The Development of The British Horror Genre from the Success of Hammer Productions to Now

Hammer Horror Productions became successful in the horror genre in 1955 with their film Quatermass Xperiment. This was their gateway into the horror genre. After the success of Quatermass Xperiment, Hammer Horror made The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957. Hammer Horror made 5 horror film series in total as the first film in each series was received so highly. They are Quatermass Trilogy, Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy film series’ and Karnstein trilogy.

  

Hammer Horror were successful from 1955 to 1976 when their last horror film was released. However, in 2008 Hammer Horror was revived and it has released horror films like The Woman in Black, Wakewood and Let Me In.

The themes of horror films have also changed overtime.

1950s – There were more apocalyptic and end of the world films that linked to social threats and historical events in the world. One major event was World War 2 which most people having lived through it would fine scary. Common themes were disfigurement, threats from science to the natural world and mutation.

 

1960s – Started to see more movies in colour which meant that they could use better special effects for a scarier film. The 1960s saw the upsurge of slasher and psychological horror films, which used everyday settings like houses to make them feel unsafe in a normally safe place. Common themes were hidden evil, inhuman beings and females were most often than not the victims.

1970s – There were more possession films carrying over from the 1960s. Young people were portrayed in demonic ways to play on the fears of youth and the fact children are seen as innocent. Common themes included ‘The Other, demonic beings (often children) and anti-religious violence.

    

1980s – Slasher films came back into popularity with more violence included and more realistic gore due to the special effects’ developments. There was a decline in horror films about religions and religious beliefs. Common themes were vampires, paranoia and ‘The Other’.

1990s – In the 90s, psychological films were very popular and the fear of the government was replaced by friends and colleagues. The 90s brought with it, better methods of distribution and promotion of films which led to more self-made and self-produced films to be made. The sub-genre, comedy horror, was born as well as films that included things from outside the social norm and life after death whilst vampire films remained popular from the 1980s. Common themes were victim POVs, the unknown and vampires.

 

2000s – Further developments in special effects led to more extreme plot lines and gore. The sub-genre torture porn, an extreme-gory set of films whose intent are to disgust, were result of this. Gothic films relating to social concerns and non-western lifestyles became very popular as well as everyday threats e.g. paedos, serial killers and the mentally unstable. Common themes were found footage, trapping and isolation.

      

2010s – Remakes are hugely popular in the 2010s. Lots of original horror films from the classic era are being remade. They are made gorier than the original to appeal to audiences now. Common themes are monsters, evil beings, gore and ‘The Other’.

Carol J. Clover’s Final Girl theory suggests that there is more often than not a female character left at the end of the film that defeats/survives against the villain and/or monster.

Common Traits of a ‘Final Girl’ are:

Virginal – The final girl is most commonly a virgin or is stated out to be one. This is to play on the whole innocent and pure type of girl. This is also because in some films there are whole storylines to do with virgin sacrifices.

Smart and Strong - The final girl is always very smart and strong which helps her to defeat the villain in the end.

Feminine – Portrayed as quite the girly girl in the beginning but they then go on to defeat the villain which isn’t a girly trait.

German Expressionism

German Expressionism is a style of cinema, that used atmospheric lighting, strange camera angles and shadows, that dominated around the time of World War 1. It was widely popular, with German cinema becoming a highly watched cinema in Europe and the world, that many German production companies bringing out several films’ weeks apart. German Expressionism films often used the theme of mentally unstable characters and like to differ from realism.

Techniques and Mise-en-scene used:

Shadows: Shadows were used a lot in German Expressionist films. They liked to use atmospheric lighting which fits in with shadows. Shadows give the audience an outline of the character or object without giving away key features so allows for a bit of mystery. It also allows the story to play through as the audience is seeing what another character is seeing, almost like seeing it through their point of view.

Diagonal Lines/camera angles: The use of diagonal lines is to give an artistic flair to the film that the director would have wanted. Camera angles like tilting would give the audience a different view of the scene that they wouldn’t normally get so they are drawn in. Another example would be high angles. Commonly high angles are used in films to denote the power a character owns e.g. the camera looking up would denote that they are powerful and the camera looking down on them would show them as being weak and submissive.

Makeup: The makeup used/worn in expressionist films was very theatrical and elaborate. Due to the time period, these films were shot in black and white so the emphasis of the makeup wasn’t colour. They wore heavy makeup to distinguish the character as their own unique self. Costumes were also very theatrical and bold. Both Makeup and Costumes in German Expressionist films helped to show that these films were not part of realism.

 

Examples:

Nosferatu

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

German Expression films inspired directors in Hollywood and aspects of expressionism are used in them. For example, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho uses elements of shadows and the mentally unstable.

Tim Burton still uses elements of German Expressionism in his films now. An example is Edward Scissorhands as having scissors instead of hands isn't realistic and shadows are used to define the differences in how and where Edward and the townspeople live

New Zealand Cinema

New Zealand being across the world is a very small and isolated place. It has a population of 4.8 million. The New Zealand Film Commission was set up in 1978 and provided financial support to New Zealand’s film industry. This produced immediate results as it led to two films being entered in the Cannes film festival in 1980. More finance was brought into the industry via tax loopholes and it enabled 14 films to be in production in 1984. However, when the loophole closed this number rapidly declined to just 5 a year. New Zealand was forced to acquire a new and more complex cultural identity than the one inherited from Britain due to immigration from Asia. Goodbye Pork Pie was the first New Zealand film to recover the costs spent making it in the market.

Lord of the Rings made use of the New Zealand scenery and landscapes and gave New Zealand worldwide familiarity. The scenic landscapes were turned into places from the book such as Shire and Mordor.

Hobbiton is a tourist attraction in New Zealand and consists of the set of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Fans of the movie can get tours around the set.

Peter Jackson is a New Zealand born director, screenwriter and producer. He is well known for writing, directing and producing The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

Bridge to Terabithia and The Lovely Bones are both shot in New Zealand. The look and aesthetic of Terabithia is a reflection of New Zealand and how nice the scenery is. 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Once were Warriors are both New Zealand films. Hunt for the Wilderpeople is an adventure comedy film about a man and boy, who end up having a manhunt after them, and the development of their relationship are the man’s wife dies. Once Were Warriors is a drama film that deals with issues like poverty, domestic abuse and alcoholism as well as characters struggling to reconnect with the culture of their people. Both films show different sides, both culturally and physically, of New Zealand but show the importance of family too.

 

Women in Hollywood

Traditionally women had roles in ‘feminine’ areas of film, for example, costume & makeup. There was limited involvement behind camera, however that all started to change in the 1970s. In her women’s survey, Christina Lane writes about women who have made the change from independent to mainstream directing. She writes ‘Before the 1970s, when access to commercial production opened up slightly, women had only two avenues for becoming Hollywood directors: as film actresses or as secretaries/production assistants who worked their way up through the ranks of the system. Only recently have women been hired as directors on the basis of their independent films’

E. Ann Kaplan talks about the four phases in women’s film history in Women in Film: Both sides of the camera. They are:

Up to the 1930s → Women pioneers

1930-1960 → Silencing of women

1960-1990 → White women become more dominant in the US

1990 – present → Growing multiculturalism in women’s cinema

The film industry, including Hollywood, has grown which has led to a rise in female filmmakers. Leslie Felperin wrote in Women Directors (Sight & Sound Special edition):

‘things are basically getting better, albeit slowly. In the film industry, there are more women producers, agents and publicists than there ever used to be – perhaps because women are supposed to be better at “people management”, a crucial skill for these jobs – and many more women screenwriters. The traditionally male-dominated technical fields such as cinematography, lighting and sound are slowly tipping towards a more even gender balance, while the proportion of women directors in the Director’s Guild of America, though only 10 per cent, still represents an improvement over the 1985 level of 4 per cent.’

Barbra Streisand is a perfect example of a woman achieving highly in Hollywood and successfully making the transition from being in a star role to director. Barbra Streisand’s career has spanned over six decades, starting on Broadway, she made her way to Hollywood. She has won Grammy’s, Emmy’s, Golden Globes and Oscars. Barbra Streisand was the first female director-star to gain Best Director nominations. From the film Yentl (1983), Barbra Streisand was the first women to direct, produce, co-write and star in a Hollywood film. She also sang all the songs for it.

Hollywood is also well known for its Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Hollywood Walk of Fame is based in Los Angeles, California and consists of over 2600 stars embedded into the pavement with celebrities’ names. Of all the stars 47% of them belong to the motion pictures category whilst less than 2% belong to theatre. 895 actors have a star, 492 males and 403 females. 

 

Women in films most often are sexualised and portrayed by men for men. Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory from her famous essay titled ‘Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema’ is the concept of men portraying/sexualising women for their pleasure. This is usually done by showing female characters naked, in their underwear or wearing provocative clothing. An example of this is Bridget Jones’ Diary. In multiple scenes the female characters are dressed in skimpy clothes e.g. Bridget wears see through blouses to work and in another scene, we see Lara sitting naked in the bathroom covered only with a folder.

And this isn’t just in romance comedies either, in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the famous shower scene includes Janet Leigh nude and on the film poster she is in her bra. In horror films, the women are often seen in skimpy clothes or naked.

John Berger states: