Editorials
[Editorial] The Horror Influences of “Wolfenstein”
In fiction, War has traditionally been associated with action and drama. From Saving Private Ryan to Call of Duty, many war stories tend to be a blend of patriotic adventures and commentary on the endurance of the human spirit. While there’s nothing wrong with this kind of tale, in real life, the most common element present in both sides of all wars has always been absolute terror. Because of this, it’s no surprise that the creators of the world’s first major FPS franchise couldn’t help but be influenced by the horror genre (and B-movies in general) as they crafted one of the most iconic gaming experiences of all time.
Naturally, I’m referring to Wolfenstein. While the horror influences on this franchise may not be as obvious as id Software’s other massively popular FPS series, Doom, the Wolfenstein games have been borrowing from horror films (and other media) for decades now, and I think that it’s time to discuss how a few terrifying elements helped to shape such an iconic action franchise.
Some of you might assume that this story begins with Wolfenstein 3D, but the roots of id Software’s iconic creation actually lie in Muse Software’s 1981 release, Castle Wolfenstein, a primitive third-person stealth title that would lay the groundwork for what would later become a gaming heavyweight. While this innovative title would draw inspiration from several action arcade games and war films like The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare, the setting was actually based on the real-life Castle Wewelsburg, Heinrich Himmler’s base of operations for occult studies within Germany’s SS. It doesn’t get much more horrific than that!
Impressive visuals?
In retrospect, Castle Wolfenstein and its 1984 sequel, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, actually feel a lot like down-to-earth prototypes of the early Metal Gear titles. In fact, tactical espionage action might just be the best way to describe the admittedly janky gameplay here, as the protagonist must sneak and disguise himself through Nazi-occupied territory, only resorting to violence when absolutely necessary.
While they can’t boast the same adrenaline-pumping shoot-outs present in later entries, these two games introduced concepts that would help keep the franchise fresh even in the next millenia. From labyrinthian architecture to hidden traps and backstabbing nazis, the original Castle Wolfenstein games were still pretty intense despite their lack of zombies, dark magic or robotic monstrosities. It’s a bit difficult to replay these games nowadays due to questionable controls and limited graphics, but some of the stealth mechanics would actually be revisited in more recent titles, so these early games remain an important part of Wolfenstein’s history.
Of course, the real revolution would come in 1992 with the release of Wolfenstein 3D, which also introduced the world to series protagonist William Joseph “B.J.” Blazkowicz. Though it’s technically not the first First-Person-Shooter (that honor goes to 1973’s clunky classic Maze War), the game’s smooth controls and fast-paced POV action are what popularized the genre. It wasn’t just the gameplay that was revamped from its predecessors, however, as the developers’ influences were also quite different this time around. Drawing inspiration from Nazi Exploitation films and featuring even more references to Germany’s real-world ventures into questionable science and neo-paganism, Wolfenstein 3D clearly wasn’t afraid of balls-to-the-wall insanity.
Just looking at this screenshot is enough to make you want to replay this classic.
Hell, even the game’s final boss was Hitler himself in an anachronistic mech suit, and that’s not even mentioning Spear of Destiny, Wolfenstein 3D‘s prequel expansion. These levels were even crazier, dealing with Nazi secret societies and their occult goals. The presence of mutant soldiers and magical artifacts made these games feel like a bizarre mix of an Indiana Jones yarn with some Lovecraftian influences sprinkled here and there. It could even be argued that these more sensationalist elements were a trial run for what would eventually become Doom.
Nevertheless, the Wolfenstein franchise would continue to venture into paranormal territory in the future. The 2001 reboot, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, would feature Nazi zombies, Thulian conspiracies and even more real-world occult references (mostly related to Castle Wewelsburg) in a smorgasbord of blood and bullets. By then, however, the novelty of FPS games had worn off, and bigger, more complex titles had already dominated the market. Despite some freaky enemy designs and a legitimately fun story, Return to Castle Wolfenstein was considered just another World-War II shooter in a sea of similar action games. That’s not to say that the game wasn’t well-received, it just wasn’t as influential as its predecessors (though its engine did serve as the basis for the original Call of Duty).
This issue would only get worse with the release of 2009’s Wolfenstein, a loose sequel to the 2001 game. Though it continued and even recycled several plot elements from the first title, most critics agreed that the formula was getting stale. The addition of the Black Sun dimension and a setting that kept getting stranger as supernatural influences became stronger was a pretty creative move (with several moments being eerily reminiscent of Stuart Gordon’s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s From Beyond), but it’s too bad the gameplay didn’t bring anything new to the table.
Spooky…
After middling reviews and low sales figures, the franchise would remain dormant until 2014, when Bethesda would release their radically different take on this iconic series. With a heavier focus on narrative, Wolfenstein: The New Order would wear its influences on its sleeve, featuring obvious references to Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, films like Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and even B-movie classics like The Keep and Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS.
As usual, players once again don on the role of B.J. Blazkowicz as he continues his never-ending battle against Nazi forces. This time, however, the Nazis have the upper hand, as the game takes place in an alternate reality where Germany’s access to ridiculously over-the-top technological advances allowed them to win the war and take over the world. As if the inherent horror of a world overrun by Nazis wasn’t enough, this 1960s dieselpunk dystopia is also populated by bio-mechanical abominations like the terrifying Panzerhund (ridiculously hard-to-kill robot dogs) and enhanced super-soldiers.
Though The New Order (along with its prequel DLC, The Old Blood, and the sequel, The New Colossus) embrace much of the franchise’s B-movie roots, with several horrific sequences that wouldn’t feel out of place in a genuine exploitation film, this new incarnation of the series ventures far more into Sci-Fi territory than the supernatural. While most of the science is quite exaggerated, with the space levels especially feeling like they could have been ripped straight from Iron Sky, the game is actually much closer to the down-to-earth thrills of the early titles.
Now we’re talking!
The upcoming follow-up, Wolfenstein: Youngblood looks like it’ll continue and expand upon this trend of retro-futurism with a campaign set in the Nazi-occupied 1980s, and while I can’t wait to play it, it does feel like a completely different franchise at this point. Nevertheless, I can appreciate the fact that, after all these years, Blazkowicz continues to kick Nazi ass in one of the most memorable gaming experiences out there.
These games may have borrowed a lot from other media, but I’d argue that they’ve been just as influential outside of gaming as well. From last year’s Overlord to Frankenstein’s Army, there are several films that feel an awful lot like unofficial Wolfenstein adaptations, and at this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if the franchise actually made the jump to the big screen (there actually have been several failed attempts at film!). Until then, however, we can always step into B.J. Blazkowicz’s digital shoes for some interactive Nazi-shooting thrills, and I’m okay with that.
The great Ernest Dickerson turns seventy-five years old this month, so we’re looking back at his most memorable contribution to the horror genre – 1995’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight!
The film hit screens while the Tales from the Crypt series was winding down its run on television, and it stands apart with a story that feels a step or two removed from the franchise norm. That was the smart play, though, as the show’s stories – and those from the original EC comics – work best in short bites. The result is a film that holds up beautifully as a gory good time.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Commentator: Ernest Dickerson (director), Michael Felsher (moderator)
1. Dickerson was in post-production on Surviving the Game when he got a call from his agent saying that producer Gil Adler wanted to meet about a Tales from the Crypt feature film. It went well, so Dickerson met with Joel Silver next and secured the job.
2. The original screenplay for the film came to the producers as a spec script wholly detached from the Tales from the Crypt brand. They added the Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir) bookends to make it fit.
3. Dickerson was more familiar with the original EC comic books having read them as a kid, but he had watched a few episodes of the HBO series, so he knew what the current vibe was for the project.
4. Adler directed the film’s wraparound segments, meaning Dickerson never actually got to work with the creepy puppet. “Gil and the Crypt Keeper had a great relationship,” he adds, “they worked together for years.”
5. While he was new to the Tales from the Crypt family, Dickerson had previously worked as a director of photography on the Tales from the Darkside anthology series. That show is underappreciated in my humble opinion, and I will go to bat for both it and the equally underloved Monsters.
6. A big appeal of the horror genre for Dickerson is the idea of dark mysteries that challenge our imagination. For this film, that came down to the mythology being created between the characters.
7. Five executive producers are listed in the opening credits, but Dickerson says the only two he had dealings with were Silver and Richard Donner. The other three were Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, and David Giler.
8. Dickerson had only ever seen Billy Zane in movies with a full head of hair, so he was surprised when Zane showed up on the first day with a bald head. “He had this case, and he opened up the case that he had all these hair pieces in, and he says, ‘So which one of these do you think I should use?’” Dickerson looked at him and suggested he just go bald for the character.
9. While the bulk of the opening exteriors were filmed in a desert just outside Los Angeles, the shot of the old church at 11:26 was created on a warehouse hangar soundstage where the film’s interiors were shot.
10. When he had read the script, Dickerson pictured the character of Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith) “as a little, tough lady.” He had recently seen Smith in Menace II Society, and while the producers had someone else in mind for the role, he fought to get her instead.
11. Just as Zane surprised Dickerson with his hair (or lack thereof), Smith arrived on the first day with her hair dyed platinum white. He “liked the idea” but asked her to please get it tweaked so it looked more yellowish blond. “It’s definitely a statement.”
12. He had seen Brenda Bakke in the 1989 sci-fi/action film from Japan, Gunhed, and thought she’d be great here as Cordelia. The rest of us might recognize her from Death Spa or Trucks.
13. Felsher comments that the film’s setup does a good job not telegraphing who’s going to live or die, and he uses the “nice guy” (Charles Fleischer) and “the kid” (Ryan O’Donohue) as examples. “You don’t play by those rules here,” he says, and Dickerson replies that he wanted to subvert those rules. That extends to Smith as well because she’s Black, “and usually in movies like this they’re the first folks to die.”
14. Dickerson says they had forty days of filming, “which, the way I’m used to working, was a very generous schedule.” It was budgeted at around $10 million.
15. This probably won’t surprise you, but Zane improvised the bit at 26:25 after he jumps out the window and says, “Fuck this cowboy shit! You fuckin’, hodunk Podunk, well, then, motherfuckers!”
16. In the original script, the demons that The Collector (Zane) raises from the dirt actually looked more like the people they used to be. “They were more human,” but the very smart decision was made in pre-production to make them look far more unique instead.
17. The demons are killed by shooting their eyes, but Dickerson felt there should be one more element to it. “Shoot out their eyes, you gotta duck because the souls come shooting out, and if it hits ya, boom, it can kill ya.” This is a fun touch.
18. He’s been asked more than once if these demons are where Peter Jackson got the idea for how the orcs would look in his Lord of the Rings movies. “They do look like orcs.”
19. He recalls having seen Ronny Yu’s The Bride with White Hair shortly before going to work on Demon Knight, and he hoped to bring some of that staged style into his own film. An example of that in practice is Brayker’s (William Sadler) brief flashbacks to Christ on the cross.
20. Character deaths were mostly based on the idea that “each person’s downfall was going to be predicated by their weakness.” The Collector discovers someone’s weakness and then uses it against them. Cordelia wants to be loved, Jeryline wants to travel, Uncle Willy (Dick Miller) is a horndog for both liquor and ladies, Danny loves horror comics, etc.
21. Dickerson says that plenty of genre classics were in the back of his head while making the film, including Assault on Precinct 13, Alien, Aliens, and more.
22. Cordelia is possessed into a demonic form, and Dickerson’s idea for how she’d look was originally a bit different. “Since Cordelia was a prostitute, I thought that her mouth should actually be a vertical slit that was in her stomach… which would open up with teeth and a tongue.” It was nixed, he says, when “the wife of one of the producers read that and said ‘no way you’re putting that in the movie.’”
23. The key makes an appearance in the followup, Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, but it wasn’t originally meant to. Apparently, early test audiences expected it to be a more connected sequel to Demon Knight, so the filmmakers added it in to appease them. This is where I go on record saying that Bordello of Blood is a fun time. Can’t touch Demon Knight, obviously, but it’s more entertaining than its reputation suggests.
24. They had to film Uncle Willy’s bar scene “dream” twice, once with the women topless and once with them in bikinis, to have versions for both theaters and television broadcast. “Dick’s a pro.” (To be fair, Dickerson says this in regard to Miller having to endure the makeup application, but the sentiment fits both situations, so…)
25. Dickerson says he’s “always amazed at the love that people show this film,” and adds that fans bring it up to him incredibly often. This is great to hear, as we should always be telling artists how much their work means to us while they’re still alive and able to hear it.
26. Zane also suggested the gag at 1:08:21 with the sponge coming out of his mouth. The beat reminds Dickerson to praise the actor even more, adding that he was an “ally” to the director when “bad ideas” came down from the studio suits.
27. He didn’t get any pushback on killing little Danny. He did insist on one added element, though, as he wanted to immediately follow the boy exploding in the air with a shot of his bloody and torn sneaker hitting the ground below. “And the sneaker had to be a hightop.”
28. Dickerson says there’s “something kinky sexy about” Smith being covered in blood, and then the two commentators go quiet for almost two minutes out of respect for the scene. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on how Dickerson had previously mentioned Alien and Aliens as films being in the back of his head during filming, and how two scenes here reflect that – Jeryline stripping down to her underwear for the final confrontation feels like a nod to Ridley Scott’s film, while an earlier scene with Irene (CCH Pounder) and Dep. Bob (Gary Farmer) realizing they’re surrounded and choosing to blow themselves up alongside some of the demons is something of a callback to the air vent sacrifice in James Cameron’s film.
29. Asked about the film’s critical reception at the time of release, Dickerson says it received good reviews from horror-loving critics and then talks about the importance of horror in general. “Horror has always been a great way of putting out ideas, of talking about some of the things that affect us as people. Some of the best horror, like the best science fiction, talks about what it’s like to be human. Some of the best horror gets very political.”
30. The original ending would have featured The Collector showing “his true self, which is a demon made of fire.” They spent a lot of time trying to make it work, but it was “extremely difficult… back in the day of analog effects.” It was rewritten into the faceoff between him and Jeryline featuring the dancing, the crotch fire, Zane’s attempts at saying “love,” and his eventual demise from her bloody spit.
31. They both agree that a direct sequel to Demon Knight could be a lot of fun, but Dickerson says he’s unaware of any talk on the possibility.
32. Dickerson was super excited about this new Scream Factory Blu-ray in 2015, and he mentions that before its release, he had imported a Blu-ray from Germany presumably to enjoy the film in HD. He’s just like us! (Or am I the only one here who’s imported a German Blu-ray of the much maligned werewolf flick Big Bad Wolf…)
Quotes Without Context
“I was so happy to get Dick Miller for this movie.”
“There was a time when guys used to put ketchup on everything.”
“I’m a big student of Hitchcock, and the best way to make a moment of horror work is to lull the audience into a false sense of security.”
“A villain should always be the most interesting person in a movie.”
“They were a really great bunch of performers who were performing on these little leg-extension stilts wearing a diaper that had a radio-controlled tail that was being manipulated by a special effects tech right out of the frame.”
“It’s hard to direct air; it doesn’t do what you want.”
“The only censorship problem came from the producer’s wife, who didn’t want the vagina dentalis [sic] in the movie.”
“One of the executives wanted to know why the devil didn’t try to have sex with Jada.”
“It always starts with the script.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
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