Customer Reviews

Terence Fisher: Horror, Myth and Religion

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Review of
Paul Leggett, Terence Fisher. Horror, Myth and Religion
McFarland & Co., Inc.: Jefferson, NC and London, 2002

by The Very Rev. Dr.theol. Paul F. M. Zahl, Dean
Cathedral Church of the Advent (Episcopal)
Birmingham, Alabama

Paul Leggett's Terence Fisher: Horror, Myth and Religion is a must for two categories of readers. And there are a lot of people in both categories.
The first category is fans of horror and sci-fi films. For all in the first group, Terence Fisher was a giant. His haunting productions for Britain's Hammer Films left an indelible impression on the millions who first saw them. They live on, on video and DVD, and on television every week, everywhere. Fisher's Draculas and Frankensteins, werewolves and phantoms were in technicolor. They were pure Gothic and presented as "A" films even though they were "B" films. Horror fans can now learn about their hero-auteur at depth.
The second category of readers for Dr. Leggett's book is fans of Christian fantasy and allegory. Many Christians are interested in popular culture, specifically in finding themes like redemption and sacrifice and atonement within movies and art. This is why Stephen King, for example, in fiction or Abel Ferrara in cinema attract interest from within the religious community. Not to mention Tolkien, and more Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings phenomenon has been fueled in part by adolescents coming to the material out of Christian interests and background.
Terence Fisher was a Christian apologist! That is not all he was, but Christian themes of love's conquest in cruciform imagery abound in his movies. Christian images are everywhere you look, from Curse of the Werewolf (1960) to The Devil Rides Out (1968), and before, and after.
Because Dr. Leggett is a theologian and a pastor, as well as a fan, he is able to make the connection between the world in which we actually live now and the preoccupations of the films of Terence Fisher. Leggett is a classic Christian-nothing New Age here!-and he is one who has been fascinated by these films since childhood. His book links the dark and deep struggles of the child in all of us, with a master storyteller in film; and sets the whole on the big screen of cosmic drama.
This is a wonderful book!

All credit to Paul Leggett, a Presbyterian pastor no less, for producing this seminal study of the religious and mythical themes in Terence Fisher's films. He argues convincingly, from a canon including most of the significant horrors he made for Hammer, that the mythological worldview of Fisher's films is intrinsically Christian. Leggett examines the fundamental motifs in the films and reveals an underlying story of the battle between good and evil, seen in terms of the traditional Christian symbols of the fall, the cross etc. He provides a good sense of the development of the horror film, and laments how the classical themes of redemption have been replaced with an almost nihilistic worldview (see, eg. my review of Rosemary's Baby).

Leggett's work is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is the work of a committed Christian. Christian (or at least evangelical) attitudes to film, in particular horror film, have been ambivalent at best, and Leggett's work, if it gains the popularity it deserves, may challenge Christians to rethink the issues. Secondly, it contributes to a debate about Fisher's work that has probably only really emerged in the last couple of decades, as his right to be seen as more than a maker of B-standard horror movies has been acknowledged. Thirdly, it is the only work (to my knowledge) that examines the religious, mythical and, in particular, specifically Christian, themes in Fisher's work. As such, the book has opened up a new part of the debate.

On the negative side, I would mention a few things. Firstly, the author has a tendency, no doubt because of his own faith, to paint Fisher in evangelical, or at least very conservative/orthodox, stripes, perhaps assuming too close a correlation between the imagery and mythology he chose to structure his stories around and the actual content of Fisher's personal faith. Secondly, at just under two hundred pages (including illustrations), it feels rather brief, and I am sure there is much more the author could have said--and indeed, should say, hopefully in a later volume. Thirdly, I wish the stills had been chosen with more attention to how they amplify or illustrate Leggett's interpretation of Fisher's films, perhaps noting lighting, positioning, imagery, angles etc...