It’s Friday the 13th today, which makes me want to do a post somehow connected to disaster, mayhem, superstition and scary events! Trouble is, I don’t read horror, and I don’t watch it in movies either. Silence of the Lambs is at the top of my list of Academy Award Best Picture winners to NOT see. But there are three directors who deal in shadows that I do quite enjoy.
First, Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense. And that’s the key–I like his suspense movies, where nothing really horrible is happening but the suggestion that it could works you up to a fever of anticipation. His (possibly) two most famous movies I don’t actually like very much: in Psycho and The Birds, horrible things really do happen, making them horror, not suspense. I prefer Rebecca, with the terrifyingly creepy Mrs. Danvers; and Suspicion, where Hitchcock plays it all so deftly that Cary Grant, carrying a glass of milk, becomes the most sinister thing imaginable (and really, what could seem more harmless than romantic lead and ever-charming Cary Grant, with milk?)
Second, Rod Serling, best known as the creator of The Twilight Zone. He wasn’t actually a director, but he did seem to have creative control. He’s an inspiration as someone who told stories about strange creatures and other-worldly technology, ghosts and telekinesis, and made them about something. The Twilight Zone had episodes that are funny, terrifying, clever, tragic and very often deeply philosophical and biting commentaries on society and humanity.
Third, Tim Burton, rounding out the group as a modern director. I tend to meet Tim Burton where he intersects with Johnny Depp, but along the way I’ve seen a lot of his movies. Some are fantastically bizarre and funny, like Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; others are genuinely scary, like Sleepy Hollow; some are touching, like Edward Scissorhands (just not literally!) The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse-Bride are funny and mildly creepy at the same time. Oddly enough, one of my favorites is Sweeney Todd, about the demon barber from Fleet Street. He slits people’s throats, and then his partner in crime bakes them into meat pies. Highly disturbing, yet there are also wildly funny parts, soaring songs, deep tragedy, and (you have been warned) a vast amount of blood. It’s a cathartic experience–by the end of the movie, you’ve felt everything there is to feel.
So if you feel like something a little bit shadowy and more or less creepy for Friday the 13th, pick your poison…but don’t walk under any ladders!
Tales of the Marvelous 
i like Hitchcock’s earlier movies better than his later ones, too. He was a master at creating suspense. He had some good ones in the 1950’s, though, that didn’t veer toward the horror genre: “To Catch a Thief” and “North by Northwest” with Cary Grant, and “Rear Window” and “The Man Who Knew Too Much” with Jimmy Stewart. These films were good for mystery and suspense, with good plot twists. In the latter, there was even Doris Day singing, “Que Sera Sera.” He knew how to start with the mundane and build to a suspenseful climax.
I love your last sentence–it’s definitely the building of suspense that Hitchcock was so good at!
One pretty creepy book I liked was Treasure Box by Orson Scott Card. I think I’m like you in that I enjoy suspense, but I’m not crazy about stuff that tries to gross me out with a lot of blood and guts. When I think “dark and suspenseful movies” I think of my favorite films noirs — like The Third Man, Double Indemnity and Touch of Evil. There’s murder and plenty of Dark Deeds, but it isn’t overly gruesome.
I am definitely not interested in being grossed out by blood and guts. Much as I love Sweeney Todd, I still watch parts of it with my hand over my eyes. I agree, film noir is the way to go. It’s also one reason I like old movies–Dark Deeds (love that!) and suspense, but they don’t SHOW everything.
Friday the thirteenth always makes me think of Jones. 🙂
[i]The Twilight Zone[/i] is great, and SyFy (yuck at the name change) plays marathons on New Year’s Eve and Independence Day. Funnily enough, those are the two holidays that my family spends with my aunt’s family, so I always try to put them on TV. And she goes, “Oh no not this again.” She’s so dramatic.
Friday the Thirteenth makes me think of Jones too!!! I think you just made my day with that comment. 🙂 Paraskevadekatriaphobia (I doubt I spelled that right) was trending at #1 on Yahoo today, which amused me no end.
How can your aunt not want to watch The Twilight Zone? Sad, very sad…
Have you seen Notorious with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant? It’s always been my favorite Hitchcock film. I like Suspicion, too; I’ve always liked his black and white ones better than his later color ones, when, as you said, he got more into horror than suspense.
Notorious is another great one, with three of my favorite actors–Bergman, Grant and Claude Rains. Something definitely changed when Hitchcock moved to color–some of those are good too, but I tend to like the black and white ones best.