‘I Was A Teenage Werewolf’: The Cramps list their favourite horror movies
Formed within the punk golden age of 1976, The Cramps were a truly unique outfit in a supposedly non-conformist scene. While the other groups on the bill at CBGB’s in New York might have taken their cues from the proto-punk of The Stooges or The Velvet Underground, Lux Interior and Poison Ivy Rorschach reached back much further. Embracing the archaic worlds of rockabilly and early garage rock, The Cramps also took considerable inspiration from the dark world of low-budget horror films.
The Cramps, with their rockabilly-inspired music and sleazy persona, were instrumental in establishing the unique punk subgenre known as psychobilly. Although the band never particularly enjoyed being branded with that label themselves, the various psychobilly acts that followed in their wake owed an insurmountable debt to Interior and Rorschach. Like many punk bands, the image of The Cramps was almost as important as the music itself, and the New York band was certainly out to shock audiences. In an effort to achieve this, the band often drew upon horror B movies of times gone by.
In essence, B-movies are just commercial films that are made on a shoestring budget, usually composed of a cast of unknown actors. However, the freedom that came with making B movies allowed many pioneering filmmakers to experiment with practical effects and push the boundaries of filmmaking. As a result, the horror genre lends itself particularly well to the landscape of B movies, as The Cramps would gladly tell you. After all, many of their tracks—the likes of ‘Human Fly’, ‘I Was A Teenage Werewolf’, or ‘Voodoo Idol’—played with horror tropes and film references.
Unlike many early punk groups, who would guard their obscure knowledge of film and music from the general public, The Cramps were always happy to espouse the joys of B-movies. In fact, during a 1981 interview with the New Musical Express, the core trio of the group—Lux Interior, Poison Ivy Rorschach, and Kid Congo Powers—shed light on some of their all-time favourite horror films. Seemingly, the band members all had quite different tastes, though there are definitive overlaps between the trio.
Poison Ivy, for instance, seemed to favour actors over whole films, with the guitarist revealing, “My favourite is Barbara Steele because she doesn’t have to do anything. She just stares. She’s got a great aura, so breathtaking.” In contrast, Lux Interior cares not for the prominence of actors, “I don’t like actors or actresses too much,” he said, “I like things that get completed without any stars or things like that.”
The films selected by The Cramps largely draw from the golden age of low-budget horror during the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, the mainstream film industry was, at best, sceptical about the appeal of horror films. So, it was up to outsiders like Joseph M. Newman or William Witney to alert audiences to the unique power of horror. The irony, of course, is that both of those directors would later go on to achieve mainstream success outside of the horror genre.
Some other notable highlights in The Cramps’ selection include the films Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs!, which were made by Herschell Gordon Lewis, who owned a drive-in cinema during the 1960s. Reportedly, Lewis created these films solely for the purpose of showing them at his own drive-in, but they became cult classics of the horror genre. Invariably, this reputation was enough to garner the attention of The Cramps, with Lux Interior a particular fan of Lewis’ low-budget exploits.
Seemingly, the band also made an effort to keep up-to-date with the horror genre, selecting Charles Kaufman’s Mother’s Day, which came out one year prior to the interview, as another favourite. Of the film, Kid Congo Powers said it was “one of the new wave of cheap horror films that are making the rounds in America. It’s sort of like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but more up-to-date.” The Cramps were true horror aficionados, and their list of favourites still holds up as a reliable guide through the world of horror B movies.
The Cramps’ favourite horror films:
- Mother’s Day – Charles Kaufman, 1980
- Ship of Zombies – Amando de Ossorio, 1974
- Death Race 2000 – Paul Bartel, 1975
- The Cool And The Crazy – William Witney, 1958
- The Devil On Wheels – Crane Wilbur, 1947
- Hot Rods To Hell – John Brahm, 1967
- Death In Small Doses – Joseph M. Newman, 1957
- Blood Feast – Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1963
- Two Thousand Maniacs! – Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1964
- The Creeping Terror – Art J. Nelson, 1964
