Foster's Release | |
---|---|
Directed by | Terence H. Winkless |
Written by | Stephen Lorimore |
Produced by | Milton C. Hubatka |
Starring | Mary Burkin Dan O'Bannon |
Cinematography | Stephen Lorimore |
Edited by | Stephen Lorimore |
Production company | Verexal Films [1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 14 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Foster's Release is a 1971 American short film [3] directed by Terence H. Winkless. [4] The film has been credited with inventing many of the tropes of horror later used in films such as Black Christmas , Halloween and He Knows You're Alone . [5]
It is a retelling of the common story of "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs" [6] about a teenage babysitter who, alone in a house at night, is harassed by a series of phone calls made by a psychotic killer. [7] The police and phone company cooperate to try to warn the girl and save her. [8]
The film was featured at the Edinburgh Film Festival, L.A. Filmex and the Chicago Film Festival, among others. [9] In Illinois, it is commonly shown to classes in home economics, for whom it illustrates the concepts of responsibility and deviancy. [10]
The film was shown together with short films by John Carpenter in 2014. [11]
Urban legends is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not.
A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. Legend, for its active and passive participants, may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time to keep them fresh and vital.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 American meta supernatural horror slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven, creator of 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street. A standalone film and the seventh installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, it is not part of the same continuity as previous films, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world and haunts the cast and crew involved in the making of the films about him. In the film, Freddy is depicted as closer to what Craven originally intended, being much more menacing and less comical, with an updated attire and appearance. The film stars Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Miko Hughes, and John Saxon.
Robert Lawrence Stine, known by his pen name R.L. Stine, is an American novelist. He is the writer of Goosebumps, a horror fiction novel series which has sold over 400 million copies globally in 35 languages, becoming the second-best-selling book series in history. The series spawned a media franchise including two television series, a video game series, a comic series, and two feature films. Stine has been referred to as the "Stephen King of children's literature".
In traditional Japanese folklore a kappa—also known as kawatarō, komahiki, with a boss called kawatora or suiko—is a reptiloid kami with similarities to yōkai. Kappa can become harmful when not respected as gods. Accounts typically depict them as green, human-like beings with webbed hands and feet and turtle-like carapaces on their backs. A depression on the head, called a "dish", retains water, and if this is damaged or its liquid is lost, a kappa becomes severely weakened.
Daniel Thomas O'Bannon was an American film screenwriter, director and visual effects supervisor, most closely associated in the science fiction and horror genres.
Dark fantasy, also called fantasy horror, is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporates disturbing and frightening themes. The term is ambiguously used to describe stories that combine horror elements with one or other of the standard formulas of fantasy.
Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 American independent action thriller film written, directed, scored, and edited by John Carpenter. It features Austin Stoker as a police officer who defends a defunct precinct against a relentless criminal gang, and Darwin Joston as a death row-bound convict who assists him. Laurie Zimmer, Tony Burton, Martin West, and Nancy Kyes co-star as other defenders of the precinct.
The Fog is a 1980 American independent supernatural horror film directed by John Carpenter, who also co-wrote the screenplay and created the music for the film. It stars Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Atkins, Janet Leigh and Hal Holbrook. It tells the story of a strange, glowing fog that sweeps over a small coastal town in Northern California.
Black Christmas is a 1974 Canadian slasher film produced and directed by Bob Clark, and written by Roy Moore. It stars Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon. The story follows a group of sorority sisters who receive threatening phone calls and are eventually stalked and murdered by a killer during the Christmas season.
Dark Star is a 1974 American independent science fiction comedy film produced, scored and directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O'Bannon. It follows the crew of the deteriorating starship Dark Star, twenty years into their mission to destroy unstable planets that might threaten future colonization of other planets.
Lovecraftian horror, also called cosmic horror or eldritch horror, is a subgenre of horror, fantasy fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is named after American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). His work emphasizes themes of cosmic dread, forbidden and dangerous knowledge, madness, non-human influences on humanity, religion and superstition, fate and inevitability, and the risks associated with scientific discoveries, which are now associated with Lovecraftian horror as a subgenre. The cosmic themes of Lovecraftian horror can also be found in other media, notably horror films, horror games, and comics.
Point Horror is a series of young adult horror fiction books. The series was most popular among teenagers.
The babysitter and the man upstairs—also known as the babysitter or the sitter—is an urban legend that dates back to the 1960s about a teenage babysitter who receives telephone calls that turn out to be coming from inside the house. The basic story line has been adapted a number of times in movies.
Halloween is a 1978 American independent slasher film directed and scored by John Carpenter, who co-wrote it with its producer Debra Hill. It stars Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, P. J. Soles, and Nancy Loomis. Set mostly in the fictional Illinois town of Haddonfield, the film follows mental patient Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium for murdering his teenage sister one Halloween night during his childhood; he escapes 15 years later and returns to Haddonfield, where he stalks teenage babysitter Laurie Strode and her friends while his psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis pursues him.
The Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive is an audiovisual archive located on the campus of University of Southern California Los Angeles, California. Founded as Audio-Visual Services by Herbert E. Farmer, a former student, the archive was once an important distributor and producer of educational films. In 2007, the archive received a donation from Hugh Hefner and was renamed in his honor.
Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror is a 2011 American book by Jason Zinoman. It traces the evolution of horror films as they began to focus on more reality-based, less campy subjects during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Billy is a fictional character from the Black Christmas film series, first appearing in Black Christmas (1974) as a deranged murderer who taunts and kills a group of college students during the Christmas season. Created by Timothy Bond and A. Roy Moore, the character was partly inspired by the urban legend "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs", as well as a series of real murders in Montreal during the 1943 holiday season.
Techno-horror is an intersecting sub-genre of speculative fiction and horror that focuses on concerns with and fears of technology. The stories are often cautionary tales created during periods of rapid technological advancement that express concerns about privacy, freedom, individuality, and wealth disparity. They often take place in dystopian settings.