Editorials
The Influence of “Scooby Doo” On the Slasher Film
It’s a simple formula: take four or five teenagers, add a menacing villain, throw in several confrontations and top it all off with a chase climax where the bad guy is unmasked and/or defeated. That sums up pretty much every slasher movie from the last forty years. But long before the identities of the killers in Friday the 13th, Scream, Urban Legend, My Bloody Valentine, Sorority Row et al were revealed, one TV show was doing the same thing on a weekly basis.
On September 13, 1969, CBS broadcast the first episode of “Scooby Doo! Where Are You?,” in the process helping to create (along with the Italian Giallo films of the time) the blueprint for the modern slasher. The show’s main characters are horror movie archetypes through and through: there’s Fred Jones, the blandly handsome hero/leader; Daphne Blake, the tall, slender damsel in distress; and Velma Dinkley, the brainy nerd. And then there was of course Norville “Shaggy” Rogers and Scooby Doo, who provided the requisite comic relief. Sound familiar?
In this universe, scientists, mayors, college deans, police officers and every other person in a position of authority, right down to the parents, cannot be trusted. The local sheriff is unhelpful, corrupt or thoroughly evil, and probably has a dark secret. And the deputy is dumb enough to deny the bogeyman’s existence without first looking over his shoulder – though that’s no guarantee that he’s not the villain. Sound familiar?
Then there’s the dialogue, which consists of every single character stating the obvious. Whenever they enter a spooky house, they say, “This place is spooky!” When they find themselves trapped, they say, “We’re trapped!” When the No-Face Zombie turns out to be a robot, they say, “The No-Face Zombie was a robot!” Sound familiar?
And that brings us to the villains. For most of the running time of an episode, a “Scooby Doo” villain will appear where and when he damn well pleases, and to hell with logic. In his presence, power supplies will fail and cars refuse to start. And at the end, the villain will be unmasked, typically revealing him to be someone you wouldn’t have expected. Sound… familiar?
Not only did the modern slash film seemingly draw a whole lot of inspiration from “Scooby Doo,” but the entire sub-genre has some really interesting connections to the kid-friendly franchise.
The makers of Urban Legend (1998) in particular must’ve watched “Scooby Doo” for inspiration, because not only are Alicia Witt and Jared Leto dead ringers for Daphne and Fred but they spend the running time being surprised by a weird janitor, chased by a hooded figure and investigating suspects that have ‘red herring’ written all over them. There’s a dog named Hootie, all the adults are either incompetent or creepy, and when one character goes missing, the dean suggests he might be shacked up in a motel with a farmyard animal (see what I mean about unhelpful?). These motifs run through the entire franchise; in Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2006), Kate Mara plays another Daphne clone whose friends include a nerd, a dog-loving jock, and a stoner who owns a van with flowers on the side.
Speaking of franchises, you will not find a series that has more in common with “Scooby Doo” than Scream. We all know that Sarah Michelle Gellar (Scream 2) and Matthew Lillard (one of Scream’s masked villains) played Daphne and Shaggy in the live action movies, but did you know that David Warner, Lewis Arquette (both Scream 2) and Hayden Panettiere (Scream 4) all lent their respective vocal talents to “What’s New Scooby Doo?,” “A Pup Named Scooby Doo” and Scooby Doo! And The Goblin King?
More telling is the casting of Patrick Warburton, who played Sheriff Bronson Stone in “Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated.” The name of his Scream 3 character is Steven Stone, which is surely a coincidence… until you realize that he’s appearing in a movie where a masked villain chases characters through a mansion with revolving walls and one-way mirrors. For all the film’s attempts at nudge-wink self-awareness, it still presents its audience with characters that split up in order to search a spooky house and a villain who, when unmasked, turns out to be some guy found dead earlier in the movie. He would’ve gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for those meddling kids.
Instead of rebooting Scream as a TV series, MTV should’ve remade The Prowler (1981), which was scripted by Neal (son of Joseph) Barbera and Glenn Leopold, who between them worked on “The New Scooby Doo Mysteries,” “Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics” and “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo.” Needless to say, there’s a whiff of the day job as characters split up, search the local cemetery after dark and are chased down corridors by a masked assailant – although I don’t recall too many Scooby villains having their heads vaporized by a shotgun-wielding heroine. Also, if you can’t deduce that the sheriff is the killer before the end of the fourth reel, you should turn the Mystery Machine around and go home.
Even when a slasher movie doesn’t conclude with a climactic unmasking, Scooby still casts a shadow over the proceedings. It’s difficult to take Freddy Vs Jason (2003) seriously when one of the main characters is a stoner whose ride is referred to as a “Scooby van” and the local Sheriff (an incompetent goofball, obviously) is played by Garry Chalk, who was also the Vice Principal in Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins (2009). Related side note, Chalk was also in The Fly II, where he played a character named Scorby – at one point someone actually shouts, “Scorby, where are you?”
Is this all just one big coincidence? You’d have a hard time convincing me of that!
Editorials
Tales from ‘Tales from the Crypt’: Exhuming The Final Season’s “A Slight Case of Murder” Episode
All good things must come to an end—yes, even Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996). That iconic horror show finally concluded after airing ninety-three episodes. As we all know, traditional anthologies aren’t too common to see on TV anymore, much less be that long, so this kind of endurance is even more impressive.
Now, I would be remiss to not bring up how very off that last season felt, in comparison to past ones. If not for the Crypt Keeper’s bookends, it was like a different show at that point. Essentially, it was when you assessed how much had changed. Producer Gilbert Adler was responsible for those divisive renovations; his moving production to England was an attempt to give Crypt “a shot in the arm”. What he instead did was create obstacles for both himself and the series. Some could be overcome, whereas others were less yielding.
Fans decry Season Seven, but in all fairness, Season Six wasn’t all roses, either. And like Six, Seven does have a few bright spots. The move to merry England couldn’t completely undo what we love about the series. Yes, there was a decline in gore; the dial had especially been turned down on those big, bloody conclusions we all love. It must be said, though, that the final season was hardly the only one to be gruesome-lite. Plenty of past episodes also did without copious amounts of the red stuff.
At the time, traveling abroad may not have been seen as a bad thing. The new season was off to a strong start, based on favorable reactions to the premiere. The Natasha Richardson-starring opener, “Fatal Caper” (Bob Hoskins, Colman deKay, A. L. Katz, Gilbert Adler), is as ridiculous as it is clever. However, it would soon become apparent that not everything to come in Season Seven was up to the same standards as that first episode. It was going to be a bumpy ride, to say the least.
Most will agree that the seventh season wasn’t a complete bust. The blood-soaked “Horror in the Night” (Russell Mulcahy, John Harrison) is atmospheric and trippy; there, a jewel thief (James Wilby) experiences a nightmarish evening while hiding out in a haunted hotel. Then there is what many consider to be the season’s standout, and perhaps even the last great episode of the series. In the gritty “Confession” (Peter Hewitt, Scott Nimerfro), a detective (Ciarán Hinds) suspects a screenwriter (Eddie Izzard) is behind a string of murders. Although it is a strange way to end things, “The Third Pig” (Bill Kopp, Pat Ventura) also has its admirers; this animated entry is a demented new spin on the classic fairytale “The Three Little Pigs“, as opposed to anything out of EC Comics‘ vault.
Another fine episode is “A Slight Case of Murder”, which I find a bit lighthearted for Tales from the Crypt. In spite of all the killing, of course. It also makes good use of the scenery change; an upside of the show’s relocation is the real estate. A Tudor-style home sits at the heart of this amusing episode, written and directed by Brian Helgeland (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, 976-EVIL). Cozy mystery lovers should be quite smitten with the story’s choice of venue.
A common complaint about Season Seven is its lack of star power. Gone were the days when anyone who was anyone in Hollywood stopped by and played a role. That said, it wasn’t as if the series was now just hiring nobodies off the street; the problem was that many American viewers weren’t as familiar with the new casts. “A Slight Case of Murder” was such a case, given how Francesca Annis, Elizabeth Spriggs, and Christopher Cazenove weren’t exactly household names in the States. Naturally, the English would have an easier time recognizing the leads of this and other Season Seven episodes.
“A Slight Case of Murder” is an example of a crabby author getting what’s coming to them. Generally speaking, the horror genre has never cared much for depictions of kind writers. And here, Annis plays that rather irritable novelist whose next bestseller is at risk of being published posthumously. After brilliantly insulting her neighbor, an aspiring author named Mrs. Trask (Spriggs), Sharon Bannister detects a prowler. She then takes no comfort knowing the intruder is just her ex (Cazenove). He’s not here to reminisce about old times.
The last page from “A Slight Case of Murder!”, as seen in EC Comics’ The Vault of Horror.
The episode, while amusing, feels like it belongs in another anthology. The one I’m thinking of, on account of the British actors and the story being centered around jealousy, is Tales of the Unexpected. That series, by the way, also eventually went overseas; some later episodes cast Americans and were set in the U.S. So, yes, “A Slight Case of Murder” isn’t a thing like classic Crypt, but it is awfully charming.
By now, no one should be shocked to learn that an episode of Tales from the Crypt is different from its basis. In fact, the “A Slight Case of Murder!” found in EC’s The Vault of Horror bears no resemblance to Helgeland’s adaptation. An old doctor returns to his hometown to solve a bunch of murders—the victims were all women. At each crime, there was no sign of a break-in, seeing as how the women’s doors and windows were locked from the inside. The sheriff says the only other way in, in one case, was a hot-air vent. He concludes no human could have fit through that, but the doctor suggests the culprit is “not an ordinary human”.
The doctor meets with the sheriff at an old house formerly known as the Bates Mansion. Yet before revealing the killer’s identity, the doctor tells a story about a local widow named Amelia Bates. After her newborn turned out to be—and I’m merely quoting writers Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein—a “misshapen monster”, Amelia asked the doctor to tell everyone her child was a stillborn. She kept that underdeveloped, slithering boy a secret from everyone; only the doctor knew.
Years later, that same child went on to murder a series of women. All of whom rejected his love. And who, pray tell, did that baby become? The town’s sheriff, that’s who! The last frame of the comic, one showing the sheriff’s hidden mechanical body, is so startling that it’s actually disappointing that Tales from the Crypt didn’t properly adapt this story. It would have fit in so well with the older seasons.
As they say in the biz, the show must go on—and Tales from the Crypt did just that, even when the quality had noticeably dropped. But like I always tell myself during the lesser episodes, any Crypt is still better than no Crypt.
Along with Seasons One through Six, Season Seven of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 12.
A delightful shot from “A Slight Case of Murder” suggests Elizabeth Spriggs’ character, Mrs. Trask, is more devilish than she first seemed.
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