Historical approaches to the genre suggest its development as a genre rather than an original form as such as the western. The makings of the early horror films did not always provide or were not easily recognisable as the material to have earned a serious critical consideration and a respectful amount.
Two critics of the horror genre; Andrew Tudor who writes mainly about gothic horror and Brian Murphy who specialises in 1950’s science fiction monster movies agree that the genre is one of not many boundaries and inflexible laws. They have said:
‘men turn into werewolves only but always on nights of the full moon: vampires dislike garlic, cast no reflections in mirrors and can be destroyed by having their hearts pierced with a wooden stake and it’s the nature of Frankenstein’s monster that he can never be destroyed…. horror’s never-neverland is bearable because it is so entirely rational. (Murphy. 1972. p34)
(Pam Cook, The Cinema Book 2ndedition)
Of necessity the earliest horror films were gothic in style and they were developed out of a number of sources such as folk tales, witchcraft, ghost stories and myths. Many of the best and most recognised films such as Dracula and Frankenstein were adapted from the equally recognisable novels. The Death of Dracula was the first adaptation of Irish writer Bram Stoker's 1897 vampire novel Dracula. The first Frankenstein monster film in the US was Edison Frankenstein (1910), a 16-minute (one-reel) version made by the Edison Studios.
The horror genre of all the genres shows the least connection to history especially that of America’s compared to those genres such as the western and film noir. The fantasy and mythical aspect of the genre haven’t helped it to escape the implications of cultism and have failed to win acclaim as auteur of the cinema. However, many of Alfred Hitchcock’s post 1960 films such as The Birds (1963) and Psycho (1960) add to a list of films that have helped him gain great acclaim as an auteur and earned him the title ‘the Master of Suspense’. Therefore Hitchcock’s films have an ongoing technique that defies some of the criticism of the genre in the way many directors have been over looked.
There are many sub-genres to the horror and gothic film that span widely over the decades from the 1930’s to the present day. The films made in the early 1950’s such as The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) and The Blob (1958) often shocked its audience through the supernatural monsters and mutants. These films frequently reflected a doomed society that have caused an in depth look of the fear provoked by a number of different political issues and nuclear threat. Mass media had affected the panic about the safety and protection of peoples ‘normality’ of their everyday lives. The reliance on the scientist and the military to protect us as a society is juxtaposed in many of the films made during this cycle in the 1950’s and this is the evidence that the genre has the capability to capture the audience’s worst fears.
A lot of the films in the 1970’s such as Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) brought the future of technological advances to its audience and the fear of the unknown was then used to shock. Another sub-generic category has been labelled the ‘American nightmare’ by the critic Charles’s Derry. He distinguishes first the ‘horror of personality that appears in horror films particularly that of Norman Bates in Psycho, where the horror rather than in a projected monster and so distanced and externalised is now seen to be a man’
The ‘American nightmare’ suggests the fear in people of society and normality becoming ill and violent with only a psychological explanation, as the response to films such as Psycho, represent the escalation of violence and mass killing of the early 1960’s in the media.
Whatever dark primitive and revolting traits, that simultaneously attract and repel us are featured in the horror genre. Horror films when done well and with less reliance on horrifying special effects can be extremely potent film forms, working its way into our dream states and the horror of the irrational, the unknown and the horror of man himself. In horror films the irrational forces of chaos or horror invariably need to be defeated and often these films end with a return to normality and victory over the monstrous.
