Day 11: Horror Genre
We, as a species, love to be scared. There are scary stories from very long ago. Ghost stories around the fire, gruesome tales by candlelight. Sleepovers, holidays, lights out all times we have, over the years, told and scared stories to frighten ourselves and each other. Of course I made the mistake of listening to 'True Horror Stories' (RL Stine, audiobook) on my own in a hotel room with a bricked up reflective fireplace in it...wearing red...listening to The Amityville horror and the demon in the fireplace. However, I digress.
Horror stories are as old as any others. The tale of the boogeyman an old one that was told to children to make them behave, lest the boogeyman come in the night and get them. There are so many horror 'villains' these days. We moved on from the fairy-tale witches and giants and moved on to vampires, werewolves and, arguably the scariest, real people. Serial killers, mentally ill villains and apparently normal people living a double life are the ones often based on real life.
Of course, with the invention of moving pictures came the horror films. Les Vampires (1915), Nosferatu, the first Dracula film (1922) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925) some of the most notable but there were any more. A famous one with disturbing imagery and a chilling ending is The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1922). Lon Chaney, the famous 'man of a thousand faces' did many horror films, helped along by his incredible skill with make-up. his incarnation of The Phantom of the Opera led to some screams and faints when it was first shown in theatres.
There were 15 horror films released in the 1900s, 24 in the 1910s (including Frankenstein, Two Dr Jekyll and My Hyde's and The Phantom of the Opera), 46 in the 1920s (including another two Dr Jekyll and My Hyde films and The hunchback of Notre Dame) and in the 1930s, with the Universal horror film production coming about, 57.
The 1930s was when all the monster movies started coming out. Frankenstein (and it's sequels), Dracula, The Mummy as well as films about werewolves, vampires other than Dracula and many scary stories being adapted for the screen, such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Monkey's Paw.
In 1927 when the film The Jazz Singer was releases, it marked the end of the silent movie era. It was the first full length 'talkie' to be released and opened a whole new cinematic experiences. Some silent films went back and were dubbed and re-released. Of course, some were re-released and still silent in the theatres that hadn't yet installed a sound system, but it meant that horror films could now have dialogue and screams. In 1928, Warner Brother's released The Terror, something of an early whodunnit, and based on a play, follows a group of guests at an inn who endure a night of mayhem including strange noise, organ music and a murder until the identity of 'The Terror' is revealed.
Since then, there have been more horror movies than can be counted, unless you have a lot of patience and free time, which I don't. I know there are around 200 Dracula films, including Blacula (1972) and Love At First Bite (1979) and many other films with famous literary characters such a Frankenstein's monster and Mr Hyde. some of the most famous are of course from Hammer.
Hammer Film Productions was founded in 1934 but is best known for it's horror films from the 1950s to 1970s. Of course Hammer Horror started in 1955. It is usually associated with the actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee who did 22 films together, 7 of which were Hammer horror. Hammer tackled Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Dr Jekyll and My Hyde, The Mummy and even Sherlock Holmes' The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Horror films are just an extension of stories round the campfire and literary works. The horror genre is present in all art forms and probably will be for as long as they last. Most people have a favourite horror film or franchise. Some people have a favourite horror villain. We still like to be scared, we still like our horror stories and we probably will for the rest of our existence. I do wonder though, if we were being 100% truthful, how many of us would actually watch Halloween on our own with the lights off.
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