The horror villain that dominated the 80s summer blockbuster
Eleven years after the summer beaches were terrorized by Jaws, film audiences were introduced to a new villain at the box office. Summer nights would never be the same as this villain would terrorize teenagers in their sleep, and he came in the form of Freddy Krueger, the horribly scarred man with the ragged slouch hat, dirty red-and-green striped sweater and metal gloves with knives at their tips. Back in 1984 it was unimaginable that a horror film could revive the teen horror genre and transform it into a must-see summer event, but A Nightmare on Elm Street surpassed all expectations breaking box office records, spawning six sequels, a TV series and loads of memorabilia. The initial success of the movie was based on the audience’s terror of nightmares and insecurity, for we are never sure whether the characters are dreaming or not due to the fact that the line between nightmare and reality is blurred. For others, the movie played with another horrific element – the very real urban fear of a killer that might be hidden in our own backyard. The marketing of Freddy Krueger launched one of the most successful horror film franchises to date, ever since Universal launched The Mummy and Frankenstein. Who would have thought that Freddy could transform New Line Cinema from a small company to the major film distributor it is today? It is also ironic that when director Wes Craven signed away the lucrative rights to his bogeyman Freddy Krueger (because of his skepticism for the success of the sequels) the series proved to be a goldmine for Robert Englund, originally a second class television actor, which goes to show that there are villains that can get away with mayhem and Freddy sure did!
The horror villain in 2004
The horror villain made a comeback in summer 2004 in Steve Sommers’ monster smash Van Helsing. This time, Count Dracula’s style comes on like a bassist from some defunct 80s New Romantic pop band but he is not alone as he’s doubling on the action with two henchmen who are prepared for anything namely Frankenstein and the Wolf man. The concept of uniting three of horror’s biggest villainous icons as a tag team of total terror has been done before, back in the 40s with Abbott & Costello and revisited later in the 80s in the Monster Squad where the Terror Three had to battle it out with neighbourhood kids armed with catapults and crossbows. The only difference is that this version of the story has a darker Gothic spin and is a CGI effects-filled extravaganza that includes an action scene conclusion a la John Woo. Many fans flocked to the cinema to see these great horror icons take it out against Hugh Jackman, aka X’Men’s Wolverine but few were impressed by the movie on a general level as the CGI effects dominated the poor storyline.
Revisiting classic horror stories where the villain stands out and turning them into remakes is hardly a novelty in Hollywood. Such as with the recent botching of the remake of the Texas chainsaw massacre that saw the return of Leatherface. This film hardly needed any updating and it resulted with casting a dark cloud over any horror remakes coming from the onslaught of big studio-backed directors. Luckily there was ample cause for a remake of Dawn of the Dead as with today’s CGI enhanced effects zombies are suddenly fast and agile launching themselves at any nearby meat. This year’s updated Dawn of the Dead keeps up with the other CGI-filled summer blockbusters and it’s hard to imagine big budget zombie flicks ever going back to basics. More importantly, this update to the Zombie mythos works also in the plot department. Whereas the 70’s original was a thinly veiled criticism of consumer culture with the zombies congregating at a shopping mall because they remember it as a happy place, this new film attaches a lot of post–Sept 11, 2001 commentary. This film is proof that cinema has never been able to escape the zombie villain plague and in contrast with the vampire villain flick that seductively offers eternal life, the zombie is a truly terrifying proposition. Not only does it want to devour our flesh, but it also makes us face up to our own death through its reflection of our own mortality.
The Science Fiction villain treatment
It looks like in this summer’s villain marathon we’re not only witnessing monsters, werewolves, vampires and vixens in our local cinemas but it is also science-fiction’s turn to be given the villain treatment and big time with two of the coolest creatures in Sci- Fi history finally coming together in Alien Vs Predator. Dubbed the summer franchise for the MTV Generation and hot on the success of last year’s slasher smackdown Freddy vs Jason, this film is this year’s most anticipated monster’s brawl-as-high-concept movie and, for once, the tagline of the publicity poster is right “Whoever wins we lose”!! Sci-Fi geeks have raised up high their antennas thanks to this franchise collision as it will spawn a successful video game and collector’s comic. Directed by Paul WS Anderson the plot centers around the theory that claims the pyramids in Egypt were ancient spaceships but there’s a new twist to the myth as the ancient pyramid where the action is set is buried in the Antarctic permafrost. One thing’s for sure… there are more than enough fans of both the Alien and Predator franchises to guarantee its success.
After last summer’s August heat wave that contributed to the Terminator blasting out the local box office, the Robot dial has yet again been tuned into the villainous frequency, only this time it is very personal as the battle is set against Will Smith, aka as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, in I, Robot. Based on the book (also entitled I, Robot) by sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov its theme has become now commonplace: the idea of computers and machines going berserk and taking over the world. There are however, some impressive special effects, such as the scene of the several thousand new robots lined up in a warehouse that recalls a Nazi Nuremberg rally. But what stands out in the movie is the villainous Vicki Computer that bears a resemblance to 2001’s HAL, and the Robot character Sonny, an advanced robot of considerable intelligence with the innocently inquiring mind of Star Trek’s Mr. Spock. He certainly upstages Will Smith and improves on recent cinematic cyborg’s outings. The visual style of the robot should also be given the thumbs up as his look suggests that the next transparent Mackintosh computer we purchase will transform into a robot.
After his role as Special Agent Xander Cage in XXX confirmed his box office appeal as an extreme sports Bond Wannabe, Vin Diesel scrapes off his tattoos and resurrects the Anti–hero Riddick character from Pitch Black that made him a movie star. In this all action sequel Riddick the prison convict is now a hunted man and finds himself caught between two enemy forces in the middle of a major crusade. But this time nothing is what it seems as the real villain of the piece is not Riddick but Thandie Newton’s sexy bad-girl spin on Lady Macbeth as Dame Vaako who oozes devious charm and space mumbo jumbo to full effect. There were positive reactions to both Diesel’s second outing as Riddick and David Twohy’s action/effects malarkey but whether summer is the right time to release space gloom tales remains to be seen.
The Comic Book Villain
Euro 2004 may have kicked off this summer but it was the blockbuster movie clashes that made it more exciting. At the end of the day it is the comic book villain that has scored big at the box office. Superhero movies have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, largely because of the built- in fan base that knows the mythology laid down in the vibrant hues of comic books. We know everything about Superheroes – Spiderman’s radioactive spider bite, Superman’s exploding planet Krypton, Batman’s crime–fighting vow after his parents were murdered. But just as crucial are the villains or the anti-heroes, who have their own rich and tragic back stories, which until recently didn’t always make it to the big screen.
In Superhero movies it takes two to tangle. You can have the greatest hero in the world, but you cannot have a good story unless you have an equally great villain. What makes a classic super villain is something Marvel and DC have spent thousands of pages defining and developing since Superman became the first major superhero in 1938. Early on, comics drew from real life, patterning evil nemeses after Adolf Hitler. Some of the best villains, at least within the Marvel universe, have always been the villains who are almost identical in character structure as the hero. This fluke-of-psychology approach was especially thematic in the first Spiderman movie, in which family, friends, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) both endured freak lab accidents, with Parker becoming the heroic Spiderman and Osborn transforming into the evil psychopath Green Goblin. While fans still get movies that continue to emphasize classic super villains based on myths set decades ago, this year’s blockbuster superhero movies have radically reinvented the notions of what makes a super villain, making them more real and delving into the villains’ personal history and motivations. Such as in Spiderman 2, they have dug deeper into the villain’s psychological history. It is true that Dr Octopus played by Alfred Molina threatens Spiderman and the city with giant robotic tentacles but fans take him seriously because he has a reason behind his actions. A lab accident exposed him to radioactivity and in the process he lost his wife and job, turning him into a monstrous criminal. The Ying–Yang formula works well with this villain as an earlier scene establishes him as Peter Parker’s friend and later on he tries to save the city from destruction.
The Ying–Yang formula works again together with Girl Power in another comic book adaptation which is set to become another huge summer smash. In Catwoman, Bond babe Halle Berry plays Patience Phillips – by day a shy and young office woman and by night the sexy sultry Catwoman. The release of a summer movie that tells the story of a feisty feline that treads a fine line between being a criminal vigilante and a heroine was inevitably given the success of the Batman franchise and the upcoming new dark movie Batman Begins. The premise of one of the dark knight’s nemeses eventually getting her own spin-off movie is promising and if this develops into a money-making franchise with sequels purring their way onto the big screen all the better, but in order to avoid any Batman spectres the franchise has to create a strong new universe plotwise and deeper character development in order to avoid any Batman comparisons and to show superhero fans that Catwoman can kick butt on her own without the help of any winged male hero.
Catwoman treads a fine line between being a criminal vigilante and a hero, but it is The Punisher that leaps all the way in the vigilante stakes combining brutal violence, lengthy action sequences, great Floridian locales, and even some comedy. Popular Marvel character The Punisher is the most unlikely villain success story found in the new wave of comic book adaptations. Writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh pieces together a nasty little revenge film, punctuated with operatic action sequences that keep the film outside of the literal realm. Fun, hilarious, and beautifully to the point, The Punisher is a true summer surprise. Starring Thomas Jane as Frank Castle, The Punisher is hell bent on revenge against John Travolta’s villain Howard Saint after Frank’s wife and family were brutally murdered. But what divides The Punisher from other comic book villains is that Frank Castle has no superpowers. He can’t fly, bend steel, or fall back on any kind of mutant powers. He exists solely to exact revenge on those who deserve punishment. This tale has been produced before, in a straight to video version from 1990 starring Dolph Lundgren as Castle. Thankfully, writer and first time director Hensleigh has opted to resuscitate the character and story, bringing it to the big screen in style. An aggressive, devilishly fun, and often downright wacky motion picture, Hensleigh brings all the right moves to the table to develop the sorrowful tale of Frank Castle for summer audiences.
If The Punisher is hell bent on revenge this summer, hell’s embodiment is coming in the shape of Hell Boy in the new comic book hero action flick directed by Gulliermo del Toro, the man behind Blade 2, another comic villain. Based on the dark horse comic series the film follows the adventures of a wisecracking demon (Ron Perlman) who works for an ultra secret division of the FBI that deals with supernatural threats. In comparison with other main stream comic book villains gearing up to score at the box office, this summer there is a sense of exclusivity and I dare say elitism to Hell Boy. When you watch the movie you get the feeling that the director is so obsessed with Hell Boy that he forgot the one element that would really make this movie soar: allowing the movie fan who is unfamiliar with the comic book to look behind the curtain and find a welcoming character. The problem with this movie is that it was done by a die-hard Hell Boy fan for fans of the comic book hero character and one thing’s for sure the way this movie was made it won’t bring any new Hell Boy fans because the concepts, characters and conflicts are too bizarre, too cerebral and too engrossed in their own mythology for any casual movie goers to embrace. Nevertheless for fans of the supernatural it will come as a cross between Men in Back and X-Men with one of the most original, endearing and plain super human lead characters in years.
Leading this summer’s villain battle is Tom Cruise who for the first is playing a bad guy in Michael Mann’s adult thriller Collateral. The Cruiser puts aside his Samurai armour and plays Vincent, a slicker-than-thou assassin who takes LA Taxi driver Max, played by Jamie Foxx, hostage over the course of a single night, during which he has five hits to carry out, while Mark Ruffalo’s dogged cop tries to stop him. Collateral promises dead-eye action and gritty visuals but there are some who doubt whether the great movie-going public will accept Tom Cruise as a bad guy in Collateral but nevertheless it will still be a joy to watch Cruise finally unleash his id, as on screen he has always come close to being the psychotic villain.
