History Of Horror
2) The horror of the silent era. German expressionism. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. Nosferatu.
German Expressionism initiated
originally before the First World War in a reaction to the mishaps the war
could potentially create. The drastic creative developments during this time
were seen particularly in the arts, such as painting and film with the
production of films seeing radical alterations. German citizens went to watch
films on a regular basis as it was seen as a form of escapism from the
lifestyles they had to undergo; also, the gradual increase in film production
was due to the new and inimitable genre of
‘The
horror of the silent era’. The films in this decade of horror were very dark and surrealistic. It was the painters in this expressionist movement who were responsible for the way in which these films were presented visually.
It would appear that German expressionism was a
reaction to the post war era which would effect and alter the lives of German
citizens. It was a way of presenting to the general public the reality and
consequences which the War would coincidentally bring into their day to day
lives. The first expressionist films made in this movement were deviant to
normal and could be seen as absurd. Fritz Lang, a filmmaker and screenwriter
during the German expressionist movement, was quoted as being “the master of darkness”, due to the
extremity of his work compared to that of a classic Hollywood film. He was best
known for his creation of the film “Metropolis” in 1927.
“The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari” by Robert
Wiene was seen as the absolute 'height'
of Expressionism. It made use of very diverse effects, using houses in the
background, portraying them in the scenes on canted angles. These films were
very unique due to the visual effects of darkness and painting on lights and
shadows to add to the distressing effect. “Nosferatu”,
another German expressionist film directed by F. W. Murnau and the first vampire movie, was an adaptation of the infamous film “Dracula”. This film had to be named
something different as the production company weren’t given permission to call
it “Dracula”. Only one camera was
used to shoot this film due to lack of funding; therefore a metronome was used
to alter the pace of the filming.
3) Monsters and Mad Scientists - 1930s and Universal Studios Horror
Monsters and Mad Scientists were the
fictional names given to villainous or outrageous characters in the 1930s in
science fiction and horror films. This was the decade where Britain classified
the “Horror” genre. Universal Studios in America were primarily responsible for
the vast majority of these types of films.
“Frankenstein” was probably the most
successful for this genre, with the character Frankenstein being the mad
scientist. His character in the film crosses
"boundaries that ought
not to be crossed". Although the characters within this genre are more
often seen to be criminals and unfriendly, in a great deal of the films they
were also depicted in a good way. This is present in Frankenstein as his
character doesn’t portray a villain.
“The Island of Doctor Moreau” by H. G. Wells (1896), is
about a man who merges the DNA from humans into animals. Clearly, the character
in this film is portrayed as a criminal. When producing a film under this
genre, filmmakers often used torches, electricity and cobwebs to add to the
dramatic effect. These horror films were responsible for eventually bringing sound and
music to the screen. The special effects in film were gradually improving. Europe had significant influence with the rapid expansion of these
films by way of Hitler coming into power in 1933. His coming into power caused European citizens to panic flee to
America, including cinematographers, directors, producers and actors etc, thus
causing an increase in film production in America and European actors being
used to play the protagonist roles in films.
4) The primal animal within; werewolves and cat people - 1940s.
The 1940s was seen as a weaker period in horror. The horror films
in this time period centred mainly on supernatural, animalistic humans,
'werewolves' and 'cat people'. These films would portray humans turning into these
animals throughout the course of the film and becoming villainous. "The
Mad Monster" directed by Sam Newfield in 1942, focuses on a mad scientist
transforming his gardener into a monstrous werewolf so that he can kill.
Similarly, 1942 horror film “cat people” was produced by Val
Lewton and focuses on the story of a girl who thinks she is part of a
particular unique race of people who transform into cats when aroused sexually. The horror films in this decade began to present an emergence of sexual material.
5) Mutant creatures and alien invaders - 1950s. Horror breaks free of its literary roots.
The 1950s saw the primary recruitment
of Science Fiction Horror with mutant creatures and alien invaders. It was in
this time period where horror started to break free from its classic literary
roots. The very first Sci-Fi horror to be made was called "The Thing from Another World" (1951) and it focused on an Air force crew and
scientists who are compelled to protect themselves from an alien being. Filmmakers
in this decade portrayed fears and a distinct lack of trust within their works due
to the events of the war and the worry of the spread of communism. America had
become extremely fragile and paranoid following the war years.
Following the
events and extremities of the second world war, people wanted to see different
to human faces in film, and the use of these alienist characters had become
very popular at the time. Between 1940 and 1950 the concept of a horrific
monster had altered permanently. World
War 2 had taken the lives of 40 million people, and people began to become
exposed to the 'spectrum of man's inhumanity to man'. Homecoming soldiers had
too many horror stories of their own to appreciate most horrors on screen, and they
generally preferred less horrific things to watch. America brought to the screen
this new style of monster, adapted specifically for survival. More films were gradually
being brought out to express and demonstrate the fear of communism spreading. A
number of films were also released following the new creation of the atomic bomb.
"The beast from 20,000 Fathoms"
and "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" were both
brought out in 1953 and 1956 and they both followed very similar story lines with some sort of monstrous creature attacking a city following atomic bomb
testing. This would have posed a great threat on the USSR within the Cold War period.
The horror films of the 1950s were based
particularly on science and technological advances. Technology was important in
this time period as it saw rapid developments in the film industry. Studios
became increasingly involved in applying the new technical changes such as 'widespread
colour production' to get films out of black and white. The films of this
decade were very entertaining for viewers, and provided a 'crude, technicolour
snapshot' of the way America frantically didn't want itself to be. The films
also gave American's a couple of hours to escape and not have to think about
the realities of the Cold War.
6) Ghosts, zombies, Satanism and your family (1960s-70s)
1960s and 70s filmmakers started to develop horror movies which
involved the living dead. The use of ghosts, zombies and Satanism in films
became a trend to move on to after a successful previous decade in Sci-fi
horror. Evil/demonic children were also used a lot in these 1960 films, proving
the popularity of Satanism in horror; for example
Rosemary's baby (1968) where the infant born is actually the spawn
of Satan, and similarly
The Omen
(1976) where the young boy is the antichrist and
The Exorcist (1973) , where the young girl is possessed and heavily
influenced by the devil.
Ghosts made an occurrence in horror also, made evident
with the film
The Haunting (1963)
where terrifying ghosts are found present in a mansion by a doctor attempting to
prove their existence. There was some criticism caused for horror films made in this decade as film makers appeared to gradually be taking more risks with levels of obscenity in their works. The utilization of Zombies in
"Night of The Living Dead" (1968) became widely
criticized at first for the overt content, however later on gained consent.
It's about a group of people trapped inside a farmhouse, only to be harmed by
zombies. Remakes of this film have been made because of its eventual credited
success.
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| Charles Manson |
A number of extremely tragic events occurred within this time period
which held some responsibility for the absurdity and obscenity developing in
these horror films. Film producers began embarking on new methods which would
involve increased sexually explicit material and extreme violence in their
films. Following the happenings of the Manson family murders triggered by
criminal Charles Manson, the general public's principles altered somewhat in
the 1960s and 70s after a
'horrible'
turn of events. This made highly extreme horror movies acceptable, in turn
causing the increase of family orientated horror films. The general public were
gradually maturing and therefore were looking for horror which was more
realistic to the lives they had been experiencing.
7) Hammer Horror- A British success.
Hammer
Horror is the term given to a number of Gothic films created by
Hammer Film Productions in the United
Kingdom particularly between the 1950 and 1970 time period. Hammer had and has
been a British success, taking over the Horror genre in film for a number of
years. However it initially faced issues and went into liquidation in 1937 after
the production of only about six films.
It later
survived and overcome this bankruptcy and went on to produce more movies. Its
first very successful horror mystery film was "The Quartermass Xperiment".
It was a great surprise just how successful
this film was, thus triggering the release of more extreme Hammer horror
movies, such as The Curse of Frankenstein
(1957), Dracula (1958), The Mummy (1959) and The phantom of the opera (1962).
During the early 1970s, the company once again struggled enormously with money,
due to alterations in audiences interests. The general public began to worry
about the levels of violence in the films Hammer were producing and the impact
it was having on the antisocial behavior among infants. The series of complaints
made, led to infamous newspapers The Sunday Times and The Daily mail writing
reports to go against the production of these films, believing it to be 'invading' home life. There became a significant
decrease in the number of films being produced by Hammer. The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974), and To
the Devil a Daughter (1976) were the next two films
created by Hammer; however unfortunately they weren't a big hit with the
general public. Their last film for a
long time, was The Lady Vanishes, made in 1979.
In the 1980s, when
they had stopped the production of films, Hammer went on to make a television series, titled "Hammer House of
Horror", which did make respectable success. It seems that the series
focused, in each episode, on all different types of horror that had been
popular through the decades. The sequel to this series was called "Hammer
House of Mystery and Suspense" which was Hammer's final every
production for a long time. Very recently, Hammer made a comeback with the
creation of Beyond The Rave, a 2008 horror piece. Since then, they have
gone on to produce more successful films.
8) Slasher movies and body horror/gore in the 80s, and their descent into postmodern parody (Scream)
The 1980s saw the onset of a series of Slasher movies. The killer
in this genre of film would be a psychopath who murders others in an extremely
violent way, using some sort of sharp tool as his weapon. This was where gore
became very popular, with the killer committing very disturbing murders for audience
viewing.
Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the
13th was the first Slasher movie produced to involve such extreme levels of
violence and, following this film's
"Youth
Camp in the Woods" idea, other producers made use of innocent and
vulnerable people being killed in their movies. This Slasher movie trend saw
its prime for a while, with a number of big film hits.
"A Nightmare on Elm Street" was a very popular 1984 film
production, which
"added supernatural twists to the slasher
formula".
Unfortunately, after starting out with so much demand for
this type of film, the Slasher genre was short lived as audiences grew to
become sick of seeing the same conventional horror movies being produced. The much
later production of 1996 parody film
"Scream"
thankfully created something new for the film industry as it focused more on
creating suspense, instead of gore. It ridiculed the conventions the horror
films followed at the time; For example
The
Final Girl theory ( Carol
J. Clover), as the
protagonist character
'Cindy' didn't
follow all the stereotypical conventions of a final girl who is expected to be
masculine in comparison to her friends, a virgin, and who doesn't get involved
with drink and drugs. In the film she loses her virginity to her boyfriend who
ultimately turns out to be the killer. She is also a very attractive character
which challenges
The Final Girl principle.
9) Format fears and moral panics... Video nasties in 1980s
The term “Video nasty”
was created in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s and was aimed at a series
of films which received strong condemnation for their extreme levels of
violence. The main concern when these films were being released into cinemas
was that the violently explicit material could have a big influence on the behavior of children. People were fearing and panicking about the obscenity of
the films being produced as they weren't deemed suitable for viewing.
In turn, great uproar was caused and therefore
initiated the
Video Recordings Act in
1984, which drew a strict line on which films would be put on for viewing
at the cinema. This act banned a number of productions. The public had feared the
movies which fit under the video nasty term after
1979 film The Driller Killer being advertised on magazine covers.
It was indecently explicit and resulted in widespread complaints. These video
nasties did eventually get the blame for the increase in violence amongst
children.
Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange was one of the
films put into the video nasties category, causing the man himself to end
further distribution of the film after receiving death threats.
Due to this obscenity in film, The British Board of Film Classification had to initially ban a series of
films, including The Exorcist and
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; however these films were never put under
the classification of video nasties.
10) Gore returns with a vengeance - "gore-nography" or "torture porn" in the 2000s. Just whose terms are these anyway?
The 2000s “Gore-nography”
and “torture porn” genres are also
known as “splatter films”. These types
of films present graphic violence, torture, sadism and nudity. 'Gore-nography' has become somewhat extreme in numerous films produced so far in the 21st century through the
continuous use of strong violence. Torture
Porn is the term coined for films that include humans being tortured and
then murdered.
Final Destination
(2000) was one of the first films brought out to illuminate the
re-establishment of this splatter film concept, in turn sparking up appeal for
more films to be created based under the same genre.
“Hostel” by Eli Roth was the first film produced which was put into
the category of torture porn. It involved strong scenes of drugs, rape and
torture. “Saw” (2004) has been put into the same category by critics due to
extreme self mutilation.
Despite the extreme ill-nature of gore-nography and
torture porn, they have been very successful so far, with both
“Hostel” and
“Saw” having sequels. It would appear that this genre or horror, involving extremely graphic material, originally
coined in the French Grand Guignol theatre, where they would put on powerful
horror performances back in the late 1800s. The creation of this genre would have been something new
to get a more exaggerated reaction from the audience; however watching these
extreme sadistic live horror shows caused audience members to be sick or even collapse through what they were seeing occur on stage.
