Thursday, January 19, 2006
Horror Affecting America's Fears?
We all know horror films are a social comment, a brief look through the history of the genre shows how America’s fears have progressed through the years.
Early horror movies out of Germany with the early German Expressionist classics such as “The Cabinet of Dr Caligari” and “Nosferatu”, paved the way for early US chillers of the 30’s. The monster was always of European origin or certainly outside of the US, exemplified by “Frankenstein” and “Dracula”, giving the impression that the real horrors of this world were over there, not over here.
That theme progressed into the 40’s through movies like “I Walked With a Zombie” and “White Zombie”, playing on the fears of voodoo, invariably set in Africa or South America. It also played on the fears of white America over the increased power and influence of the black civil rights movement. There were of course exceptions, such as “Cat People”, but once again the origin of the monster was Russian, very much over there.
Horror stood aside for the alien invasion sci-fi movie the 50’s, the main frightful output being the UK’s early Hammer movie. The alien invasion theme became ever popular, seen by many as a sly nod over fears that the country would be ever changed by a foreign invader. The Cold War did little to dampen these fears, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” being the best example with the ‘invaders’ looking like us, sounding like us, having our memories and expressions but without emotion. A clearer example of the fears of Communism has yet to be made.
The 60’s saw horror move into America, not least with “Night of the Living Dead” that again took the theme of freakish versions of us as the monster. The idea of a new society devouring the new created the modern zombie, it was also one of the first ‘white’ movies that saw a black man take the lead role with a mob mentality of white groups echoing images of deep south movements trying to take control. There was much to fear from themselves in America and the horror film was beginning to reflect that.
The 70’s saw horror movies move closer to home with a slew of movies based on Ed Gein, a real life killer who skinned his victims and made clothes and furniture out of skin and bones. The realisation that your next door neighbour could be the monster to fear took hold, “The Omen” took it further implying it could be your own family. “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” even had a family of serial killers, an alternative take on the breakdown of family values and the decline of rural businesses, in this case Slaughterhouses. The Vietnam conflict led to an increase in gore effects, the likes of which were captured on TV images, legendary special effects man Tom Savini based many of his effects on images he took as a combat photographer in ‘Nam.
The 80’s took the monster from next door into your own home with the slasher movie, “Halloween” being the first smash hit. David Cronenberg and John Carpenter’s body horror hits took it a further step by putting the monster inside the victim with “The Fly” and “The Thing”. “Nobody trusts anyone anymore”, says one of the characters in “The Thing” as paranoia in the US hit an all time high against a government that seemed to say one thing and do another. “A Nightmare on Elm Street” moved the horror from within into the world of sleep from which there’s no escape, the American dream goes up in smoke, goodbye value system. The film even blames the Kennedy/Nixon generation by making Freddy a guilty victim of their secret past, back to take vengeance on their young…someone’s coming to get you and you only have yourselves to blame.
Nowadays horror themes go in cycles, with sly nods to its more serious past, but occasionally the old fears come back. “28 Days Later” shows what can happen when biological warfare is mistaken for animal testing and activists kept in the dark get it horribly wrong. “Land of the Dead” is perhaps the first horror movie to take a long hard look at the effects of 9/11 and our own concerns about Terrorism and a class system that always threatens to boil over, just look at the similarities between the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Zombie uprising in “Land” to see how horror can very often get it bob on. "Beware the moon and stay on the path"
Early horror movies out of Germany with the early German Expressionist classics such as “The Cabinet of Dr Caligari” and “Nosferatu”, paved the way for early US chillers of the 30’s. The monster was always of European origin or certainly outside of the US, exemplified by “Frankenstein” and “Dracula”, giving the impression that the real horrors of this world were over there, not over here.
That theme progressed into the 40’s through movies like “I Walked With a Zombie” and “White Zombie”, playing on the fears of voodoo, invariably set in Africa or South America. It also played on the fears of white America over the increased power and influence of the black civil rights movement. There were of course exceptions, such as “Cat People”, but once again the origin of the monster was Russian, very much over there.
Horror stood aside for the alien invasion sci-fi movie the 50’s, the main frightful output being the UK’s early Hammer movie. The alien invasion theme became ever popular, seen by many as a sly nod over fears that the country would be ever changed by a foreign invader. The Cold War did little to dampen these fears, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” being the best example with the ‘invaders’ looking like us, sounding like us, having our memories and expressions but without emotion. A clearer example of the fears of Communism has yet to be made.
The 60’s saw horror move into America, not least with “Night of the Living Dead” that again took the theme of freakish versions of us as the monster. The idea of a new society devouring the new created the modern zombie, it was also one of the first ‘white’ movies that saw a black man take the lead role with a mob mentality of white groups echoing images of deep south movements trying to take control. There was much to fear from themselves in America and the horror film was beginning to reflect that.
The 70’s saw horror movies move closer to home with a slew of movies based on Ed Gein, a real life killer who skinned his victims and made clothes and furniture out of skin and bones. The realisation that your next door neighbour could be the monster to fear took hold, “The Omen” took it further implying it could be your own family. “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” even had a family of serial killers, an alternative take on the breakdown of family values and the decline of rural businesses, in this case Slaughterhouses. The Vietnam conflict led to an increase in gore effects, the likes of which were captured on TV images, legendary special effects man Tom Savini based many of his effects on images he took as a combat photographer in ‘Nam.
The 80’s took the monster from next door into your own home with the slasher movie, “Halloween” being the first smash hit. David Cronenberg and John Carpenter’s body horror hits took it a further step by putting the monster inside the victim with “The Fly” and “The Thing”. “Nobody trusts anyone anymore”, says one of the characters in “The Thing” as paranoia in the US hit an all time high against a government that seemed to say one thing and do another. “A Nightmare on Elm Street” moved the horror from within into the world of sleep from which there’s no escape, the American dream goes up in smoke, goodbye value system. The film even blames the Kennedy/Nixon generation by making Freddy a guilty victim of their secret past, back to take vengeance on their young…someone’s coming to get you and you only have yourselves to blame.
Nowadays horror themes go in cycles, with sly nods to its more serious past, but occasionally the old fears come back. “28 Days Later” shows what can happen when biological warfare is mistaken for animal testing and activists kept in the dark get it horribly wrong. “Land of the Dead” is perhaps the first horror movie to take a long hard look at the effects of 9/11 and our own concerns about Terrorism and a class system that always threatens to boil over, just look at the similarities between the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Zombie uprising in “Land” to see how horror can very often get it bob on. "Beware the moon and stay on the path"
