HISTORY OF HORROR

The Primal Animal Within Werewolves and Cat People

1940s

INTRODUCTION

Most horror films were American products as at the time, they were banned in Britain.

The Americans saw themselves as being safe, where as anything coming from Europe was seen as dangerous.

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. Many horror films of the time also deal with roots peeking through. In the form of men and women who were subject to the emergence of a primal animal identity

An example of an animal state being used as a negative way to show a person can be found in the 1940’s film Pinocchio where the bad boys in the film turn into donkeys.

L IN K BETWEEN HO RR OR AND WO LVES

It wasn’t donkeys but wolves who became a threat in the early 1940s. Hitler himself strongly identified with the iconography and legends of a wolf. The name Adolf means ‘noble wolf’ in old German. Hitler became quite obsessive with wolves, with many Nazi Party HQ being named after the animal. For example, Wolfsschulcht (Wolf’s Gulch) being in France, Werwolf (manwolf) in the Ukraine and more. Even his SS forces were referred to as ‘My Pack of Wolves’ by Hitler himself.

Not surprisingly, Universal chose to use the wolf as a figure of menace for the late 1930’s and early 1940’s.

THE WOLFMAN (1941)Although at this point, there had been Werewolf films prior to this film being released, for example ‘Werewolf in London’, there was no single Werewolf story that was easy to be adapted into film.

It was the job or screen writer Curt Siodmak to write a story line for the film. Siodmak had fled the Nazis in 1937

In the film, the characters flee America to return back to their home in wales, this could be linked with Siodmak’s flee from the Nazi army

CAT PEOPLE (1942)

resulting from men coming back from world war 2, women were removed from their jobs in factories etc. for the men to regain their roles in those industries.

As a result of this, women weren't happy with the way they were being treated

This is linked to the film cat people because women in this film were shown as being a dangerous, and powerful because of what they were able to d in the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ADPSaybusM