In the theater, someone screams. The lights come up, and the crowd sees two paramedics race down the aisle. Then, suddenly, Vincent Price’s voice booms from behind the screen. “Ladies and gentlemen, there is no cause for alarm,” Price announces from the past, his voice the only sign that today’s screening does indeed continue. “She’s being attended to by a doctor and is quite alright.” As the crowd laughs and then begins to cheer, the two paramedics – who bear a striking resemblance to the festival programmers – carry the woman out on a stretcher.
This is “The Tingler,” William Castle’s 1959 horror film about the paranormal nature of fear, programmed by horror maestro Joe Dante himself for the Overlook Film Festival. The signature piece of the festival’s weekend programming, “The Tingler” is part of a double-feature with a 30th-anniversary screening of Dante’s “Matinee.” Dante has made the trip down to New Orleans and, alongside star John Goodman, has introduced his cult class to a new generation of fans. And sitting down afterward, Dante is delighted to have played a part in bringing some old tricks back to life.
“That happened to be one of the great double bills that I’ve ever seen,” Dante says. He should know; not content to program a feature or participate in the Q&A, Dante has sat alongside his audience for the past four hours, taking in both movies with their enthusiastic audiences. “And to see ‘The Tingler,’ which played great for a movie that makes no sense at all.” In addition to the paramedic stunt, the Overlook organizers also commissioned the design of devices that would recreate the vibrating sensation synonymous with Castle’s film. It is the closest many audience members will ever come to experiencing a William Castle release the way it was meant to be. “It can only work in that environment where it was made to be a gimmick movie,” Dante says.
Joe Dante knows a thing or two about putting on a show. His films include horror titles like “The Howling” and “Gremlins,” and many contemporary filmmakers credit him with their interest in the genre. As both a director and a historian, Dante follows the tradition of men like Peter Bogdanovich, who create art about film history even as they nourish it. Trailers From Hell, his wildly popular trailer and video essay series, has long celebrated the art of movie marketing and introduced filmmakers from the ’60s and ’70s to a new generation of genre fans. The series has gathered the insights of B-movie impresarios like Roger Corman and Lloyd Kaufman, as well as contemporary icons like Karyn Kusama and Fede Álvarez. But when asked to turn that historical lens back on his own work, Dante demurs.
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“When I started out making movies for Roger Corman, we never even thought of our movies as part of the general run of movies,” he explains. “The movies never got reviewed. If they did, they got bad reviews, and so we really weren’t part of the film business.” But over time, as home video made these films more accessible to new audiences, his movies achieved what Dante describes as “a certain profile you didn’t expect” while shooting the film. “Nobody makes a movie thinking this is gonna be the greatest movie ever made.” He pauses. “Maybe James Cameron,” Dante adds with a laugh.
He points to “Matinee” as an example. Made for $13 million in 1993, “Matinee” opened in sixth place at the box office, finishing behind long-running titles like “Aladdin” and “A Few Good Men” and earning only $700,000 more than the notable classic “Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice.” It would fail to make its budget back during its theatrical run. “It was not on the radar at all when it was new,” Dante recalls. “It was just another movie that nobody went to see. And then, over the years, it picked up its own reputation. And that’s basically the story of my whole career.”
But with time as the great equalizer, people began to appreciate the brilliance of Lawrence Woolsey, the William Castle-like character created by Dante and Goodman. “Matinee” is a film about our collective love of movies; as the moviegoing experience becomes less of a touchpoint for most Americans, films like allow us to relive the dream. “Movies about the act of going to the movies appeal particularly to people who have that religion,” Dante says. “The people who picked up the idea of going to the movies when they were young.”
With respect to Tom Cruise, moviegoing has become something of a lost art in America. While most of “Matinee” is a celebration of the form, one final exchange – a recommendation from the multiplex mogul to refurbish as a two-screen theater – was a hint of the industry’s direction. In conversation, Dante illustrates the delicate nature of movie theaters by pointing to the theater closures during the pandemic. “There’s hardly any movie theaters left in Hollywood,” he explains. “There are a lot of facades. There’s lots of empty buildings. But they’re just not there.”
The changes to modern marketing certainly don’t help. “It’s just hard to break through,” Dante explains. “It’s hard to make an impression.” The director got his start cutting trailers, and while the occasional marketing campaign reminds us of what a little showmanship can do – he describes the 2022 campaign for “Smile” as “very clever” – these days, there’s a lot more competition for a lot less attention. That means even highly lauded movies can fall through cracks a little easier. “That’s why I think a number of the Oscar movies this year that were pretty good movies didn’t do any business at all.”
But if some of the celebrations of cinema in “Matinee” feel trapped in the past, other parts of the movie are uncomfortably relatable. Students practice duck-and-cover drills even as one girl shouts about the country’s placebo response to systemic issues. Misinformation and panic move through the town with frightening speed; in one scene, people fight over a final box of cornflakes as the bomb threats loom. “When I was a kid, I had the same attitude as the girl in the movie,” Dante says. “I thought it was ridiculous to sit in the hallway with your head in between your knees and let the walls cave in. Don’t these people know what an atom bomb is?”
Then again, “Matinee” is not really a movie about the things that scare us. It is a movie that explores our escapism through fear – how the images we see on the screen can help us confront the frightening things that happen to us in our day-to-day lives. For Dante, modern horror remains more popular than ever because of the subversive nature of its appeal. “As we become more polarized – and we are more polarized than ever – it becomes difficult to figure out who’s the audience you’re making a movie for,” Dante notes. “If you don’t want to alienate a group of people, then you have to make sure you don’t go off on some subjects to a point where the audience gets turned off. On the other hand, you still want to make your point.”
In other words, horror allows filmmakers to change minds without hitting people over the head. “They seem apolitical on the surface, and so therefore they’re more accepted.”
One great example is “Get Out,” which Dante describes as a film that was less worried about walking that line. “’Get Out’ is a well-crafted horror movie that happens to be about something specific that certain political stripes would probably find offensive,” he notes. “But nonetheless, there were enough people that supported it to say, well, this movie’s telling it like it is.” Another filmmaker who stands out is Boots Riley. “I mean, this guy is really good,” Dante adds, noting that a new generation of filmmakers of color can tell their stories in ways that won’t work for every audience member. “But they’re there, and for a long time, that wasn’t possible.”
But even as new filmmakers establish their own place in movie history, the legacy of filmmaker Joe Dante only continues to grow. While children of the ’90s grow up and start their own families, the cycle of reappreciation begins anew. And as one of the filmmakers to fully bridge the world of practical and digital effects, a newfound appreciation for “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” and “Small Soldiers” – which Dante refers to as his “Gremlins 3” – will continue to follow him in his travels. Just remember: if you happen to be at a Joe Dante event and hear someone scream – in the words of Vincent Price, there’s no cause for alarm. This show shows no signs of slowing down.
