The Death of the Horror Film

The horror film is not what it used to be. Over the years what made the horror film so great has been diluted and the art form has been cinematically devalued. Horror films were at their peak in the 60's and 70's. With the genre firmly established both in Hollywood and Britain, it evolved from the camp and kitsch pictures of the ‘Universal’ and ‘Hammer’ days to explore subject matter much darker and more harrowing. The films being produced throughout the 60's were in a different league to those that came before it, not to take away from the many classic horror films of the 40's and 50's, but by the 60's Horror was no longer seen as a low form of art, cheaply made to titillate the masses with camp overtones and bad make up. No, in the 1960's Horror films had become a true art, the quality of film making in the genre was unmatched by any other and the worlds greatest filmmakers, from Hitchcock to Kubrick, were beginning to embrace the genre. Horror was in the apex of its cinematic history, but it wouldn’t last long, once again the kitsch and camp would come.

In the 1960's the Horror film was not looked at as inferior to Drama films as it is today. There was no differentiation between a film like ‘The Graduate’ or ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, they had the exact same cinematic value. It hadn’t always been the case though, throughout the 40's and 50's Horror was, like today, regarded as a lower form of art, it was exploitation cinema made for a particular type of audience who wanted to see that type of thing. The films were usually bad, cheaply produced, poorly acted and directed by two bit directors. That is broadly speaking of course, there were plenty of great horror titles throughout this period, the ‘Universal’ pictures were masterful as were the early entries from ‘Hammer’, but overall this was not the case.

All of that changed in 1960 when Alfred Hitchcock made ‘Psycho’. Suddenly every filmmaker wanted to make horror pictures, where before it had been seen as box office poison. The emergence of great directors beginning to make horror films led to some of the greatest films of all time. That is where things differ now, if you are a director now and you make a horror film, that will stay with you for your entire career. It is very hard to make a horror film in the 21^st century and then continue to make other genre films successfully. Once you have made a horror film you are known as a Horror director, James Wan and Rob Zombie have this problem, it pretty much killed M. Night Shyamalan’s career. That wasn’t the case in the 60's, there wasn’t such a grand divide between genres, and the reason for this was because the films themselves didn’t define themselves with such imagery and iconography. Modern horror films all look the same, they all have the identical grungy, dark cinematography, the ominous score, everything is dark and shadowy, the poster is identical to all the others, covered in blood splats with a tacky font.

Not in the 60s. Horror films emerged from the thriller genre as opposed to continuing the conventional gothic influences of ‘Nosferatu’ and ‘Dracula’. Films like ‘Psycho’ and ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ were thrillers, steeped in drama and suspense. These films were dealing with subject matter untouched in the studio system, mainly Satanism and the Occult, with a predilection for subversive sexual overtones. The eroticism that Horror has always evoked was still there but it was subversive and subtextual, buried underneath the atmosphere conjured by such great filmmaking. Atmosphere was everything, suspense was paramount and everything was subtextual and never explicit. Most films were carried by theme over plot, the art was to conjure the right atmosphere, not show loud jumpy scares one after the other to no effect or ultimate conclusion. The horror film was slow burning, the narrative usually followed somebodies descent into madness. Now the horror film doesn’t conjure any atmosphere and suspense is dead to modern cinema, it is just ‘bussing’ in every scene, 2D characters in a 2D plot, ultimately there is a grand revelation that is never as clever as the studio thinks it is, and everyone dies, lots of blood, lots of loud, gaudy film making, back to the schlock tactics of yesteryear.

The main factor that has contributed to Horror films regaining their place as a low art form, cheap and exploitative for mass consumption, is the fact that the star value has all but gone. Modern Horror films never have a star laden cast or crew, they are churned out by the studios desperate to make the next ‘Saw’ or 'Paranormal Activity’, eager to find a franchise rather than a truly great stand alone film that will last forever. Throughout the 60's and 70's horror films were a star-studded affair. The cast and the crew were equally matched. The films were made by great auteurs like Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski, Alfred Hitchcock and Brian De Palma. The films were masterfully made, every detail from the score, the production design, costume, editing, screenplays, directing and performances were all delivered on a masterful level. All of these things are absent from modern Horror films; they are not necessary to secure a film being financially successful, a film like ‘Paranormal Activity’ was made for $20,000 and went on to gross $30 million, it is interesting that in a generation more obsessed with celebrity than ever before, star quality is not needed to sell a movie the way it was back in the day.

Horror films were not only at their best within the genre during this period; the genre was producing some of the greatest films of all time. Films such as: ‘The Exorcist’, ‘The Shining’, ‘The Omen’ and ‘Carrie’ revolutionized the genre. Although today they would probably all be seen as thrillers, they set the bar so high for horror films that they have always fallen short ever since. ‘The Shining’ is probably the greatest Horror film of all time and is always regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest directors of all time, starring Jack Nicholson in one of his greatest performances of all time, it is a masterpiece. Every aspect of the film is delivered with such care and meticulous attention to detail, it defines the potential that the horror film has, and proves that the genre is not inferior to any other. The film is never explicit or pat, it builds on its tone and atmosphere until it boils over, that is where the horror lies, in that suspense and tension. All of the directors making Horror films during this period were never pigeon holed in the genre, Kubrick who had already made Science fiction, Comedy, Drama and Sexual thrillers, would go on to make war films, and never lose his credibility, remaining one the greatest until his dying day. Brian De Palma would go on to make ‘Scarface’ that would eclipse ‘Carrie’ entirely. These filmmakers were not defined by the genre, it was not - at the time - seen the way it is now, it was a true masterful genre that demanded the greatest artistry and film making talent to explore such dark and disturbing subject matter.

The 80's has everything to answer for. Cinema in the 80's shifted its primary demographic and for the first time was speaking to a new audience: the youth. Young people, predominantly teenagers, were being represented in film where before they never had. Most of the films produced in the 80's were made for and marketed towards young people, the protagonists of films were becoming younger and so were cinema audiences. This dramatic shift in trend had an enormous effect on Horror films. As the late 70's blood soaked, X rated, ‘video nasties’ bled into the new decade, they soon became what would be known as the ‘slasher’ genre. ‘Slasher’ films changed horror forever, the genre was now a young persons game, and all horror films since have been so. Great films such as: ‘Halloween’ and ‘The Evil Dead’ begat the campier slasher titles like ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, and ‘Friday the 13^th’ that would dominate Horror for the entire decade and define the Horror experience for the MTV generation. This would evolve again in the 90's into the ‘Scream’ franchise and teen-horror cash-ins that would lampoon the ‘slasher’ genre and continue to do so throughout the 00's into modern day, the genre continuingly meeting the demands of younger and younger audiences. It is the shift in audience that has led to the devaluation of the Horror film, the demand for great artistry is not met as it is not demanded, the audiences don’t care for great cinema, they just want cheap thrills, loud jumps, PG-13, safe filmmaking, never daring or bold; camp and kitsch, as the evolution of the genre comes full circle.