German Expressionism German Expressionism refers to a number of creative movements in Germany before and after the First World War. German expressionism links directly to the First World War as much of the work created in this period of time was a direct response to the horrors of the war in which Germany faced many of these plots often dealt with issues such as betrayal and insanity. Some of the first ever German Expressionism films are as the following; The Student of Prague created in 1913, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari created in 1920 and From Morn to Midnight also created in 1920. The German expressionism movement however outstanding the work was, unfortunately was largely confined to Germany due to the isolation the country had experienced during the war. The film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a very good example of a German expressionism film which was directed by Robert Wiene. The film is about an insane hypnotist who uses sleepwalkers to commit murders which is meant to resemble Hitler and the Nazi party using innocent men for war, the film ends with a plot twist revealing that the whole film has been the delusions of a madman which clearly links back to the war as many perceived the whole idea of war insane. The film features a dark and twisted visual style, with sharppointed forms, oblique and curving lines, structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, and shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the set. Robert Wiene was not the only famous German expressionism film maker, Fritz Lang the creator of films such as “Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler” is seen as one of the greats in German expressionism, he was dubbed the “Master of Darkness” by the British Film Institute. Lang angry at the German government for banning and therefore repressing his work and the fact he did not want to help make propaganda for the Nazi party decided to immigrate to France and then later to America alongside many other great German filmmakers which much was down to their religion. This then became the birth of what we now know as Hollywood.
Classic Literature Classic literature commonly known as gothic fiction is a term used to refer to a mode of fiction is which relates and deals with the supernatural or horrifying events. Modern horror only dates back 200 years however every cult and tribe had many stories dealing with the unknown and the what if, horror movies are just the modern version of this poems told by our ancestors. Literature moved from the gothic era in which novels such as “The Castle of Otranto� written in 1764 to psychological madness novels such as Dracula written in 1897. The great three horror stories of the 19th century are of course; Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, these novels left the reader to decide whether the causes and events were supernatural or psychological something never seen before until these novels. The novel Dracula was written in 1897 by Irish author Bram Stoker, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so he may find new blood and spread the undead curse. This novel was a pathway within literature creating many new genres such as vampire fiction and horror fiction. Classic literature came to an end when the great war arrived bringing with it horrors of its very own.
Horror shifts 1940 and 1950. The horror genre in the 1940’s and 1950’s saw a massive shift within. The genre began to move away from the idea of there being monsters and mad scientists to focusing on the primal animal within. War time movies were purely an American product in which represented in a way mankind not being pure at all linking to America finally getting involved in the war. These movies tried to explain to the public that no matter what there is a dark side to many of us and used the idea of werewolves and cat people to show this. Cat people is an American horror movie made in 1942, the movie links to the world wars in many ways but the main one is this; women in this movie are seen as being dangerous, something not to be messed with because of the power they had in this movie. At the end of the second world war women were removed from their jobs in order for the men to take control again, clearly this angered the women by the way they had been treated. Therefore this movie shows that women can be dangerous and do have some power. The 1950’s however didn’t focus on the primal animal but on aliens and mutant creatures, this links to the idea of new ideas within Europe taking over and brain washing mankind like the fear of communism. The fear of communism is shown clearly by the movie invasion of the body snatchers where aliens invade and replace/take over the people of earth. Overall the 1940 and 1950 horror movies where a direct reaction to the horror of war in which the world went through during this period of time.
Horror shifts 1960 and 1970. Now into the 1960’s and 1970’s, this era saw another shift within the horror production this time it was the idea of horror closer to home. This saw the birth of zombie, ghost and Satanism towards families brought to the cinema screen. These movies found a way to link sex with violence and took many taboo subjects and made them a reality. There are obviously many great film makers within this time where horror met thriller however there is one man and his creations that really went for it. That man being Mr Alfred Hitchcock with his movies Psycho made in 1960 and the birds made in 1963. The movie “Birds” combined blue screen work with animation and made something as simple as birds become feared by many. Hitchcock’s movies were inspired by the no-frills, low budget approach of William Castle. William Castle and Hitchcock proved themselves as expert at scaring audiences with both an internal and external threat. Overall these eras allowed people to move away from the threats and horrors of war to the idea of the only thing to fear is themselves.
Hammer Horror, A British Success? Hammer Films or Hammer Pictures is a British film production company founded in 1934. It is based in London and is best known for its gothic hammer horrors first produced in the 1950’s all the way up to the 1970’s. The birth of hammer horror was around the mid 1950 to 1960, it was in this time period films such as Dracula, The curse of Frankenstein and The mummy were produced, ones now that are seen as classics. The film “The curse of Frankenstein” was the most important horror film since Universal's Dracula. The movie’s impact was immense, it was the first ever horror film in colour, and its critical reception was savage. However the public flocked to see it and Hammer followed it up with its natural successor the film “Dracula”. Hammer Horrors had many tactics in which kept them going so long but one in particular is crucial in the 1970’s they adopted the tactic of introduce sex into their horror movies something that was becoming popular in the work of European horror directors like Jean Rollin and Jess Franco, It was here they produced movies such as “The Vampire Lovers”. But the one thing Hammer Horror productions is best known for is the way they could adapt to whatever was the current trend whether it be psycho killers to possessed school children, Hammer Horror was able to do it.
Horror in the 1980’s, The birth of the Slasher! Horror movies of the 80’s live in the watershed where special effects finally caught up with the gory ideas of film fans and movie makers. Technical advances in the field of animatronics and other advances such as liquid and foam latex meant now the human frame could be distorted like no other. The 1980’s started to touch upon the idea of pulling apart the human body and turning it inside out with all the bloody, slimy contents on display. However apart from movies filled with humans insides latex allowed zombie movies to make a massive come back, movies such as “Dawn of the Dead” created in 1979 made audiences fear the living dead once again. The main demographic for audiences of horror movies in the 1980s was 15 to24 year old and male, people with a strong stomach and who would sit through whatever the film industry threw at them. People do say the slasher was born during this period however many see “Halloween” made in 1978 the true beginning of the slasher. Slasher movies brought something else to the screens of many, the idea of the final girl theory and the fact someone could just slaughter a stupid group of teenagers for no good reason. Slasher movies even though probably viewed more by the working class was aimed more to the middle class, with teenagers being punished for sexual activities and stupid behavior for example drug taking, slasher movies are just a blood bath. Movies such as Friday 13th, Nightmare on Elm street and Bloody Valentine were spawned as copycat movies to Halloween and it was here that no teenager was safe.
Video Nasties of the 1980’s, classics of the horror genre?! Video Nasties is a term in the United Kingdom to refer to a number of films distributed on video that were criticised for their violent content by the press, social commentators and various religious organizations and therefore many of these movies were banned by the government however within this process other movies were dragged in mainly down to their names and therefore also banned from being viewed by the public, here are just some movies from the list; “containing I Spit On Your Grave, Driller Killer, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Nightmares in A Damaged Brain, Last House on the Left and The Evil Dead". Before video nasties the British Board of Film Classification was not allowed to censor any videos in fact their power of censorship only lay in cinemas however when video nasties came about the BBFC became responsible for the certification of both cinema and video releases. Video nasties were some of the most goriest films ever produced, with gory content and with bloody front covers all in order to catch the eye of an browsing costumer in a video store. The idea of blood and gory moves on nicely to the next and last piece in horror history I will be talking about, Torture porn of the 2000’s ..
Horror in the 2000’s, Gore returns with Torture Porn Torture porn also know as Gore-nography is a term used to describe the types of horror movies mainly produced in the 2000’s. These movies were and still are filled with gory, slow and painful deaths allowing the viewer to watch the victim beg for their lives. After the horrific event of 9/11 horror movies throughout the world found it very difficult to see what was suitable for the public to view, obviously they didn’t want to make mushy movies because then what's the point in horror genre continuing. But finally in 2005 the horror genre made a come back and it turns out this time the audiences wanted what they did back in the 1930s, a good group scare! However there was one big differences there was no more monsters instead their gap was filled by crazy pyscho’s. Movies in which involve the idea of torture as their main theme are as the following; hostel, saw and wolf creek, the gory and ideas from these movies made the film seem almost real and there was born the audience with a strong stomach and sick ideas. However like anything Torture porn has slowly came to an end I personally think it is because gory has been over used in these horror movies and lets face it how many other new ideas and situations can you think of to compliment the theme of torture. The only question left to ask is where will horror go to next?