Study of Horror Films

Sociology 308

Assignment 3

Rob Newman

April 15, 2011

Monika Stanelle

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Abstract:

Horror is a genre of entertainment spanning across films, comics/graphic novels, novels,

television, painting, radio and clothing. Horror films are meant to startle, surprise, scare,

repulse and instill fear in the viewers. Horror movies in the US have continued to change

and evolve over time, often recalling past ideals and motifs while constantly pushing and

somehow striving to be different. In a sense horror has very similar elements to hip hop

and rap music as style and substance are often prized over polished production and

marketing. An Emcee can launch a career off of developing a distinct style and delivery

or cadence that separates him from his contemporaries, jointly a new director in horror

films can create a buzz and a name for himself by creating a new style of plotline or some

different or unusual camera angles that can gain popularity and add to his recognition as

an originator of some aspect.

In the following research paper these topics and ideas will be acknowledged and

confronted:

1.) History

2.) Genres

4.) Influence on Music

5.) Written Literature

6.) Radio

7.) Television series

8.) Conclusion

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History

The history of horror movies, especially in America begins mostly in Europe in

the medium of books. Gothic writers such as Bram Stoker while being innovators of the

time unknowingly become the originators of horror and film. Even in the 1800's it was

still a basic human trait and desire to be frightened within reason. These authors created

books that would be widely celebrated though publicly banned and even considered

sacrilegious similarly when horror was first translated into film the creators of the

original horror films leaned on the creators of these novels to create newly stylized

versions of these classics. This sort of recognition and respect given to their

entertainment ancestors would soon become common place in this genre and continues

on to this day. (Milne, Willemen, Hardy, 1986).

The original horror movies created in Europe often attempted to follow the

original story lines and plots of such classics as Phantom of the Opera, Dr. Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde, and Dracula to the letter. A little known fact is that the first vampire movie

Nosferatu was a blatant copy of the original Bram Stoker's Dracula that had not gotten a

legal copyright to use the name, image, and ideas of the original Dracula. This is why

Nosferatu had such strange inconsistencies, such as rat like teeth instead of the more

common fangs where the canine teeth should be. Also this would become the studio’s

first and only film as they immediately filed for bankruptcy after being sued for copyright

infringement by Bram Stokers wife, Florence Stoker (Hantke, 2004).

Besides for updates and adaptations of the classics, films typically took on the

aspects of the occult, torture, werewolves, demons, ghosts, Satanism, aliens - specifically

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alien invasions, cannibals, zombies, monsters - specifically large monsters, plagues and

serial murderers. As horror and its most famous medium for acceptance, being film

continues to grow and change how people perceive it and become frightened. Movies

must be there to change with their viewers and what scares them. When fears of Satanism

were being brought up in the public, the horror industry answered with The Exorcist.

When fears of serial murders came up, the industry converted to making “slasher flicks”

such as Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th series. Horror has continually proved itself

to be a true fan favorite of its audiences. Horror movies will give the fans what they want

and pride themselves on changing continuously where as most films in the genre of say,

romantic comedies have been virtually the same from the 1970s unto the present with

nothing changing but clothing styles and the background soundtracks. Yet horror films

continue to not be respected by others within the film industry. In short, there is no “best

horror picture” category at the academy awards and probably never will be. (Heffernan

2004)

Genres

Genres in horror are as flexible and diverse as the average audience in the theater

on any given weekend. Horror has many related and overlapping categories such as

science fiction, thriller, suspense, mystery, and fantasy. Subgenres are just as varied and

include some of the brief descriptions and examples of the most popular examples listed

below.

Science Fiction Horror usually includes aliens or space monsters and often will

include some series of events leading up to an invasion or hostile takeover. Examples

include: Mars attacks, The Blob and Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

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Fantasy is a sort of paradox saying within horror because with a few exceptions

obviously most horror movies are a sort of fantasy. Many films that would fall within this

fantasy genre include mythical beasts or demons from long ago such as The Leprechaun

Series or The 9th gate. Some also include religion-based horror such as Stigmata into this

category while others choose to subjugate it to its own religious-horror category.

Zombie Horror is undoubtedly one of the most popular, maybe even more popular

than serial killer / slasher movies. Zombie movies typically begin with an outbreak or a

curse that spreads to the population and makes the infected become dead or dead-like and

typically have a hunger for some kind of human flesh or brain matter. The undoubted

godfather of this genre is George A. Romero who basically invented the ideas of zombie

films. Later on there have been many advancements and additions to zombie lore, The

Resident Evil Series brought about a newer high-tech like zombie film. Later, the film 28

Days Later would introduce the idea of fast zombies, literally zombies that can run

instead of limp toward their intended victims (Newsom, Lee 2000).

Although that may not sound like a very interesting development it is

important to note that the fear that comes from zombie movies are not so much the fear of

the slowly stalking dead creature lurching slowly towards your home as zombies are

typically modeled as slow to no witted creatures. The fear of a traditional zombie is that

there is never such an idea as a singular zombie in fact they are always attached to a

much larger hoard of hundreds or even thousands of fellow zombies slowly making you

realize that escape is hopeless and that everyone you may have ever cared for is more

than likely infected or already dead and or eaten.

Music

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Music has been influenced by horror movies greatly over the years. Glenn Danzig

is a strong example of the reach of horror-influenced culture; his first band spawned the

use of the crimson ghost as their mascot. The Misfits’ crimson ghost is a symbolic image

of youth and punk culture, however similar to the image of the infamous revolutionary

Che Guevarra, it has also become a symbol many people truly don’t know about, and

much like Che Guevarra not many of the few who brandish their symbol know what that

symbol may have stood for. The Misfits became the forefront and originators of the genre

known as "horror-punk". Horror punk has lyrics that orbit around the ideas of many B-

Horror movies such as aliens, zombies and giant monsters attacking the city or humanity

as a whole. The chords are often played just as fast if not faster than traditional American

or English punk rock and the vocals often have a much more smooth bravado to them and

is often a tribute of sorts to Glenn Danzig and his strong use of his own baritone vocal

range (McNeil, 1991).

Another example of the reach of horror influences in music would be the

Gothabilly and Psychobilly genres that borrow heavily from the swing and do wop of

earlier times with the distorted guitar and break beats of punk rock. This highly dramatic

form of rock in roll could also have credited influences much like Alice cooper, the

inventor of shock rock who owes a lot of the inspiration for ghoulish make up and

guillotines in his elaborate stage show to the images of many classic and golden era

horror movies. Cooper's influence ranges now to the thematic of Rob Zombie and fast

and brutal stage show of The Order of the Fly.

Also, horror and hip hop are two genres that are unique in that they make no

apologies for using the art of "sampling" or taking a previous work and making it their

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own through slight changes. For instance in early rap songs it was common to take

obscure loops of James brown or Parliment Funkadelic songs and tie them together until

they made the melody of a song. Or to take a line famously said by another rapper and

change a few words while keeping the delivery and making it your own. Similarly in the

world of horror movies it is common to take a scene from a lesser known older horror

movie and lace it into a newer movie making an added treat for eagle eyed fans who

rabidly try to catch such nods to the older creators and artists. Another example of this is

to take a scene from an older horror movie and recreate a famous scene that is usually

well known, such as the stabbing/blood going down the drain scene of Alfred Hitchcock's

famed movie "Psycho". Hip Hop possibly has been more deeply affected by the horror-

core style genre popularized by artists such as Broth Lynch Hung, The Grave Diggaz, and

the rapper known as Necro. These individual groups come from across the continental

United States and have recreated the images and scenes of modern horror movie by

borrowing beats, sounds and adding a usually space or frantic melody to increase the

feeling of unease (Mercer, 2009).

Written Literature

All of these forms of fiction owe a great deal of credit to the originators of

suspense and horror such as Edgar Allen Poe, whose stories of being buried alive, murder

and psychosis are still copied and replicated nearly word for word almost yearly. Poe

would die poor never truly knowing the great influence his body of work would leave

behind such as the creation of the horror drama in literature and in graphic novels or

comic books (Mainville, 1982).

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Comic books and graphic novels are also subject to a personalization and

representation of different art works and styles melded into the media of animation.

Comic books were originally the cause of a great alarm due to the effect of so called pulp

fiction and short murder suspense stories that were seemingly connected to a string of

crimes in the 1940s and 1950s. The question of their influence arose from the supposed

interest that many of the criminals had in reading these short works of fiction. Comic

books have the advantage of not being nearly as noticed as television, radio, or movies.

Therefore it is often much more free to experiment with extreme subjects and plots. It is

not uncommon for many comics from this genre to deal with sexual assaults and

gruesome discoveries (Tudor, 1989).

Tales from the Crypt was a particular target of outrage during the

congressional subcommittee hearings that created the controversial "Comics Code" laws.

These laws supported a strictly enforced set of codes that made rules against how

violence or crimes were portrayed as well as so called mystical elements such as

vampirism were portrayed (Nyberg, 1998). The code stayed in affect for many years and

was only recently completely abandoned in 2011.

Radio

Radio has a history with horror as sordid if not more so than comic books have

had. It is important to acknowledge that at one time radio was not merely a form of

entertainment and news. In many cases to the rural American it was practically their only

daily life line to the outside world off the property of the family farm. This was the cause

of many of the supposed panics and deaths caused by the production of H.G. Wells’ War

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of the Worlds in 1938. Although the supposed mass panic and suicides had been widely

falsified and embellished, it made the program it was created for a success and the genre

took off in other forms and shows such as The Dark Adventure Radio Theater, The Black

Mass, The Price of Fear starring the well known vocal talent of Vincent Price, the

narrator for Michael Jackson's hit song and album "Thriller" (Hantke, 2004).

Radio is not as noticed as it used to be but these different works of audio

cinema would deeply affect the growing genre of film as film would borrow such things

as sound effects and dramatic music to create a mood of fear, suspense, or despair.

Television

Television has had a massive influence on people who may have not paid

attention to the genre otherwise. The above mentioned record breaking music video for

Michael Jackson's hit song and album "Thriller" was a very good video that came with a

disclaimer to ward off easily frightened viewers and also addressing the issue of

Jackson's strict Jehovah's Witness religion (Newsom, lee, 2000).

Tales from the Crypt aside from being a well-known comic also became a

well-received television series that has influenced a whole new generation in the genre of

horror. Before Tales from the Crypt, the competing Twilight Zone and Outer Limits

pioneered the genre of horror on television. These shows, though heavily relying on the

science fiction, genre used many classic elements of horror or mixed the two genres

interchangeably (Hantke, 2000).

Dark Shadows, was a television show unique as a soap opera that dealt

with vampires and other mystical creatures. It was a huge hit despite its extremely cheap

settings and seemingly ridiculous initial premise. The show has been revised and

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recreated multiple times as well as appearing in different forms of media such as comics

and a full length feature film. These examples can only partially describe the vast amount

of noteworthy broadcasts and works of art that have kept civilization scared for sheer

entertainment values (Hantke, 2000). .

Conclusion

The horror genre will most likely always be short handed when it comes to

recognition for their efforts from the peers of other genres. However, it is paramount that

people realize that the horror genre, regardless of supplied media services a very

important aspect of life to humans that we are happily missing even if humans do not

realize they are missing it. In generations past the saying “tomorrow is not promised”

could not be truer. Diseases killed or crippled people indiscriminately, animal attacks

happened much more frequently as humans expanded into former areas dominated by

wilderness and wild animals. Many aspects of what used to be considered the unknown

are now well documented and able to be viewed on the internet or on different television

shows.

With all these former everyday occurrences that were causes of terror mostly

subsided it is still built into the human brain that we as a species should be afraid

sometimes, humans should have regular increases of heart rate and speed and that should

be accompanied by the sudden urge to run. Horror movies, music, television, radio and

literature has provided that and continues to provide this form of needed entertainment to

keep those aspects of our brains active and healthy. A good metaphor to explain this

would be as such: Even though humans have created bikes and motor vehicles that does

not mean they should never use their feet and legs to transport themselves ever again.

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Likewise just because humans have created DNA testing, video cameras, police stations

and marvels of science to explain previous phenomenon, does not mean that human

beings no longer want to be scared. Humans need to be scared and they will continue to

search for that feeling even if they do not realize they are actively pursuing that feeling

while they are watching a movie in a theater or skydiving out of a plane.

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References:

Hantke, S. (2004). Horror film: Creating and marketing fear. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Heffernan, K. (2004). Ghouls, gimmicks, and gold: Horror films and the American movie business, 1953-1968. Durham: Duke University Press.

Mainville, S. (1982). Language and the void: Poe's discourse of horror. Norman: s.n..

Mercer, M. (2009). Music to die for: [the intenational guide to the last great underground scene ; ambient, cabaret noir, deathrock, goth, gothic metal, horror punk, melodramtic song, post punk, psychobilly]. London: Cherry Red Books.

McNeil, L. (1991, January). Danzig. Spin, 06(10), 27-30-83.

Milne, T., Willemen, P., & Hardy, P. (1986). The encyclopedia of horror movies. New York: Harper & Row.

Newsom, T., Lee, C., Passport International Productions, Inc., & Passport Video (Firm). (2000). 100 years of horror. North Hollywood: Passport Video.

Tudor, A. (1989). Monsters and mad scientists: A cultural history of the horror movie. Oxford [England: B. Blackwell.

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