AO1 - part 1 - horror films.

Over the past 100 years horror has changed in many different forms, for example in the early 1920's horrors were renowned to be silent, where as nowadays there is a range of different techniques used such as dialogue and SFX. In 1925 phantom of the opera was made which had the actor Lon Chaney as the main actor. Lon Chaney was a huge star of this age and changed horror in a way that no one else has. Chaney changed the way that horror used effects like makeup to change the viewing experience for the audience, he was the first person to use this kind of extent of makeup; after this it became more frequent for horrors to use makeup as part of the effect. it is thought that because Lon Chaney had such an attachment to this film his ghost is in the universal studio in paris where this film was shot, this studio has now been used to shoot the new muppets film (november - 2011). Phantom of the opera was shot by universal studios who are renowned for their horrors, their films are normally high-end with a high budget to work with. In 1927 the first ever film with sound was introduced to the production line which marked the end of the silent era. Universal studios started to use the conveyer belt effect, this being that the same actors and production crew are used, this was due to the depression which changed studio effects in 1929. Actors such as Lon chaney took out contracts with studios to secure a job so that they had an income, even though they were on less money than before they didn't care due to the fact they needed an income to survive. the productions were scaled down because of the depression so the universal studio decided that because of the money from previous horrors that they got was so grand they decided that they would stick with what they know and just produce horrors until the depression had ended.

In the early 1930's Dracula was released; starring Bela Lugosi a hungarian actor who due to his accent was very limited to his work as there was very little people that wanted a foreign actor as the lead role. it was directed by James Whale who made the genre of horror blossom past the early conventions of horror to be more shocking. This film was the first film that had dialogue all the way through which marked another point in the stage of development in the film industry. like most horrors of this age the lighting was very low key which meant there was more shadows which made a better atmosphere within the film which gave the film an eery feel to it which effected the audience due to the feeling you get watching a low key lighted film. it was seen that the having Bela Lugosi, the sounds within this particular dracula film, the supernatural aspect and the lighting was the ideal horror film. Due to the age that it was made they were not allowed to include things like blood or fangs within the production, it had to be through suggestion and imagination otherwise the Hays office would step in and make them cut it out. they hays office are a censorship organisation which made sure that nothing that was to this extent was published to the public eye via cinema. there was a massive uproar with the hays office when the horror genre started to move forward due to the way that there was more and more blood as time progressed. The hays office didn't want the public to see any of this as it was seen as too graphic at this age, and they didn't want to shock the audience.

in 1948 another dracula film was released starring Bela Lugosi again. this time there was less censorship due to the hays office slowly allowing more things onto the production. this film showed a man jumping off a balcony and a women thrown out of a window, which although didnt push boundries alot it still pushed it slightly.

In 1951 Lugosi was sent to do west end productions as his career was slowly ending. He played dracula with sheila Wynn costarring in the play. the reason his career was slowly ending was because he believed that he could keep the audience happy by keeping them scared which he believed would keep the audience intised, but in actual fact they liked a bit of laughter at times. when he didnt make it onto westend he retired and died 5 years after. Lugosi was buried in his dracula cape as he was so into being the character as the charater had become him. it is thought that both dracula and frankenstein have their own unique subgenre and fan base to horror.

The first Frankenstein movie was made in 1931 starring Borris Karloff as the monster; originally it was meant to be starring Bela Lugosi but instead was replaced by Karloff. For this age there was a high sense of stylistic elements which helped towards the conventions of a horror. at the start of this film Universal studios pushed the boundries by having the high sense of necrophilism by the inventors taking such joy and love towards the making of a 'monster' out of dead peoples parts like arms legs etc. Borris Karloff added many different things into the film through childhood experiences that he had due to his difference in skin colour (indian in his blood). The makeup design that was used was also the most clever in this age of films. universal studios pushed the boundries abit too much to the point where they had to get rid of a scene in the original film due to the nature of the shock that it gave the audience of it. the scene that was made to be cut out was when the monster threw a young girl into the lake/river thinking that she would be able to float like the flowers they were throwing into the river. the audience of this film were shocked as it was seen as too boundary pushing for this time of films.

After Dracula, horror was now associated with the universal studios. Although universal studios were seen to have the best ways of building a horror warner bros. who where known for their gangster films made horrors in the present day rather than the past which broke traditions. 

In the early 1930's the film freaks was released. The film was seen as an outrage as it had a mixture of many different features which was not seen as normal. One of these key features is the fact that they used people with down sindrome and people with dwafism, which wasnt seen as normal in any way back then this was where the name Freaks came from as they were seen as freaks not people. Aswell as this, there are many key features of sexual harrassment within the film which also contributed to the outrage produced by this film.



In 1933 the first technocolour film was produced, this was done in the film wax museum, although it was not avery memorable film, and the monster was not as memorable as the monster in frankenstien and dracula, it was a still a film that changed horror and films for the better as colour was slowly being added to the films produced after this film was released. the use of mysterious killings and sillouhettes were added into films round this time due to the effect thst it seemed to create on the audience. for example in the bride of Frankenstein directed by James Whale in 1935 used these ways as it didnt push the boundaries as much as it would if the killings were shown within the camera shot.

In 1942 the film 'the cat people' was released. it was produced by RKO studios, directed by Jacques Tourneur. the concept of this film was that there was a cursed women who turned into a panther when caught in jealousy and sex moments. the film used  many different effects to make the film stand out, one of these being the looton bus effect used; a looton bus effect is where a tense moment is built up and then something small happens that it unthreatening which makes the audience jump, then the real type of scare comes along and scares them further. this effect was used in many films and still gets used in a few films today as it is an effective way to get the audience scared.

Borris Karloff was a huge actor in the old days of horror which was proved in many different ways. One of these was that he was on more than 2 different postage stamps which was more than the president, this proved that he was a very popular actor who everyone enjoying to watch as he was very famous.

Bray studios made hammer films which started in 1934 but then stopped due to the war, Hammer films then made its way back to Tv post-war. In 1958 hammer films made the film dracula staring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (dracula), which was written by Jimmy sankster; He changed the script to fit better. For this particular dracula film it had a production cost which cost 70x more than the original dracula made in 1930. The Premiere for dracula was in NewYork. This turned out to be the first mainstream film to include fangs and dripping blood shown within the shots used within production, there was also a high sense of sexual references within the film when dracula lies her on the bed to bite her; this still troubled the censors in this time as it was still seen as shocking, hammar decided to improvise with the censorship office (hays office) to just cut out the bit where dracula bites her. This particular Dracula became an international hit. Horror was reborn after the war in what was described as the 'horror boom'. and soon made it onto the tele in 1970's.

the curse of frankenstein was released in 1957; Hammer Films. this frankenstein film starred Peter Cushing; who now is remembered in a museum. This was the Last frankenstein film to be released as it turned out to be a failure compared to the other frankenstein films that have been created. Due to the monster in the first frankenstein being killed, it was hard for the script writer to make a sequel to carry it on due to the monster already being dead, so they tried their hardest to make it seem realistic that the monster had come back to life or never died in the first place. English conventions shone through in most hammar films, leaving hammar responsible for the english way of horror.

Black sunday was released in 1960; starring barbara steele. Barbara steele wa starring as the witch that got killed, the use of makeup used with barabara steele was seen as almosrt real, and therefore had a high sort of impact on the audience as it seemed real. Black sunday was unfluenced by Dracula because of the sexual references and the gore used, which then had a high impact on black sunday as it was portayed in a stronger fashion.

 

Hammar studios went downhill after becoming more interested in sexual
reference rather than fear horror and action, which meant that they wouldnt last long if they didnt change their way of creating films. 

In 1960 The film psycho was released; directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock focused on many things, like phobias such as fear of birds and certain issues like the issues that most men have with t heir mother. He did this to make the veiwer feel uncomfortable with the issues that he put forward on the films. hitchcocks films always seemed to break the rules and conventions of normal horror films, this is due to the way in which he makes the final girl be killed very early on in the film. the use of confined spaces in the toilet scene where the camera is on a high angled makes the audience more weary of the film as it was seen as an outrage as it was not seen as the norm in them days to have a bathroom within a film.

In 1973 the film the Exorcist was released by warner bros. This was directed by William Friedkin, starring Linda Blair as the young child. This film was seen as a supernatural horrorm due to the nature of the narrative. the fact that there was a young child possessed by the devil in this narrative scared some of the public due to how it fit in with their beliefs.

In 1975 Shivers was released; directed by david Cronenburg. This film focused on the sexual references whilst the killing commensed, making a very unique audience. the idea of parasites crawling into the body and inducing the sexual erges out of people scared the public due to the way that they probally then thought that if they have this sort of feeling that they will be infected. The audience of this time watching in facination and fear of this film as it brought out the characters sexual erges it made the veiwers uncomfortable.

Halloween was released in 1978; directed by John Carpenter. the film had a high content of empty streets under suvalience which is to be expected within the slasher genre. Like hitchcock, carpenter followed the use of confined spaces to make the audience feel on edge which is also there to make sure that the audience picks up on some sort of fear or phobia of confined spaces; the closet scene. this film had a very low budget and therefore didnt have as much technical equipment or props to help make the effect that halloween is made to do. nowadays the streets in which this film was filmed on is now used as a tourism spot where people can see the different locations of the film in person with the effect of the film.

To conclude, their are many different ways that the horror genre has changed over the years, from silent black and white to not so silent colour films. there is also more blood and gore than what there used to be which shows that horror has evolved alot over the past 100years.