Boogeymen

Are you afraid of the dark? Are you afraid to go to sleep, or have sex outdoors?  Michael Meyers, Jason Voorhess, Freddie Kruger, and Leatherface are some of the most iconic villains we love or love to hate in modern horror cinema. 

Taking subtle ques from Hitchcock's Psycho, John Carpenter's Halloween was set in the suburbs of 1978.  This was far away from the romanticized European castles of Bela Lugosi Dracula movies and horror films of yesteryear.  Psycho brought horror to the modern age, but Halloween took off from the platform and sliced it's way to the top and continues to do so.

Michael Meyers Oil on Masonite 18 x 24 alesiogessa.tumblr.com

Less has always been more with John Carpenter.  The original Halloween is a pretty bloodless movie, yet it is filled with terror.  You know people are going to die, it's a slasher flick.  Is someone gonna die? That's not a scary question.  Where's Michael Meyers?  That's a terrifying question.  Michael passes by the window and quickly leaves the frame, leaving you to wonder where he is and when he'll reappear.  This is what creates real suspense. 

Freddie Pencil on Paper 18 x 24 alexiogessa.tumblr.com

Freddie Kruger was always the boogeyman you loved to hate because you knew at some point despite all that soda and candy, you we're going to fall asleep eventually.  As a child you wondered if it was possible to really attack people in your dreams.  But at least with Freddie, you would have chuckle before being sliced up!

1974 Leatherface Oil on Canvas 24 x 24 alexiogessa.tumblr.com

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a slasher not to be slept on.  It's one of the few horror films to take place mostly during the day.  Think about that one.  Inspired in pieces from the psychosis of real life Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, Chainsaw delivers cannibalism and murder in terrific form.  Though the story is fictional, it does contain certain historical elements.  Ed Gein did wear the skin of women who looked like his mother.   His house was filled with body parts, lamp shades made of skin, trash, and all sorts of vile human remains.  This combined with the Partridge family from hell, and you have the 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

It would appear that Freddie speaks enough for the both of them but there's been one killer who makes people think twice before pitching a tent, and that is Jason Voorhees.  The revenge of a Mother's Elephant Boy and about 10 sequels later you have one of the longest running franchises in Hollywood history, Friday The 13th.  TSH TSH TSH AH AH AH  is the sound people don't hear when they're too busy rolling on the grass at Camp Crystal Lake.

Freddie VS. Jason Scratchboard 8.5 x 11 alexiogessa.tumblr.com

 You can't keep a good man down. I guess you can't keep a great boogeyman down either.  The silent stalker or the trashing talking slasher, boogeymen will always haunt us, make us laugh, and make us address how we deal with fear.