What to watch tonight

[yendi]

It's October, which is a Happy Month if you're a horror movie fan. At 11:30 PM tonight, IFC will be airing Adam Simon's nifty documentary, The American Nightmare. I've seen it twice, and if it's ever released on DVD, I'll own it. It's a great look at the indie horror films of the '70s, when directors like Craven, Carpenter, Cronenberg, and others took the nascent indie movement and produced some brilliant low-budget looks at society through their films. The film isn't perfect, as it omits The Exorcist (which was an indie film) and Alien (which wasn't), the two most influential horror films from that decade. But neither Friedkin nor Scott really remained horror directors, moving out of the genre almost immediately. The folks covered in the documentary had a vision of horror, and created some of the best horror movies ever. Highly recommended both for fans of the genre, and for anyone who's curious about the current state of horror films.