Editorials
Stay Home, Watch Horror: 5 Documentaries For the Horror Fan to Stream This Week
If there’s one thing horror fans like almost as much as watching horror movies, it’s learning about their favorite movies. There’s no shortage of fantastic horror-themed documentaries that provide insight and detailed accounts about the making of horror’s finest. Lengthy docs like Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy and Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th provide expansive historical context to our favorite franchises. Both are on Shudder, and both serve as great gateways into the ever-growing world of horror documentaries. With the upcoming June 4 release of Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street on Shudder, we’re dedicating this week’s picks to documentaries for the horror fan.
These five feature-length documentaries offer something for all tastes, from deep-dives into classic films and filmmakers to shedding light on a horror fan’s favorite Halloween pastime.
As always, all are available to stream now…
King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen – Shudder
The title says it all; this documentary spotlights the work of maverick genre filmmaker Larry Cohen. The “wild” isn’t hyperbole either; Cohen’s fearless attitude and often guerilla filmmaking style made for a one-of-a-kind auteur that can’t be replicated. His career is told through a series of riveting interviews with notable talking heads like Martin Scorsese, Michael Moriarty, Fred Williamson, J.J. Abrams, Cohen himself, and many more. With a career that spanned 50 years, there’s a lot of ground to cover. King Cohen makes it seem effortless, including all the highlights and behind-the-scenes anecdotes of Cohen faves like The Stuff, Q: The Winged Serpent, and beyond.
Haunters: The Art of the Scare – Prime Video, Shudder, Tubi
Ah, Halloween. The most wonderful time of the year. Jon Schnitzer’s vibrant doc delves into the subculture surrounding a major seasonal staple- the haunt. While it features a slew of notable talking heads, Haunters focuses on the distinct branches of this subculture through three central storylines. They follow home haunter Donald Julson, the unhinged Russ McKamey and the world’s most controversial extreme haunt, along with legendary scare actor Shar Mayer providing the beating heart of the film. This doc is as much an examination of what drives a person to dedicate themselves to the haunt as it is a celebration. If you’re missing Halloween, this is a must.
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau – Prime Video
1996’s The Island of Dr. Moreau was a catastrophe from start to finish. This documentary chronicles the disastrous production, from horrible creative decisions and extreme weather conditions, to cast and crew upheaval. As the title indicates, it focuses on original director Richard Stanley’s journey with what was meant to be his ideal dream project as he faced continuous, insurmountable obstacles that eventually led to his firing only three days into filming. Yet, what transpires on screen is far more insane and unbelievable than anything I’ve written here. Lost Soul details how the Hollywood system chewed up Stanley and spit him out, explaining his long absence from the spotlight until Color Out of Space. It does it in the most captivating way possible.
Memory: The Origins of Alien – Crackle
This examination of a horror classic comes from Alexandre O. Phillipe, who previously brought us the comprehensive 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene (currently available on Hulu). Phillipe turns his laser focus to the chest-bursting scene in Alien. Instead of a technical breakdown, he embarks on a philosophical and mythological journey into the origins of the creative process. An academic approach, Phillipe weaves together the film’s influences, the visions of H.R. Giger and writer Dan O’Bannon, and even the emotions of the actors involved in the critical scene. The atypical approach means it’s the least accessible pick on this list, but it’s perfect for those who appreciate a vastly different, ideological angle on an oft explored subject.
Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue – Tubi
Written by Joseph Maddrey and based on his book, Nightmares works as a history lesson on horror. More specifically, the documentary breaks down horror by decade, exploring the correlation between the movies and how they reflected the era in which they were made. From wartime anxieties to counterculture, this doc brings interesting context to our favorites. Narrated by Lance Henriksen, look for a revolving door of notable genre filmmakers like John Carpenter, George A. Romero, Joe Dante, Larry Cohen, Mick Garris, Brian Yuzna, and Roger Corman. The broad overview structure means it doesn’t go too in-depth, meaning that it may not be as informative for the already well-versed horror fan. But for an introductory social and history lesson on horror’s evolution, constructed in a highly entertaining manner and chock full of nostalgia, it’s a well-rounded doc worth watching.
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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