The History of Horror

Horror Film Definition - 'A film in which very frightening or unnatural things happen, for example dead people coming to life and people being murdered. There are many different sub-genres within horror; however they do tend to have a pattern and regularities.' - (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Horror film is a genre that will never go out of fashion because it hones in on our deepest fears and anxieties of life and humanity. Viewers are attracted to character that they would run or hide from in real life because they can then relate to the film. Horror films base their narrative on the gothic novels of nineteenth-century Europe, such as the famous Frankenstein (1818), Dracula (1897) and The Phantom of the Opera (1910). 

The very first horror film created was The Haunted Castle (1897) directed by George Melies. It is a three minute long silent movie and it could be interpreted as a comedy; however it features many aspects that many of the horror films to follow included, such as a haunted castle, a vampire and a ghost. Melies was more focused on showcasing special-effects that would impress his audience, rather than focusing on making them feel scared or anxious. The horror film is located in a haunted castle and starts by a bat flying into the scene which then turns into a vampire, which was played by George Melies himself. The vampire produces a cauldron as if by magic with special effects and then continues to create different supernatural creatures such as a skeleton, a goblin and witches, and uses his magic abilities to scare and hide from the castle's guards until he is vanished by the sight of the cross. 

First ever Horror Film - The Haunted Castle (1897)

(Melies, J., 1896.)

Gothic novels grew to be very popular, so popular in fact that Hollywood studios were prepared to spend extensive money on creating new film productions of the novels The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Characters and creatures were being introduced to the horror genre, including the Werewolf, monsters and new scary creatures that were featured in films such as The Golem (1915) and Alraune (1915). Edgar Alllan Poe, an American writer, created gruesome stories that shaped horror films for many decades to come with a key narrative template to follow, such as The Avenging Conscience (1914) and The Plague in Florence (1919). Many of the best filmmakers produced horror films, such as Swedish filmmaker Victor Sjostrom and Danish filmmaker Carl Dreyer. American film studio, Universal, produced The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a big-budget film and showed how horror film could be translated into a silent film. Lon Chanley played the Hunchback, as well as many other famous horror film creatures including the Phantom and Alonzo the Armless in The Unknown (1927), enduring pain and discomfort to create the image for his iconic characters, becoming the Man of a Thousand Faces. The makeup and styling to create the Hunchback was particularly enduring, with the extremely heavy hump, uncomfortable dental device stopping him from closing his mouth, and wire used to disfigure his nose. This incredible transformation was so impressive that it became part of the films' publicity. 

Lon Chaney as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
(Brianna, 2012.)

Horror and the art film were often incorporated to create a more visually appealing and creative film, showing more expression and emotion through art forms. An example of this was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), a film showing the world through the perspective of a mentally ill patient in an asylum. Unusual angles and harsh lighting effects were used to create more dramatic and violent looking scenes. Horror films were very popular at this point; however the horror film genre had not yet been established as there were not enough recognisable characters, settings and situations to set a general 'formula'. Horror finally became a genre of its own in the early sound era when Universal Studios released many horror films with iconic characters, setting the standard for future creatures and monsters to come. In 1931 the famous Dracula and Frankenstein were created and released by Universal Studios, followed by The Mummy in 1932, which created the characters' iconic looks. Manu sequels of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy continued to be created until 1945 which gave horror films a definitive genre. Jack Pierce ran the makeup department at Universal Studios and was responsible for creating all of these classic monster looks and their sequels. Other examples of famous horror films released at this time are Murders in the Rue Morgue (1931) and The Black Cat (1934); however these films caused a backlash from the public because people thought the films were too gruesome, creating a need for censorship, possibly restricting what content could be shown and to what age groups. For example, a man is seen being skinned alive in The Black Cat which was seen as too horrific to be shown in film production. This is clearly very different today as the censorship has been broadened so more violent content is acceptable. 

The Black Cat (1934)
(Danny, 2013.)

Universal's horror films were proving so successful that other film studios started to produce their own, such as Paramount releasing Island of Lost Souls (1932) and Warner Bros released Doctor X (1932). However by the 1940s people were so used to seeing these classic monsters that they weren't scary anymore and so people started to lose interest in the genre. This lack of popularity was saved by Val Lewton, a producer at RKO Pictures, when he released a stream of films that focused more on what people might be scared of in the real world, tuning in to their anxieties about life. Lewton also focused more on creating tension through showing dark, shadowy places where a monster or creature may be lurking, but doesn't necessarily show the monster itself. Examples of these films are Cat People (1942), The Body Snatcher (1945) and Isle of the Dead (1945). However, again, in 1950s the horror genre lost popularity once again as people started to favour science-fiction. In the late 1950s English film production company, Hammer Films, released remakes of horror films with classic monsters, including Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959), to make them more graphic and violent which started the new horror genre trend of pushing the boundaries. Alfred Hitchcock definitely pushed the boundaries of violence with Psycho (1960), with the famous, highly influential shower scene where the lead female role getting brutally attacked in a shower with a knife. Hitchcock's main objective was the frighten his audience with scenes that could happen to them in real life, to make people feel very on edge and anxious about their day to day life. This was the start of horror films deliberately trying to hone in on the audience's biggest fears and anxieties.

Famous Psycho Shower Scene (1960)
(Rigney, T., 2015.)

After the release of the graphic Psycho (1960), there were two main paths in which horror films could follow. The films were either produced by big-budget film studios with famous film directors that were aimed at box office sales, including The Exorcist (1973) and The Shining (1980); or the films were produced at a much low budget and targeted the audience's own insecurities and fears about life. These films tended to be more violent and graphic, with less focus on staying strictly within the guidelines of acceptability. Examples of these low budget films are Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). All of these films, both high and low budget, proved very successful and massively influenced the horror genre as a whole.

The Exorcist (1973)

(MCKENDRY, D., 2015.)

A new trend of 'slasher' horror films became very popular after Halloween (1978) was produced by film director, John Carpenter, where teenagers would be stalked and followed by killers who would hunt them down and violently kill them. 'Slasher' films to follow include Friday the 13th (1980) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) which influenced many horror films to come. However as these types of film continued to be produced people started to poke fun at the dramatic violence, with parody films produced such as Scream (1996) and Scary Movie (2000), where the teenagers have seen many 'slasher' horror films themselves and so think they know all the rules on how to escape the killers; however end up in serious trouble where each character gets murdered one by one. This mockery of the film genre caused many directors to revert back to the more old fashioned technique of creating tension and suspense without actually showing the killer/monster, but just suggesting they are lurking or hiding from the characters. These more suspense driven horror was a big success, including The Blair Witch Project (1999) and The Others (2001).

Scary Movie (2000)
(MARKLONGDEN, 2014.)

Violent and graphic horrors films, however, are constantly making comebacks with Saw (2004) and Hostel (2005) in an attempt to reflect the success of the 1970s classics. Film makers are also continuing to produce remakes of the most successful original films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Night of the Living Dead 3D (2009) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) as they have noticed that the sequels of these films never quite do as well as the originals. These films have all been well received by the public. Horror films continue to be produced today, either to make the audience scream with freight from violence or shake with terror from suspense, but this is not a genre likely to disappear as the world is always conjuring up new anxieties and fears. 

References:

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2017. Horror Film [viewed 23rd January 2017]. Available from: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/horror-film

FRIEDMAN, L., et al., 2013. An Introduction to Film Genres. New Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.

MELIES, J., 1896. The Haunted Castle [viewed 23rd January 2017]. Available from: http://memoriesofhalloween.com/the-haunted-castle-1896.html

BRIANNA, 2012. Actor Spotlight: Lon Chaney [viewed 23rd January 2017]. Available from: https://universalmonstersblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/actor-spotlight-lon-chaney/

DANNY, 2013. The Black Cat (1934) Review [viewed 23rd January 2017]. Available from: http://pre-code.com/the-black-cat-1934-review/

RIGNEY, T., 2015. Psycho Shower Scene Gets Reimagined with Kittens [viewed 23rd January 2017]. Available from: http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/108063/psycho-shower-scene-gets-reimagined-with-kittens/

MCKENDRY, D., 2015. Is The Exorcist Movie Cursed? 7 Reasons Some People Think The Film Is Haunted [viewed 23rd January 2017]. Available from: http://www.blumhouse.com/2015/12/02/is-the-exorcist-movie-cursed/

MARKLONGDEN, 2014. Scary Movie 2000 [viewed 23rd January 2017]. Available from: https://iscfc.net/2014/12/29/scary-movie-2000/