We've seen a lot of horror movies over the decades, and some have aged better than others. Even among the classics, there are certain storytelling decisions that look a little tone deaf, or even downright toxic, to modern eyes. In some cases, these bad moves were intentional displays of bigoted thinking, but in other cases we may give the creators of these films the benefit of the doubt. After all, the only reason we're still talking about these movies is because they're interesting or scary enough to be worth considering at all. Even so, these horror movies haven't aged well.
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00:00 From racist archetypes in The Shining to transphobia in the '80s cult classic Sleepaway Camp,
00:06 there are plenty of reasons to cringe when watching some of our favorite older horror
00:10 flicks.
00:11 Here are some horror movies that haven't aged too well.
00:15 There's definitely a cult following for the conjoined twin horror flick Basket Case, but
00:20 its final scene ruins whatever twisted joy could otherwise be found.
00:24 "Oh God, Duane, something awful's happened."
00:27 Basket Case follows conjoined twins Duane and Belial, who were separated by a trio of
00:32 doctors at an early age.
00:34 Throughout the movie, they hunt down and kill each of them, one by one.
00:44 Basket Case has its fair share of dark humor, and even some of its murders are played for
00:49 laughs.
00:50 The problem comes when Belial attempts to rape Duane's girlfriend, Sharon.
00:54 Belial, whose hatred of the world has been somewhat understandable, crosses the line
00:59 from being a bitter misfit to an actual monster.
01:02 Any sympathy for the character goes right out the window, and is only made worse when
01:06 Belial kills Sharon after she tries to fight him off.
01:09 While some viewers might find humor in a misshapen creature with no legs trying to rape someone,
01:15 the scene is gut-churning and comes out of nowhere.
01:18 It's exploitative at best and downright leering at worst, making the whole thing feel even
01:22 more horrendous.
01:29 The shifting tones and B-movie grizzle of Basket Case both age the film, but nothing
01:34 makes it unwatchable quite like that ending sequence.
01:37 Rape isn't just a plot point, and it certainly shouldn't be a punchline.
01:40 It's a real shame, too, because the gonzo weirdness of Basket Case is a lot of fun,
01:45 and this movie could have been a cult classic to love.
01:48 Vincenzo Natali's 2009 film, Splice, has a repulsive reputation.
01:53 It follows the groundbreaking exploits of two married geneticists, played by Adrienne
01:57 Brody and Sarah Pauly, whose primary interest involves splicing animal DNA and making uncanny
02:03 hybrids for scientific study.
02:05 Their prized creation is Dren, a humanoid female who also possesses backward-bending
02:10 legs, retractable wings, and a long, fleshy tail with a stinger.
02:14 Needless to say, the couple's version of Frankenstein's monster comes with equally disastrous consequences.
02:20 What makes Splice so enduringly controversial are the film's sex scenes, all of which toy
02:25 with abhorrent human taboos of incest, rape, and pedophilia.
02:29 One of these exchanges involves Dren secreting a pheromone in order to seduce her adoptive
02:34 father, who succumbs to the scent.
02:37 Though this scene is certainly hard to stomach, it's just scratching the surface.
02:40 The film's climax involves Dren morphing into a male to rape and impregnate Elsa.
02:46 Though Dren is killed during the ghastly act, Elsa becomes pregnant and chooses to carry
02:51 the resulting hybrid seed to Term, after being offered a hefty sum by the scientific community.
02:56 Easily one of the ickiest films of its era, some viewers will find that the film's shocking
03:01 elements outweigh any potential commentary on eugenics or whatever it was the filmmakers
03:06 were trying to say.
03:08 Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead was groundbreaking in a lot of ways, paving the way for indie
03:13 horror throughout the 1980s.
03:15 However, one scene probably should have been left on the cutting room floor.
03:18 The hyper-violent romp had no shortage of blood, guts, and gore, but it also has a completely
03:23 unnecessary rape scene.
03:25 The first victim of the titular Evil Dead is Cheryl, who is chased through the woods
03:29 before being sexually assaulted by a tree.
03:32 "But the trees, Ash.
03:36 Ain't no.
03:38 Don't you see, Ash, they're alive!"
03:41 The sequence is graphic, focusing on Cheryl's abject terror as vines hold her limbs apart.
03:47 She tries to cover her naked flesh, and the vines yank her hands away.
03:50 It's one of the more intense assault sequences out there, despite the fantastical elements.
03:55 In an interview with the San Diego Reader, Raimi expressed his regret over the scene.
04:00 "I think it was unnecessarily gratuitous and a little too brutal.
04:04 My goal is not to offend people.
04:06 It is to entertain, thrill, scare, make them laugh, but not to offend them."
04:11 It's unfortunate that the 2013 reboot also included a tree rape sequence, though the
04:16 director was allegedly required to include it by a producer.
04:20 At least the Starz series, Ash vs. Evil Dead, gave us some justice for Cheryl, with Sanweiss
04:26 returning in the role and having a few choice words about her experience in the forest.
04:30 The Evil Dead is an all-time horror classic, but that scene is totally unnecessary.
04:36 Horror director Eli Roth has been very open about his love of cannibal films, even going
04:41 so far as to casting Rosero Diodato, the director of Cannibal Holocaust, to play a cannibal
04:47 member of the elite hunting club in Hostel 2.
04:50 In 2013, Roth finally made his own cannibal film, The Green Inferno.
04:55 Inspired by the explosion of Italian cannibal films of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Roth
05:01 chose to format The Green Inferno similarly to Cannibal Holocaust, by featuring a film
05:06 within a film of streamed footage.
05:09 The film follows a group of environmental activists who plan a trip to the Amazon rainforest
05:13 to try and stop a petrochemical company from deforesting the area and displacing the indigenous
05:18 tribes by streaming footage to raise awareness of their cause.
05:23 Unfortunately, much like the filming of Cannibal Holocaust, there were a number of ethical
05:27 and humanitarian concerns that weren't taken into consideration while Roth was filming.
05:32 "This whole thing was a mistake."
05:34 The Green Inferno was heavily criticized by Survival International, who felt the film
05:39 reinforced neocolonialism and perpetuated stigmas against indigenous peoples living
05:44 in voluntary isolation by portraying them as savage.
05:48 Typically, cannibal films are meant to critique the white savior behavior of colonialists.
05:53 But because of the film's extreme nature, the film comes off as far more critical of
05:57 indigenous tribes, portraying them as nothing more than unintelligent and dangerous.
06:02 Roth dismissed these claims, believing that corporations continually tear apart indigenous
06:06 communities regardless of how indigenous people are portrayed, and called their criticisms,
06:11 quote, "misdirected anger and frustration."
06:14 The film remains banned in many countries due to its extreme depictions of blood, violence,
06:19 and gore.
06:20 Nosferatu
06:21 Not unlike its unofficial namesake, Nosferatu is pretty xenophobic.
06:26 More specifically, it's incredibly anti-Semitic.
06:30 Nearly all of Europe leading up to and including the early 1920s was a hotbed of anti-Semitic
06:35 rhetoric, influencing a great deal of the public's social and political engagement.
06:40 The Dreyfus Affair started in 1894, and the Beer Hall Putsch would happen the year after
06:45 Nosferatu was released.
06:47 We all know what happened throughout Europe after that.
06:51 Dracula was notoriously xenophobic, emphasizing some of the more racist anxieties prevalent
06:56 in 19th century English society, including the fear of encroachment by foreigners.
07:01 Count Dracula himself was the personification of those fears.
07:05 Director F.W. Murnau's vision of Count Orlok took Dracula a step further.
07:10 Where the latter could shapeshift into a bat or a wolf, Murnau opted to have Orlok transform
07:15 into a rat, a racist image for Jewish people at the time.
07:19 "But if one were to determine what attributes the Jews share with the beast, it would be
07:24 that of the rat."
07:26 They were also often referred to as vermin, carriers of pestilence and consumers of all
07:31 that lay before them.
07:32 Orlok spends the film buying up all the property he can get his hands on and spreading disease
07:37 wherever he goes.
07:39 On top of this, Orlok's physical features were overtly anti-Semitic, pulling from the
07:43 countless anti-Semitic caricatures that predate the film's release, not to mention those that
07:48 would come after.
07:49 Eventually, this would include the Nazi Party and be used as anti-Semitic propaganda.
07:55 His long fingers, hunched back, and elongated, hooked nose had been used for centuries to
07:59 dehumanize Jewish people.
08:01 In 1922, they were used to sell movie tickets, and no one batted an eye.
08:07 Love it or hate it, The Shining is one of the most famous horror films of all time.
08:12 Based on the novel by Stephen King and directed by industry giant Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
08:17 has been both lauded and heavily criticized since it was released in 1980.
08:22 Considering the film's affecting atmosphere, early adoption of cutting-edge film technology,
08:26 and striking cinematography, the praise is well-deserved.
08:29 However, when you factor in the stilted characters, racist tropes, and Shelley Duvall's horrific
08:35 experiences working with Kubrick, the criticism rings true.
08:39 The film tells the story of the Torrance family, who move into the Grand Overlook Hotel after
08:44 father Jack Torrance is hired as the off-season caretaker.
08:48 While things are finally starting to look up for the Torrances, the family we meet in
08:52 the beginning of the film is already in crisis.
08:54 Jack's wife Wendy and their son Danny have been physically and mentally abused by Jack,
08:59 who is an alcoholic.
09:01 Of course, things take a turn for the worse as the solitude and ghostly spirits in the
09:05 hotel itself drive Jack mad.
09:08 Danny and Wendy's only saving grace is Danny's magical powers, which include premonitions
09:13 and telepathy.
09:14 Those magic powers connect Danny to the hotel chef Dick Halloran, who embodies the racist
09:20 trope of the magical black character in King's story.
09:24 Halloran is portrayed as a tour guide for and a savior of the Torrance family, a minimized
09:29 role that only shows Halloran in their service.
09:32 He's also the first and only character killed on screen, which recalls another racist horror
09:37 trope.
09:38 The well-earned criticism doesn't end there.
09:41 Shelley Duvall has described the overwhelming emotional intensity Kugrich required on set,
09:46 as well as the hundreds of takes he demanded.
09:49 Essentially, it seems like an arduous process that targeted Duvall more than the rest of
09:53 the cast.
09:54 "I don't sympathize with Shelley."
09:56 The Shining might be an important horror movie, but parts of it feel as old and neglected
10:00 as the halls of the Overlook Hotel.
10:03 To say The Silence of the Lambs is a beloved film is an understatement.
10:07 It's pretty safe to assume that anyone who regularly watches movies has seen it, and
10:11 chances are you've seen at least a few of the parodies that are scattered throughout
10:15 pop culture as well.
10:16 "It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again."
10:20 The film has also been turned into a spoof musical, spawned a successful franchise of
10:24 films, and there surely would be no Hannibal TV series if it had not been for the success
10:28 of this film.
10:29 The film follows Jodie Foster's FBI agent-in-training Clarice Starling as she races against the
10:35 clock to solve the case of a possible serial killer called Buffalo Bill, seeking assistance
10:40 from a gifted psychologist named Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who is locked away for his own history
10:45 of murder and cannibalism.
10:47 "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."
10:55 Today the conversations surrounding The Silence of the Lambs are focused on the copaganda
11:00 of a film glorifying FBI agent Clarice Starling, or the blatant transphobia of the characterization
11:06 of Jamie Gumm.
11:07 The film had its fair share of protests in 1991 through 1992, with the Gay and Lesbian
11:13 Alliance Against Defamation and gay critics believing audiences would read Jamie Gumm
11:18 as a gay man and treat gay people in real life accordingly.
11:21 As our language continues to evolve surrounding gender identity and the transgender experience,
11:27 so too have our discussions surrounding the film.
11:30 Unfortunately, the public consciousness' view of trans people was greatly influenced
11:34 by the portrayal of Jamie Gumm, with some conservative pundits even nicknaming anti-trans
11:39 legislation "Buffalo Bills."
11:41 It's important to remember that although Silence of the Lambs is an absolute masterclass in
11:46 filmmaking, its problematic legacy still shines as brightly as all of the trophies it earned.
11:53 Released in 1983, the cult classic Sleepaway Camp is best remembered as a low-budget disaster
11:58 featuring wildly inappropriate adult camp staff, the cruelest pre-teen campers ever
12:03 captured on film, and an infamous ending that has been the subject of debate for almost
12:08 40 years.
12:09 The love and following for the film lie predominantly with the campy nature of this summer camp
12:14 slasher, but its shocking and downright problematic ending solidified its cult status.
12:20 The film follows a simple slasher formula, where an unseen force kills campers and counselors
12:26 one by one in progressively weirder ways.
12:29 When the killer is revealed, we see the teenaged Angela standing nude and groaning like an
12:34 animal, and as camp counselor Ronnie exclaims,
12:37 "Oh my God, she's a boy!"
12:39 As it turns out, Angela is not Angela, but her brother Peter, who is forced to live as
12:45 a girl by his aunt Martha.
12:47 The ending is wildly problematic for perpetuating the dangerous transgender myth, implying that
12:52 Peter and Angela's deceased father was a gay man and was therefore not allowed to raise
12:57 children, and also for showcasing the fully nude body of an underage child.
13:02 On the surface, Sleepaway Camp is absolutely a transphobic and homophobic movie, but the
13:07 film also serves as an incredible metaphor for how forcing gender roles onto someone
13:12 that doesn't align with who they are is dangerous.
13:15 Even in the ugliest moments of films, there's always something that can be savored if we
13:19 can look for the nuance.
13:21 The horror in the ending of Sleepaway Camp is not that Angela was assigned male at birth.
13:26 The horror is recognizing that we've been watching a child who has been abused and mentally
13:30 tortured for years, and that this child is in desperate need of help.
13:35 [music]