Visions of the beast: the
changing shape of horror
movies
Geoff Lealand
Screen and Media Studies
University of Waikato
This presentation is aligned to…
NCEA Media Studies US
7468 Describe the history of a genre and
explore its present role in society
Or
NCEA Media Studies AS
90602 Explore the relationship between a
media genre and society
However lowly in the grand scheme,
horror films are best viewed as
unsavoury lab experiments on public
anxiety … measured by the degree to
which it evokes and probes the normally
secreted collective angst, in upsetting
images and disquieting concepts.
Michael Atkinson, Sight & Sound
Sept 2007, p. 56
The preceding quote …
Comes from a review of the film 1408,
released in 2007 and starring John Cusack
and Samuel L. Jackson as ‘the newest
launch from Stephen King Corp”.
The premise of the film is that Room 1408 at the Dolphin
Hotel in Manhattan is haunted by poltergeists and ghosts--
which may be manifestations of failed writer Mike
Enslin’s (Cusack) uncertain grasp on reality. The room
seems out to kill him. It is monstrous and horrific.
A hotel room …
Ought to be a safe and certain haven--’a home away
from home’? An anonymous refuge from the
unsettling C21st century world beyond the Do Not
Disturb sign?
Conversely, can hotel rooms also be places of secrets
and sin? A place for fantasies, beyond the public
or domestic gaze. Places where strangers meet,
secrets are exchanged, violence and horror
planned or executed (cf. Bates Motel on Psycho)?
Horror films as genre
…in horror films generally, the mechanism of
disruption, the monster, produces increasing
disorder until by its death a form of order is
finally restored…What a genre provides is
coherence.
R. Robertson, ‘The narrative sources of Ridley Scott’s Alien,
in Orr & Nicolson (1992)
Genre (generally)
Genre is what we collectively believe it
to be
Barry K. Grant
Genre films essentially ask the audience,
‘Do you still want to believe this?’
Leo Braudy
Horror (1)
Horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs
after something frightening is seen, heard or
otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets
after coming to an awful realisation or
experiencing a hideous revelation. wikipedia
[an experience as varied as seeing footage of
massacres in Rwanda, Saw II ... or the final
moments of the France vs New Zealand quarterfinal in the RWC?]
Horror (2)
Horror is any film that gives me
the willies. Willies is a very
technical term.
http://shoottheprojectionist.com/2007/09/31flicks-that-give-you-willies-more.htm
In 2007 …
• What horrifies us?
• Where do monsters lurk?
• How do films express or mirror our
fears and anxieties?
• Is horror, in horror films, something
different from what it used to be?
Three movie trailers (1)
The Invasion of the Body
Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsEw9b7HeUc
Frequently interpreted as an allegory for ‘Red scares’ and mass hysteria
generated by Joseph McCarthy in the USA in the early 1950s, and the
general social and political conformity which prevailed through those
years--when the majority of the population consented to a narrow set
of beliefs and values, which needed to be protected from external
threats (communism?)
Conversely (and less frequently), the pods are read as the ‘virus’ of
communism, taking over free will and individual identity (You’re
next!)
Three movie trailers (2)
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(1978, Philip Kaufman)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQTpVxCghXk&
mode=related&search=
Can be read as an allegory for the 1970s obsession with self-improvement and
self-help (a peculiarly American--or Californian--trait?). Leonard Nimoy (cf.
Spock) plays a popular self-help guru who initially dismisses fears about the
alien duplication, then endorses the invasion. The setting shifts from small
town California to San Francisco. There is a prevailing sense of post-Vietnam
War paranoia (anti-government fears; conspiracy theories), as well as an
inconclusive (pessimistic?) ending. The alien-pods are seen in their sticky,
horrific forms and they possess new powers eg shrill screams to alert others to
the presence of non-duplicated humans
You’ll never close your eyes again, Pauline Kael, renowned US film critic
Three movie trailers (3)
The Invasion (2007, Oliver
Hirschbiegel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOfXGrI26Eg
The latest re-make. A star vehicle for Nicole Kidman, who plays a psychiatrist (cf
female protagonist; Scientology). The story begins with a space shuttle crash;
the crash site is contaminated by alien microorganisms. In a rather confusing
narrative, the alien/humans are instrumental is stopping wars around the world
(Darfur Ceasefire). The central premise of the film appears to be: What makes
for a better world--one with war and independent thought, or a peaceful one
where everyone is part of single, unified mind-set?
The film has not be well-received by critics eg ..The Invasion ranks as one of the
most misguided and ultimately terrible genre films in years (www.bloodydisgusting.com/news/8824)
Horror or sci-fi?
Horror films should attempt to horrify their
audiences. If they don’t, they’re not horror…it’s
simply nonsense to claim that genres possess clear,
stable and identifiable boundaries. R. McInnes, ‘Genre
is dead--long live genre’, MediaMagazine no. 11 Feb 2005
The horror films aims at psychological effects; the
science fiction film at logical possibilities.
R. Soloman (1976), Beyond Formula: American Film Genres
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Is both horror and sci-fi (combinant or cross-genre
films).
There are sci-fi elements: the threat or contagion
(spores) from outer space
But
There are more numerous horror elements:
possession or de-humanisation; inexplicable horror;
people turning into zombies (monsters?);
allegories of larger, external anxieties?
These films illustrate changes
which are a consequence of …
• Changes in the nature of genre film (the
development of cross-genre or ‘hybrid’ genres;
more graphic SFX)
• Changes in expressions of representation eg
gender roles; the place of the individual in society
• Changes in social norms eg attitudes to the
portrayal of sex and violence
• Changes in the source of fictionalised horror (the
monster is now us?)
The Invasion of the Body
Snatchers…
Tapping into themes of individualism and conformity,
personal freedom and social control, the idea of
soulless ‘pod people’ has become an allencompassing metaphor that finds a sociopolitical
relevance whatever the period. The Invasion films
add up to a veritable catalog of anxieties that have
plagued the American psyche in the last halfcentury. D. Lim(2007), Same Old Aliens, but New Neuroses, New York
Times 12/8/07
Such a catalog of anxieties
Might well include:
new pandemics to terror threats to extreme
makeovers and genetic engineering (Lim, NYT)
Also
• threats to civil liberties and personal security
• environmental degradation and dwindling natural
resources (the end of life as we know it?)
• a world increasingly out of control (cyclones; the
melting polar ice caps)?
• the presence of real-life ‘monsters’ (racial
genocide, serial murderers, cannibals)?
finally
The nature of horror, in its fictional representations in
film and literature, has changed dramatically over
the decades. The ‘beast’ or ‘monster’ is no longer
tangible nor readily visible (such Frankenstein’s
Monster or Dracula were); they are now more
frequently invisible (a virus) or hidden (in some
cave, somewhere) or just plain ordinary (such as
the guy with shifty eyes sitting next to us on a
plane!) Nevertheless truly effective form of horror
still reflect our ambivalent or mixed feelings about
monsters--think of Hannibal Lector or Tony
Soprano!