A brief history of the horror film by Jon Towlson, the author of Subversive Horror Cinema: Countercultural Messages of Films from Frankenstein to the Present (McFarland & Co, 2014)

1. The Horror Genre
- An Brief Overview
Jon Towlson

2. ORIGINS:
• THE HORROR STORY IN LITERATURE
arose from Gothic tradition in literature
dating from the 18th and 19th Centuries:
tales of terror and often repressed
sexuality in historical setting of dark,
brooding menace.

3. • Described at the time as Romantic
literature, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and
Bram Stoker’s Dracula are the most
enduring, but the Werewolf and the
Mummy can also be traced back to novels
from this period.

4. • Film versions of these stories have been
remade many times from Universal in
1930s, to Hammer in 1950s and 60s to
more recent versions by Francis Ford
Coppola and Kenneth Branagh and
Stephen Sommers’ ‘Van Helsing’.

5. • The American Gothic tradition derives
from the work of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P.
Lovecraft. Roger Corman made several
films in the 1960s based on Poe’s novels.

6. • THE FURTHER INPUT OF TWO
EUROPEAN ARTISTIC MOVEMENTS
COMBINED TO CREATE THE CLASSIC
HORROR FILM OF THE 1930S:
• Expressionism
• Surrealism

7. • German expressionism was an artistic
movement of the early 20th Century that
was characteristic of much architecture,
painting and theatre in Germany during
this period. German theatre in particular
featured low key shafts of light, sets that
were off-kilter, often without right angles or
with exaggerated perspectives, black and
white make up.

8. • The idea of expressionism was to express
emotions rather than external reality by
projecting a character’s state of mind onto
his environment. German expressionism
is recognisable by its use of symbolism
and by its use of exaggeration and
distortion.

9. • In the 1930s films by Universal Studios,
expressionism is evident in the use of
shadows and low tilted camera angles and
camera movements, and high-ceiling sets.
German and Austrian emigres working for
Universal brought movement over with
them to the United States.

10. • Key names from this movement in horror
are Karl Freund and James Whale.
Freund was a German cameraman and
later director who had worked with Murnau
(amongst others) before moving to the
States for a contract with Universal.
James Whale was a British stage director
who likewise went over to the States

11. • Surrealism
The art movement concerned with
representing the unconscious and
dreams. Surrealism drew on psychologist
Sigmund Freud’s ideas on sexuality and
The Uncanny. This is represented in the
horror film by the flow of disturbing
imagery and the presence of a ‘monster’
which externalises our personal and group
fears.

12. CLASSIC THEMES OR NARRATIVE
CONVENTIONS
• In his book ‘Dark Dreams’, Charles Derry
charted the emergence of three distinct
sub-genres in the decades following
Psycho (1960), but has traced their
historical predecessors in the ‘classic’
horror movie and other genres

13. Hauntings and Demonic Possessions
• These films play on our fear of the
unknown, superstition and the idea that
evil forces exist in the world. These forces
can remain spiritual presences (Don’t
Look Now) or can take the guise of
witches (Blair Witch Project), ghosts (The
Haunting) or demons (The Exorcist).

14. • The characters fall prey to an evil force
that is trying to victimise them in some
way. The evil entity is doing this perhaps
to gain vengeance eg in Blair Witch the
witch is taking vengeance on the
characters for trying to expose her.

15. • In Nightmare on Elm Street Freddie is
taking revenge on the people who killed
him by haunting the dreams of their
children and stalking them in their dreams.
In many haunted house stories the ghost
simply resents the presence of the people
who have just moved in.

16. • Sometimes the evil force wants to corrupt
its victims - to make them do evil. Eg ‘The
Shining’.
• In this case the evil force wants to take
control of its victim - take over his body or
his mind or soul. Vampires and
werewolves turn you into one of their own
kind.

17. • Often at the heart of these stories is the
fight between good and evil in the
Christian sense- temptation and sin. So
there is usually a counterpart to the evil
force - a symbol of good. Eg Dracula’s
counterpart is Van Helsing. In the
Exorcist, the Catholic priests fight the
Devil for the soul of the girl

18. • Witches, vampires and demons have their
roots in folklore. Before modern medicine
many disorders, blood diseases and
psychological illnesses were attributed to
supernatural causes: eg, epilepsy was
thought to be caused by possession by
demons. So these mythologies are in our
‘collective unconscious’ and are bought to
the surface by horror films.

19. Apocalypse
• In this subgenre mankind is threatened with
extinction by inhuman creatures that rise up and
take over the world. Sometimes the threat
comes from outer space (Day of The Triffids,
War of The Worlds). Sometimes the threat is a
plague or virus that threatens to wipe out
mankind. (Dawn of the Dead, The Crazies).
David Cronenberg’s film Rabid depicts an
outbreak of rabies in Montreal. The film was very
successful in Britain where rabies was, at that
time in 1977, a national phobia.

20. • Sometimes the threat comes from the
everyday traditionally harmless creatures
with whom we share the planet. All at
once these creatures decide to gather
together against us and take over the
world. The most famous film of this type is
Hitchcock’s The Birds.

21. • In the seventies there was a whole spawn
of films featuring all types of creatures:
rats (Willard), bees, worms (Squirm), ants
(Phase 4) even giant rabbits (Night of the
Lepus).

22. • The films have a set structure: there’s a
sudden proliferation of these creatures as
if from nowhere and they descend upon a
group of survivors who have barricaded
themselves in a house. Usually the story
ends with the people dying and the
creatures winning out.

23. • A characteristic of these films is that there
is often no explicit reason for the creatures
suddenly rising up against us. But there is
a subtext there to do with fears of
ecological unbalance, or a sense of
revolution with the new order usurping the
old.

24. The Human Monster
• Generally dates from Psycho (1960).
Deals with horror of the personality:
psychopathology and murder (the serial
killer) or psychosis and insanity. So the
audience is taken inside the mind of a
killer (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) or
of a person who appears to be going
insane (Repulsion, Jacob’s Ladder)

25. • The ‘monster in the human’ (eg, Jekyll and
Hyde) deals with mankind’ s propensity for
evil. Often children are the subject (The
Bad Seed, Apt Pupil). The idea that some
people are born bad, with no sense of
morality.

26. • The ‘human in the monster’ (eg
Frankenstein’s monster) deals with the
sympathetic monster. We can feel some
kind of understanding for these monsters
because of their loneliness. They did not
want to be created and are vilified by
normal society.

27. ICONOGRAPHY OF THE
HORROR FILM
Symbolic images which recur throughout the history of
the horror film include:
The haunted house (forbidden chamber)
Symbols of death
The disfigured face or mask
The screaming victim (in modern horror the ‘final girl’)
The phallic murder weapon: knife, stake, chainsaw.
Binary oppositions of good and evil eg Dracula/Van Helsing.
Darkened places where the ‘monster’ lurks: woods, cellars.
Blood and body parts (body horror)

28. • In the documentary, Universal Horror
(Kevin Brownlow, 1999), links are made
between the iconography of 1930s horror
films and images from World War 1 such
as disfigured troops suffering horrific war
wounds.

29. • Similarly in the documentary, American
Nightmare (Adam Simon, 2000), links are
made between the iconography of 1970s
horror films and media images from that
period of American history: Vietnam, Kent
State, public lynchings in the deep South,
assassination of JFK and Martin Luther
King etc.

30. THE HORROR FILM - PHASES OF
POPULARITY
• The American horror film can be seen to
have phases of popularity linked to
periods of socio-political unrest and
upheaval. These are major cycles of
American horror films:

31. • Universal Studios Horror Films (1930-48)
The significance of these films is thought to be
linked to working class discontent arising from
the Great Depression which led to mass
unemployment and famine (eg Frankenstein,
1930) and to the horrors of the world wars. The
source of Horror is seen as arising from Europe.

32. The Cold War Sci-Fi Horror Film (1950s)
Linked to cold war paranoia (Invasion of
the Body Snatchers, 1957), the
development of the ‘H’ bomb and the
national obsession with UFOs. Narrative
conventions from the science fiction genre
merged with those from the horror genre:
the monster was ‘commie’.

33. • The Modern American Horror Film (1968-79)
Linked to American Civil Rights unrest; Vietnam;
the assassination of Kennedy and Martin Luther
King. (Eg Night Of The Living Dead, Last House
on The Left, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
These films reflect America’s disillusionment
following the Vietnam war.

34. The Slasher Movie (1978-82)
• Seen as a backlash against feminism as
women became the main victims of violent
and graphic murder; perhaps horror’s
lowest ebb. On-screen gore increasingly
became the main ingredient. (eg
Halloween, Friday The Thirteenth)

35. The ‘Postmodern Horror Film’ (1983
onwards)
Starting with The ‘Evil Dead’, horror films
became increasingly self-referential
leading to ‘Scream’. Then remakes (The
Haunting, Psycho, The House on Haunted
Hill)

36. THE HORROR GENRE
THROUGH TIME
As with any genre, the horror film has
changed over time. Several factors have
contributed to the changing face of horror.
These are:

37. • Changes in Industry Practices.
• The 1930s films were studio-produced.
Universal was, at the time, one of five top
Hollywood Studios with its own sound-
stages and production personnel.
Although modestly budgeted, the 1930s
horror films were fairly lavish productions
filmed in the studio with, for their time,
elaborate sets and special effects.

38. • The horror films of the 1970s, by
comparison, were produced
independently, often outside of Hollywood
(such as Night Of The Living Dead - shot
in Pittsburgh) for very low budgets, shot
on location with unknown actors.

39. • The input of influential filmmakers
• Whereas the directors of the 1930s were mostly
inspired by expressionism, from the 1960s
onwards directors adopted the stylistic
conventions of realism: hand-held camera work,
naturalistic lighting, location shooting, direct
location sound, the use of 16mm film stock This
was partly due to low budgets. The main
directors - George A. Romero, Tobe Hooper,
Wes Craven, were independent filmmakers
working outside of Hollywood, and had
backgrounds in documentaries.

40. • Changes in Audiences Expectations
• Extensive news coverage of the Vietnam
war had brought graphic images into the
American home in the 60s, redefining the
nature of screen horror.
• Realist movements in cinema (such as the
French New Wave) in the second half of
the 20th Century also affected the
presentation of content.

41. • In the 40s: shadows and suggestion
whereas:-
• 60s: Vietnam - for the first time the
American People saw graphic war footage
on the daily news. From that point
onwards cinema become increasingly
graphic in its depiction of horror

42. • The classic horror film of the 1930s-
1950s and the modern horror film (post-
1960s) are thus often defined by a series
of binary oppositions. Although disputable
in some respects, this is overall a useful
way of understanding some of the
developments and changes of the genre
throughout its history.

43. THE ‘CLASSIC’ HORROR FILM
Production Context
• Stars (Lugosi, Karloff, Chaney,)
• Studio Produced (Universal, RKO)
• Medium budgets
Genre Narrative Conventions & Formal Signifiers
• ‘Foreign Monster’
• Monster is a supernatural being
• Equilibrium is restored - ‘good’ triumphs
• Society ie. religion, science, family is ‘good’.
• The horror is suggested off-screen
• Expressionist lighting style, hard shadows
• Classical Mise-en-scene & continuity editing.

44. The Modern American Horror
Film
Production Context
• Independent Productions
• Unknown Actors
• Filmed on location
• Low budgets
Genre conventions and formal signifiers
• Indigenous monster
• Monster is psychopath/cannibal
• The horror never ends - nihilism pervades
• Society is to blame. The family is seen as an instrument of
repression.
• Graphic on-screen horror
• Documentary realism, flat lighting, location sound.
• Post French New Wave camerawork and editing.

45. • Why do audiences enjoy being
scared to death by horror films so
much?

46. • Carlos Clarens believes that the horror
film renders on film ‘the immanent fears of
mankind: damnation, demonic
possession, old age, death.’

47. • Ernest Larson believes that horror films
that incorporate the apocalypse theme
‘advance the notion that modern
technology is so overwhelming that it
tends to obliterate any possibility of its
liberatory use...science has, in the hand-
maiden of capitalism, created an
uncontrollable monster.’

48. • Charles Derry believes that films
inaugurated by Psycho represent ‘ a
response to the escalation of violence in
American culture.’

49. • Walter Evans attributes the popularity of
horror amongst young audiences to ‘the
most universal and horrible of personal
trials: the sexual traumas of adolescence.’

50. • Robin Wood argues the monster represents all
the things we repress in order to function as
‘monogamous, heterosexual, bourgeois
patriarchal capitalists’, namely sexuality (in its
fullest sense) and creativity. The tensions
caused by such repression and the threatened
return of the repressed are siphoned off ‘through
the projection onto the Other (the ‘monster’) of
what is repressed within the Self, in order that it
can be discredited, disowned and if possible
annihilated.

51. • “What a horror film does is not frighten so much as release
fright. It is a vent. And all these fears are in us all the time,
from our lives, from our youths, from the world at large;
everything from the most complex societal things of waging
war and class struggle to very simple primal things like fear
of the father and mother and fear of abandonment as a
child. So these are all inherent in us and civilization tends
to gloss them over, encapsulate them, deny them; it
teaches us a thousand ways to act like everything’s fine but
underneath this surface there is a sort of cauldron. So what
a horror film does is tap in and release that tension and it
does it in a way that’s entertaining, amusing and safe.”
– Wes Craven

52. SELECTED FILMS (in chronological order):-
• The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Ger. 1919, Dir. Robert
Weine)
• Nosferatu, ein Symphony des Grauns (Ger. 1922, Dir.
F.W Murnau)
• Dracula (USA. 1931, Tod Browning)
• Vampyr (Den. 1932, Carl Dreyer)
• Frankenstein (USA. 1932, James Whale)
• Cat People (USA. 1942, Jacques Tourneur)
• The Thing (USA. 1952, Christian Nyby)
• Curse of Frankenstein (UK. 1957, Terence Fisher)
• Black Sunday (It. 1959, Mario Bava)
• Psycho (USA. 1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
• The Birds (USA. 1963, Alfred Hitchcock)
• Masque Of The Red Death (UK. 1964, Roger Corman)
• Repulsion (UK. 1965, Roman Polanski)

53. SELECTED FILMS (in chronological order):-
• Witchfinder General (UK. 1968, Michael Reeves)
• Night Of The Living Dead (USA. 1968, George A. Romero)
• The Exorcist (USA. 1973, William Friedkin)
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (USA. 1974, Tobe Hooper)
• Shivers (Can. 1975. David Cronenberg)
• Carrie (USA. 1976, Brian De Palma)
• Eraserhead (USA. 1976, David Lynch)
• Suspiria (It. 1977, Dario Argento)
• Halloween (USA. 1978, John Carpenter)
• Alien (USA/UK. 1979, Ridley Scott)
• The Shining (USA. 1980, Stanley Kubrick)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (USA. 1984, Wes Craven)
• Hellraiser (UK. 1987, Clive Barker)
• The Silence of The Lambs (USA. 1990, Jonathan Demme)
• Scream (USA. 1996, Wes Craven)
• The Blair Witch Project (USA. 1999, Daniel Myrick & Eduardo
Sanchez)

54. SELECTED FILMS (in chronological order):-
• 28 Days Later (UK/USA. 2002, Danny Boyle)
• Saw (USA. 2004, James Wan)
• Paranormal Activity (USA. 2007, Oren Peli)
• Let the Right One In (Sweden, 2008, Tomas Alfredson)
• Martyrs (Fr. 2008, Pascal Laugier)
• Zombieland (USA. 2008, Reuben Fleischer)
• I Saw the Devil (South Korea, 2010, KimJ ee-Woon)
• Insidious (USA. 2010, James Wan)
• The Cabin in the Woods (USA. 2012, Drew Goddard)
• Sinister (USA. 2012, Scott Derrickson)
• The Woman in Black (UK. 2012, James Watkins)
• The Babadook (Australia. 2014, Jennifer Kent)
• It Follows (USA. 2014, David Robert Mitchell)

55. Jon Towlson is a film critic and the author of
Subversive Horror Cinema: Countercultural
Messages of Films from Frankenstein to the
Present (McFarland & Co, 2014)
www.subversive-horror-films.com