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.
Found footage movies rely on immersion and a particular kind of suspension of disbelief in order to scare viewers, so it stands to reason that playing along with the “kayfabe” of it all is necessary for these movies to be effective. However, despite being something of a purist when it comes to in-universe recordings, I’ve come to accept that traditional productions can benefit from the occasional injection of found footage thrills.
For instance, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation makes genius use of the analog gimmick in order to trap us in the titular rooms alongside our main characters before effortlessly switching back to a more cinematic language. In honor of these dynamic films that manage to combine the best of both worlds, today I’d like to share six other hybrid horror movies that successfully incorporate found footage into their scares!
For the purposes of this list, “hybrid” horror movies are defined as any flick that shifts between diegetic recordings and traditional filming techniques for a significant amount of time (or at least for pivotal scenes).
As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own hybrid favorites if you think a particularly freaky one was missed.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. The Last Broadcast (1998)
Internet critics may have overstated the influence that Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler’s The Last Broadcast had on The Blair Witch Project, but the found footage subgenre still owes a huge debt to this underrated piece of avant-garde filmmaking. However, while the movie sets itself up as a documentary about the disappearance of a group of cryptid-hunters attempting to track down the Jersey Devil, things take a darker and much more grounded turn towards the final act.
I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say that the jarring shift in perspective actually helps to sell the idea that everything we’ve seen before the finale was an attempt at using filmmaking to manipulate the public perception of a “real” incident.
Not bad for a movie with a $900 budget!
4. Cam (2018)
When you consider just how much the internet affects our daily lives, it’s strange that we don’t see Screenlife elements pop up in more movies these days. For instance, Isa Mazzei & Daniel Goldhaber’s highly underrated Cam only works as a freaky parable about online sex-work because it masterfully balances Madeline Brewer’s intimate moments with highly immersive segments within cyberspace.
While one might argue that the entire film could have been produced as a Screenlife experience, the hybrid approach allows the filmmakers to explore our main character’s life beyond the screens – with the duality of modern human existence actually becoming a recurring theme in the story.
3. Banshee Chapter (2013)
Most of H.P. Lovecraft’s popular stories were told in the epistolary format (where the text is presented as an in-universe compilation of letters or personal notes), so it makes sense that a spiritually faithful adaptation of his work would incorporate elements from the modern-day equivalent to epistolary fiction – found footage!
That’s why Blair Erickson’s Banshee Chapter is such an effective scare-fest, as this hybrid adaptation of From Beyond -retold through a conspiratorial lens as it references MK-Ultra and even secretive numbers stations- immerses viewers in a mind-bending tapestry of Cosmic Horror that blurs the line between fiction and reality.
2. The Deep House (2019)
The underwater setting does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s The Deep House, with the film being especially uncomfortable if you’re already scared of tight spaces and being deprived of oxygen. However, even the universally unsettling elements of the flick only work because the POV often shifts into claustrophobic footage courtesy of our main characters’ GoPro cameras.
Telling the story of a couple of YouTubers who encounter a haunted house at the bottom of an artificial lake while vacationing in France, The Deep House’s first-person exploration sequences contain some of the film’s scariest moments. In fact, I’d argue that the movie didn’t even need ghosts, as becoming trapped in the titular House already sounds like a fate worse than death.
1. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
My personal favorite instance of filmmakers successfully managing to combine traditional cinematography with POV filmmaking, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, is proof that the two formats can co-exist if the right story comes along.
After all, what better way to conclude a mockumentary all about reality getting increasingly more cinematic than by ditching the found footage gimmick altogether during the finale? Not only does this shift in presentation work on a conceptual level, but it also elevates Behind The Mask into a proper Slasher, which is probably why we’re so excited for that long-overdue sequel!
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