In the still of the nightmare

Posted by Richard Harland Smith on March 28, 2008

The job of still photographer on a movie set may seem to be somewhat superfluous when compared to all the other activity during principle photography but it's an art form that deserves more recognition – especially regarding the horror movie. While stills for straight films can preserve the glamor of the production or the physical beauty of its stars or the scale of the production, stills from horror movies preserve mood and evoke deeper emotions of dread and disgust. Look at this wonderful picture of Lon Chaney as THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925). What's great about this still is that, no matter how long you study it, Chaney remains as creepy and unearthly as when you first clapped eyes on him.

This pic from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), quite possibly taken by actor/producer Karl Hardman, is one of my favorite film stills of all time, let alone from horror flicks. It speaks for the whole of the film and is undeniably creepy for being captured in broad daylight. It's the zombie girl in the foreground who really grabs me. She's got a fairy tale quality about her, with her pale skin and long dark hair half obscuring her face. She could be the dead girl of Gogol's Vij, Sleeping Beauty, one of the BRIDES OF DRACULA or Regan from THE EXORCIST (1973). And speak of the Devil…

… this pose of Linda Blair from that titanic shocker is creepier than anything Dick Smith molded out of Latex. I fear this girl, I wouldn't get within striking distance of her (let along testicle-crushing distance) or want to be left alone with her for any length of time. There's such unearthly and unnatural focus in those eyes and not a shred of humanity left. Coincidentally, I happened to spend some time with Linda just this week and having enjoyed her buoyant, energized personality and total professionalism doesn't detract from the chill factor of this predatory stare.

I don't recall if this stunning fenestral fright from THE INNOCENTS (1961) actually occurs in director Jack Clayton and screenwriter Truman Capote's eerie adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw but the set-up really does communicate the story's concern with the sins of the past leaching in to poison the present and the future.

This iconic image of Tony Perkins from PSYCHO (1960) is Dadaesque in its sense of self-loathing and really illustrates the divided soul/mind of Norman Bates, reaching out to do harm with one hand while the other registers the horror and clamps down on what must be the mother of all primal screams.

Isn't this just a gorgeous picture? How black are those blacks? This is one of the first film stills I ever owned, purchased for (I think) half a buck in a Barkers department store. I hadn't at that time seen DRACULA (1931) and I don't recall if I knew anything of the story so I probably puzzled over the relationship between these two men, one throttling the life out of the other. Trying to disassociate the image now from all I know about the making of the film and the actors involved this pose looks like the triumph of melancholy, paranoia and spite over the better judgment of a common man, depicted as being fatally smothered by his darker angels.

To horror fans of a certain generation, this black-and-white on set still of Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface in THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974) is as iconic that of Bela Lugosi as Dracula or Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera. Lacking the classic Hollywood elements of the still just above it, this shot – slightly coarse, slightly out-of-focus, seems like a moment ripped from a Vietnam newsreel, which perhaps was the idea (although the feature itself was of course in color). By the mid-1970s, color became the default presentation of film stills, which brought the medium up to date, I suppose, but left behind something much more magical and nightmarish.

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4 Responses In the still of the nightmare

Posted By movie fan : March 28, 2008 8:32 pm

Great blog! i loved the pictures, especially LON CHANEY in the phantom of the opera. I loved all versions of that story, including the wonderful but underrated CLAUDE RAINS. I know that it was not too horrific, but it was wonderful. HERBERT LOM was also something to see in his 1962 version. i was disappointed to see that you did not include any PETER LORRE films, although he did plenty of horror movies, such as the beast with five fingers, the face behind the mask, and his essential German film M(although I do not know if that classifies as horror). Here are some more actors you forgot: VINCENT PRICE, BELA LUGOSI, and all those creepy blonde brats in the village of the condemned, which starred the brilliantly uncreepy GEORGE SANDERS. who knew he would go in for horror?

Posted By Jeff : March 28, 2008 11:33 pm

The moment that almost stopped my heart…that incredibly creepy scene where Deborah Kerr is playing hide and seek with the children in THE INNOCENTS. And she goes behind the curtain of the patio window and turns around and sees the maleovant ghost of Peter Quint coming toward her. He comes right up to the glass. You can hear him breathing and she's too terrified to scream. He stares right into her soul…It's a look of such utter hatred. If that scene doesn't freeze the blood in your veins, nothing will. That still you picked showing Martin Stephens as Miles and Peter Wyngarde as Quint is a publicity still, if I'm not mistaken. That shot does not appear in THE INNOCENTS.

Posted By RHS : March 29, 2008 11:13 am

I knew that shot from THE INNOCENTS was a publicity still … the silvery finish and the absolute perfection of the image are dead giveaways… but I couldn't recall if there was a corresponding moment in the film. I love those posed publicity pictures from the classic era and nearly used one from PSYCHO of John Gavin posed between a cowering Vera Miles and Janet Leigh but opted for the Tony Perkins one, which is more iconic. I'm actually surprised no rock star has copied Perkins' pose for the cover of an album, it's so instantly recognizable and yet so odd.

Posted By Steve : November 24, 2008 9:00 am

Some great pictures there. I see what you mean about the girl in the still from Night of the Living Dead, but I would probably never have noticed it if you hadn’t pointed it out.

Love the picture of Bela Lugosi. He was a natural to play Dracula. In my opinion nobody else looks as the Count and I think that it was Lugosi’s best role.

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