History of Horror

Gothic HorrorGothic Horror is one of the earliest forms of horror. In the early 20th

century many popular novels were being turned into horror films. Often these stories were about a monster and the audience were meant to feel empathetic towards the creature.

With the arrival of the First World War horror films became even more popular as the world became more conscious to the real horrors of the world.

The term “Horror” was not used to describe the genre until the 1930’s. Until then they were known as “Spook Tales”.

Silent StoriesBefore sound came to film horror films were being made. There are three famous films made in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. These four films were all silent.

Le Manoir du Diable, 1896

The Cabinet of Dr Caliagari, 1919

The Golem, 1920

Nosferatu, 1922

In the 20’s the us of silent films was common in German expressionism. The first form of horrors were German films that would be shown in screen rooms with live orchestras.

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, 1919This horror is considered the “granddaddy of all horror films”. It is the first horror film on record and although it is considered slow passed by the modern audience it is stylish and imaginative.

Nosferatu, 1922Nosferatu is the first vampire film and shows the grotesque Count Orlock taking his helpless victims. This film is famous for its use of Chiarascuro, the use of extreme contrasts between light and dark.

Mid-20th Century

With the arrival of sound horror films became increasingly popular. The most famous of films made around this time are;

Dracula, 1931

Frankenstein, 1931

Dr Jeckll & Mr Hyde, 1931

The Mummy, 1932

King Kong, 1933

The Wolfman, 1941

Frankenstein

Being possibly one of the most famous of horror characters, Frankenstein's monster was very controversial at the time of its birth. Many religious groups were angry as it depicted Dr. Frankenstein creating life, a role that only God can do.

Monsters and Mad ScientistsThe first form of horror characters are monsters and mad men. From the start to the middle of the 20th century we saw characters such as Dracula, Dr. Caliagri, Count Orlock and Edward Hyde. It was the rise of Hitler, viewed by everybody as a mad man, and the rise of Dictatorship and Fascism in Europe that encouraged the use of these characters. The characters depicted the Dictator’s of the time and their hunger for power.

In the 1930’s and 40’s the use of the wolf was increased. With the rise of Hitler and his fondness of wolves the popular figure of terror and menace was the wolf. Universal, having already developed their famous characters, adopted the wolf and produced many wolf themed films including Werewolf of London (1935) and The Wolfman (1941). Many horrors coined on to the idea that man’s worst monster is hidden within himself.

Universal Studios created most of the horror films in the mid 20th

century. Many of the much loved Gothic Horror monsters are fashioned by Universal.

HAMMER HORRORHammer Productions was established in 1934 but due to the flop in the British film industry, Hammer was forced into bankruptcy in 1937. In 1938, just before the Second World War Hammer found its feet again and was resurrected during the war. In 1955 Hammer started to produce horror films. They released The Quartermass Xperiment. This film was an unexpected success and lead to a sequel Quartermass 2 (1957).

Hammer started to produce more horror films following the much loved characters including Frankenstein's monster in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula in Dracula (1958) and the Mummy in The Mummy (1959). Hammer brought a craftsmanship to their films which made them successful and popular.

After a change in the market Hammer started to produce films of different genre, but at the start of the 21st

century Hammer revived its horror genre producing the more recent films; Let Me In (2010) The resident (2011) and The Woman in Black (2012).

MUTANTS AND ALIENSWith the industrial scale of death and destruction of WW2 the world was exposed to the horrors attached to the more human faces of evil. With the knowledge of death camps and the atom bomb as well as soldiers with their own horror stories, the loved characters like Dracula and Golem were childish compared to the reality.

Because of the advances of science after the war, audiences started to see more scientific horror films. Rocketship X-M (1950) was the first out of space film. It incorporates the space race and the Cold War depicting military sciences. With the use of Nuclear weapons the population were now afraid of an apocalypse and monsters were themed on mutations of nuclear experiments, such as the creatures in Rocketship X-M and Godzilla (1954).

The Cold WarWith the Cold War in the background and the Red Scare and McCarthyism in America, films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Invaders from Mars (1953) have hints of anti-communism. With the fear of Communism spreading through the west and apparently brainwashing the minds of entire countries, America put all of its efforts into stopping its spread attempting to intervene in Korea, Vietnam and Cuba. Much of the media included anti-communist messages.

Slashers

In 1960, times were changing with sexual attitudes changing and the generation’s view on war had changed from the decade before. These slasher films started to explore new ways of perceiving sexuality and violence. The aging post-war generation had grown wise to the empty promises to the vivid titles of the day and wanted to see horror that was more real and close to the everyday life they faced.

1932 saw the film Thirteen Women with elements of the slasher. In 1960 Alfred Hitchcock created Phsycho. Basing his story on true events, audiences started to love the more realistic horrors. This film influenced many more stories to come with Halloween (1978), Prom Night (1980) and many others.

Slashers came back to popularity with the 2003 re-boot of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It triggered the remakes of Halloween (2007), Prom Night (2007) and Friday the 13th (2009).

Ghosts, Zombies and SatanismAt the same time as the growing popularity of slashers, ghosts, zombies and the possessed were growing in popularity also. One of the first zombie films, Night of the Living Dead (1968), caused a surge of zombie films. This title alone spawned five sequels, Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009). Popular possessed characters included children in The Exorcist (1973) and Carrie (1976). This films caused much controversy as they were unlike anything audiences had seen on the screen before.

Video Nasties

A video nasty is a movie that was banned from being distributed in the UK. This came around due to the National Viewers’ and Listeners Association. Films were started to be released on tape, a new technology in the 1980’s. Smaller companies caught on that there was nothing to state they couldn’t release their films on tape without being sanctioned by the UK Film Censors, this meant lots of horror films were sold in the UK on tape even though they were banned in UK cinemas. These films were going against the “Obscene Publications Act” that prohibits ”Deprave and Corrupt” materials to be distrusted.

The media can be held responsible for the authorities acting upon these “video nasties”. The Daily Mail headlined its newspapers claiming they were affecting young people and a danger to society as the twisted plots could actually influence immoral and wicked people. A new law, the video recordings act, forced video tape regulation which prevented the sale of vide nasties.

A total of 74 films were prosecuted, including-

• SS Experiment Camp (1976)

• Canibal Holocaust (1980)

• The Evil Dead (1981)

• I Spit On Your Grave (1989)

• The Driller Killer (1999)

All films from the list are now available to watch. They varied having from 30 seconds to 10 minutes edited out. When you watch them now due to the graphical content compared to the detail and effects we have today people may not be to phased, however the views people have of young children watching gore hasn’t changed.

Today all films are looked at by the British Board Of Film Classification (BBFC). Due to film makers being aware of the restrictions very rarely are even banned to this day, if there is something wrong they are simply re-edited and put with an over 18 Rating. An example of this is Human Centipede 2, which was rated by the BBFC to be “tasteless and disgusting” but after 2 minutes and 37 seconds were cut the films was released in the UK.

Gorenography

Following the attacks of September 11th 2001 the population’s perception of what was frightening changed. With America’s war on terror and invasion of Iraq the world saw the terror of torture and the way it was being used on prisoners of war. This theme triggered a new kind of horror film, known as “Torture Porn”, the term used by film critic David Edelstein. This new wave of film saw the release of Hostel (2005), the Saw Franchise (2004-2010) and Captivity (2007)