Jørgen Riber Christensen
Related: film criticism - horror films
Text below sourced with permission at http://www.hum.aau.dk/~riber/HorrorFilm.htm. Copyright Jørgen Riber Christensen
Biography
Jørgen Riber Christensen is a Danish professor.The History of Horror Film
Gothic Horror: 1910-1930
The films deal with deformed creatures and monsters,
which roam non-naturalistic surroundings. The supernatural. Influenced by expressionism
in painting. Germany. Silent films.
Stellan Rye, The Student from Prague,
1913.
Paul Wegener, The Golem, 1920.
Robert Wiene, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1919.
F.W. Murnau, Nosferatu, 1922.
Monster terror: 1930-1940s
The commercial breakthrough of the genre in Hollywood. The Universal
Studios. Sound. The mad scientist, who releases forces he cannot control. The
Freudian division of the mind into the Id and the Super ego. Individual destinies.
The classics from the 30s were later parodied, and also re-used in
the explicitly violent Hammer films.
Tod Browning, Dracula, 1931.
James Whale, Frankenstein, 1931.
Karl Freund, The Mummy, 1932.
Cooper and Schoedsack, King Kong,
1933.
Robert Mamoulian, Doctor Jekyll and Mr
Hyde, 1932.
Techno horror: 1950s
A whole society is threatened by an external threat. The cold war and
the nuclear threat inspired to invasions from space or attacks from mutated
species. Science fiction. Low quality. 3-D.
Don Siegel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
1956.
Gordon Douglas, Them, 1954.
Jack Arnold, The Incredible Shrinking Man, 1957.
Jack Arnold, The Creature from the Black
Lagoon, 1954.
The
psychological thriller:
1960s
Realism which is characterized by mentally disturbed main characters.
Sexual themes. No longer good vs. evil, but healthy vs. sick.
Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho, 1960.
Roman Polanski, Repulsion, 1965.
Michael Powell, Peeping Tom, 1960.
The
occult thriller:
1970s
Evil is placed outside the human mind. The existence of the supernatural.
Fear of children and childhood.
Roman Polanski, Rosemary's Baby, 1968.
William Friedkin, The Exorcist, 1973.
Catastrophe
films: 1970s
The depressed 70s repeated the catastrophe films of the Depression
in the 30s. The collective catastrophe. Natural disasters or disasters caused
by corruption or technology. The transformation of anxiety caused by the crisis
into concrete fear.
John Guillermin, The Towering Inferno,
1974.
Steven Spielberg, Jaws, 1975.
Splatter
movies: 1980s
An accumulation of visually detailed violence in realistic
surroundings. Evil is invincible. Sex is punished with violence. Thin story
lines.
Tobe Hooper, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,
1974.
John Carpenter, Halloween, 1974.
Sean Cunningham, Friday the 13th, 1980.
Terror
films: 1990s
The psychological thrillers from the sixties are revived, but now with
more stress on violence, influenced by the splatter movies. Psychopaths or serial
killers in realistic environments, not supernatural monsters.
John McNaughton, Henry: Portrait of a
Serial Killer, 1990.
Martin Scorsese, Cape Fear, 1991.
Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs,
1991.
Postmodern
horror film:
from 1980s onward
The violence of the splatter movies is ironically surpassed. Almost
genre parodies or horror comedies, but only to the dedicated cult audience.
Intertextuality and metafiction.
Sam Raimi, Evil Dead, 1983
Peter Jackson, Bad Taste, 1987
Wes Craven, Scream, 1997
Ricardo R. Moreno m.fl., The Blair Witch Project,
1999
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