CK : History of Horror - Reading source 2

1. Why are stories that 'aim to scare their audience' so popular?

Horror films are popular because they play on our most deep seated fears and taboos, which can include things such as murder, kidnap and the paranormal. ‘Jump Scares’ have also more recently become very popular because of the excitement and the adrenaline rush after having just been scared, and the tension waiting for the next scare.

2. What insight can the study of horror monsters give?

An analysis of horror monsters in the light of their cultural contexts can give an insight into the anxieties and concerns of the contemporary culture. Of course, not all people have the same worries at any given time, but it is possible to identify general cultural and contextual trends through the monsters created for horror texts.

3. What did Nosferatu (1922), one of the earliest horror films use the vampire as a metaphor for?

In Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922) the vampire is an invader; it comes from elsewhere and brings disease to the local community. His method of attack involves penetration and the exchange of bodily fluids, which could be read as a sexual metaphor, however the main outcome of a vampire attack is death or infection. At the time of Nosferatu’s release, Germany was economically and socially devastated after WW1. Poverty and disease were a major issue and in 1918 many people died due to a flu pandemic. The vampire Count Orlok is rat-like in appearance and it is perhaps not surprising that a culture that had suffered at the hands of expansionist politicians and was now vulnerable to disease would respond to a monster that represented invasion and infection.

4.Read to the end of the article. Make notes on how there are different readings of horror based on socio/cultural contexts of the decade.

Many horror texts between the wars reflected the social changes in terms of power, authority and class that followed the political upheaval of WW1.

Nosferatu and Dracula (Browning, 1931) featured a corrupt and abusive aristocratic class who are the sources of horror.

In Frankenstein (Whale, 1932) the aristocratic class was also criticised.
Frankenstein has many other possible readings that relate to the context of the time. For example, the sympathetic representation of the monster could be read as a critical perspective on the racial tensions that were present in American culture at the time. The monster’s eventual death is represented as a mob lynching of an individual who cannot integrate into the dominant culture.
Post-WW2 films maintained the focus on monsters that invaded or infected, and the ‘science gone wrong’ motif expanded across both horror and science-fiction.
This could be due to horrors witnessed in the advances in military capabilities, culminating in the nuclear attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945, and the depths of human cruelty observed in the holocaust.
The 1960s was a time of social change and this was mirrored in its horror monsters.
Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) reflects the impact of Freudian theories on the culture’s understanding of the human psyche.

The mundane settings make the horror more effective than the distant, fantastical horror of the previous decades and the fact that the monsters now look like ‘us’ creates an unsettling realism.

Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968) which also used vivid and visceral representations of violence, making Psycho look quite tame. The optimism of ‘the Summer of Love’ that is often associated with this period was in fact tempered by the assassinations first of President Kennedy in 1963, and later of his brother Robert and Martin Luther King in 1968. America was at war in Vietnam and audiences in the late 60s were growing accustomed to seeing images of horrific real-life violence. Horror directors could only hope to scare these audiences if they produced horrors as violent and as extreme as the films and photographs that were shown on the evening news.
As horror moved into the 1970s the human monster became more sadistic. The Last House on the Left (Craven, 1972) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974) became infamous for their sustained graphic violence.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre showed the effect of social and economic isolation and on a rural family whilst The Last House on the Left bought the horror into small-town America. Both films identified a society that, despite idealised appearances, had a brutal underbelly.
The Exorcist depicted the secularisation of society that had occurred since World War 2 and dealt with the unease and uncertainty this was causing by using devils, demons and pagans as its monsters. The Exorcist was also a film that identified post-war changes in the structure of the family.

5. In the final paragraph, why according to Hendry is horror still relevant to audiences?

The genre has the ability to adapt to allow it to tap into each generation’s preoccupations and concerns and its metaphorical approach can be used to deal with ideas and issues that appeal to a range of audience groups. Other genres such as Westerns may not be able to speak to modern audiences in the way they used to but horror continues to provide a cultural catharsis over 100 years since it first hit celluloid.