The History of Horror
In this essay I will be discussing how the horror genre has changed and how it is influences society and how society influences the The horror genre began with Gothic novels in 18th and 19th century. These stories combined elements of both horror and romance. This lead to actual horror book being written such as “Frankenstein” in 1818, “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” in 1886, “Dracula” in 1896 and many other very successful horror novels.
The popularity of “Dracula” lead to the first horror film being release. Nosfurato was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's “Dracula”, with names and other details changed because the studio could not obtain the rights to the novel. This had a massive impact on cinema and many horror films followed this one. During the 1920's and 1930's there was a flu epidemic which killed 70 million people this resulted in films like “Nosfurato” being made, as Vampire films are closely linked to societies fear of blood diseases. Another film that was largely influenced by this is “Dracula” released in 1931 which again is an adaptation of the book. In the same year the highly successful “Frankenstein” was released, this film told the story of Mary Shelley's 1818 book. Both “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” were followed by sequels, despite many people being very sceptical about the effect these films might have on people. During this era many horror films were band due to their graphic content, although very unrealistic it was still feared.
Even though 1940's and early 50's films were popular they were not very influential due to there being not much change in the way these films were made and the ideas behind that also had little change. However in 1950's invasion films were very popular, these are said to made to express the fear that American’s had of communism. The film “Them” made in 1954 showed giant mutated bugs killing innocent bugs making it one of the first of the "nuclear monster" movies, and the first "big bug" film. “The Fly” (1986) is also about mutation as its about a man transforming into a fly, the tag line for this film was "Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid" critics said that it was a metaphor for the aids epidemic. This film is closely linked to peoples fear of a nuclear attack as the film is loosely based on insects being mutated in areas of nuclear testing. Another film that has similar themes is “Plan 9 From Outer Space” ( 1959) which extraterrestrial beings who are seeking to stop humans from creating a doomsday weapon that would destroy the universe. In the course of doing so, the aliens implement "Plan 9", a scheme to resurrect Earth's dead as zombies to get the planet's attention, causing chaos. Again showing the fear of communism and the consequences of nuclear weapons, but also shows us the uneasiness people had about going into space, as this was a key issue in the late 1950's. In the 1970's the film “Alien” was made which again had similar themes as “Plan 9 From Outer Space”, however it contained a lot more gore and had a much scarier plot.
Many horror films were largely influence by real-life serial killer Ed Gein, his story was particularly influence director Alfred Hitchcock, this inspired several of his films such as
“Vertigo” and most importantly “Psycho” which had a lot of success and went on to help change the horror genre. “Psycho” helped to shape the sub horror genre, slasher movies. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1970) was the first of these films to be made. The film some what created the rules for these films, the main features of the slasher films are teenage characters usually doing something unlawful, sexually active women would be killed first and that curiosity kills, which is now a key feature in almost all horrors today. Sex=death is a direct link to the amount of sex that unmarried women were having in the 1970's, the slasher films gave across the idea that women should be punished for being sexual active. The next very successful Slasher film was “Halloween”, at the time this was the highest grossing film as it made $60 million worldwide at the box-office even though there was a budget of just $320,00. The film “Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984) which created another key part of Slashers being that the villain never dies, in the film the monster/villain Freddie Krueger is repeatedly getting hurt but he never dies. This made them able to make many sequel of the film making the film company a massive profit.
In the 1970's there was also a lot of debate about religion due to the vast growing amount of people believing in Darwin theory, making it very difficult for some to believe in religion this lead to devil possession films. The first to do this and probably the most controversial was “The Exorcism” (1973) where a child is shown being possessed by the devil, many churches were very offended by this film and tried to get it band. The film showed someone that we would seem innocent effected by the horror, making it seem like society was changing as they needed more to scare them. Although the “Omen was even more extreme as it is about a child that has come directly from devil rather than being possessed. In the 1980's a new idea was born of a house or building being possessed, in films such as “The Shining” where a family stay at a hotel and begin to realise that its haunted/possessed. This then turns one of the characters made, making he want to kill his own family, this is a recurring part of the horror genre as most films include characters turning made because of the horror surrounding them.
Zombie films have also been a big part of the horror industry as they have shown a lot more gore than most other horrors that simply build suspense and leaving it to the viewers imagination rather than visually showing horror. A key example of this is “The Evil Dead” made in 1981, which was the highest selling video of that year making it a very success and important film. The violence shown in zombie films was due to the film technology used during the Vietnam War, that gave people the chance of what true gore was like for the first time. This was then converted onto our cinema screens in zombie movies. Although “The Night of the Living Dead” was the first big budget zombie horror as it was released in 1968, “The Night of the Living Dead” was far more important.
“Found footage” is the last of the horror sub genres as its the most currently used style of horror at the moment. The first of the “found footage” films was “Cannibal Holocaust” this film was so realistic that people genuinely believed that the film was real and the director was taken to court as it was thought that the actors in the film were really killed. Although there was no human killings, there was actually killings of animals, the film took gore to a new level and most people that watch it were very disgusted by how graphic and realistic the film was. Cannibal Holocaust set the boundaries of how far film makers should go in terms of gore. However one of the most important “found footage” films “The Blair Witch Project” (1999) featured no gore at all but was incredibly scary. “The Blair Witch Project” used clever marketing using the internet to make their film come across as a real event caught on camera. The film was the most profitable of all horror films as it made $248,639,099 worldwide but had a tiny budget in comparison of $500,000. These type of films have influenced many recent horror films such as, Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield and The Last Exorcism.
In conclusion I have found that the horror film industry has a massive effect on our society and can even influence how we think whether its our beliefs about the supernatural world or our religious belief. I feel that the horror will continue to change and expand because of the way that the would changes and the way that society’s opinions change over time.
