Published: October 22, 2009 12:51 pm      

LIFESTYLE: Frighteningly good times in film

For nearly as long as there have been motion pictures, there have been people scaring themselves with said motion pictures.

But the horror film has come a long way since the two-minute French film “Le Manoir du Diable” (”The Devil’s Castle”) became the first scary movie in 1896. Movie-goers have seen vampires, wolfmen, zombies, monsters and thousands of gallons of fake blood over the century-plus during which horror films have been made.

Of course, not every scary movie has been made the same.

Horror’s early days

Many people consider the 1930s to be the beginning of the horror genre, but scary movies were around for decades prior to that. Most of these films were silent and short, including “Nachte des Grauens” (”Night of Terror”), the 1916 German film that was the first to feature a vampire. Alfred Hitchcock, in fact, got his start in these pre-talkie days, according to the AMC-run movie Web page filmsite.org, making “The Lodger” in 1926.

These early times also saw Frankenstein’s monster make its debut in “Edison’s Frankenstein,” a 1910 film made by Thomas Edison’s production company. And even those who abhor horror are familiar with the milky white apparition that is Max Schreck, who portrayed the titular vampire in the 1922 black-and-white classic “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror.”

In the 1930s, horror took off thanks to the machine that was Universal Studios. The production studio made Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff stars while scaring up screams from creatures of all sorts; Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the mummy, the Invisible Man and the Wolf Man all became prominent monsters then and in subsequent decades, as the studio decided to maximize those creatures’ earning power.

The worst of times

The second half of the 1930s saw a decline in the quality of horror films, according to filmsite.org, as those sequels proved far inferior to the originals. The genre continued to deteriorate when studios wanted to give film fans a laugh in the post-war days of the 1940s, as everyone from the Three Stooges to Abbott and Costello had some sort of run-in with a creepy creature.

“Many of the films in the horror genre from the mid-1930s to the late-1950s were B-grade movies, inferior sequels or atrocious low-budget gimmick films,” Tim Dirks, writer for filmsite.org, wrote in a synopsis of horror films. “In the atomic age of the 1950s, much was made of the modern effects of radioactivity exposure, toxic chemical spills, or other scientific accidents — such as the development of giant mutant monsters or carnivorous insects ... during that time, most of the monster horror films were cheaply made, drive-in, teenage-oriented, grade-Z films, such as ‘I Was a Teenage Werewolf’ (1957).”

There were exceptions, of course. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956) become an often-imitated classic that delved into social issues, while “House of Wax” (1953) offered quality frights while launching the career of Vincent Price, who made his acting debut in the movie about a museum curator who develops a creative method of disposing of his victims.

And then, a few years later, it all seemed to come together.

The best of times

Hitchcock became a household name after 1960, when he gave the world “Psycho.” The psychological thriller was dubbed “The ‘Citizen Kane’ of horror films” by Dirks and launched a decade of horror filmmaking that sought to change up how the scares were doled out.

“The turning point, in terms of contemporary horror, was ‘Psycho,’ ” said Elayne Rapping, a professor of American studies at the University at Buffalo and pop culture expert. “Hitchcock really revolutionized the genre, really making it scary, as though the audience was being attacked.”

A string of films that challenged the mind soon followed, including Hitchcock’s “The Birds” (1963), George Romero’s zombie debut “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) and “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968), which Rapping said helped establish how a filmmaker could use the unseen to create frightening moments.

“There’s something really horrifying about Mia Farrow ... you don’t even see the kid,” Rapping said about the film, which saw Farrow star as a woman who becomes pregnant with a demon child and is forced to raise him. “That made it scarier ... The ones that actually scare you go to a level, not just a level of sweating, but to a level of playing into primal fears.”

Blood, blood everywhere

The disco era also saw filmmakers strive to push the limits of the horror genre, as gratuitous blood and violence became a more frequent occurrence. Wes Craven got his start by exploiting the appeal of bleeding corpses with his early films, including “Last House on the Left” (1972) and “The Hills Have Eyes” (1977). “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974) further shocked movie fans by displaying the gruesome details of a deranged family that got too much joy from dismemberment, while “Halloween” (1978) gave birth to the “slasher flick” by birthing the knife-wielding mental patient Michael Myers into pop culture.

“ ’Halloween’ is the beginning of the downgrade of horror films,” Rapping said. “A lot of them (now) are just gruesome for gruesome’s sake. If you keep trying to push the envelope further, at a certain point you push it too far.”

“Halloween” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984) drew at least moderate praise among contemporary horror fans, but the incessant string of sequels — as well as countless remakes of past films — only diluted the quality of the genre.

Yet when Hollywood built it, they came.

There’s a reason that movie executives saw fit to create eight (and counting) “Nightmare on Elm Street” films, 12 (and counting) “Friday the 13th” films and 10 (and counting) “Halloween” films, according to David Schmid, a UB cultural analyst.

"The thrill and horror evoked by murder narratives bring us close to these ‘others' who hold us in their thrall because on the one hand, they are so like us, and on the other, so different,” he said. “We fetishize the lives of celebrities and shopping is a national sport, but most of us are unfamiliar with the fact that throughout our history, Americans have consumed murder on a grand scale. It is a diversion that is familiar and comfortable to us.”

Horror or porn?

Modern horror certainly satisfies that blood lust, as the “Saw” franchise, “The Descent” and the “Hostel” films are among the 21st century offerings that are heavy on severed limbs and disembowelments. Modern remakes also tend to replace plot and tension with blood and guts, something that today’s audiences — which skewer younger — seem to want, Rapping said.

“My students today, if you show them ‘Psycho,’ they’ll say it’s corny or laughable. They don’t have the attention span to think about things,” she said. “Mainstream horror now is just a lot of gore and blood and guts.”

Indeed, the “Saw” franchise — which launched a sixth chapter this past weekend — is the highest-grossing horror franchise ever. But that’s not to say intellectual scares are as dead as Freddy Krueger’s latest victim. Recent thrillers such as “The Ring” (2002) and “The Sixth Sense” (1999) allow the mind to imagine what’s happening rather than splattering the results all over the bedroom wall.

And then there is the resurgence of vampires. Bram Stoker’s character Dracula alone has been represented 160 times in films (as noted in the Guinness Book of World Records), but recent non-Dracula vampire accounts such as the “Twilight” series add a romantic twist to the undead beings.

“Vampires make things more titillating, scary and dangerous,” Rapping said. “It makes human relationships seem much more terrifying.”

Vampires remained dormant for some time prior to this 21st century reawakening, but that not unusual in the horror genre, Rapping said. Ideas come back when society calls for them, she said.

“Something will be recycled ... when current feelings and attitudes about certain things just make them more relevant than they were before,” she said.

So why horror?

Despite her previously written comments, Rapping was quick to add that she does not consider the horror genre to be “trashy.”

But why do people continue to turn out for horror films? Emma Westwood, a writer for fangoria.com, put it thusly:

“When I watch movies, I want to be moved. I want to look at the world in a different way ... For me, no other cinema does this quite like horror cinema ... Horror can make you feel grateful for what’s good in life. Horror can make you front up to injustice and immorality. Horror can not only be horrifying but incredibly beautiful in terms of cinematography, art direction and the creation of moods and atmosphere.

“In this generation overwhelmed with imagery and images, it’s not that easy to move people or effect a response that stays with them well after the cinema experience. Good horror is one of those rare art forms that can do this.”

Rapping was more succinct: “It’s like going on a roller coaster. You’re scared, and then you’re relieved by being OK.”

Contact Paul Laneat 693-1000, ext. 116.