SOURCE: "Val Lewton and the Perspective of Horror," in Forms of the Fantastic: Selected Essays form the Third International Conference on the Fantastic in Literature and Film, edited by Jan Hokenson and Howard Pearce, Greenwood Press, 1986, pp. 165-74.

In the following essay, Telotte discusses the ways in which the horror in Lewton's films comes from the undermining of individuals' perceptions of the world.

The modern horror classic Night of the Living Dead concludes with the protagonist, Ben, survivor of a night of terror, suddenly shot down, as he is mistaken for one of the zombie flesh eaters inexplicably threatening society. Despite the sense of inevitability that clings to the scene, the conclusion is unsettling, particularly since his death occurs just as normalcy seems restored, and it is at the hands of his fellow man, trying to rid his world of those horrors. Ben is simply the victim of...