Horror History

Horror Film: A Movement

By Helen Georgia Stoddard
QuailBellMagazine.com

Alright fledglings, here's a little history lesson into the weirdness of horror films. Put on your scholar feathers and start reading:

1890s-1930s

As World War I continued, Europeans sought a fresh artistic outlook on life, and ended up following through with it in the forms of cinema, architecture, and painting--especially in northern and central Europe. Thus, the Expressionist movement began with a bang. 

In cinema, German Expressionism was born, reaching its peak in Berlin in the 1920s. Some of the first Expressionist films are largely known for their geometric, nonrealistic sets, with themes of madness, insanity and torture being the norm. One of the most influential German Expressionist films of the horror film movement is Robert Wiene's 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," known for its extreme geometric set and plot twist. However, the overly nonrealistic Expressionist films were only popular for a short period until the German Expressionist movement simply died (Dickos).

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Yet Expressionism was integrated in newer genres, like Horror and Film Noir. The horror film movement was highly influenced by German Expressionism for several reasons. First, the themes of madness, insanity, and overall torture were mimicked. In horror films, however, these themes were intensified. Early horror films were based on gothic, known tales, first written in plays or novels. Prominent characters included Dracula, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, Werewolf or Wolfman, and King Kong, all are whom are still popularized in today's cinema.

One of the earliest silent horror films was F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1922), which characterized the idea of vampires being sexually aggressive in their seductive nature; "Dracula" (1931) followed suit. 

Something about Dracula compelled viewers, something intangible: "Dracula...the object-cause of desire, that nonexistent and eternally lost object that we spend our lives trying to (re)find," and "If Dracula symbolizes the unconscious pleasure that such a relationship conjures up retroactively, he also represents the terror of separation and the horror of the realization of the social meaning of that separation: subjectively, castration and mortality,"--made the idea more attractive (Humphries). Bram Stoker's Dracula, later made into a film by Tod Browning and Karl Freund, was horror's defining film, having joined up with the Universal Picture Company.

Universal promoted and popularized the horror film in the 1930s, especially with "Dracula" (1931), previously mentioned, and "Frankenstein" (1931). Other films created with undertones of gothic science fiction, such as James Whale's "The Invisible Man" (1935) and Tod Browning's other film, this time a controversial one, "Freaks," added to the substance upon which horror film thrived: thrill yet seriousness. Actors of the time, such as Bela Lugosi (Count Dracula) and Boris Karloff (Frankenstein's creation), built their entire acting careers around horror--and successfully, too.

Before sound, between the 1890s until the 1920s, horror films were made through Universal and smaller picture companies alike. However, the ones not created by Universal were usually dismissed by critics and audiences, due to how successfully Universal took over the industry. One of the most accredited non-Universal films of the silent Horror era is Georges Méliès's 1896 production of "Le Manoir du diable" (The House of the Devil). In 1910, Edison Studios made the first film version of Frankenstein, which was lost for many years, only to be found and rereleased in 1993 by film collector Alois Felix Dettlaff, Sr. Some notable horror films from the 1920s include "The Phantom of the Opera" (1923) and "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde" (1920).

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Although Universal experienced a higher success rate for their films, their sales at the box office were hardly made from selling their horror films as "horror." In fact, "it needs to be recognized that the types of films produced and the manner in which they were marketed and reviewed in this period can lad away from the idea of a horror genre. "Dracula," for instance, employed publicity that sold the film as a love story, emphasizing seduction and 'passion.' Films that could be seen as horror through the 1920s and 1930s were commonly termed 'uncanny,' 'thriller,' 'mystery,' and 'gothique.' ...lack of exhibition control affected the box office of its films and this created a production crisis when combined with the market crash of 1929" (Conrich).

With the end of the silent era, "...Universal drew on the ability of its technicians to construct a Gothic style, and continued with the production of cinema of the macabre, albeit on a tighter budget.  And if key figures of the silent horror film--such as Paul Leni, Conrad Veidt, and Lon Chaney--had not been lost, the relationship between the two periods would have been stronger, with universal stars such as Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff not so exclusively associated with an apparent new genre" (Conrich).

1940s-1960s

With the prominent 1940s film "Wolfman" (1941), the storylines dealing with mostly gothic figures moved toward science fiction in the 1950s and 1960s, such as "...alien invasions and mutations to people, plants, and insects" (Worland).

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Popular films of this type include Howard Hawk's "The Thing from Another World" (1951) and Don Siegel's "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers" (1956). Meanwhile, the eminent British film company, Hammer Film Productions, was busy making "huge international successes from full-blooded technicolor films involving classic horror characters" (Worland), such as sequels to "Frankenstein." Films that portrayed ghosts and monsters in the supernatural, demonic sense, were beginning to make themselves known; a good example is Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" (1968). 

One of the most influential films of the horror film movement would be George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). Romero's zombie film blended "psychological insights with gore [making it] culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" enough to be preserved by the United States National Film Registry" (Worland). It was also a step in the Horror-of-Armageddon sub-genre, alongside Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" (1963).

1970s-1980s

The positive turnout of demonic-based films of the 1960s, like "Rosemary's Baby," brought a string of equally successful films, but this time, more with "evil children" undertones. Think "The Exorcist" (1970), "The Omen" (1976), and "Alice, Sweet Alice" (1976). A great deal of the youth involved in the counterculture movement had an interest in horror film. Films such as "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974) spoke of the Vietnam War, while Romero's sequel to "Night of the Living Dead", called "Dawn of the Dead" (1978), dealt with the sabotage of consumerist society.

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Stephen King played a large role in the horror film movement, as films were quickly made off his novels. Brian De Palma's "Carrie" (1976) was King's film adaptation debut, earning Academy Awards left and right. "The Shining" (1980), a Stanley Kubrick film, was slow at the box office, but has now been claimed a classic cult film and one of the most horrific (Worland). "Halloween" (1978), "Friday the 13th" (1980), and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984) were all placed under the "slasher film" sub-genre. In 1975, Stephen Spielberg brought "Jaws," which set off several violent killer animal films to the screen.

1990s-present day

Sequels to "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Child's Play," "Halloween," and "Friday the 13th" were the first horror films to hit the theaters with success in the new decade. The hugely successful "Silence of the Lambs" (1991) also made it big. A mini-movement arose, known as metafictional horror, which connected real-world horror with fictional horror. Films such as "Candyman" (1992) and "Scream" (1996) are good examples. "Interview with a Vampire" (1994) brought along the Grand Guignol style, known for its naturalistic, amoral horror (Hand).

Horror film has progressed in a somewhat hideous direction, leaving its once moralistic ideas behind; many of today's horror films are merely insipid. However, from classic horror, we get a sense of romantic, erotic, abstract thinking (which evolved from German Expressionism). It helped push forward a creative level within cinema and society, as well as give answers and truth to the unknown and the terrifying. It helped play with our emotions and their extremes. The horror film movement has added a sincere piece to an otherwise empty body, hungry for adrenaline.

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