OVID
"Many great literary figures deserve praise as influences on horror: Shakespeare for his witches, murderous intrigues, ghosts and revenge tragedies that sparked the imagination of centuries of other writers, Lord Byron for being the vampire that became the vampire as we know it, Goethe for the best retelling of one of the most archetypal of horror stories, Dickens for his grey urban industrial shadows, Joyce for reinventing the night journey as we know it as Leopold Bloom finds himself in a bordello without rhyme or reason. But, before all of these, one poet latched onto the core of horror and used it to craft poetic narratives that would leave literature as much transformed as the unfortunates within them.
The Roman poet Ovid's
Metamorphoses retell and craft Greek legends about the transformations of flesh and spirit. Among these narratives is one of the core horror stories: that of King Lycaon. Lycaon is a king punished by being transformed into a wolf in one of the first werewolf stories to influence European literature. Also among these stories is that of Orpheus' journey into the underworld and subsequent bloody dismemberment by Maenads and King Midas' golden touch. The story of Midas has been retold in many forms over time, the man who loses everything for wealth, who makes a bargain to get the one thing that means something to him and loses the things that actually matter. Metamorphoses is EC Comics, the
Twilight Zone, the Wolfman, Kafka and Dante. Human beings basically fear two things: death and change, and according to the tarot and most general mysticism, the former is nothing more than the latter, so perhaps there's only one, and Ovid erected a shrine to it full of triumph and tragedy, paving a road for horror as we know it." -
Doc Faustus
PETER CUSHING
PETER LORRE
"Peter Lorre is one of the most distinguished and distinctive actors to appear in horror films. He rocketed to fame after starring in the Fritz Lang classic "M" in which he played a murderer of children. His portrayal of chilling depravity is still shocking today. Though filmed in 1931, the film is a harbinger of modern horror with its focus not on a supernatural monster, but on a human monster and the way one lunatic can hold an entire city in a state of terror.
Lorre was perfectly cast for this role. His short stature and bulging eyes giving him a sinister appearance, and when he speaks, in his distinctive nasal whine, the effect is terrifying. His very appearance seemed to signify decadence and menace to audiences, and even though he often apeared in high profile pictures such as Crime and Punishment, The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, he usually played someone untrustworthy or at least terribly flawed.
His first big role in Hollywood was as the obsessed Dr. Gogol in Mad Love. Lorre's place as a king of horror was cemented. After Mad Love he appeared as Raskolnikov and then a series of cheap dectective films as the lead character Mr. Moto. Though these films were popular with the audience, they were cheaply made and Lorre claimed later to hate them. It was during the productions of one of these films that he injured his shoulder and developed an addiction to heroin that plagued him for life.
In 1941 he appeared as Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon. This was the first of five films he would appear in with Sidney Greenstreet. No matter the role Lorre was playing there was always an edge of oddness to his portrayal. This is why the public loved him in films like Island of Doomed Man in which he plays a sadistic owner of an island where he keeps a colony of criminals to work in his mine. Throughout the 40s and 50s he split his time onscreen between playing supporting roles in high profile films such as Casablanca and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, smaller films like You'll Find Out (the only film to feature Lorre, Karloff and Lugosi); All Through the Night; and Quicksand, and occasional horrors such as The Beast With Five Fingers.
He was also a frequent player in radio dramas, notably mystery and horror series such as Lights Out and Inner Sanctum. He was so effective in a telling of Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart that he later released an audio recording of Poe stories.
In the 60s he was cast in a couple of Roger Corman productions- The Raven, Tales of Terror and The Comedy of Terrors, which once again brought him to the attention of horror fans.
His unusual voice, high pitched, with more than a trace of his native Hungary is probably the most imitated voice in the world- more than even Bogart or Karloff. It will crop up everywhere- movies, television, music, cartoons, even in daily life when someone wants to appear sinister.
One of the classic kings of horror, Lorre made his name in his first major film and never let the audience down." -
Neverending
R. L. STINE
RAY BRADBURY
