“It’s psychological horror”: Why Gene Simmons picked ‘Psycho’ as his favourite horror movie
What continues to draw us to horror so frequently? From Robert Eggers’ new instalment of Nosferatu to early iterations of Frankenstein and Evil Dead, there seems to be something so alluring about the scare that we find it impossible to resist. The prospect of jumping out of our seats, not being able to sleep at night, and hiding behind our popcorn buckets continues to draw in crowds near and far.
As is the case with any kind of art, there is no set reason why people are drawn to horror movies. Certain aspects will be relatively universal, such as how stimulating horror movies are and the various dynamics that can be touched upon within a horror narrative, but everyone will tune in for different reasons.
Kiss singer and bassist Gene Simmons is a huge fan of the horror genre, and it’s the psychological elements that seem to draw him into it. When asked about his favourite horror film, while there was a lot to think about, he confirmed that his all-time favourite was a Stanley Kubrick classic.
“One of the finest movies continues to be Psycho, even though there’s nothing supernatural in it. The original. Have you ever seen it?” said Simmons, “You never see a knife enter a body, you never see blood coming out of a body; it’s psychological horror, which is the scariest. Maybe the only monster is a human being, and maybe that’s the scariest one.”
It’s interesting to read Simmons’ reasons for enjoying Psycho so much, in that it has nothing to do with what you see and everything to do with what you don’t. The mystery left in that movie and how the gore takes place in the mind of the viewer feel like the complete antithesis of how Kiss portray themselves. Nothing is left to the imagination with Kiss, as they combine theatre and music with their shows to bring people something completely new.
Geezer Butler recalled the moment Kiss came on tour with Black Sabbath and said they were a difficult band to follow because of how much they blew people’s minds with their theatrics. “Kiss was the first one to use pyro. You’ve never seen that. I mean, the shock of that,” he said, “And they were supporting us, so they weren’t even headlining. I went out and watched them. There were all these flames coming out the stage and everything. It was like ‘Oh my God, what’s going on here?’”
Butler continued: “It was a completely new direction for people […] It was tough to follow them. We went on just as an ordinary band, no effects or anything, and everybody else still had their mouths wide open from seeing Kiss.”
The extravagance has always been part of the appeal of Kiss, so it’s interesting to find that Gene Simmons looks for the opposite in the art that he consumes. When he watches horror, he doesn’t want the showmanship and instead is drawn towards the subtlety of something like Psycho.
