A Brief History of Horror

Classic Literature

The Horror genre takes a lot of influence from many classic works of literature, such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. When the first rendition of Dracula was made, Stoker’s heirs (Bram Stoker being the author of the original novel) sued the filmmakers for copyright infringement. So when F.W. Murnau came to direct his own unauthorised version (Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens), he changed the story to follow the vampire Count Orlok instead of Dracula along with many other small changes. Many more films have been made depicting various versions of Stoker’s Dracula, and the name remains today as an icon of horror. The same can be said for the founding fathers of science fiction; Frankenstein and his monster.  The first film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was made in 1910. Unfortunately for many years, it was considered a lost film. Mixed with the facts that it was only a 16 minute short, and that it de-emphasised various parts of the original tale, it didn’t spark much of an interest with audiences. It wasn’t until 1931 when Universal decided to make a Frankenstein that filmmakers had finally got it right, as it were. Like Dracula, Frankenstein spawned many sequels and re-imaginings from various studios.

The Silent Era

Many films of the early 1900s would take inspiration from old folk tales, and literary classics of the previous century. The visual style of many pieces of this time took credit from spirit photography and expressionist painters. Due to the limited colour palette, it was a lot harder to use lighting, and even convincingly transit between day and night. Early films tended to be either of the action or comedy genres, but some filmmakers intended to trick the minds of the audiences with the new technology, with the use of jump cuts to teleport and transform objects and people, and spirit photography to create illusions and apparitions. They would also explore darker stories with supernatural and psychological themes, evolving from the ‘Spook tales’ of the late 1800s. These are the earliest horror films.

One such example from this era is Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. This film is considered a masterpiece today. It is still praised, not for its scare factor, but for its atmosphere, its artistry, and for its creative ideas. These are innovations which would have been the reasoning behind making the film in the first place, which only proves that after almost 100 years, the film is still appreciated and taken seriously.  Nosferatu, as previously mentioned, was derived from the classic novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. The director, F.W. Murnau, changed the script to avoid a lawsuit from the house of Stoker. None-the-less, Stoker’s heirs still sued, and won, and as such, Prana Film, the company responsible for Nosferatu, fell into bankruptcy and never made another film again.

1930s
Monsters and Mad Scientists

Horror was truly reborn in this era. Films were still silent on the 30s, so the soundtrack played an extremely important role in creating suspense or signifying threats. It was still popular of this time to make films which were based on 18^th century literary classics, set in faraway places, and with period costumes. Frankenstein and Dracula from the newly emerged Universal Studios became very popular.

The enthusiasm for horror greatly increased between the 20s and 30s as the cinema became a safe haven from the depression. Roughly 80 million (65% of the whole US population) attended the cinema weekly in this decade. When Adolf Hitler came to power in ‘33, the mad scientist side of the genre had reached its peak, as people made obvious connections between the characters’ nature and Hitler’s dictatorship, but other films such as The Invisible Man still flourished.

Despite the real-world fear of the time, films still chose to scare people in theatres as well. Universal’s Frankenstein is a prime example of a film which had to be censored because audiences were unhappy with the horrific content. There was one scene in particular that parents were not happy with. In it, the monster has already escaped and is wandering free. He comes across a small child, a little girl on a lakeside, throwing flowers into the water and watching them drift away. The monster, not understanding the difference, picks up the girl and throws her into the water, she drowns and the monster watches her drift away with the flowers. In the UK and many other countries this whole scene was completely removed from the film. Expanding from this scene, many religious movements were displeased with the film as a whole, arguing that only God can bring life to the previously dead.

1940s

Werewolves and Cat People

During World War II, films were still being made. German expressionist filmmakers fled to America, to Hollywood, as they didn’t want their films to be associated with Nazi Germany. Wolves and dogs were strongly associated with the Nazi Party (Adolf even means ‘noble wolf’ in old German). Because of this, the filmmakers decided to use wolves and dogs to scare the people of America. Werewolves could be seen as Nazis. Once perfectly ‘ordinary’ people (daytime = human), but underneath they are a part of Hitler’s army (night-time = werewolf). Hitler was trying to take over the world, bring everyone onto his side (when a werewolf bites a human, they also become a werewolf).

Moving on, there were two main stories behind cat-women in films of this era. The first is that during WWII, the men would go and serve their country, while the women would stay and do their bit, taking over from the men’s day jobs, running the country by themselves. Once the men came back, the women were left to do housework and demeaning chores again. Women wanted their dominance over men again, and so cat-people were introduced in films, normally depicting women killing men or turning them also into cat people. Cat People was a 1942 film which did exactly this. The main character is a woman who turns into a cat when sexually aroused. She then kills the man responsible for the arousal. The other story is that women’s activist groups were on a rise, and that films were simply pro-women, rather than being connected to the war.

1950s

Aliens and Monsters

Horror films of this period greatly benefited from the fear of real-world issues. With the Second World War over and the fear of the Nazis gone, the latest scare was communism. Communism threatened to make everyone the same, and films pounced on this opportunity to scrap the werewolves and make films about aliens taking over, and zombies infecting people, making them all brain-dead. Russia was (and still is) a huge country, and nuclear war was another huge possibility, so filmmakers also decided to include huge monsters causing mass destruction to be included in their films. The Blob is a perfect example of all of the above. It’s a 1958 film about a HUGE, RED blob that CONSUMES PEOPLE. When it ‘eats’ a person, it GROWS in size and DESTRUCTIVE FORCE. It’s so obvious that this film intended to warn people about the dangers of communism.

There was however another path for horror filmmakers to take. The advancements of technology, and the imminent arrival of space travel allowed (quite literally) a whole new world for films to explore. Fear of the unknown. Not only could films warn people about war and the dangers of space travel, but they could also combine the fears of space and communism into one film. The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 film about an alien visitor, who comes to Earth to deliver a message of utmost importance. This film, particularly in the ending, added psychological factors that lead to ethical concerns about humans venturing into space. What if we are the bad guys? What if aliens look down at Earth and pity us for our frequent outbreaks of war with each other?

Hammer Horror

Founded in 1934, Hammer is a film production company famous for the re-imaginings of such famous icons as Frankenstein and Dracula. Hammer found its way into horror with The Quatermass Xperiment in 1955, but they firmly laid their ground on the genre with their first colour horror The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957. After that, Hammer went on to produce many other films based on earlier material. In 1976, Hammer halted the production of horror films, as they were going out of fashion and the introduction of colour television meant less people were going to the cinema to watch films.

The Curse of Frankenstein was arguably one of the most important horror films of all time. Hammer took Universal’s 1931 film and adapted the script almost entirely (mainly to avoid Universal suing for using very similar content, but this turned out to be a very happy accident for Hammer). They changed the focus of the film completely, from the monster to the doctor. It’s worth noting this also changed a lot from the original novel, not just Universal’s film. They made the film in colour, which was a big step-up. And they also changed Dr Frankenstein’s motives. Originally he seemed like an evil professor, robbing graves, and merging the bodies just to see what popped out, but in The Curse he was a genuine scientist on a quest for knowledge. This was an example of Hammer merging two characters in the script to avoid lawsuits from Universal, but it also put a new light on the doctor, one that would allow audiences to see his softer side.

1960s-70s

Ghosts, Zombies, Satanism and Your Family

Horror films of this time tended to reflect the grim outlook of the decade, but at this time larger budgets were available, so the films became a lot more well-made and respectable. Horrors of this time became a lot more sophisticated and ‘real’, as the films would address societal issues and genuine psychological fears. One such recurring fear used was the fear of children and childbirth.

Ghost stories became popular in the 60s. This is seen as a reflection of the creature features of the previous decade. The horror lies in the psychological journey the protagonist takes from sanity to insanity. This addresses the preoccupation of change, and it’s interesting to note that mainly women were the first (and on many occasions the only ones) to be destroyed by it.

The Exorcist is a great example of a film that includes Satanism and Christianity, fear of children, and the closer-to-home fears of family and loved ones. One of the infamous ‘demonic child’ films of this era, the film was both praised for its quite genuine fear factor, and criticised for its possibly unnecessary gore factor. The film concerns the demonic possession young girl, and her mother’s desperate attempts to win her back with an exorcism. The Exorcist was the first Horror film ever to be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards, is frequently voted one of the scariest films of all time and is the perfect film of this era.

Slashers and Body Horrors

Slasher is a subgenre which depicts a person mutilating another with the use of bladed or other hand-weapons. Body Horrors are films whose main focus is on the graphic destruction or degeneration of human body/bodies. These films were truly born in the 80s when advances in technology allowed greater special effects which allowed filmmakers to show much more explicit footage. These two kinds of films are particularly famous for their iconic killers. Audiences came to love them, which is why a lot of Slashers spawn many sequels (Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween etc.).

One of the most iconic franchises of Slasher is Friday the 13th. Partially inspired by the success of John Carpenter’s Halloween, Sean S. Cunningham (director) wanted to make a film that was stunning to look at and make “you jump out of your seat”, he wanted to make “a real scary movie”  that would also make the audience laugh. We now know today, that these are all elements of the Slasher genre. The film originally received very negative reviews, being criticised for generally being a bit too generic and not especially well-made, but a cult following spawned. A large cult following. The fans grew attached to Jason Voorhees, and they liked the ending to the film. It’s probably thanks to this fan base that the film managed to get up off its knees and become one of the most profitable Slasher movies in history. Its success led to a long string of sequels and a recent reboot (also typical of Slasher franchises). To this day, taking inflation into consideration, Friday the 13th is the highest grossing horror franchise in the United States and Canada, with $687.1 million.

Video Nasties

Video Nasties were films in the 70s which were released directly to video, and when the Video Recordings Act of 1984 came into action, were banned, allegedly ‘depraving or corrupting’ the viewer. These films were released direct to video if movie theatres refused to show them for being too obscene. At the time, there were no legislations specifically regulating video content, so the filmmakers could get away with releasing the films on video. Because quite a few Video Nasties were around, and shops would advertise the exclusive not-available-in-cinema videos in shop windows, horror became an increasingly popular genre to watch in the home.

The Evil Dead was one such ‘Nasty’. Sam Raimi created the film with no fear of, and no interest in censorship. As such it was rated X, and named a Video Nasty. The interesting thing about The Evil Dead was that beforehand, Raimi did a small tour of various theatres, showcasing the film in order to raise hype. When the film was released, it became a “sleeper hit” getting more and more popular over time. The film became the best-selling video release in the UK, and when it was given its X rating, The Evil Dead became known as the “number one nasty” to reflect its duel status.

Gorenography

‘Gorenography’ is a term given to films which focus on graphic imagery, as opposed to character progression and plot. ‘Torture Porn’ as we know it originates from the ‘Splatter Film’, a sub-genre which deliberately focuses on gore. This term was first used by George A. Romero to describe his own film, Dawn of the Dead (1978). In the 2000s, a wave of films was released which incorporated elements of both the Splatter and Slasher genres; these are what we truly know of today as the ‘Gornos’. Audience watch them, and filmmakers make them because they want to see how far they can go. How disgusting can a film get before there’s a return of the Video Nasty? Some enjoy the discomfort of watching such films, and others just want as little to be left to the imagination as possible. Some say that these films are so horrific that they should not be considered true horrors, alongside such greats as The Curse of Frankenstein, Friday the 13th and Nosferatu.

Saw is a rather unique entry to the Torture Porn sub-genre, and many (including myself) would actually redeem it rather unfair to actually categorise it in such a way. Yes, it has the torture, the grotesque butchering and the impossible mind-breaking choices (on part of the characters). But as a franchise, it has character progression, a heart-breaking tale of a man who loses his baby, survives attempted suicide and is diagnosed with Cancer. It’s a very unique blend of the plot twists of a psychological thriller, the iconic characters of a Slasher, and the torture of a gorno. As such,  Saw is the world’s most successful Horror franchise.