It Is Almost Halloween Time, Do Something Scary!
Thomas Scopel
September 14, 2008
It's Halloween time again. Time to do something really scary. Let me tell you what I did one year.
It was October 1991, I was able to go to a location that was very important to me. The place an unprecedented horror movie had been filmed. It was the only movie that had terrified me, thus giving me nightmares. A place where, at least some of the most important scenes of the film were shot.
In 1968, America was terrified by a movie. This wasn't a Hollywood blockbuster, nor was it even a Hollywood product. Not one Hollywood distributor would touch it, and considered to be too disturbing. It wasn't directed by an Academy Award winning director, nor was there any established actors or actresses in it. Little did they know, that this film was destined to become a cult classic. Little did they know that it would, years later, go on to become a Halloween favorite. And, they certainly didn't expect that it would be the beginning of a whole new, previously largely unexplored, genre.
This film opened in Pittsburgh, at the Fulton Theater on October 1st, 1968, as an afternoon matinee. The lack, at the time, of a movie rating system, ensured that many children would see a scary gruesome movie that they weren't accustomed to. One that would remain etched in their memories for life.
This film which cost $114,000 to make, is now in 25 languages, and grossed 12 million domestically, and 30 million internationally. In 1969, it was known as Europe's highest grossing film, and in 1999, the Library of Congress National Film Registry listed it as "Historically, culturally, or aesthetically important."
This film was a low budget black and white, which used chocolate syrup and mortician´s wax for special effects, while the wardrobe consisted of second hand clothes.
This film used locations around a town 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by the name of Evans City. This is where, on Franklin Road, the Evans City Cemetery is located. This is where the beginning film scenes were shot. This is where, I was fortunate enough to stand in the exact location, as the filmmaker had. I felt the eeriness all over again. The eeriness that, as a child, I had felt during the first time I had seen it. The eeriness that I still savored and held sacred in my memory.
I casually walked around the filming location areas including the gravel drive that leads to the cemetery. I explored the items that are still there, which was in the movie. Things such as, the bullet holes in the sign, and the, since grown over, gouged tree that had become the final part of the beginning scenes. I even took a little piece of the bark from that tree, just for my own personal posterity. All the while, I was, not only thinking the film's scenes through in my head, but was also feeling just a little bit of that terror that I had felt as a kid while viewing this film. It was a wonderful thing. Afterward, I was compelled to rush home to watch it again.
This film is a classic suspenseful horror and often shown on or around Halloween. It is a film that is now in the public domain and free to download at various websites. It has gone through many revisions from colorization to remakes, and was the beginning of George A. Romero's horror movie career.
The film,... was Night of the Living Dead.
It was October 1991, I was able to go to a location that was very important to me. The place an unprecedented horror movie had been filmed. It was the only movie that had terrified me, thus giving me nightmares. A place where, at least some of the most important scenes of the film were shot.
In 1968, America was terrified by a movie. This wasn't a Hollywood blockbuster, nor was it even a Hollywood product. Not one Hollywood distributor would touch it, and considered to be too disturbing. It wasn't directed by an Academy Award winning director, nor was there any established actors or actresses in it. Little did they know, that this film was destined to become a cult classic. Little did they know that it would, years later, go on to become a Halloween favorite. And, they certainly didn't expect that it would be the beginning of a whole new, previously largely unexplored, genre.
This film opened in Pittsburgh, at the Fulton Theater on October 1st, 1968, as an afternoon matinee. The lack, at the time, of a movie rating system, ensured that many children would see a scary gruesome movie that they weren't accustomed to. One that would remain etched in their memories for life.
This film which cost $114,000 to make, is now in 25 languages, and grossed 12 million domestically, and 30 million internationally. In 1969, it was known as Europe's highest grossing film, and in 1999, the Library of Congress National Film Registry listed it as "Historically, culturally, or aesthetically important."
This film was a low budget black and white, which used chocolate syrup and mortician´s wax for special effects, while the wardrobe consisted of second hand clothes.
This film used locations around a town 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by the name of Evans City. This is where, on Franklin Road, the Evans City Cemetery is located. This is where the beginning film scenes were shot. This is where, I was fortunate enough to stand in the exact location, as the filmmaker had. I felt the eeriness all over again. The eeriness that, as a child, I had felt during the first time I had seen it. The eeriness that I still savored and held sacred in my memory.
I casually walked around the filming location areas including the gravel drive that leads to the cemetery. I explored the items that are still there, which was in the movie. Things such as, the bullet holes in the sign, and the, since grown over, gouged tree that had become the final part of the beginning scenes. I even took a little piece of the bark from that tree, just for my own personal posterity. All the while, I was, not only thinking the film's scenes through in my head, but was also feeling just a little bit of that terror that I had felt as a kid while viewing this film. It was a wonderful thing. Afterward, I was compelled to rush home to watch it again.
This film is a classic suspenseful horror and often shown on or around Halloween. It is a film that is now in the public domain and free to download at various websites. It has gone through many revisions from colorization to remakes, and was the beginning of George A. Romero's horror movie career.
The film,... was Night of the Living Dead.