Horror Movies: Then and Now

These days the emphasis is more on blood, gore and mass murder coupled with special effects. Indeed, even Vincent Price, one of the masters of horror, mentioned that he found this is a complete turn off. So let us look back at the shape of horror movies as they were and how they now are.

In the very early days of cinema in the thirties, the movies were all silent musicals so oblivious of any dialogues and totally dependant on the actors performances. Indeed, in some cinema halls, there were pianists and a mini-orchestra! In the break, the popcorn and drinks lady did her rounds as the lights came on softly during the interval. They were subjected to movies featuring Charles Ogle as the first Frankenstein Monster and Lon Chaney Snr as the origianal Phantom of the Opera. There was also The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Nosferatu with Max Von Shrek (still regarded by many fans as the best creepy of all time).all of which were silent movies. Later on, they were tinted to attract future audiences.

A few decades later, around the late forties, the first sound movies began to appear and one of the first sound movies was Freaks, which was banned as it used real circus freaks.Mystery of the Wax museum followed, in which Lionel Atwell plays the tragically burnt owner who was assumed burnt to death but driven mad, returned to take vengeance in a newly reconstruceted wax museum. This movie was unique that it had sound and was tinted, instead of colourised. Nonetheless, later on, it was declared lost! After a couple of decades an intact reel in a tin can was discovered in a foreign country and kindly returned to U.S.A, then re-leased and ultimately remade by Vincent Price in colour under the title House Of Wax. Recently a new version has been made featuring Paris Hilton. Most of the movies then were still low budget, for cinema standards, but again, the scripts were powerful and compensated for this. But this was the decade in which Universal Movies introduced us to classics like Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman and Mummy made stars out of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jnr and John Carradine. These began to slow down and ended in the late sixties. Incidentally, Henry Hull had first been selected to play the lead role on Werewolf Of London, playing a scientist in search of a Tibetan plant which cures his lycantrhopy called Marifasa Lupina, but refused to put on all the make-up that Make-up genius Val Pierce had painstakingly created. He had even promised Hull that this would make his monster a superstar but he declined and the movie badly flopped. Only when Lon Chaney Junior played Wolfman, the monster was an all time success. Also, Tob Tyler chilled audiences in The Mummy’s Hand in which he is brought to life using Tana juice from Tana leaves.

No sooner had Universal packed up when Hammer took over, adding a new leash of life. Fresh newcomers Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were pitted against one another in a re-working of Frankenstein, titled The Curse Of Frankenstein. The film Dracula was remade featuring the same pair. Both movies attracted a new decade of audiences and revived the horror movie to greater heights. Oliver Reed took the mantle as the werewolf in Curse of the Werewolf and Christoper Lee played the Mummy in which he walks with swamp water over bandages throughout the movie, once he is revivied. Three Hammer movies were apparantly banned for sometime, namely, Plague of the Zombies, The Cry of the Banshee and The Reptile as they disturbed cinema goers at the time. Hammer proved so popular that they were revived in the eighties as Horror Movie Shorts and wooed a new stream of viewers.But as time moved on, viewers demands changed, perhaps due to the violent society we now live in and so Hammer also faded out.

In the eighties, a new stream of Horror Movies appeared like An American Werewolf in London, The Howling and Wolfen. But none of these really took off, as had their counterparts. Although they proved a hit with audiences but their entertainment value did not have lasting power despite sequels being made. The Horror Movie had to take a fresh turn. And so, as our society turned more violent the demands also became more violent. People no longer wanted to see men running around in masks; they wanted to see blood and guts.

From the nineties to present, we have been subjected to Horror movies as raw as they get. All barriers were discarded and there was now an open invitation to be thrilled by such disturbing movies that included: The Hills Have Eyes, The Evil Dead, Rawhead Rex, The Night of The Demon and The Grudge. It appears that as we move on life, the violence we hear everyday on the news reflects on the Horror Movie, so whatever happens, one thing is for certain, the future of the Horror Movie is very much secure; that’s a fact.