(image source: https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/190613-chainsaw-feature.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=618&h=410&crop=1)
Annotated Bibliography
1. CODR, DWIGHT. “Arresting Monstrosity: Polio, ‘Frankenstein’, and the Horror Film.” PMLA, vol. 129, no. 2, 2014, pp. 171–187., www.jstor.org/stable/24769446. Accessed 13 Feb. 2020.
notes:
notes:
3. Romano, Aja. “Horror Movies Reflect Cultural Fears. In 2016, Americans Feared Invasion.” Vox, Vox, 21 Dec. 2016, www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/21/13737476/horror-movies-2016-invasion.
notes:
4. Wade, Benjamin. “Fear and Now: How Horror Movies Reflect Societal Unease.” Video Production Company: We Tell Your Story, Video Production Company: We Tell Your Story, 15 June 2018, www.trovestudio.net/blog/fear-and-now-how-horror-movies-reflect-societal-unease.
notes:
5. Wilson, Karina. “Horror Movies: Our Shared Nightmares.” Horror Film History, 2005, horrorfilmhistory.com/wp/. notes:
history of horror cinema:
notes:
- Polio and Frankenstien, articulating cultural hysteria
- how James Whale's Frankenstien began the golden age of horror
notes:
- themes behind popular horror films
- some examples:
- "King Kong" --> Great Depression, or "the threat of the black man to white social norms"
- "Godzilla" --> "A Japanese reaction to the devastation of the bomb"
- vampire themes --> response to fears around AIDS
- ''In a funny way, it isn't just that these traumas trigger these films, but that we understand these traumas through these films,'' - Tom Gunning
- some examples:
3. Romano, Aja. “Horror Movies Reflect Cultural Fears. In 2016, Americans Feared Invasion.” Vox, Vox, 21 Dec. 2016, www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/21/13737476/horror-movies-2016-invasion.
notes:
- fears of invasion reflected in recent horror cinema
- fear of foreigners--> xenophobia (The Wailing), apocalypse (10 Cloverfield Lane), invasion (Don’t Breathe)
- marketed towards white americans
- "idea of America as an invaded sanctuary"
4. Wade, Benjamin. “Fear and Now: How Horror Movies Reflect Societal Unease.” Video Production Company: We Tell Your Story, Video Production Company: We Tell Your Story, 15 June 2018, www.trovestudio.net/blog/fear-and-now-how-horror-movies-reflect-societal-unease.
notes:
- major themes throughout horror cinema explained:
- german cinema and influence of war
- universal studio monsters
- nuclear warfare and communism
- violence in America in 60s and 70s
- connection between zombies and terrorism in the 2000s
- 'horror renaissance of 2010s' themes of family and evil
5. Wilson, Karina. “Horror Movies: Our Shared Nightmares.” Horror Film History, 2005, horrorfilmhistory.com/wp/. notes:
history of horror cinema:
- literary roots: first seen in gothic genre
- Edgar Allan Poe
- H P Lovecraft
- first silent horror films
- Le Squelette Joyeux. Lumière brothers in the mid 1890s
- Le Manoir du Diable (1896) Georges Méliès
- The Monster (1903)
- Paranormal themes --> inspired by "spirit photography"
- Faust et Méphistophélès (1903) Alice Guy (first horror movie directed by a woman)
- first movie version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Edison Studios
- Postwar silent horror, "national grief"
- emergence of German expressionism
- The Golem (1920)
- considered "first monster movie"
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
- ‘granddaddy of all horror films’
- Nosferatu (1922), Häxan (1922), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
- Leonidas “Lon” Chaney was a major horror sfx artist
- The Phantom of The Opera (1925)
- beginning of sound in movies
- horror mostly revolved around "exotic fairy tales", mad scientists (Mad Love (1935))
- Universal studios
- Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931)
- decline of horror cinema
- rise of censorship
- horror became even less popular
- mostly revolving around monsters, 'creature features'
- The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)
- cultural changes: "Cuba, political assassinations, the Civil Rights struggle, the Cold War, Vietnam"
- shift towards thriller genre: Psycho (1960)
- paranormal themes: The Innocents (1961), Carnival of Souls (1962)
- other major films: Night of The Living Dead (1968), Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
- evil children, feminism, and family values
- The Omen (1976), It’s Alive (1974), The Stepford Wives (1975), The Brood (1979)
- Religion: The Exorcist (1973), The Wicker Man (1973), Carrie (1976)
- New wave of horror: Jaws (1977)
- Rise of slasher subgenre: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978)
- major advancements in special effects, themes of body horror (Videodrome (1983))
- The Shining (1980), The Fly (1986), The Thing (1982), The Evil Dead (1981), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Child’s Play (1988)
- centered around serial killers: The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Se7en (1995)
- religion/folklore: Jacob’s Ladder (1990), Candyman (1992), The Sixth Sense (1999)
- Scream (1996), In The Mouth of Madness (1995)
- Final Destination movies, 28 Days Later (2002)
- 'torture porn' genre
- rise of popularity in Asian cinema: Ringu, The Grudge, etc
- major themes: religion (The Conjuring), infections (It Follows, Raw) home invasions, and domestic monsters (The Babadook)