of frankness we warn you this is a programme of the Wild Shocker type. ... Even those who think they can take it should bring an escort, for the nights are dark, the atmosphere eerie, and tke shadows ominous, ... Leave your false teeth at home and bring ari aspirin." Fearing the worst but still resolved to suffer if need be in the cause, we set forth, our false teeth safely at home in a tumbler on the mantelpiece, our pockets bulging with aspirin, our hearts in the pits of our respective stomachs, and with a certain feeling of grudging admiration for those who could use even such a gruesome occasion as this to sell two seats instead of one (that reference to escorts). After sitting through The Beast with Five Fingers at a five o'clock session in one theatre ("It crawls like a Spider; it kills like a Cobra"), we tottered straight on to the eight o’clock session at another and saw Frankenstein Meets the Wolf-Man ("Lycanthrophy in all its Terror! Fiend of Fury battlés Night-Born Killer"), followed immediately by The Body Snatcher ("Unthinkable Realities! Unbelievable Facts Exposed! Foul Fingers Crimson with

Dead Men’s Blood!"). By the time the evening was over we should-if the advertisements were wholly reliable-have been left without a drop of cold sweat in our bodies} the blood in our veins should have been congealed solid, every hair on our heads should have been standing up like wire ("My dear, I simply can’t do a thing with it"); our eyes should have been popping out, our spinal columns should have been reduced to jelly, and we should.have been shaking like aspens every time a tramecar passed. Possibly only our iron constitutions saved us: either that or our sense of humour. But it would have been interesting if we could have extended our research into the effects of horror films to take in the case-histories of some of those lads obviously not yet in their teens, or only just, who-regardless of the Censor’s injunction that the films were all recommended for adults and Unsuitable for Children — made up a fair proportion of the audience.