Common Horror Elements 1) “Elements of Aversion” by Elizabeth Barrette - All horror has motifs in common - Elements of absence = Takes away certitudes (constant things in our lives) - The Unknown = primal fear, anything can happen, limitless potential, endless power - The Unexpected = reversal of expectation, confuses what we expect from reality - The Unbelievable = places beyond belief, boundaries of everyday reality - The Unseen = something new and strange, only become visible when something goes seriously wrong - The Unconscious = we fear ourselves, we can neither control nor escape it - The Unstoppable = we can not avoid or control it, confront the inevitable - Elements of Presence = Puts in certitudes, adds an intrusion to our comfort - Helplessness = lack of control, relate to the feeling - Urgency = the feeling that something has to be done, variables that place pressure on it - Pressure = build up of tension adding to urgency, slow build of tension, we connect to it in terms of the pressure in our own life, but is different then reality as it always reaches a resolution - Intensity = heightened awareness and senses, enhances all emotions, drowns out common sense, so all consuming, everything else becomes heightened, drowns out rational thinking of brain. - Rhythm = rise and fall of tension, pattern of action or lack of, comforting or disruptive, playing on our innate desire for the world to make sense - Release = comes to a conclusion, uncertainty keeps us waiting, redemption or disaster offer completion, balance restored or altered, its over, allows us to let the story go - What you get out of it largely depends on how you go into it - Your own fears will sustain you even as they threaten to drive you mad - Come out more powerful then when you went in 2) “The Evolution of American Horror Film” - Major Hollywood Figures in the Horror Genre - Larry Cohen: sophisticated, physiological. Movies: It’s Alive, Phone Booth and Q. “Horror is better as high art, gore does not equal horror” - Joe Dante: the appeal is confronting death. Movies: Gremlins, Piranhas, The Birds. “Confront and cope with death” - John Carpenter: it’s about the fear, it is the most powerful emotion. Movies: Halloween, Escape from New York, and The Thing. “Fear is a powerful emotion, we are afraid of death and loss of identity, we are all afraid of it” - Darren Lynn Bousman: Something that stays with you after you leave the screen. Movies: Saw. “Horror lingers, it stays with us and attracts us” - Stephen King: very disturbing novels, adaptive to film. - Tobe Hooper: A master of horror. Movies: Texas Chainsaw Massacre Massacre. - Clive barker: Themes of despair and suffering, his stories often feature alternate worlds hidden in our own. Movies: Hell Raiser, and The Candyman Series. - Roger Corman: Mentored almost anyone who is anyone in Hollywood. Movies: Death Race, The Intruder, and The Wild Angels - John Landis: Pop culture movies. Movies: Twilight Zone, The Blues Brothers. - David Cronenberg: Body horror, disfigurement, violated and invading you, takes it to the “high” art level. Movies: The Fly, and Dead Rings. - Mick Garris: Looking into the minds of people. Movies: Hocus Pocus. “The people involved in horror are not what’s horrifying, it’s the people who are saying we shouldn’t look at horror” - Tom Mclonghlin: Writer and Director. Movies: Friday The 13th. “It connects to us on a personal, we ourselves in the monsters, outsiders, characters.” - George A. Romero: Dead genres. Movies: Dawn of the Dead, and Land of the Dead. “In the end, we also sympathize with the monster” 3) “Horror Film History” - 1930: the Great Depression = Harsh realities = horror, there are rapid technological advancements, adding to science fiction. Horror reflected grim reality, inducing fear in a different way. One of the few escapes from the time period was horror. They all carried the theme of the monster getting killed. Another aspect to movies was that the agency board passing movies was only allowed if the monster was killed, America did not wait to be defeated, The Nazis… Escapism. Movies: Frankenstein, King Kong, Dracula, The Mummy - 1940: Film makers stuck with already used idea with the fear of the war going on. It was a vice to help with World War II and changed tone of films accordingly to the war • Horror comedy blend to create different mood, lighten spirits • Same feeling as movies form 30s/20s • The wolf man, The Phantom of the Opera, Abott and Costello meet Frankenstein • Drive attention away from real like horror • Low budget, makes lots of money • Shows how popular horror still is 1950s: • Grew in popularity due to America’s far less rigidness • New interest in science fiction • Monster films • Americans feared something upsetting there way of live • Face of evil was a human face • Rise of atomic war • Science and technology • Snapshot of the way America didn’t want to see itself • Not all about monsters, humans as well = World War II paranoia, not knowing who the enemy was • Main audience was teens • Colour tv • Way more accepting of the world around them 1960s: • Beginning of slasher movies • Graphic violence • Revolutionized horror movies sexually • Women seen in underwear • Sexuality, gore, violence • Justify with film making, as an artist • Marketing gimmick 1970: -me 1980: • Excess is best • Over the top • Extravagant gore • Greed is good • Capitalism gone crazy era • Animation and distortion 1990: • Growth and prospering • Shock • Afraid afterwards, took away safety of Home • Psychological fears • Taking away comfort and security • Psychopaths • Meta fiction • Sequels and remakes, added fear 4) “The Independent Film” - American nightmare - To prevent communism from way of life - Bad karma has gotta go somewhere - Horror movies drew from American society - Are these real or fake images, they are both - The USA will not be defeated - Impossible for Americans to ignore what is going on in their own country - These movies are mirroring, sometimes even shot for shot with real and fake images - George Romero: black and white felt real, that’s how the news and everything was on tv - John Carpenter: The scared kid to the kid who scared - David Cronenberg - Wes Craven: - Tobe Hooper: - Professor Tom Gunning, university of Chicago: what’s the zone between reality and representation, cinema is that zone. Cinema itself is a haunted house, images of people belong dead. It’s not reality but it’s not just fake either. - You get the ambience - Cultural rebirth of monsters in 60s - Professor Carol Clover: bleak, heart-stopping Film, - You don’t think of it as a threat, then suddenly it is - New society devouring the old - Powerful portrayals of time periods throughout history - This can’t happen in America - Tom Savani: you didn’t know when you were gonna be attacked, our friends bunks were empty, fear, scared, the gory stuff that I saw, you have to turn off your emotions, Vietnam carried over in his work - 1968, night of the living dead: black protagonist, ends up dead, primal fear of eating each other, loss of control, reflects era. - Balance being tipped, identity as a nation gets questioned - Reality versus film crossed the boarder 5) .