March 27, 2018

Filmstruck is currently featuring a 5 minute Val Lewton documentary along with a set of 6 films for viewing. The documentary is partially history and partially opinion with director Joe Dante presenting the information. Visually "A Much Higher Plane: The Horrors of Val Lewton" is heavily interspersed with film clips from Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, Bedlam, The Body Snatcher, etc, as Dante describes the qualities of Lewton's movies versus the more common fare of 1940s horror.

Also, Dante's commentary places Lewton in the context of his role as a competitor against the Universal horror films, that RKO's hope was that Lewton would bring in some low cost box office success (which he did, particularly with the multi-millions brought in by Cat People).

Dante praises Lewton's style and taste (without using either word) and contrasts Lewton's approach with the expectations of a B-Movie production in Hollywood, for example particularly mentioning The Wolf Man (which Dante points out as being a well made film) as what Lewton was trying to transcend.