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Horror Movies

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Steven Schneider

No popular genre has proven more reflective of America's unpredictable cultural mood swings than the horror movie. At the same time, no popular genre has proven more conducive to the expression of idiosyncratic nightmare visions than the horror movie. If these claims seem contradictory, even vaguely paradoxical, that is hardly surprising. For the horror genre consists of a group of texts as diverse as they are numerous, as controversial as they are popular, as conservative (or progressive) in their overt messages as they are progressive (or conservative) in their subtler implications. But although the horror genre may be lacking in firm boundaries or essential features, its rich and storied history, which spans the entire twentieth century, exhibits a remarkable degree of coherence. There are at least three reasons why this is so. For one thing, what appear at first to be utterly dissimilar entries often turn out upon closer inspection to conform in crucial ways, whether formally, stylistically, or thematically. For another thing, as is typically the case with pop cultural phenomena, market forces have dictated that the most commercially successful entries would each spawn a host of unimaginative imitators. This in turn has led to a fairly reliable boom-and-bust periodization of the genre. But most importantly, what all horror movies have in common is the intention to transform, through metaphor, symbol, and code, real-life fears--whether historically specific or psychologically universal--into terrifying narratives, uncanny images, and, above all, cinematic representations of monstrosity. Not all horror movies succeed in realizing this intention (many of them fail), but it is the fact that they try that makes them horror movies.

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The horror film genre has its roots in the English gothic novels of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. After the Selig Polyscope Company produced a brief adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1908, the stage was set for Robert Weine's masterpiece of German Expressionist cinema, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). Nosferatu (1922), F. W. Murnau's silent magnum opus starring an emaciated Max Schreck as the decidedly unglamorous, unromantic undead Count, soon followed. Universal Pictures, heavily influenced by the dark, shadowy German style, imported a number of that country's most gifted film technicians in an effort to stave off bankruptcy. It worked--in just a few years, Universal became king of the sound horror movie. Classic versions of Phantom of the Opera (1925), Dracula (1931), and Frankenstein (1931) made household names out of their larger-than-life monster-stars, Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff. These pictures were exceedingly popular not least because audiences of the time were desperate for entertaining diversions as the Great Depression loomed. Although sober admonitions were issued against such human foibles as avarice, impetuosity, and, especially, scientific hubris, the source of threat in these films was nearly always supernatural. And, to reassure viewers that things would turn out all right, the monster was always soundly defeated in the end.

Universal's reign ended towards the beginning of the Second World War, and the studio eventually stooped to the level of self-parody with such entries as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1946) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). During this period, RKO producer Val Lewton wisely encouraged his directors to avoid the straightforward depiction of violence, and attempt instead to make viewers conjure up images of horror by means of suggestion and innuendo. Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (1942) is without a doubt the most highly acclaimed Lewton production, but the influence of Lewton's cinematic approach and techniques extended all the way into the 1960s, as evidenced by Robert Wise's masterful The Haunting (1963).

America's Cold War anxieties, coupled with advancements in special effects technology, gave rise to a cycle of highly successful science-fiction horror movies in the middle of the century. Some of these films, most notably The Thing from Another World (1951) and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), focus on man's brave (i.e. "patriotic") battle against a hostile alien threat. Others, such as Them! (1954), reflect American fears of atomic explosion and radioactive fallout. But it was a return to traditional horror film iconography that proved most responsible for the genre's huge popularity boom in the late 1950s. A small British studio, Hammer Films, took advantage of the industry's greater permissiveness with respect to the depiction of violence and sexual activities; starting with The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957, Hammer released a string of highly colorful, gruesomely detailed versions of the Universal classics. American International Pictures quickly followed suit, churning out its own series of campy horror-comedies, starting with I Was A Teen-age Werewolf (1957). AIP also acted as distributor for Mario Bava's atmospheric Italian masterpiece, Black Sunday (1960), as well as for Roger Corman's cycle of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, most of which starred Vincent Price as a mentally unstable aristocrat. In these color gothics, lavish set designs and extravagant costumes served to reflect the decadence of Poe's characters. Price also starred in William Castle's best-known gimmick horror film, The Tingler (1959), which made use of "Percepto" technology--really just theater seats equipped with electric buzzers--to shock audience members during key scenes.

Horror Movies

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Steven Schneider

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