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HORROR HISTORY:
Horror: Is one of the most enduring and controversial of all
cinematic genres. HORROR films range from subtle and poetic to
graphic and gory, but what links them together is their ability to
frighten, disturb, shock, provoke, delight, irritate, and amuse
audiences. HORROR'S capacity to take the form of our evolving fears
and anxieties has ensured not only its notoriety but also its
long-term survival and international popularity. All that is
important and exciting about the HORROR genre TODAY!
The First Horror Movie: What Was It?
Over the course of a century, film horror has gone through many
peaks and troughs, leading us into the somewhat contentious period
we find ourselves in today. The history of horror as a film genre
begins with—as with many things in cinema history—the works of
George Mellies.
Just a few years after the first filmmakers emerged in the
mid-1890s, Mellies created “Le Manoir du Diable,” sometimes known
in English as “The Haunted Castle” or “The House of the Devil,” in
1898, and it is widely believed to be the first horror movie. The
three-minute film is complete with cauldrons, animated skeletons,
ghosts, transforming bats, and, ultimately, an incarnation of the
Devil. While not intended to be scary—more wondrous, as was
Mellies’ MO—it was the first example of a film (only just
rediscovered in 1977) to include the supernatural and set a
precedent for what was to come. Where the genre will go over the
next hundred years is anyone’s guess, but sometimes it’s good to
look back on the long road we’ve traveled to get to this point.
The Literary Years
After the first horror movie, sometime between 1900 and 1920, an
influx of supernatural-themed films followed. Many filmmakers—most
of whom still trying to find their feet with the new genre—turn to
literature classics as source material. The first adaptation of
Frankenstein was released by Edison Studios in these early days, as
well as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Werewolf (now both lost to
the fog of time.) Things were starting to roll at this point as we
moved into…
...The Golden Age of Horror
Widely considered to be the finest era of the genre, the two
decades between the 1920s and 1930s saw many classics being
produced and can be neatly divided down the middle to create a
separation between the silent classics and the talkies.
On the silent side of the line, you’ve got monumental titles such
as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922), the
first movies to really make an attempt to unsettle their audience.
The latter title is one of Rotten Tomatoes’ best horror movies of
all time and cements just about every surviving vampire cliché in
the book.
Once the silent era gave way to the technological process, we had a
glut of incredible movies that paved the way for generations to
come, particularly in the field of monster movies – think the
second iteration of Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932) and the
first color adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931).
The 1930s also marked the first time that the word “horror” was
used to describe the genre—previously, it was really just romance
melodrama with a dark element—and it also saw the first horror
“stars” being born. Bella Lugosi (of Dracula fame) was arguably the
first to specialize solely in the genre.
And as well as unnerving its viewers, the genre was starting to
worry the general public at this point, with heavy censoring and
public outcry becoming common with each release. Freaks (1932) is a
good example of a movie that was so shocking at the time it got cut
extensively, with the original version now nowhere to be found.
Director Tod Browning—who had previously created the aforementioned
and wildly successful Dracula—saw his career flounder at the hands
of the controversy.
The shock value of Freaks is one of the few that has aged well up
until the present day and is still a highly disturbing watch.
The Atomic Years
Freaks 1933 was banned for thirty years in the country that really
came into its own during this period: Great Britain.
The Hammer Horror Company, while founded in 1934, only
started to turn prolific during the fifties, but when it did, it
was near global dominance (thanks to a lucrative distribution deal
with Warner and a few other U.S. studios). Once again, it was
adaptations like Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Mummy that put the
company squarely on the map, followed up by a slew of psychological
thrillers and TV shows.
And, of course, you can’t mention British horror without paying
respects to Alfred Hitchc**k, singlehandedly responsible for
establishing the slasher genre, which we’ll see a lot of as we
travel further forward in time.
Another hallmark of the 1940s-1950s era of horror came as a product
of the times. With war ravaging Europe and fears of nuclear fallout
running rampant, it’s of little surprise that horror began to
feature antagonists that were less supernatural in
nature—radioactive mutation became a common theme (The Incredible
Shrinking Man, Godzilla), as did the fear of invasion with The War
of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide, both big hits in 1953.
The latter marked the earliest rumblings of the “Disaster” movie
genre, but it would be a couple more decades before that would get
into full swing.
The Gimmicky Years
3D glasses? Electric buzzers installed into theatre seats? Paid
stooges in the audience screaming and pretending to faint?
Everything and anything was tried during the 50s and 60s in an
attempt to further scare cinema audiences. This penchant for
interactivity spilled over into other genres during the period but
quickly died down in part due to the massive amount of expense
involved. For horror, in particular, this gave way to the opposite
end of the spectrum: incredibly low-budget productions.
From the late 1960s onwards, so insatiable was the American
appetite for gore that slasher films produced for well under $1
million took hold and were churned out by volume. That’s not to say
that there weren’t some masterpieces produced during this time,
though; George A. Romero emerged triumphant and kickstarted zombie
movies in this period, having produced Night of the Living Dead in
1968 with just over $100k. It went on to gross $30 million, and the
living dead rose in its wake.
All Hell Breaks Loose
Occult was the flavor of the day between the 70s and 80s,
particularly when it came to houses and kids being possessed by the
Devil. The reason for this cultural obsession with religious evil
during this period could fill an entire article on its own, but
bringing it back into the cinema realm, we can boil the trend down
to two horror milestones: The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976).
Supernatural horror was now very much back in vogue, and harking
back to its cinematic origins, literature once again became the
source material. This time, however, it wasn’t a Victorian author
whose work had fallen out of copyright but a gentleman named
Stephen King.
Carrie (1976) stormed the gates, and The Shining (1980) finished
the siege (with 1982’s supernatural fright fest Poltergeist
following soon afterward). With these hallmarks in the history of
horror now firmly established, the foundations were laid for…
...The First Horror Movie Slashers
If there’s one trope that typifies the 80s, it’s the slasher format
– a relentless antagonist hunting down and killing a bunch of kids
in ever-increasing inventive ways, one by one. Arguably kicked off
by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1974, the output became prolific
over the next decade. For every ten generic slashers, however,
there was one flick that would end up becoming a cult classic even
if critical success was mixed at the time—Halloween, Friday the
13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street are the most prominent
examples, which became so successful that they spawned their own
long-running franchises (the first time in the history of the genre
that multiple sequels became commonplace.)
Plenty of imitators and rip-offs followed, too, particularly in the
Holiday-themed department. Some were a lot better than others as
the genre descended to its most kitschy. Similar to the first
horror movie, these films were not intended to scare but to
entertain.
The Doldrums
Suffering from exhaustion in the wake of a thousand formulaic
slasher movies and their sequels, the genre lost steam as it moved
into the 90s. The advent of computer-generated special effects
brought with it a number of lackluster CGI monster titles that did
little to revive the genre, such as Anaconda (1997) and Deep Rising
(1998). But it was a comedy that ended up saving the day. Peter
Jackson’s early foray into filmmaking saw him taking the splatter
subgenre to ridiculous extremes with Braindead (1992), and Wes
Craven’s slasher parody Scream (1996) was met globally with
overwhelming success.
The genre as a whole limped on without much fanfare into the 2000s
save for a few box office successes. The zombie subgenre, however,
sprang back into un-life during this decade, arguably spurred on by
the unprecedented success of Max Brook’s novel World War Z (later
becoming a film in its own right.) The video game adaptation of
Resident Evil (2002) was among the first of the new wave, followed
swiftly by 28 Days Later a few months later, Dawn of the Dead
(2004), Land of the Dead (2005), I Am Legend (2007) and Zombieland
(2009.)
THE PRESENT DAY!
The state of the horror industry is hotly contested. With the genre
seemingly relying on churning out remakes, reboots, and endless
sequels, many argue that it’s languishing in the doldrums once
again with little originality to offer a modern audience. The
resurgence of ‘torture porn’ is also derided as a subgenre, having
come back into the fore in the wake of the 2000s Saw and Hostel
franchises with no signs of slowing down.
On the other hand, glimmers of hope shine through with examples of
extreme originality and artistry. Cabin in the Woods (2012) has
been heralded as this decade’s Scream, and the recent releases of
The Babadook and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (both 2014)
breathed new life into the genre. Jordan Peele, writer, producer,
and actor, rose as the new king of horror with original films,
including Get Out (2017), Us (2019), and Nope (2022), which top
Rotten Tomatoes’ best horror movie list. While scary, the films are
also smart and provide sociopolitical commentary, as Peele
explained in an interview with Time Magazine. NYFA Alum Tracy
Oliver is a co-writer of the 2022 film The Blackening, a movie that
makes fun of horror clichés but also calls out racial stereotypes.
Both films, similar to the first horror film and a variety of
others in the history of horror, don’t have the main goal of
scaring the audience.
The Future of Horror Films
With perhaps more subgenres than any other branch of fictional
filmmaking, it’s difficult to see how anyone can expand or advance
on anything that has come before in cinematic horror. However,
there’s no doubt somebody will, and that motivated and imaginative
film school students become the Alfred Hitchc**ks of tomorrow.
The First Horror Movie & The History of the Horror Genre
by Jeff @SCARY TALES 2022
ScaryTales Creation: October 06, 2013
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