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The Sadist



cast :

Arch Hall Jr., Richard Alden, Marilyn Manning, Don Russell, Helen Hovey

crew :

Directed by: James Landis
Written by: James Landis
Produced by: L. Stephen Snyder
DOP: Vilmos Zsigmond
Editor: Anthony M. Lanza
Music Score by: Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter

release date :

1963

In the pantheon of writings about the horror genre, a few specific films in particular are often singled out as being the most influential on what has become and remains one of cinema’s biggest audience attractions. The two in particular that have dominated popular film studies are ‘Psycho’ (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) and ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (George A. Romero, 1968). The former proved to be seminal in placing its horrific events in an everyday domestic setting and having the source of the horror arise from familial tensions. It also unwittingly, in its use of a simple knife as a murder weapon, invented the slasher genre that would come to dominate seventies horror filmmaking. It was also notable as it was directed by the very respectable Alfred Hitchcock. At the time many thought he was slumming it by taking on such potentially trashy subject matter, but he imbued it with a level of artfulness that paved the way for many more high-profile directors who fancied trying their hand at horror. The latter film meanwhile was influential in its extremely graphic use of gore, going far beyond the level of mere suggestion that censors had previously insisted upon, thus cementing another trope of the genre. Many horror fans actually choose to sit through scenes of gore and bloodletting almost as some kind of test of stamina or devotion. ‘Night of the Living Dead’ also introduced the idea of the downbeat negative ending, and also created the now accepted idea of the zombie as an un-dead flesh-eating human rather than people under Haitian voodoo spells that had featured in previous movies.


There is no doubting the power of these two films in influencing generations of filmmakers, but what such teleological (i.e., starting at a later point in history and working backwards to prove a theory) readings of film history tend to do is overlook the other films around at the time that could have been just as influential. Films like James Landis’ ‘The Sadist’ (1963). Although it was released three years after ‘Psycho’ it’s highly plausible that George A. Romero or any other number of future horror masters such as Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven could have been in attendance at a screening of ‘The Sadist’ - after all, even the pioneers need to be inspired by something. In fact, more so than the first two films I mentioned, ‘The Sadist’ seems to have had a direct influence on Hooper’s ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974) and Cravens ‘Last House on the Left’ (1972). What makes ‘The Sadist’ seem so influential in my eyes is its unrelenting brutality which is genuinely quite shocking for a film of its period. It certainly proved that way to British censors as the film was denied a cinematic release in 1963, was only released uncut on video in 1999, and is now set to finally appear on Region 2.


What starts off looking like a typically badly acted, low-budget b-movie quickly descends into something actually quite terrifying. ‘The Sadist’ was reportedly the first film to be based upon the infamous real-life American serial killers Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate, who in 1957 went on a spree that left eleven people dead. As befits its tiny $33,000 budget, rather than recreate the sprawling random nature of their killing spree, Landis focuses on one extremely simple yet effective set-up involving only five principal members of cast and one outside location. Arch Hall Jr. and Marilyn Manning play Charles A. 'Charlie' Tibbs, the titular psychotic sadist, and his sweetheart sidekick Judy Bradshaw. Their victims are three teachers whose car breaks down on the way to a baseball game - the macho yet sensitive Ed Stiles (Richard Alden), the wise and elderly Carl Oliver (Don Russell), and the prudish ineffectual Doris Page (Helen Hovey). They pull into a deserted garage at the end of a back road to attempt to fix their vehicle, when they are confronted by their two tormentors. Initially Charlie and Judy only seem interested in stealing their car, but affairs quickly turn into a brutal and taunting standoff, with the sadist’s gun constantly angled towards these three desperate souls. The character conflict set up by the film is simple yet affective, as having three teachers as victims’ hints at a classic symbol of square society’s authority and oppression of teenage mores. Arch Hall Jr, a sometime star of cheap b-movies, plays Charlie as a giggling guiltless maniac. Although little psychological insight is given, it is clear from many of his exchanges with the teachers that he may have been taunted in the past by such figures for being stupid: at one point he says, “teachers think they’re so much smarter than everyone else…we don’t like teachers”. Any efforts by the three victims to plead with Charlie only antagonise him further, as if the fact that they can reason eloquently highlights his own insecurities. If the 50’s saw the “birth of the teenager” and their rock ‘n’ roll sound-tracked arrival on celluloid, then Charlie and Judy here represent the absolute extreme embodiment of the idea of reckless thrill-seeking youth gone wild.


Of course, by this point in history it was nothing new to base a film on true life events, but the fact that ‘The Sadist’ attempts to present such an extreme series of senseless killings makes it standout. Had the real-life story have not been so shocking than neither would have the film, and it is its unrelenting brutality that makes it so powerful. While ‘Psycho’ may be much more artfully directed and expertly acted, its fictional narrative of a cross-dressing oedipal murder seems almost corny compared to the blackly nihilistic heart of ‘The Sadist’. The script itself even hints at the media hysteria that must have greeted the Starkweather/Fugate case. The three victims slowly realise that they are being held up by murderers that have been reported in the press recently, and at one point Ed says that he is read about these “thrill killers” that are holding him hostage. The only other humans glimpsed in the film are two passing cops, whom Charlie despatches without a hint of remorse, making it clear that there’s little hope for the teachers, who’s only options seem to be fix the car then die or refuse to fix the car and die sooner.


As usual such a simple generic setup helps make clear the power struggle between the characters, and like many more similarly simple horrors films a study of elements such as gender roles is made easier than it would be in more arty psychologically inclined fare. As mentioned previously, the three teachers are fairly obvious archetypes of the profession, but the two males’ characters’ taunting of the Doris Page for being “prudish” and not having found a man yet reveals the film to be very much a product of its pre-feminist time. Even before the two killers arrive on the scene, Doris timidly simpers around screaming at the mere sight of anything that resembles a snake. Once their captors arrive and the true horror begins, Doris becomes even more hysterical, clinging to the burly macho Ed for comfort. At one particularly grim point Charlie toys with Doris by ripping her virginal white dress and literally rubs her face in the dirt on the road, shouting at her to “taste it”. Such ineffectual representations of the feminine isn’t reserved for the protagonists though: it’s interesting to note that Charlie’s sidekick Judy is a mute, her role simply being to laugh at Charlie’s sadistic activities, occasionally perform a come-on dance for him, and to fetch him an almost never-ending supply of sodas. The horror genre would have to wait for ten years and the advent of the slasher movie before it enjoyed any positive strong female characters, such as Jaime Lee Curtis’ Laurie in ‘Halloween’ (1978). Carol Clover’s book ‘Men, Woman, and Chainsaws’ (1992) is a good account of how seventies horror movies redefined their female roles towards the positive. ‘The Sadist’ however remains a struggle between two male archetypes, the reckless delinquent youth and the oppressive teacher, with the classic male symbols of the car and the gun as bartering tools in between them.


While its take on gender roles may be outdated, ‘The Sadist’s’ previously mentioned brutality is what lives on in many successive horror films. Its strangely suspenseful outdoor setting proved to be a great influence on ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ (1977). A later scene also sees the power struggle momentarily favours its captors, who then find themselves trying to exact a bloody revenge on their attackers. This role reversal of the persecuted bourgeoisie suddenly becoming as crazed in the act of revenge as their psychotic captors would be explored in Wes Craven’s already mentioned brutal horrors of the seventies and in European counterpoints such as Ruggero Deodato’s ‘The House on the Edge of the Park’ (1980) and ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ (1980). Michael Haneke’s torturous ‘Funny Games’ (1997) could also be seen as a postmodern self-reflexive version of the film. However, ‘The Sadist’s’ most obvious successor in terms of style and subject matter is Terrence Malick’s ‘Badlands’ (1973), which is also based upon the Starkweather/Fugate murders and is set in the dusty deserted back roads of America. However, Malick’s film is a lot more ambitious in scope and, for me at least, isn’t anywhere near as effective as ‘The Sadist’. Although I’m probably alone in thinking this, I’ve always found ‘Badlands’ to be slightly overrated, and while ‘The Sadist’ may lack good quality actors, its exceptional cinematography by the talented Vilmos Zsigmond and its brutal, feverish atmosphere of suspense more than makes up for it and highlights why I believe it to be something of an overlooked classic in the history of horror/shocker films.


Watch


Country: USA
Budget: £23000
Length: 92mins


Bibliography:
Carol J. Clover - Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, Princeton University Press, 1992 and the British Film Institute, 2004


Filmography:
'Psycho', 1960, Alfred Hitchcock, Shamley Productions
'Night of the Living Dead', 1968, George A. Romero, Image Ten
'Badlands', 1973, Terrence Malick, Badlands Company
'The House on the Edge of the Park', 1980, Ruggero Deodato, F.D. Cinematografica
'Cannibal Holocaust', 1980, Ruggero Deodato, F.D. Cinematografica
'Funny Games', 1997, Michael Haneke, Austrian Film Institute
'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 1974, Tobe Hooper, Vortex
'The Hills Have Eyes', 1977, Wes Craven, Blood Relations Co.
'Halloween', 1978, John Carpenter, Compass International Pictures
'Last House on the Left', 1972, Wes Craven, Lobster Enterprises


Pub/2009


More like this:
The Amazing Transparent Man, 1960, directed by Edger G. Ulmer
Taxi Driver 1976, directed by Martin Scorsese
Last Exit to Brooklyn, 1989, directed by Uli Edel