Some History

Horror Before the Film

Historian David J. Skal argues that the American horror film primarily arises from two divergent sources:

Gothic literary traditions in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe

The rise of the carnival or freak show during those same epochs

Skal suggests that the American horror film is fueled by four primary icons:

“Dracula, the human vampire; the composite, walking-dead creation of Frankenstein; the werewolfish duality of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; and perhaps most disturbing, the freak from a nightmare sideshow.”

While these icons are among the best known, one might wish to add ghouls, ghosts, zombies, phantoms, creatures, serial killers, and witches.

Literary Horror

The Castle of Otranto (1764) establishes many of the Gothic novel’s central iconographic and thematic conceits:

Alleged (faux) authorship - trope that works to mediate or question the tale’s veracity

Central Gothic castle - space that mirrors the protagonists twisted and shadowy psyche

Strange supernatural goings-on - these commingle with family melodrama including murder, deceit, unwanted sexual advances made towards virginal heroines

The Gothic as later critics suggest, is often all about diseased or haunted domestic spaces “a sprt of supernatural queering of heteronormative expectations and rituals (Haggerty, 2006),” (210).

Slashers

Slasher films were the dominant subtype in the horror genre during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They became a regular mainstay of the "cineplex-centered American youth culture" (Benshoff). Slasher films became lodged in the cultural unconscious and continue to exert their influence over the horror genre.

The most notorious hallmark of slasher films was the graphic violence and gore.

"Lacking name actors, large production budgets, or complex plotlines, horror filmmakers instead relied on the tried-and-true shock value of graphically maiming the human body on screen, which made the slasher film even more disreputable among discerning critics (and more enticing to youthful audiences looking for a rebellious cinematic thrill),” (Benshoff 310).

Found Footage

After the slasher era dissipated, found footage horror films were on the rise. This era in the 2000s saw a proliferation of independent horror films. Found footage films seem to have supplanted torture porn as the dominant mode of horror in America (Benshoff). These films are built by suspense and anticipation, with very few moments that offer release.

Both trends (suspense and shock) share an emphatic focus on the display of the victims.

“One cannot help but feel that horror is no longer a cinema distinguished by its monsters but rather by its victims, that the privileged horrific spectacle is no longer based in monstrous physicality but in abject, wounded bodies,” (Benshoff 333).

The screaming victim is not new, but making them the focus and leaving the monster in the shadows is a new development for the genre.

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