By Rebecca Rinehart
Beyond Horror: The History and Sub-Culture of Red Films
Directed by Jessie Seitz and Marcus Koch
Produced by 93/93 Pictures
Premiering at the Nightmares Film Festival in October, Beyond Horror delves into the history of the most extreme and shocking films ever made. The new documentary from special FX artists Jessie Seitz and Marcus Koch chronicles the timeline of Red Films: those films that are too extreme for the mainstream and historically have been circulated via the bootleg circuit. Since conceiving the idea in mid-2018, the pair has compiled hours of interviews from filmmakers and fans to discover the appeal of this form of cinema. After the film’s premier, Seitz and Koch were awarded the Best Director award from the festival.
The genre’s modern roots begin with the Grand Guignol Theater that operated in Paris from 1887 to 1962. The theater specialized in live plays that depicted naturalistic horror for upper class citizens who wanted to be thrilled but in a safe environment. From here, the inception of extreme horror in of cinema progressed with semi-mainstream titles such as Blood Feast, Cannibal Holocaust, I Spit on Your Grave, Last House on the Left, and the Faces of Death series. With the home video market burgeoning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, underground films began to circulate that showed brutality that made viewers question if they were witnessing actual bodily harm. These bootleg films were often recorded repeatedly, so the low quality of unmarked VHS tapes paired with a lack of public knowledge of the filmmakers or actors added to the appeal and demand of these shocking videos.
In the age of the internet, this phenomenon is virtually impossible to repeat, but many of the modern filmmakers who continue with the genre are interviewed in the documentary. Fred Vogel, Stephen Biro, Lucifer Valentine, and James and Mae Bell discuss candidly not only the reasons they create such films but also the incredible repercussions they have endured from critics of their art. For example, the consequences are so far-reaching for Valentine that he was only able to give an audio interview (and clearly must use an alias for his own personal safety).
Seitz and Koch created a feature-length cut of the film for screening purposes but continue to conduct interviews and footage for an Indiegogo extended cut perk. With distribution, both versions will be available to the general public, but for now, the film continues to be shown on the festival circuit with its next showing at Days of the Dead in Chicago the weekend of November 22nd. At the same convention, the duo will be showcasing their FX skills during the Makeup Challenge and be the featured speakers at an Extreme Horror panel on Saturday.
For more details on the making of the documentary as well as their award acceptance, watch my interview with Jessie and Marcus at the Nightmares Film Festival.
Becca is a horror podcaster, YouTuber, interviewer and writer who has an extreme passion for all things macabre.
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