Films: the horror genre

The horror genre has been around for almost 100 years, making it a hugely popular genre of film. The horror genre has moved forward in many ways through the years of it's success. The Phantom of the Opera was one the first horror films made. Lon Chaney starred in this silent film, it was a huge success, partly due to Chaney's great performance and make up, which he he did all himself. He had a cast done of his own face made which he would practice different make up techniques on, he even wore a glass eye, which was incredibly uncomfortable for him. Universal studios is renowned for the production of horror films, this includes Phantom of the opera which they produced back in 1925.

Lon Chaney in Phantom of the Opera (with and with out make-up)

Actors would specialize in a certain genre, so there would be a certain group of actors that would be associated with horror, Lon Chaney being one of them. Also Bela Lugosi, who played Dracula in 1931, is an iconic actor of that time due to his role in this film.


(Bela Lugosi as Dracula)












In these older films, imagination had to be used a lot more due to the lack of technology. You wouldn't always see things the way that we can see things now, this is also due to the Hays office. The Hays office was in change of censoring films and would regulate the amount of gore, violence and sex in the films, they were extremely strict about what was shown. James Whale pushed the boundaries of the Hays office by producing a scene in Frankenstein where a child was killed on screen.














The son of Frankenstein was the first British horror film to be filmed in colour, the technology in horror films was moving forward, as were the shocking scenes. In this film was a scene where Frankenstein was shot in the eye, which was extremely gory at that time, the gushing red blood that followed was even more shocking for viewers as they hadn't seen gore like this in film before. Hammer Productions decided to re film Dracula after having such success with the re make of Frankenstein. This Dracula had also moved forward though, much to some peoples disapproval, it had a much more sexual nature to it, which was frowned upon. There was a particular scene in this film which was the Hays office did not like, this was a scene in which a lady is lay waiting for Dracula on her bed in a rather seductive manor, then Dracula walks over to her and kisses her face before biting into her neck as she falls to the bed. As much as this was seen as too sexual and not acceptable Hammer Productions disagreed and did not remove the scene from the film.

(Dracula with victim)
 

As the horror industry was modernising increasingly quickly, so was the technology. The film Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde screened a revolutionary scene in which a transition from male to female happens in one single shot. This is done by using different filters on the film as the male turns into female and it is a remarkable scene for the time.