Terra Ciolfe
I don't like the dark. There - I said it. I don't like zombies, ghosts, wolf men, serial killers or psychopaths for that matter either.
I'm kind of a baby, one might say. Call me crazy if you wish, but I do not like being scared and have never really grasped the concept of why people would enjoy experiencing such a tumultuous emotion.
Maybe I had a bad experience as a child, something that I don't remember, but nonetheless has left a scar on my psyche which I have not been able to get over.
While I adore Halloween and most of what it stands for, I am not very good at keeping my cool when it comes to those 'scary' aspects of the holiday, but this time of year I find them hard to avoid. Whether it be through the mental revival of those ghost stories that were heard in my childhood, or the plenitude of horror movies on TV this time of year, try as I might to avoid them, sometimes it just seems impossible.
Suffice to say, I am not very well versed in the films of the horror genre, which may have something to do with my overall fascination of people's obsession with them. I have never seen Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or Scream. I haven't even seen Scary Movie.
However, I can appreciate people's love for them and the cult-like nature of the fan followings that they tend to produce.
A little history ...
"The horror film genre is one of the few genres that have been around since the beginning of cinema," said Barry Grant, a professor in the Popular Culture department at Brock.
"The genre has really been around forever, but just replaced older forms of horror, whether it was folk tales, short stories, print or just oral discussion around the campfire scaring the kids at night."
While the genre may have been around for a long time, the horror film industry has experienced many changes since its beginnings. Earlier films rarely seemed to emphasize blood, gore or violence, instead opting for the creation - or reinvigoration - of different types of creatures, monsters or mad scientists - unlike the horror films industry today, which seems to be continually getting gorier.
Classic novels started being created on film. The first version of Frankenstein was made in 1910.
"Already in the 1920s, the end of the silent era in Germany, there was a whole tradition of German horror films; German expressionist cinema," said Grant.
The first version of Dracula is from Germany, which was created in 1922, called Nosferatu. This newly formed film genre began to have a strong influence on American cinema because after the rise of Hitler and his beginnings of power in Germany, many German film makers came to the US and continued the genre.
"They integrated into the American film industry and their influence was manifested in the 1930s, in the whole cycle of horror films that Universal Studios made; Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, and all the sons and daughters of them and so on," said Grant.
"Those films were extraordinarily popular in North America in the 1930s and they made Universal into a major studio."
As the horror film industry started to progress, it started to reflect the fears of many that were culturally specific and mirrored specific moments in time.
In the 1950s, with the introduction of certain technological advances and the nuclear era, films started to include creatures and the potential side effects of atomic mutation. The 1970s and 1980s created films that were about our ecological concerns.
"Now I think the tendency will move towards films about computer technology," said Grant, pointing out new movies such as Gamer and Surrogates.
"This is a new technology and we are not sure about it yet, so it raises social concerns," he said.
"I think a lot of horror films have also been about gender roles, because the cultural conception of gender has undergone so many changes in the last decade.
So what is it about horror?
"This has been a topic of scholarly debate for years, honestly," said Grant. "So it is kind of hard to summarize it."
However, Grant attempted anyway. He stated that on the one hand, there have been arguments that, because of the narrative formulas in the films, the villain usually stalks young people - predominantly women - and since the camera is usually in the position of the killer, "you could argue that these films are like the articulation of male power or male anger towards women, so that we take the place of the killer," he said.
He also noted critics who argue - on the other hand - that it is also usually only a woman that survives at the end. Therefore, the audience not only identifies with the killer, but with the female role as well.
"This is an on-going debate, there really is no simple answer, but I think the dynamics are uch that you can relate to both," he said. "You can have your cake and eat it too".
We can live vicariously through the violence in these films, but still identify with the person who defeats the monster - or whatever it may be - in the end.
"I think all genre films but certainly genre films like horror suggest that, on the one hand, we are social beings and we have to abide by certain rules, but we like to vicariously transgress those rules," he said.
Using football as an analogy, he emphasizes his point by saying that there are all types of ground rules for being violent, but once the whistle is blown, we know it is time to stop. It is a form of sanctioned violence for the players, and for the spectators of the sport, they are able to live vicariously through the players.
"Many [horror films] grew a cult following just because they have something gross in them. So you can feel like you are transcending the borders of good taste and standing apart from the mass taste," said Grant.
"On the other hand, most of those films usually tend to end up endorsing dominant values anyway. They are transgressive and they are safe at the same time, so to appeal to everybody."
Despite your conception of human nature, it is hard to deny that there are common fears that are inherent within all of us. We all have fears and anxieties about out identities, consciousness, sexuality, bodies and death - just to name a few.
"They have to appeal to a broad audience, which means that they are going to try to speak to the anxieties that reach the largest denominations of people at any given moment [...] no matter where they come from," said Grant.
Before videos and DVDs, if you enjoyed a movie and wanted to watch it, you had to go to the cinema or you had to wait for it to come onto the television - something which is hard to conceptualize in the present day with the increasing accessibility of the movie industry.
However, at this time, in regards to horror movies, exhibitors and owners of movie theatres realized that there was an audience behind a certain film, but they tended to be younger and were not a mainstream audience.
"Some exhibitors got the idea to show some of these films at midnight, which basically went against all the ideas of prime time programming and evening programming in cinemas," said Grant. "It was a big success."
The first midnight movie was Night of the Living Dead and set the trend for other theatres and other midnight horror movie showings.
"[The Rocky Horror Picture Show] has many of those horror film elements in it," said Grant.
While The Rocky Horror Picture Show is not a traditional horror movie, it does transcend the boundaries of good taste and the dominant morality of society - especially when the movie originally came into theatres in 1975. However, instead of appealing to some sort of conventional fear, it transgresses the conservative appearance of sexuality. Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the 'sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania', presents an attitude that is directly opposite to the dominant heterosexual, monogamous values of Western culture, represented by the film's characters, Janet and Brad.
"People like to get dressed up. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is all about drag. I think it is an excuse for people to dress up and it ties in with Halloween because of the whole costume aspects. It is kind of ready-made for Halloween," said Grant.
While The Rocky Horror Picture Show was not originally intended to become the Halloween movie that it is today, many theatres had their midnight runs for years. Certain people started coming again and developed a cult following of the film, creating rituals of responding to people on the screen, mimicking the dance moves, or throwing rice, toilet paper or toast at the screen.
"It hasn't really happened with another film to the same degree," said Grant.
"It was definitely a unique phenomenon. I think toward the end of it, people could get videos, they can now get DVDs [or] download movies on their computer, so the cult following tends to get atomized a bit more. They don't have to all go to it at the same time; they can just watch it at home. I think that is why no film will ever duplicate The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and its interactivity. We just don't have those kinds of screenings anymore."
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