My History of Horror essay

The history of horror

Horror movies are seen to be a big hit in the box office, no matter which sub-genre they are cast under. The biggest impact and the main inspiration for horror movies is society. This is because many horror movies tend to reflect the fears of the general public at the time. Many directors and film critics believe fears change from generation to generation, so horror movies are always evolving due to what has the public in frenzy. One of the very first horror movies to be made regarding society at the time was Fredrick Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922). Murnau presented the flu epidemic of the 1920’s to society as a monster, Count Orlok, who infected his victims through a bite. Not only did Murnau show the flu epidemic to be spreading through a single bite, he also presented the spread of sexual diseases with these films, along with other vampire films to come. This relates back to the golden rule of sex=death, though it isn’t very obvious. Movies such as, Nosferatu (1922) struck fear into the audience not only because it expressed what was happening in real life, but it put to the audience’s attention how serious the flu epidemic was; with a result of 17 million deaths in Europe. This was the beginning of the vampire era, shortly followed by the science fiction horror of the ‘30’s.

During the 1930’s Darwin’s theory of evolution was accepted among society, this was the next stepping stone in horror movies. The fear of technology and fear of the future coincided with the idea of humanity evolving to do better scientifically. James Whales Frankenstein (1931) incorporated the ideas of science and knowledge and portrayed them to be evil and, to some extent, blasphemous. This was due to the fact that the character of the mad scientist, Dr Frankenstein, created life out of science and his knowledge, thus presenting him to disregard religion and “be god.” The fear that was bought out of movies concerned with science and knowledge, showed the audience not to toy with nature, as only evil and no good can come out of it.

The destruction of the planet was the main issue in society in the 1940’s and onwards. Many of the sci-fi horror movies focused on things known as “nuclear bugs.” An example of this would be Gordon Douglas’s Them! (1954). The enormous bugs attacking people in the movie was the central fear of society, because the overriding message in this sci-fi horror movie was to teach the audience that if the planet wasn’t treated properly, living organisms would be in danger, thus creating a focus for the film industry.

Also during the ‘50’s along with the fear of the destruction of the planet, the fear of being invaded by aliens, swept over the American people. Many alien-invading sci-fi horrors were seen to be startling as they were out of this world; however, alien sci-fi horrors became even popular and terrifying for the audience when technology had improved in the 1970’s, because the special effects made the creatures look realistic. An example of this would be Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979). The horrors that occur in out of space in this film made audiences’ feel uneasy and afraid, because the 70’s was the time when the fear of life out of this world became more of an issue. This was due to the fact that the USA and Russia were in competition to get into space first, thus creating fear in society that there are other vicious life forms in space. The other fears Alien created in society are that of sexual penetration, disgust of things going into our mouths and anxiety and fear of living species, which humanity is unaware of.

The Civil Rights movement in America in the ‘60’s was the next inspiration for horror movies as the sub-genre of Zombies was formed. Night of the Living Dead (1968) was the first zombie movie to show a mass eating and killing ordinary civilians. This showed the audience a sense of integration in a vague way as it was no longer concerning race, but humanity against the living dead. Many zombie movies consisted of a family who were cut off from the rest of civilisation due to the fact that the community around them had all been infected, and had turned into zombies. The concept of family within Night of the Living Dead scares the audience as they can relate to the characters as well as be able to imagine themselves and their families in the horrific position in which this family are in. One other big zombie movie is The Evil Dead (1981). When technology had improved and coloured films were produced, movies such as The Evil Dead horrified audiences due to the graphic horror, violence and gruesome scenes of gore and blood. Coloured productions made society more afraid because it felt as if it was real and therefore the violent and bloody scenes were to be more shocking than the ones of previous black and white horror movies. This was the main reason for the ban of The Evil Dead from world-wide cinema. However, the court case carried out for The Evil Dead of being the “No.1 nasty” made it one of the biggest selling video, because of the uproar created around it.

Coming out of ‘60’s, horror movies focused more on the fear of promiscuity in the 1970’s. Films such as David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975) focus on the aspect of society being too sexually active. The plotline of Shivers also explores similar ideas to Frankenstein (1931) because of the scientist playing with nature, consequently creating evil. It also portrays sex to be linked with death, following the golden rule of sex=death, striking fear into the ‘70’s generation.

Following up Alien (1979) sci-fi horrors in the 1980’s projected another fear of society which showed scientific discoveries of genes and DNA. In the ‘80’s scientist were seen to have made the biggest discovery in relation to evolution, as they researched for human DNA as well as experimented with it. These discoveries led to the horror film industry to focus on sci-fi horror movies in yet another light from earlier, proving that society was advancing in knowledge and research, creating anxiety and curiosity for society as they passed through to the a new time period. The aim of the movie The Fly (1986) was to show to the audience and society the discrimination of the human body, through the main character slowly disintegrating and transforming into a fly. It also highlighted the ongoing fear of illness in society. Sci-fi horrors such as The Fly were “terrifying” for the audience but fascinating at the same time, because it wasn’t something the audience witnessed in everyday life.

Throughout the film industry, religion has always been classified as taboo. The supernatural element plays on the fear of the audience as it consists of something which they cannot see, thus making the audience feel in the same role of the characters in the horror movie. Satanic children were considered to be popular in the 1970’s because the vulnerability of children was compromised due to the fact that their mind and soul was replaced with ‘Satan’. Many of the inspiration for religious/possession horror movies came from 1940’s America where there were many cases of possessions. The reality would have had an impact on the audience beforehand, and the possessions movies would have reinforced the fears making religious/possession movies a huge success. An example would be The Exorcist (1973), the highest grossing film making $160,000,000 and being named “the most scariest film.”  The advanced technology established in the ‘70’s added to the special effects used, which helped to keep the audience on edge at all times due to the horrific and blasphemous scenes. 

The sub-genres of psycho-killer horrors were established in the 1960’s where real figures in society were seen to be committing mass murderers, such as Jack the Ripper in England and Ed Gein in America. Ed Gein was supposedly the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) where the golden rule of sex=death is applied. The killer in Psycho was a very close to normal man; he was seen as charming and the “ivy league” type. The characteristics of the killer in Psycho would have added to the audiences’ terror as the killer is a normal person, no deformities or recognisable flaws, which add to the society’s fear of meeting strangers.

Later on in the century, teen-slashers became the central focus of the horror film industry. Movies such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) were made to depict the Vietnam war and how many soldiers were being soldiers, similarly to the characters in the movies, the concept of butchered civilians were explored. Other horror movie, such as John Carpenteen’s Halloween (1978) points out to the audience the fear of untimely death. The aspect which made Halloween even more scary was the fact that it was aimed at teens, a young audience who would be frightened at the situations the characters had to face. For the reason that the characters with the film resemble certain characters in society adds to the fear as it is made more realistic and inescapable.

The last of the horror movie sub-genre is found-footage horrors created in the 1980’s. Found-footage horrors had an effect in society as the audience felt it was real, resulting to the audience feeling uneasy and generally afraid of the film as it’s set up to be reality. Cannibal Holocaust (1950) created a huge frenzy within society as it was labelled to be an unethical movie, as the slaughter and cannibalism was believed to be true, with help from the elaborate special effects used. This resulted to the film being banned in over 50 countries and the director having a court case.