Forget the Final or Paper – La Salle Film Prof Bill Wine
Hopes to Scare Students
with Course Devoted to Horror Films

Bill Wine never forgot the feeling in his stomach after he saw Alien for the first time – which is probably what director Ridley Scott wanted people in the audience to feel in the summer of 1979. (Wine says the feeling was not related to the birth of the alien creature, when it crawled its way out of a character’s abdomen.)

A La Salle University film professor since 1981, Wine thinks the Alien is an "exquisitely made” film, and will include it in the ten movies he’ll show in his summer course on horror films – one of the few times a college course will take a serious look at the craft of horrifying audiences.

“Horror films are usually related to the movie ghetto, and are not taken seriously,” says Wine, who’s also a film critic for KYW Newsradio.

Wine noticed that when he’d occasionally include a horror film in his classes, “those are some of the most spirited discussions we have. The students are not bored by them, so I thought I’d do an experiment, show nothing but horror films. I hesitate to call them horror films: I really think they are quality movies that are about fear, that are trying to scare you.”

In addition to Alien, the class will view and discuss Jaws, Psycho, The Birds, The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, Seven, Scream and The Silence of the Lambs. The latter, according to Wine, went on to sweep the major Oscars and rescue the horror film from the schlock heap.

By the 1980s, horror movies had degenerated into slasher films about teenagers at summer camp who were getting killed by some psychopathic creature or person – ala Friday the 13th.

“Then came Silence of the Lambs, which had nothing to do with that,” said Wine. “It’s not that graphic. It showed that a horror film could have great performances, and offered those quiet moments of fear, such as looking in the cell at that creepy Hannibal Lecter character. It showed how a movie could scare you without showing blood, without being exploitive--and no teenagers. It basically revived the horror movie.”

Wine says the difference between a “suspense” film, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, differs from a horror film, such as Psycho or The Birds, in that the aim of the filmmaker is to scare the audience with something horrific, such as the murder of an unsuspecting motel patron in the shower, or birds attacking school children.

Horror films have always been around – from the 1920 silent classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, to early talkies such as Frankenstein, which Wine says draws an interesting reaction from students.

The version he screens includes a warning from an actor before the movie begins, telling the audience that they apologize for just how scary the upcoming movie will be “Then the students watch it and say, what was so scary about that?” he says.
While serving as movie critics for Fox Philadelphia's (Channel 29) for 12 years, Wine was recognized for excellence in broadcasting, winning three Regional Emmy Awards for Best Commentary: 1991-92, 1992-92, 1993-94, and being nominated five times for Best Newswriting.

He has written 11 plays, nine of which have been produced on stages across the country. One of his plays, Deficit, was produced as a television film on the A & E Network.

As a journalist, Wine has written for The Village Voice, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, Camden Courier-Post, Philadelphia Magazine, New Jersey Monthly, and Atlantic City Magazine, and contributed essays to 15 books.