Contamination Playlist
Contamination
Why Contamination? When people ask you what you’re interests are, and you mention horror films, you still get those disdainful looks, even after decades of academic writing about the subject. In his book 'Horror' Mark Jancovich writes about the language used to describe the horror and porn genres as one of disease and contamination; sick, perverted and corrupt - this remains the prevailing attitude.
I also consider the genre to be contaminated, not by perversion and sickness, but by something far worse; blandness and a lack of originality. It’s not the first time however, the genre has always gone through periods of inspiration followed by remakes and parody, and I'm sure there are classics still waiting to be made. After all, film is a relatively young art-form, and the horror film is even younger.
Technically, the horror film has only existed since the 1930’s and the first wave of classic Universal monster movies. These led to sequels, then parodies in the form of Abbott and Costello. The remakes came from England with Hammer films in the 1950’s; concurrently a gothic revival was taking place in Italy too. Hammer films folded in the early 70’s; a time when the US independents were instigating the new rules, but British horror continued with the likes of Pete Walker and Norman J Warren. Meanwhile Italian horror went from strength to strength with a multitude of gialli, then films inspired by 1970’s US horror entries, today's filmmakers draw on the same influences. A lot has happened within 75 years or so, and one often gets the impression that it's all happened, and we're doomed to watch sequels and remakes ad infinitum. Happily something will always turn up to prove you wrong, you just need a little patience. Oh, CONTAMINATION is also the name of a great Sci-fi/horror movie by Italian director Luigi Cozzi.
