Boris Karloff Puns

Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel was 92 when the 1910 silent film premiered (in two years the Karloff version will hit that mark) Frankenstein 1910 was considered lost for most of its existence. You can watch the rediscovered, restored version here Frankenstein 1910

For me I have to go with the original Dracula with Bela Lugosi. The movie has such an eerie feeling to it that I can totally understand how anyone back in the day would be scared of it

https://preview.redd.it/b8dt62y8daa81.jpg?width=715&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56b67fdd11476cd2b34c03ad771da495eb6d17b5

Peter Bogdanovich, an auteur that emerged during the American New Wave, impresses with his debut film Targets in 1968. The film holds a dual focus; a lament for Hollywood’s golden age as the classic era of gothic horror shambled to its coffin, while also capturing the real world horrors of the decade - assassinations, unchecked PTSD from the Vietnam War and the restless disillusionment of the younger generation.

Horror legend Boris Karloff plays Byron Orlok in what is a semi-autobiographical role. Following a test screening of The Terror, a real Karloff vehicle that also starred Dick Miller and a very young Jack Nicholson, Orlok abruptly announces his retirement from the business. He has become disheartened in his old age. The job has lost its joy. Why bother making gothic horror anymore, he digresses, when the modern idea of terror is what headlines the news each morning; another day, another violent shooting. On the other side of town, another plot-line begins to lock and load. Young Bobby Thompson seems to live a perfectly ordinary life. Good home, loving wife, nice family. But behind that quiet honest face is a ticking time bomb. Bobby eventually snaps and begins a wild round of GTA, starting with his family and then heading out to the unsuspecting public. The two stories eventually intertwine for the movie’s nail-biting climax at a drive-in theatre, where Bobby intends to wreak havoc at Byron Orlok’s final appearance.

Targets may not be a conventional horror by the usual standards, but indeed, is that not the point? The late 60s were brimming with unrest. Ghostly goblins and gobbling ghosts weren’t going to cut it anymore. Tragically, the concept of the film was inspired by true events, namely the mass murderer Charles Whitman and his 1966 assault on the University of Texas. Orlok seems to have a point. When you’re bombarded with the horrors of reality on a constant basis, stories of crumbling old spooky castles appear all the more fake, a strange fantasy.

However, fantasy plays an important role in Targets. Bobby’s seemingly perfect life reflects an infantile vision of the American Dream. The set design of his home is purposefully fake, like Tim Burton’s hyper-sterotypical suburbias but on a Roger Corman budget. But the cheapness adds to the final effect. It’s all too clean, too bright, and also very claustrophobic, suffocating Bobby without him even realising it.

Bogdanovich does a swell job of threading the two plotlines together while k