The history of the horror genre essay

Horror films have been a staple in the media since the 1920’s. Based on different social events, means of technology and various views in society, there is no doubt that the dynamics of the horror genre has progressed over time.

The first influential horror film came about in 1922. “Nosferatu- F.W Muranu” was a film about a vampire who attacks victims and spreads disease. This comes form the sociological happenings, where in Europe during the 20’s, a major flu epidemic killed over 70 million people, the idea being the spread of disease affecting people. This is the basis that would be followed in to the present day; creating fear form what society is afraid of.

This was also the basis for the Hollywood re-make of the film “Dracula” where films began to have larger budgets and well-known actors.

This was followed by “The vampire lovers-Roy ward Baker (1970)” where another common theme was sex. During the 60’s there was a great deal of corruption from the civil rights movement. This was reflected in the film, showing corruption of society. The film featured a strong heterosexual theme, as during this time it was socially rejected. The film followed the ethic of the spread of disease like in “Nosferatu” and “Dracula”, particularly as STIs such as syphilis were rife in America during the 60’. The idea of sexual promiscuity was socially frowned upon and so it was mirrored in the films produced in this era.

This was a theme also followed in the film “Physco- Alfred Hitchcock (1961).” The film follows the final girl theory- the sensible, smart and virginal girl survives, and her promiscuous friends will be the first to die. “Physco” is widely based on creating the killer on real people in society. In the late 50’s Ed Gein was discovered to be a killer and so many of the villains in horror films are extensively based around his crimes, as this is what people were passively afraid of as they feared it could happen to them. Ed Gein was exposed to be a regular man with a regular job, who secretly bludgeoned people to death. Films such as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)” are also broadly based around this idea too, although other sociological happenings of the era could also account for the themes in the film. The Vietnam War saw American soldiers being brutally murdered and slaughtered. During this period, the main fear was that families would lose their loved ones in the War, and so the film industry was able to take advantage of this, although not so immediate that it would insult the audience. The concept of the “pointless killings” was put into a film, enough that the audience was not offended but that the fear-factor was still apparent.

As technology progressed, the directors and producers were able to create new ways of frightening people. In the 70’s and 80’s, productions such as “The fly- David Cronenberg (1986)” and “Alien- Ridley Scott (1979)” used technology to create what people believed to be the changing effect and deterioration of a human. Make-up and special effects enabled production companies to present realistic views of normality. This meant that people feared what they were watching, as in effect, there fear was of technology, its development and what the future could bring for the horror genre.

The sci-fi genre was a stark-contrast to that of religion. The 70’s also saw Hollywood using people belief in God to evoke fear by placing doubt of faith in the mind’s of the audience. Films such as “The Exorcist- William Friedman (1973)” and “The omen- Richard Donner (1976)” used the innocence of children to induce fear in the form of satanic and evil possession as no member of society wants to see a naive child placed in a vulnerable situation.

“The Exorcist (1973)” offended the likes of the public a great deal. Themes of possession, temptation and sex mixed with the matter of religion came across to the audience as extremely distasteful and offensive. The advanced technology used in this film also made the effects life-like as opposed to previous films, and had such an adverse effect on cinema audiences, that there were reports of people coming out of the theatres, in shocking states, and even fainting.

Films like this also offended society as they came across as blasphemes and show the destruction of a person’s faith in God.

This was also show in the film “The Wicker man- Robin Hardy (1973).” The story shows the deterioration of a single man’s faith in God, and often uses sexual temptation to represent how the devil tempted Eve from the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. The end was so offensive in relation to the crucifixion of Christ that the British film censors only agreed to show it if they cut out the odious and blasphemes scenes- which was most of it.

Following the theme of possession, films of the 80’s such as “The shining- Stanley Kubrick (1980) created a sense of realism for the audience by using the safety of a secure place such as the home to make the audience fearful. These were labelled “physiological horrors” as they often made the audience question their safety, wherever they are. This was a new type of fear-inducing tactic, as the horror film was more about how the viewer interpreted what they were seeing, and hopefully create the fear within their minds, rather that it being a physical, obvious type of horror presented directly to them on the screen

This theme is also present in films such as “Nightmare on Elm Street- Wes Craven (1972)”, where the protagonists believe that they are safe in their sleep, although it is quite the opposite.

The most recent scare tactic to develop on to the Hollywood horror scene is the idea of creating a life-like environment through a documentary style movie. “Cannibal holocaust (1981)” caused great controversy as it was the first film of its kind. The idea of filming a life-like documentary made the audience think that it was a way of life and that people lived their lives in the way that they were being shown. The film was based around a tribe in the Amazon- although it was filmed in Italy- who lives with animalistic character. The film featured nearly every social taboo, which is what made it so controversial. The life-like make-up and special effects were of such a great quality of the era that people believed people were actually being murdered to film the deaths in the film. It was banned in over 70 countries- including Britain until 2001.

“The Blair Witch Project (1998)” was also filmed in this style. It inflicted fear among the audience due to the way it was filmed on hand-held cameras. This creates the idea that what the actors were acting was all reality, and that what they are experiencing could be experienced by the viewer at any time. This was an effective was of creating fear, as the “witch” is never shown in the film but the audience are able to relate to the characters as they are feeling the same emotion.

Overall, there is no doubt that the horror genre and the media’s ability to scare people has progressed over time But there is also no question that the same methods used in conventional horror films are still used in modern horror films too, which shows that disregarding the era, the film industry still manage to find new ways of traditional methods to suggest terror to the viewers.