Today is Blog Action Day ‘08, which I’ve known about for a while, and kind of figured I ought to write something for, but didn’t really know what.
After having a look around on the Blog Action Day site, and reading their “keep it on topic” recommendation, I had a burst of inspiration: I’d put together a list of the top 10 poverty related horror films!
Much head scratching went on to actually find a number of films to include in this list, but thanks to the combined efforts of Mine Was Taller and The Devil’s Manor we’ve found enough. I think we’ve done pretty well, and I hope you enjoy the list. If we’ve missed any, please tell us in the comments.
One last thing, please don’t think we’re being flippant by posting this list; we’re not. Poverty, homelessness, and cannibalistic mutants are all very serious issues and we should do everything we can to make the world a better place. I’m hoping this post raises awareness, sends people over to the Blog Action Day site, and gets them reading some of the more worthy articles posted today.
C.H.U.D.
CHUD has one of the trailers I remember best from my youth. A genuine trashy product of the 80s, the film is a slightly tongue in cheek monster movie featuring the titular Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers – mutated homeless people who are now living in New York’s sewers. Daniel Stern stars as the manager of a grimy soup kitchen, and John Heard plays a photographer asked to investigate the disappearance of the previously mentioned homeless. It’s a pretty mucky little film, but remains deeply charming and enjoyable to this day.
The Flesh and the Fiends
Medical advances are rarely cheap and it’s usually the poor who feel the cost the most but in this day and age the burden is usually financial, back in 1827 is was a little more…terminal . Peter Cushing’s Doctor Knox heart is in the right place, his aim after all is the betterment of mankind, but his cash unfortunately isn’t when he enlists Mr’s Burke (George Rose) and Hare (Donald Pleasence) to supply him with cadavers for his experiments. The unscrupulous pair, finding fresh corpses a little hard to find, decide to create their own, preying on the poor and homeless wretches they find on the grimy Edinburgh streets. Cushing gives his usual impeccable performance but it’s Pleasence, at his sleazy best as the totally immoral grave robber who steals the film. Director John Gilling brings a real sense of the grimness of 19th Century living for those not born with a silver spoon in their mouths.
Devil’s Backbone
Set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, Guillermo Del Toro’s ghost story has been described by the director as the sibling of his Pan’s Labyrinth – this being the masculine half of the brother and sister pair. Coming after Mimic and Chronos, this arguably set Del Toro on the path he finds himself on today; without Devil’s Backbone, there’d be no Pan’s Labyrinth (one of the most important films of the last few years in my eyes), and it’s unlikely that Del Toro would find himself making the Hobbit.
The People Under The Stairs
One of Wes Craven’s better efforts, this is something I’ve not seen for years. It’s a creepy, whimsical tale of people enslaved by a crazy couple and forced to live in their basement. When a boy breaks in to their house, all hell breaks lose. Will he ultimately become the savior of The People Under The Stairs? Craven does a great job at building the tension and atmosphere, and there’s a great mix of themes. I’ll be revisiting this one soon.
They Live
Roddy Piper gives his finest screen performance in John Carpenter’s 1988 tale of alien invasion. As Nada, he’s a homeless drifter who takes work where he can find it and has a way with the one liners. The idea of the poor and the downtrodden actually being responsible for repelling an alien invasion, particularly where the aliens are bribing the upper classes so they remain complacent, and subliminally brain washing the middle classes, is classic stuff, and Piper’s performance is the stuff of genuine action heroes. Also features one of the finest on-screen brawls in cinema’s history.
Wolfen
Based on Whitley Strieber’s novel, Wolfen is a great little not-quite-Werewolf flick from 1981. Albert Finney, and Gregory Hines give two great performances (it was this film that made me a fan of Finney all those years ago) and there’s a genuinely creepy vibe about the film. Unlike the book, where the poverty connection comes in the form of the Wolfen themselves; downtrodden native american construction workers who can transform into wolves, the Wolfen of the film are an intelligent race of wolves who prey on the homeless because construction work is robbing them of their natural habitat.
Driller Killer
Director Abel Ferrara made his name with this bit of ‘classic’ seventies grindhouse sleaze, not only taking the lead behind the camera but in front of it as well as the titular power tool wielding nutjob. Pretentious (Ferrara clearly wanted to make an ‘art’ film) and full of unsympathetic characters (notably Abel’s struggling artist/killer) this nevertheless holds a special place in the annals of horror cinema as one of the films banned in UK after the eighties “Video Nasties” witch-hunt. The homeless here aren’t even characters, just fodder for Ferrara’s Black ‘N’ Decker.
Prince of Darkness
The homeless – led by shock rocker Alice Cooper – form an unstoppable wall around a downtown church in John Carpenter’s tale of Satan’s attempt to cross over into our world. The presence of this one is a little tenuous in the list, but Cooper’s image seems to have become a somewhat iconic representation of the film despite his relative inactivity. Reminiscent of the army of goons in Assault on Precinct 13, the homeless horde hear seem somehow less threatening when they’re grouped together, but their initial appearance is a little disconcerting.
Stuck
Stuart Gordon directs Stephen Rea and Mena Suvari in the story of a homeless man who’s hit by the car of a nurse who’s in no fit state to drive. The early stages build a good amount of pathos for Rea’s character, whch is essential when he becomes hopelessly embedded in the windscreen of Suvari’s car. Based partly on true events, the film touches on homelessness, despair, and modern culture’s desire to look the other way rather than become caught up in something unpleasant. It also has a wicked sense of humour.
Of all the films in this list, Stuck is probably to most damning reflection on the state of modern society.
Street Trash
The mid eighties was the golden age of low budget horror schlock and while Street Trash isn’t quite up there with the likes of Henenlotter’s Basket Case or Jackson’s Bad Taste it’s not without its own trashy charm. Vietnam vets, revenge seeking mobsters, rape, castration and necrophilia – what’s not to love? And I haven’t even mentioned the well-past-its-sell-by-date booze that a greedy liquor store owner sells to the local homeless. This is rotgut deserving of the title as it causes those imbibing it to dissolve into puddles of goo. Despite its over-the-top nature and gross out effects though, J. Michael Muro’s film has more of a social conscience than most of the films on this list, for those who want to look that deep anyway.
Ha, I remember secretly recording Driller Killer on VHS on the strength of its notorious status then being bitterly disappointed by the lack of gore. Must’ve been about 13. See also: American Psycho for homeless person as convenience victim.
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