The History Of Horror

Roots of Horror

“Frankenstein”, “Dracula” and “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” are three of the most well known horror stories of the 19th century.

“Frankenstein” was originally written by Mary Shelley, who was married to Percy Shelley; an early romantic poet.

It was published anonymously in London in 1818. Her name appeared on the second edition which was published in France in 1823. The first film adaptation was produced in 1910

Dracula Dracula (1931) directed by Tod Browning. It is

a classic film known by anybody interested in the horror genre. In the film The ancient vampire Count Dracula arrives in England and begins to prey upon the virtuous young Mina.

The film was originally released with a running time of 85 minutes. When the film was reissued in 1936, the Production Code was being strictly enforced.

At least two scenes are known to have been censored and cut from the film. The most famous was an epilogue which played only during the film's initial run.

Van Sloan calmly informed those with a nervous disposition that... "There really are such things as Vampires!" In a 1936 reissue.

This epilogue was thenremoved because it could be seen as offensive to religious groups by encouraging a belief in the supernatural.

The Horror of the Silent Era

Nineteenth century audiences enjoyed seeing ghosts captured in still photography and magic lantern shows.

It was natural that the techniques would be transferred to new technology in order to tell fantastic and bizarre tales.

Whilst the first moving pictures tended to be action and comedy, early film makers also used photographic trickery to explore darker stories with psychological and supernatural themes, recognisable as the first horror films.

German Expresionism

Because of World War I, Germany was largely isolated, and in 1916, the government had banned more foreign films in the nation.

The demand from theatres to generate films led film production to rise.

With inflation on the rise, Germans were attending films more freely because they knew that their money's worth was constantly diminishing.

Amongst the earliest films was Nosferatu, now considered by many an all time classic.

Monsters and Mad Scientists (1930’s) Horror movies were reborn in the 1930s. The

process of using sound was changing the whole nature of cinema forever, and had a huge impact on the horror genre.

The imagery of the 1920s was replaced by monsters.

Sound added an extra dimension to terror, whether it be music used to build suspense or to signify the presence of a threat

This was also despite the struggle that many of the major players - such as director Tod Browning - had to adapt to the new medium.

Making talking pictures was a very different process to producing silent movies.

The horror films of the 1930s are exotic fairy tales. Horror was still essentially looking backwards, drawing upon the literary classics of the 19th century for their source material.

Monsters and Mad Scientists continued Audiences seemed even more enthusiastic about the

horror genre than in the 1920s. The horror genre allowed them to escape from their

everyday lives and events of approaching war and depression.

80 million people attended the cinema on a weekly basis in 1930, some 65% of the total US population.

During the early period of talking pictures, the American Movie studio Universal Pictures began a successful Gothic horror film series such as Tod Browning's Dracula (1931), also James Whale's Frankenstein (also 1931).

Some of these films blended science fiction with Gothic horror,, mirroring the earlier German films, which featured a mad scientist. While designed to thrill, also incorporated more serious elements.

Universal's horror cycle continued into the 1940s as B-pictures including The Wolf Man (1941).

Frankenstein

This story is responsible for the beginning of the science fiction genre and its inspiration.

Parents complained to the makers of the film, because they were unhappy about the obscenities depicted in 1910 classic.

Outraged that such graphic scenes of horror could be seen by their children.

Other people (of different religious beliefs) also complained arguing that it is to resurrect a person by sewing together body parts and using a bolt of lightening.

This enraged them as they believed that only God should be able to give life.

The primal animal within (1940’s)

Most horror films were American at the time, and banned in Britain.

As much as they tried, the Americans could not keep themselves separate with their basic European roots coming through.

Links with lands of their ancestors eventually pulled them into World War Two.

This caused panic across, however Americans were especially effected because of this and the film industry took advantage of the situation.

Horror And Wolves

Hitler himself strongly identified with the iconography and legends of a wolf.

The name Adolf means ‘noble wolf’ in old German, Hitler also became quite obsessed with wolves, having many Nazi Party HQ being named after the animal.

Including his SS forces were referred to as ‘My Pack of Wolves’. Not surprisingly, Universal chose to use the wolf as a figure of menace for the 1940’s.

Cat People (1942)

The result of men coming back from World War Two, women were removed from their jobs in factories, and other jobs previously done by men, in order for them to regain their former roles in those industries.

As a result of this, women weren't happy with the way they were being treated and wanted to be able to have the same jobs as men.

This is linked to the film Cat People because women in this film were seen as being a dangerous and powerful because of what they were able to do in the film.

Mutants and Aliens (1950’s) Initially these films

were very low budget, the first sci-fi film of the 50’s being ‘Rocketship X-M’. This then started a trend of sci-fi films.

Some of the most popular and films of the genre were ‘The Thing’, ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’, ‘Invasion Of The Body Snatchers’ and ‘War Of The Worlds’.

Mutant Creatures

On screen monsters represented the cutting edge of movie technology was seen as a good way to draw audiences away from TV.

This era’s obsession with the monster movie stems from the fears generated by co-existence with the atom bomb.

Monster movies offered a vision of destruction created by non-humans; instead of generating chaos and disaster, humans represent a force of good.

These monster movies of 1950’s were the first blockbusters.

Mutant Creatures Continued The Blob was released 1958 and there

has been 2 re-makes of the film since then.

The message of this film was to warn people of the potential dangers of space travel.

The Blob is an unidentifiable creature that feeds and expands on individuals fears.

Because of the Cold War during this era many people saw The Blob as communism itself, the idea that something could invade and take over a town was terrifying.

Ghosts, Zombies, Satanism and your family (1960’s – 70’s)

Horror movies of the 70’s reflected the grim outlook of the decade. However, this was also big budget.

These dealt with contemporary societal issues, and mainly addressed genuine psychological fears.

One of the recurring fears was of children and the fear of childbirth.

Scary Children

The Exorcist (1973) one of the main films of the era that dealt with the fear of children. It was banned from the UK until 1999, and was voted ‘The scariest movie of all time’.

These films reinforce that children can be unwanted and do bad things to their parents.

The crumbling family becomes the source of fear and mistrust, showing that the enemy may be found closer than you think.

Satanism also comes into this as the person is possessed by the devil, and the exorcism is to get rid of the devil.

Ghosts

Many ghost stories appeared within the 1960’s which can be seen as being a reaction against the creature films of the late 1950’s.

The horror lies in the journey the protagonist takes between sanity and madness.

These reflect a preoccupation with change, with mainly woman on the frontlines being the first (and many times, the only ones) to be destroyed by it.

Hammer Horror

Hammer film productions was founded ion 1934. Their first film was The Public Life of Henry the Ninth (1935).

After a short pause in production during WW2, Hammer’s first horror was The Quarter mass Xperiment (1957), and their first colour film was The Curse of Frankenstein.

The success of these films allowed Hammer to gain their reputation as Hammer House of Horror.

Hammer then Went on to produce other iconic horror classics such as The Abominable Snowman (1957), Dracula (1958) And The Mummy as well as others.

Due to the release of the Television horror started to go out of fashion which made Hammer halt the production of horror films.

Hammer’s revival

After 34 years of no horror films, Hammer was bought by Dutch producer John De Mol.

Since then they have released Let Me IN (2010), and The Woman In Black (2012).

It’s worth mentioning that both of these films are based on novel, so it’s safe to say hat Hammer will bring out more literary adaptations.

Slasher Movies and Body Horror:Gore in the 80’s

Advancements in the field of special FX meant that the blood and gore-filled horror movies from the 80s could be depict death in all of its gory glory.

Western society in the 80s was focussed on material wealth – not just having stuff but making sure others knew that you had it.

The new improved and fantastic special effects could be seen as corresponding with this ‘showy’ 80s culture.

Slashers

The Slasher film functions within a tight set of conventions, usually includes psychopathic killers stalking teenagers whilst wielding sharp weapons such as knifes and machetes.

Numerous popular slasher films were released in the 80s resulting in multiple sequels and remakes.

The popularity of the 80’s slasher film didn’t just result in sequels and remakes; when horror seemed stale in the 1990s because ‘it had all been done before’, Wes Craven “decided to adopt a self-reflexive approach”.

Craven, who directed the original Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984, released New Nightmare in 1994 and Scream in 1996.

Body Horror

Now that special effects were good enough to show close up, audiences were able to see more violence and more monsters.

However, it soon became apparent that these monsters were, in fact, the same evil foes that had been seen in horror films for over 3 decades…

Video Nasties (1980’s)

The VHS cassette was integral to the success of certain horror films in the 1980s as low budget titles were not likely to get a large release in cinemas.

The term ‘straight to video’ was born in the 80s as a result of releasing films on cassette instead of showing them in cinemas.

in the UK, the BBFC exist to rate the age of every film released in the cinema and on DVD/ Bluray.

However, in the 80’s, it was likely that the VHS would be released unrated because of this children were getting access to (and watching) unrated horror films.

During this time 39 films made a list of “video nasties” and these films were then withdrawn from sale (banned) in the UK by the government.

Since then these films have become available for purchase in the UK.

Gorenography and Torture porn (2000’s)

During the mid 2000s, many films were released that contained startlingly graphic representations of torture: Hostel, Wolf Creek, The Devil’s Rejects, Saw I-V.

Using torture as a premise or theme in horror is not new, but the way it is portrayed is. It suddenly became very ‘real’ due to advancements of technology and CGI effects.

The use of the term suggests that we, as an audience, watch these films for a physical reaction rather than an emotional one – much like porn.

Despite voyeurism being a part of films and what makes films, so different from every day life, never before has this level of torture and realism been seen in films before.