It is possible that no director has introduced more young people to horror films than Joe Dante. His Gremlins films mix Looney Tunes humor with gore that could only be considered “family friendly” in the late 80s and early 90s. These films inspired countless ToysLunch boxes and original T-shirts. And the series continues to lure children into the world of slightly scary media: The latest cartoon spin-off, Gremlins: Secrets of the MogwaiPremiere on Max in 2023, and a second season, Gremlins – The Wild Beastwas just announced for the fall.
Dante’s later films never quite reached Gremlins‘ dominance in pop culture, but he continued to invent ways to bring horror films to younger audiences, including 1993’s matinee
matinee — underrated and hard to find for too long — is now available on Blu-ray and 4K UHD. To mark the occasion, I had the chance to ask Dante, who introduced so many 80s and 90s kids to horror, where he would recommend a young newcomer to the genre start today. What follows is an abridged version of his advice:
I would send them to William Castle. My favorite Castle film is The House on Ghost Hillbecause it has such a good script. You can go back to the early works of John Carpenter [The Thing
, Halloween]You can return to Wes Craven [Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street].It depends on how old they are and what influences they have already been exposed to. [If they’re younger] you probably don’t have the Universal [Monster films]These films were an introduction for me, because I had never seen them when they were shown on television in the late 1950s. They had not been shown in cinemas for many years. I did not know any of them. For all of us children, this was new. The Famous Monsters The magazine only came out because there was a whole audience of kids who were suddenly fascinated by these films that they hadn’t even known existed. And these actors, many of whom had since passed away, were now cult. And [kids] wanted to see more pictures with these actors.
[Now] Becoming a member of the horror film community is probably a great way to learn about what is out there. You can also sign up on my website, Trailer from Hell. There are about a thousand trailers there, commented on by people who are filmmakers in different ways: writers, directors, editors and actors. They run the trailer and they talk about the film. And they suggest that if you liked the film, The Movie you might like [other] Film. It was very rewarding when people came up to me and said, “I just saw this film and I had never heard of it until I saw it on your website. And now I really want to see more films by this guy.” So that was very helpful. It’s like a little film school.
