The history of horror.

The history of the horror genre

Horror is an ancient art form. We have tried to terrify each other with tales which trigger the less logical parts of our imaginations for as long as we've told stories. From the ballads of the ancient world to modern urban myths, audiences willingly offer themselves up to sadistic storytellers to be scared witless, and they are happy to pay for the privilege. Theories abound as to why this is so; do we derive basic thrills from triggering the rush of adrenalin which fear brings, or do horror stories serve a wider moral purpose, reinforcing the rules and taboos of our society and showing the macabre fate of those who transgress?

Horror movies have long served both purposes. They deliver thrills by the hearse load, as well as telling us stories of the dark, forbidden side of life (and death) - cautionary tales for grownups. They also provide a revealing mirror image of the anxieties of their time. Some of the earliest horror stories were born from classic literature such as ‘Frankenstein’ written in 1818 by Mary Shelley, it is a story of horror, science fiction and romance, it is thought to be responsible for the science fiction genre. Also when the story was made into a film Parents and religious followers were outraged by some of the scenes of the film. ‘Dracula’ was released in 1931 and directed by Tod Browning it is a classic known by anybody who is interested in the horror genre. ‘Strange case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr Hyde’ is the original title of a novel written by Scotsman Robert Louis Stevenson. Which first published in 1886 after the idea came to him in a dream.

During the 1930’s Monsters as Scientists took over our screens as the main characters of horror films. Sound played an important role in these films as the use of dramatic music and startling sounds were used to create suspense and signify danger. Although this is a separate century, monsters from the roots of literature such as Frankenstein and Dracula were still used in films produced by universal studios and they are still massively recognised today. Famous films of this eram include:

.King kong

.Frankenstein

.Dracula

.The Mummy

.Freaks

.Bride of Frankenstein

The enthusiasm of the horror genre greatly increased in the 1930’s as it provided an escape from the depression and the ominous war. 85 million people attended the cinema weekly in the decade of monsters and scientists.

Films from the 1940’s in the horror genre were based around werewolves and cat people, for example:

.The wolf man

.Cat people

.Frankenstein meets the wolf man

.The curse of the cat people

Theories behind the making of these films are that they are representative of the war. ‘Adolf’ actually means ‘noble wolf’ in old German. Nazi Party headquarters were in fact named after wolves, Hitler made his sister change her name to Paula Wolf and the list goes on. Werewolves were mainly used in films in this time as a symbol for nazi’s as many people died in the war and an idea of this is that when a werewolf bit a human it would become one of them and this was a link to how Hitler tried to take over by making people follow him or die. Cat people were used in films due to the fact that when men left for war at this time women could do men’s jobs, and when the men returned they were forced back into cleaning and housework and their other previous jobs, therefore cat people were used in films to promote femininity and the feminist movement.

In the 1950’s mutant creatures and aliens were introduced into the world of cinema. The first movie to feature outer space was a low budget film called ‘Rocketship X-M’ this was the film which sparked a trend of other sci-fi films during this decade such as ‘The Thing’, ‘The Day the earth stood still’, ‘Forbidden Planet’ and ‘War of the Worlds’ Monster were possible to create on screen in this decade due to the advance in technology and blue screen techniques. An early example of this is in the original 1933 movie ‘King Kong’. This era’s obsession with mutants and aliens came with the fear of people living in co-existence with the atom bomb. These films offer a vision of disaster and chaos caused by something other than mankind, where mankind instead represent a force of good. These films were often referred to as the first ‘Blockbusters’

Hammer film production company were founded in 1934 and are responsible for many great horror films throughout history such as ‘The curse of Frankenstein’ (1957) and ‘Dracula’ (the 1958 version) Hammer films were so well regarded for many reasons, for a start they were in colour unlike the black and white films the world had been used to up to this point. ‘The curse of Frankenstein’ focuses on the victim, not the creature and Frankenstein was on a quest for knowledge and was not a criminal, this film led to many others like it. Hammer horror still make successful horror films today such as the English remake of the Swedish film ‘Let the right one in’ called ‘Let me in’.

Horror movies in the 1970’s reflected the worlds negative outlook of life in the 70’s. However it is also when big budget horror films made their return, they dealt with contemporary social issues and addressed psychological fears (a recurring one was fear of child birth) A massive famous film of this era was ‘The Exorcist’ which was banned from the UK until 1999 and was voted “the scariest film of all time” this film reinforced the ideology that children can be unwanted and do bad things. Many ghost stories became popular in the 60’s  which could have been a direct reaction to the “creature features” of the 50’s and the horror of ghost movies lies in the journey the protagonist makes between sanity and psychosis.

The slasher horror depicts a type of horror in which a killer mutilates a person with the use of knives, razors and other such weapons. A ‘Body Horror’ is a horror in which the main spectacle is the graphically shown destruction or degeneration of human bodies. Films of this genre include:

.Halloween

.Scream

.A nightmare on Elm street

.Friday the 13^th

.Psycho

Slasher films first came about in the 1980’s due to the advances of special effects and technology. Audiences came to love the killers or ‘Psychopaths’ in these films such as Freddy Kreuger, Jason, Michael Myres and chucky, this led to there being many sequels and spin offs such as ‘Freddy vs Jason’. The slasher films all follow a very specific set of conventions that can easily predicted and parodied, this led to films such as the ‘Scary Movie’ franchise.

Video nasties were almost always straight to VHS films and were blamed heavily for changing Britain. They had absurd titles, gory storylines and gruesome covers. They were considered so gory and grim that a law was passed against them (although they were still widely available after the law was passed). Video nasties became popular in the home due to the refusal of British Theatrical Release as well as the fact they dealt with taboo subjects and were over advertised in shop windows.

Gorenography is a type of film where the films sole focus is on the gore and brutality of deaths rather than the characters or plot. These films emphasised scenes of torture, suffering, and violent deaths, they were to be referred to as ‘Torture Porn’. People like these films as it was a sort of outlet for their disturbing and “what if” kind of thoughts as the graphic images of death were deemed socially acceptable in the form of cinema, people also like to see how far gore can be pushed and can get a thrill from feeling out of their comfort zone.