Editorials
‘American Gothic’ – Weird and Underseen ’80s Slasher Turns 35
By the time American Gothic had come out, horror fans were familiar with the “don’t go in the woods” trope. Trouble was, and still is, expected for anyone who trades city comforts for the great outdoors. John Hough’s 1988 slasher admittedly follows the same path taken by others before it. However, where many of these kinds of movies continue to complete the same old routine, American Gothic takes a delightfully twisted turn that helps it stand out, even after all these years.
With a tagline like “The family that slays together, stays together,” it’s not hard to figure out where American Gothic is heading. The classic poster art, a dark parody of Grant Wood’s famous painting, even puts Yvonne De Carlo and Rod Steiger’s villainous characters front and center. Yet before they show up, viewers first meet Cynthia (Sarah Torgov), the movie’s ostensible Final Girl. Her introduction occurs at, of all places, a psychiatric hospital. Upon being discharged, Cynthia goes on a camping trip with husband Jeff (Mark Erickson) and their friends. True to fashion, their transportation breaks down along the way, although in this case, it’s a plane that conks out rather than a car.
Like some other ‘80s slashers, American Gothic is shot in the Canadian wilderness. The natural scenery of Bowen Island during winter is certainly beautiful and gives this movie an almost fairytale quality. People get lost in the woods, only to then find trouble in the form of deceptively benevolent strangers. While looking for help, Cynthia and her friends come across the isolated cabin of De Carlo and Steiger’s characters, respectively referred to as Ma and Pa. The matriarch comes off as kind, whereas her spouse is openly crabby and suspicious.
Right off, Ma and Pa are strange. Their off-grid and unplugged home looks straight out of the 1900s, and they don’t even know about the moon landing. So it’s clear these two pious oldies have been on this island for quite a long time. Regardless of their limited resources and knowledge, the couple promises to help their guests with their plane problem the next day. In the meantime, Cynthia and the others stay and gradually meet the rest of Ma and Pa’s clan. This is where the movie starts to get even stranger.
American Gothic seems like one big gag once Ma and Pa’s kids show up. Their daughter Fanny (Janet Wright) and their two sons Teddy and Woody (William Hootkins, Michael J. Pollard) are clearly middle-aged adults, yet they are treated like small children. In fact, Fanny is set to have her twelfth birthday party soon. Cynthia’s friends have trouble keeping a straight face when in the presence of sheer weirdness, but the protagonist is more understanding. This being, of course, due to her stay at the psych hospital.
Whodunit fans may be inclined to sit this one out, with there being no murder mystery to solve, however the movie makes up for that with the macabre direction and general screwiness. Ma and Pa don’t get their hands anywhere as dirty as their youngins, who each derive great pleasure from their crimes. Over the course of the middle act, Fanny, Teddy and Woody gruesomely cut away the fat of Cynthia’s group before she’s the only one left standing. From there the movie inches closer and closer to its absolutely wild finish.
For those who haven’t seen this movie yet, below are major spoilers.
While American Gothic fails to have a kill in its opening scene like so many other slashers, a killer does appear at the movie’s beginning. Viewers just don’t know it yet. Kicking the story off with someone’s release from psychiatric care is something more associated with villains than heroes. But thinking back on past slashers, this moment is significant when remembering how this movie ultimately wraps up. Once Jeff and the others are all murdered, the story throws the audience a major curveball; Cynthia is adopted by Ma and Pa. Unlike Sally in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, though, Cynthia does not resist her captivity. She instead embraces her new family and settles in for what looks to be a long, long stay.
Why Cynthia adapts so quickly to her imprisonment has to do with why she was admitted to the hospital in the first place. Through flashbacks it’s revealed that Cynthia developed PTSD after accidentally letting her baby drown. And ever since she came to this island, Cynthia has been triggered again and again. Jeff and her friends’ deaths surely make matters worse, but it’s the sight of Fanny’s baby — really a long dead infant, which brings up other questions — that pushes Cynthia over the edge. Murders notwithstanding, Ma and Pa’s family-oriented lifestyle originally had great appeal for a woman whose domestic bliss was snatched away in an instant. Everything then changes once Cynthia tries to fix the past with Fanny’s baby. When that falls through, the movie makes good on its opening’s implication; a killer was indeed released that day.
The logic behind her breakdown doesn’t entirely make sense, but Cynthia’s brutal killing spree is something fans look forward to. She single-handedly turns the movie into a reverse-slasher and brutally slaughters her captors. This whole story has been a clash between traditionalism and modernism, with the old ways eventually becoming obsolete in the most violent way possible.
American Gothic is not consistently original and, with the exception of the villains and Cynthia, the characters are not too memorable. In spite of these and other quibbles, the movie’s finale is an all-timer that doesn’t get brought up remotely enough in conversations about ‘80s slashers.
American Gothic is currently streaming on Tubi and is also available on Blu-ray from Shout Factory.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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