Frankenstein, Dracula and Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde – Horror’s roots in classic literature

Frankenstein

• Written in 1818 by Mary Shelley• It is of the horror, science fiction and romance genre.• The story came about when Mary was on holiday in a posh

villa somewhere with her husband and famous writer Percy shelly, and his good friend Lord Byron, another famous English writer. They decided to see who could come up with the best ghost/horror story, and Mary came up with Frankenstein.

• This story is responsible for the beginning of the science fiction genre and has been the inspiration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JLK-E2W82I

The misinterpreted Frankenstein

• Parents complained to the makers of the film, because they were unhappy about the obscenities depicted in 1910 classic. They were outraged that such graphic scenes of horror could be seen by their children.

• Other people (Christians, Catholics etc) also complained because apparently you cant resurrect some sewn together body parts with a bolt of lightening. This enraged them as they believed that only God should be able to give life.

Dracula (1931)

This film was produced in 1931 and directed by Tod Browning. It is a classic film known by anybody interested in the horror genre. In the film The ancient vampire Count Dracula arrives in England and begins to prey upon the virtuous young Mina.

Dracula re-releasedThe film was originally released with a running time of 85 minutes. [2] When the film was reissued in 1936, the Production Code was being strictly enforced. At least two scenes are known to have been censored and cut from the film. The most famous was an epilogue which played only during the film's initial run. In a sequence similar to the prologue from Frankenstein, and again featuring Universal stalwart Edward Van Sloan, he reappeared to reassure the audience that what they’d seen wouldn’t give them nightmares. Van Sloan would then calmly inform those with a nervous disposition that... "There really are such things as Vampires!" In a 1936 reissue, this epilogue was removed out of fear of offending religious groups by encouraging a belief in the supernatural. Also, Dracula's off-camera "death groans" at the end of the film were shortened as were Renfield's screams as he is killed; these pieces of soundtrack were later restored by MCA-Universal for its laser disc and subsequent DVD releases (with the exception of the 2004 multi-film "Legacy Collection" edition). However, Van Sloan's epilogue is still missing and presumed lost.

Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde

• Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the original title of a novel written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson that was first published in 1886.

• The idea came to Stevenson in a dream, he fell asleep and when his wife woke him he claimed he was “dreaming a fine bogey tale”

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/prosejekyllhyde/jekyllplotact.shtml