The History of Horror

Roots of Horror in Classic Literature:

Mary Shelley conceived the idea of Frankenstein having listened to ghost stories at Lord Byron's home. She was there with her husband, Romantic poet Percy Shelley, and her half-sister Claire, who would later become the lover of Lord Byron (another Romantic poet of the time). Byron had challenged the three to come up with the most terrifying ghost stories they could, and after days of rain, storms and gloom, Mary had a nightmare from which the concept of Dr. Frankenstein's monster was born. Frankenstein in some instances had a somewhat negative effect on society at the time. For example, the story raised controversy within the Science vs. Nature, or Science vs. Religion arguments. As well as this, the scene in which the monster throws a girl into a lake, causing her to drown, raised major upset among parents at the time, purely because they were uncomfortable with seeing this.

Bram Stoker was living in Whitby when a Russian ship, the Demeter, ran aground there. It has been said that a big part of his inspiration for writing Dracula came from rumours about a massacred crew and a large black dog which had leapt from the ship. It is also possible that he may have had a particular interest in folklore. It is probable that he wrote for the money, as he wrote many other books, although none hit the mark like Dracula. Dracula probably had one of the biggest impacts of these three novels. Although people would have known the character of Dracula was not real, realism was added to the story by his ability to transform into a bad. This was on top of the idea of diseases and infections being spread through being bitten.

Robert Louis Stevenson may, like Shelley, have written Jekyll and Hyde due to having dreamt about it. Aside from this, Stevenson was apparently intrigued by the concept of 'duality' - that every person has a good side and an evil side; that these two opposing forces are inherent in every human being. This work is largely associated with the rare mental condition referred to in psychiatry as 'dissociative identity disorder', meaning that there exists more than one distinct personality within someone's body (in the case of Dr. Jekyll, these are good and evil). This is something which people of the time were extremely uncomfortable with. This is clear because, due to the impact of the novella, the very phrase 'Jekyll and Hyde' has become a part of our modern language coming to mean somebody who is very different in moral character from situation to the next.

The Horror of the Silent Era:

Nineteenth century audiences enjoyed seeing ghosts captured in still photography, so it was natural that the techniques would be transferred to new technology in order to tell fantastic and bizarre stories. Although the first moving pictures tended to be of the action and comedy genres, early film makers used photographic trickery to explore darker stories with supernatural and psychological themes. These are recognisable as the first horror films. The first horror film on record is titled Le Manoir du Diable, and was created in 1896. It was created by one of film's earliest visionaires, Georges Mélies. Despite having a running time of little over three minutes, this supernatural story still manages to pack in all the genre stereotypes; ghosts, bats, trolls, cauldrons etc., all of which appear and disappear in puffs of smoke.

German expressionism refers to many related creative movements beginning in Germany prior to WWII, which were most popular in Berlin during the 1920s. The developments in Germany were part of a larger expressionist movement in European culture in ways such architecture, painting and cinema. Some German expressionist films include The cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu.

Monsters and Mad Scientists:

During the 1930s, horror was reborn featuring monsters and mad scientists as the main characters. Sound began to play an important role in horror films at this point in time; the use of dramatic music to build suspense or music used to signify a threat then became a big part of the horror genre. The horror films of this decade still use 19th century literary classics as their source material. The films are often set in for off places, with the characters dressing in period costume. It was at this point that Universal Studios emerged having become extremely famous, partly due to their success with Frankenstein and Dracula. These monsters are still recognised today by people of all ages. Some other famous films from this era include King Kong, Freaks and The Mummy, with Frankenstein and Dracula being the most famous.

Enthusiasm for horror greatly increased from the 1920s to the 1930s. The cinema provided an escape from depression and the ominous war. 80 million people (65% of the total United States population) attended the cinema weekly in the decade of monsters and mad scientists. Universal Studios gave two actors their break through Frankenstein and Dracula; Boris Karloff (playing Frankenstein's monster) and Bela Lugosi (playing Dracula). Both of these actors were associated with horror for over eight decades after playing these characters. The mad scientist side of the genre had reached its peak in 1993, the year Hitler came to power, due to his dictatorship being similar to characters in some of these films. Despite this, these few years saw the production of some successful films including The Invisible Man and The Island of Lost Souls.

The Primal Animal Within - Werewolves and Cat People:

The majority of horror films during the 1940s were American products as, at that time, they were banned in Britain. Americans saw themselves as safe, whereas anything coming from Britain was seen as dangerous. As much as they tried, Americans could not keep themselves separate with their basic European roots coming through; links with lands of their ancestors would eventually pull them into WWII. Many horror films of the time also deal with roots peaking through in the form of men and women who were subject to the emergence of a primal animal identity. An example of an animal state being used as a negative way to show a person can be found in the 1940s film Pinocchio, where the bad boys in the film turn into donkeys.

It was wolves that became a threat in the early 1940s. Hitler himself strongly identified with the iconography and legends of a wolf. In old German, the name 'Adolf' means noble wolf. Hitler became obsessive with wolves, with many Nazi Party HQ being names after the animal. He even referred to his SS forces as his "pack of wolves". Not surprisingly then, Universal Studios chose to use the wolf as a figure of menace in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Mutant Creatures and Alien Invaders:

The end of WWII left 40 million dead, causing people to be more aware of the inhuman acts that man were capable of. Because of this, people were living with the fear of war. The horror films of the 1950s focused on the advance in science and technology, and therefore horror broke free from its literary roots and introducing mutants and aliens.

The Space Race was a competition during the mid 20th century between the USA and the Soviet Union. The Cold War meant both nations were focused on who would be the first to explore space, seeing it as essential for the security of their country. In the 1950s, America was under constant threat of a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. Sightings of a UFO in Roswell, New Mexico scared Americans, causing a new trend of horror/sci-fi films.

Ghosts, Zombies, Satanism and Your Family:

Many ghost stories appeared within the 1960s which may be seen as a reaction to some of the elaborate creature features of the late 1950s. The horror lies in the journey the main protagonist takes between their starting point of sanity, ending up with a case of psychosis. These reflect a preoccupation with change, often with women on the front line being the first, and often only ones to be destroyed by it.

Horror movies of the 1970s reflected the grim outlook of the decade. However, this is also the point at which big budget, respectable horror returned. These dealt with societal issues and mainly addressed genuine psychological fears, one of which was children and the fear of childbirth. One of the main films of that era that dealt with the fear of children was The Exorcist. It was banned in the United Kingdom up until 1999, and was also voted the scariest film of all time. Films like this reinforce that children can be unwanted and do bad things to their parents. The crumbling family becomes a source of fear and mistrust, implying that the enemy may be closer than originally thought. Satanism also comes into play here, as the enemy is possessed by the devil with the act of the exorcism having the purpose of getting rid of the devil.

Hammer Horror:

Hammer Horror is a British film company originally founded in 1934. It was largely successful in the 1950s where it had its major breakthrough. During these years, the company was thriving worldwide and was a hit across the globe, dominating the worldwide market. However, it died down again in the 1960s. Despite this, there are still Hammer Horror films such as The Woman in Black and Let the Right One in being classed under this sub-genre, although these were not as popular as Hammer Horror films were back in the 1950s. Eventually, the company ceased production and stopped producing films in the mid 1980s.

The UK Hammer studios reinvigorated Bram Stoker's novel Dracula by creating nine Dracula sequel films. These were low budget films which employed garish, sensual colours and blood reds - and more overt, suggestive sexuality and graphic violence. Director Terence Fisher created the classic Horror of Dracula (1958 UK), which was the first of the Hammer Horror films about Dracula, with Christopher Lee playing the reclusive Count Dracula. He eventually played Dracula in seven of the total nine Dracula films created by Hammer from 1958-1973.

Slasher Movies and Body Horror:

Slasher is a type of horror that depicts a person/killer that mutilates people by using weapons such as knives or razors. Body Horror is a genre of horror that's main feature is the graphically shown destruction and degeneration of the human body or bodies. Some horror films which also follow these sub-genres are Scream, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday 13th, Psycho, My Bloody Valentine and Prom Night. Slasher films first really came about in the 1980s due to the advances in technology allowing for the use of improved special effects, which therefore enabled film makers to show much more explicit scenes to their audience which the audience would love, hence the many sequels of films such as Scream or Nightmare on Elm Street. 

Audiences grew to love the killers from many Slashers such as Freddy Kreuger, Michael Myers, Chucky and Ghostface. This led to the creation of many sequels and spin-offs; Freddy vs. Jason, for example. Scream challenged the conventions of Slashers and Body Horrors by using a totally different motive for killing people as opposed to gaining something like revenge. The killer in Scream would kill people if they didn't know facts about other horrors, making it self-aware.

Format Fears and Moral Panics (Video Nasties):

The term 'straight to video' was born in the 1980s as a result of films being put directly on to VHS cassette tapes instead of being shown in cinemas. The popularity of horror at this time was at a new high, and the release of VHS tapes meant that films could be watched at home again and again. However, people soon noticed that children were getting access to (and viewing) horror films because they were on VHS. This then led to VHS tapes being blamed for changing Britain. Soon, newspapers were printing headlines about 'sick films warping a nation's young minds', and the UK government decided to take action. During the 1980s, 39 films made a list of the 'video nasties'. Some of the films included are Axe, Cannibal Apocalypse, The Burning and The Evil Dead. These films were then withdrawn from sale and banned within the UK.

Now, all 39 films on the 'video nasty' list are available purchase and view within the UK. However what hasn't changed, is the way some people feel about children watching violent and/or gory films. In 1993, Child's Play 3 was blamed as having influenced two ten-year-old boys who tortured and killed three-year-old James Bulger. Not everybody agreed with this though, and Inspector Ray Simpson of Merseyside Police commented: 'If you are going to link this murder to a film, you might as well link it to The Railway Children'.

Gorenography and Torture Porn:

Gorenography is a genre of film which focuses solely on showing brutal gore, where plot, story and character are practically non-existant. These films often claim to be horrors, but are completely different because they are not actually scary, just sick and twisted. A sub-genre of Echhi (Japanese animated pornography) usually involves the characters cutting one another apart with sharp instruments. The gore in such cases is extremely excessive, and may even include young, underage girls.

The popularisation of extreme graphic violence in the horror film franchise, in films such as Audition and Wrong Turn, took its cue from films like The Last House on the Left, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This helped with the emergence of a type of horror that emphasises depictions of torture, suffering and violent deaths.

People often imagine disturbing things; 'what if...?'. This can be represented within films as they are often fictional, allowing sick films to be deemed as 'ok' or 'acceptable'. People often get a thrill out of such films, also known as 'fear factor'. People also like to see how far horror and gore can be pushed, and some people even enjoy the satisfaction and/or adrenaline felt of being taken out of their comfort zone.