Katherine Cottle
The last few years have not been kind to the movie theater industry. The crushing competition of streaming services, rising ticket and refreshment costs, and the plethora of available home theater options had already caused a major decline in viewership, even before the pandemic hit (Barnes). The fear of contagious transmission of COVID-19 in large crowds and within indoor areas only exacerbated the challenges of the industry, which continues to struggle to climb out of the economic devastation caused by the pandemic (Exhibition). While entertainment producers race to create promotions which will bring viewers back into the theaters, it is, ironically, the interactive fear experience which may rescue the movie theater from extinction.
Seventy years ago, movie theaters were also battling forces which were keeping viewers at home. The 1950’s brought a flight to the suburbs, along with the post-war purchase of televisions (Blakemore). Re-envisioning ways to bring people back to the downtown movie theaters, studios promoted the 3-D viewing experience as one only achievable in the cinema. In 3-D Revolution: The History of Modern Stereoscopic Cinema, Ray Zone explains how the “dual-camera and projector technology [provided the] visual effect that was the hallmark of the era of convergence, both as a promotional device and aesthetic leitmotif.” Horror films, in particular, were an ideal genre for this new technology, as the 3-D effects could enhance audiences’ fear responses, allowing them to feel physically closer to the settings and frightening creatures presented on the screen.
Studios embraced 3-D technology with various classic horror releases, in hopes of increasing movie theater attendance. In 1952, United Artists released Bwana Devil, the first feature-length 3-D film in color. The film was loosely based on the true story of the Tsavo Man-Eaters, a pair of lions that killed men working on the Kenya-Uganda Railway in 1898 (Bader and Maddox 7). Studios banked on the new 3-D technology and the lions’ ferocious appeal to increase viewership, releasing promotional movie posters which enticed viewers to embrace their fear by emphasizing the film’s ability to project “A LION in your lap!”
The creatures “featured” in the film are Kenyan lions with a thirst for human flesh. However, within a few minutes of watching the film, today’s audiences will quickly realize that the prominent danger lies in the colonizing actions of the British protagonists, intent on capitalizing the African land (as well as the indigenous people and Indian workers contracted for the back-breaking railroad labor). The 3-D effects are presented as much for the fascination and fear of the Other (human, cultural, and geographical), as they are for the lions. New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther considered the movie “a clumsy try at an African adventure film” upon its release, giving it a largely negative review, aside from “some mild sensations . . . caused from time to time when spears are thrown at the camera or other objects seem to leap at the audience’s heads.” Life magazine documented the Hollywood premiere showing of Bwana Devil with the classic picture that has become synonymous with the 1950’s 3-D movie theater experience—rows of people in the theater wearing their 3-D glasses.
Fear of the Other also spread into “other” worlds, species, and devastating futures for 1950’s theater audiences. The 3-D experience enabled this fear to hit home for viewers, as these were the years preceding early space exploration and a time when there was collective paranoia over potential nuclear annihilation.
While many consider Robot Monster one of the worst films ever made, Variety provided some praise for the classic film: “Robot Monster comes off surprisingly well, considering the extremely limited budget ($50,000) and schedule [4 days] on which the film was shot” (“Robot”). A large part of the novelty of the film is the appearance of the alien creature, which wore a combination of a gorilla suit with diving bell headgear, adorned with electric antennas. Promotional posters included a visible skull within the helmet, although it is hard to see anything other than fogged-up glass in the actual film.
While the main creature of the film, an alien robot called “Ro-man,” may have been more comedic than frightening in 1953, the uncertainty about nuclear war surely wasn’t. Young viewers were routinely practicing duck-and-cover drills in their school classrooms, and viewers of all ages were dealing with the fear and anxiety of potential atomic attacks. Not surprisingly, then, the film’s main narrative, an alien attempt to destroy all life on the earth, is one that occurs repeatedly in 1950’s science fiction films.
It Came from Outer Space depicted a very different visualization of alien life, as well as exploring several questions provoked by the extraterrestrial beings prevalent in 1950’s cinema: “What was it? Where did it come from? Who were the all-powerful creatures it brought from outer space? What did they want on earth?” (“It Came . . . Official Trailer”). The fear felt and experienced by audiences watching this film was triggered as much by the “fantastic sights [that] leap at you,” such as the fiery ship or falling boulders, as by the awkward one-eyed creatures, dramatically drawn in the promotional poster.
In fact, by the end of the film, unlike Monster Robot, the aliens in It Came from Outer Space are revealed to be benign creatures, merely lost due to a spaceship crash. As they watch the film, audiences’ fears eventually turn inward, providing a set of parallel Earth-based questions: Who are we? Why are we here? Who should be believed? Are we alone? The fear of the consequences and dangers of conformity and societal chauvinism extend from the screen, leaving viewers personally apprehensive about the real horror behind the protagonist and astronomer, John Putnam’s (Richard Carlson), final line and prophesy: “They’ll be back.”
Cat-Women of the Moon is an example of one of the 1950’s “lady lands” films which explored the discovery of “alien planets or hidden worlds populated entirely by women” (Horton). The creatures in this film include a small colony of heavily made-up, leotard-and-tights-adorned women, as well as a pair of large and clumsy Moon-spiders. While it might be stretching it to say the 3-D film induced fear in its audiences, the theme surely triggered the fears of independent female viewers, who continued to watch the films produced during this decade that centered on female-led groups who must cater to male characters in order to survive. The promotional poster says it all: “See: The Lost City of Love-Starved Cat-Women!”
Turning back in time, and underwater, to emphasize the fear of uncharted settings and evolutionary progress, Universal’s The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and its sequel, Revenge of the Creature (1955), were two extremely popular 3-D films that introduced the Gill-man, a prehistoric creature living in the Amazon. After a team of geologists discover a fossil providing a direct link between land and sea animals, the Gill-man emerges and becomes infatuated with the leading lady, scientist Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams). The Gill-man stalks Lawrence through the remainder of the first film, killing members of the expedition along the way. The “underwater thrills in 3-D,” as advertised in the promotional poster, provided audiences with exhilarating sensory experiences of aquatic settings, in addition to sparking alarm over whether Lawrence would be able to escape from the Gill-man before drowning in the lagoon.
Revenge of the Creature was the only 3-D sequel of a 3-D film, as well as the last 3-D movie to be filmed in the 1950’s (“Notes”). In the Creature sequel, the Gill-man rises from the water of the oceanarium where he is being studied, after which he spends the remainder of the film stalking the leading lady, ichthyology student Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson). Studios were aggressive and creative in their promotions of Revenge, pushing the campiness through various gimmicks, such as a nurse waiting outside of a theater with a sign that read: “If you feel faint when you see the CREATURE our nurse will restore your strength so that you may see the rest of the feature” (“Shock Angles”). The 3-D technology in Revenge was advertised as “Horrorscope,” a “Thrill Wonder” only available in the theater.
Uncertainty and apprehension about the line between “human” and “creature” also drove two of the 3-D “killer-ape” creature features released in 1954: Gorilla at Large (20th Century Fox) and Phantom of the Rue Morgue (Warner Bros.). In the opening scenes of Gorilla at Large, the carnival owner, Cyrus Miller (Raymond Burr), questions the use of fear in their advertising campaign: “Aren’t you afraid [that press about the ‘world’s most terrifying creature’] will frighten them away?” Miller’s staff member reassures him the opposite is true: “It looks to me like we are frightening them into the place” (“Gone Ape”) The promotional poster for the film stressed viewers’ inability to hide from the 3-D Gorilla: “He’s in the aisles! He’s in the balcony! He’s EVERYWHERE.”
While the “killer” ape in Gorilla at Large is exposed as the female lead Laverne Miller (Anne Bancroft) in a gorilla suit, the “killer” in Phantom of the Rue Morgue turns out to be an ape trained by the insane zoologist, Dr. Marais (Karl Malden). Loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “Murders in The Rue Morgue” (1841), and the film, Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), studios hoped that Phantom would follow in the same successful footsteps as The House of Wax (1953), which was a 3-D remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum (Scheib). The mystery of the identity of the killer in Phantom was advertised in the promotional poster: “Can It Be Human?” The marketing also stressed the need to keep spoilers from other potential patrons, hoping to draw in additional viewers through referred suspense.
The reception and reviews of Phantom were generally negative, however, noting predictable 3-D tricks such as “women screaming into the camera, a knife thrower throwing knives, a snarling ape, a dead body, a trampolinist and even one of the Flying Zacchinis trapeze artists” (Scheib). Critic A. H. Weiler downplayed the fear, noting that “Warner Brothers . . . [has] rebuilt Mr. Poe’s street of horrors, dressed it up for WarnerColor and three-dimensional presentation and dropped in a covey of bloody corpses and a pair of mental cases played by Karl Malden and a gorilla.” In “fear” of losing more revenue, studios quickly shifted from 3-D to other filming and projecting technologies, such as Cinemascope (“Cinemascope”).
The challenges of the dual projection process and the regular need for intermission(s) also contributed to the end of the 3-D “golden era” (Theakston). 3-D films continued to be only sporadically produced over the remaining decades of the twentieth century. However, in the 1980’s, “3-D quickly became the go-to promotion for horror movies, especially for the third film in a horror series: ‘Friday the 13th Part III’ (1982), ‘Jaws 3-D’ (1983), and ‘Amityville 3-D’ (1983)” (McKittrick). While the studios that did release 3-D horror films often embraced the exaggerated qualities of 3-D through intentional campiness, as is the case with the special 3-D Blu-ray edition of Sharknado, others counted on specialty theaters to showcase the technological enhancement of 3-D capabilities. Such is the case with 3-D viewing at Imax theaters, theme park rides, gaming demos, and museum exhibitions.
Many venues have enhanced the 3-D experience by placing viewers directly in the vulnerable positions of the films’ potential victims. The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas, provides an outdoor theater in which viewers float on a lake in inner tubes while watching Jaws 3-D (White). “The King Kong 360 3-D” ride at Universal Studios/Hollywood, billed the “largest 3-D attraction in the world,” includes a short film, ride motion, and the sensory elements of wind, water, and scent. The website for the ride advertises the fear-inducing interactive experience, only available with a pricey ticket: “Your heart will pound. Your survival instincts will be on overload. Prepare to be caught in the middle of a terrifying struggle between a 35-foot T-Rex and the 8th wonder of the world—King Kong” (“King Kong”).
While the look and range of 3-D films has changed tremendously since the 1950’s, the human desire to be lured into unexpected worlds with frightening creatures has not. Societal fears continue to be documented in the promotional materials of the films of each decade, with the 1950’s showcasing a particularly fascinating “golden age” in 3-D classic horror which explores the fears of the Other, the unknown, distant worlds, war, conformity, and the human role within our universe. As noted in Gorilla at Large, one of the strategies for easing the fear and hesitancy of potential patrons—to return to the theater—continues to be to heighten the fear experience at the theater. It will be interesting to see how 3-D technology continues to evolve within the film industry in the coming years. The most frightening “creatures” that will reach out from our future screens will likely not emerge from lakes or outer space but from the dangerous breeding ground of a posthuman world, formed and fed by flesh and technology. Perhaps the same question from Phantom of the Rue Morgue’s 1954 promotional poster will still be enough to lure viewers to see the forthcoming twenty-first-century creature features: “Can It Be Human?”
Works Cited
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Barnes, Brooks. “Movie theaters must ‘urgently’ rethink the experience, a study says.” The New York Times, 29 Nov. 2021.
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Exhibition at a Crossroads. The Quorum, Cultique, Fanthropology, Nov. 2021.
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Scheib, Richard. “Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954).” Moria: Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy Film Review, 1999-2011.
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