October 30, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, from Nosferatu and Dracula to Friday the 13th and Saw, Matt Castro brings us the full history of all your favorite horror films. Check out his YouTube channel for more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next, the history of horror films, from the earliest
silent versions straight through all of the classics. You have
your own favorites, we have ours to tell the story
is Matt Castro and he has the definitive version of
(00:31):
horror film history on YouTube. Go and search his name
Magic carp Used to Fly, which has over a million
subscribers and has all kinds of other interesting items as well.
Go to Matt Castro at YouTube and you will find
all of his work. Here's Matt to tell the story
of the history of the horror film.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Our first stop on the train of terror begins in
the early days of the film industry, from the nineteen
hundreds until the beginning of the nineteen thirties. During this time,
the film industry was smitten with the likes of Charlie
Chaplin and Buster Keaton, which is what occupied American theaters
in the nineteen twenties. Horror films in the United States
were very far in few in between. Between the nineteen
hundreds to the nineteen thirties, the silent film era for
(01:15):
horror consisted of literary works of past Gothic tales like
The Fantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of over Dame.
The most influential genre films of the era came from
the expressionist movement in Germany, with movies like The Cabinet
Doctor Kaalaghari and Nos Fratu, two films that have iconically
given inspiration to some of the most celebrated directors of
our time. German expressionism used tall, sharp and warped buildings,
(01:39):
shadows that were painted on walls to give rooms. These
unnatural shapes misshape and windows and doors exaggerated towns and buildings.
Almost every Tim Burton film uses this art style to
show these dreamscapes of the Macaw by using these harsh
shadows and exaggerated silhouettes as ways to signify feelings of
dread and tension. And although Tim Burton is the most
(02:02):
well known for his use of expressionism, the influence of
these landmarks can be seen in multiple movies throughout film history.
Citizen Kane's use of harsh lighting and tilted cameras is
very reminiscent of The Cabinet Doctor Caligari. Noir films also
pulled a lot of inspiration from the lighting used in
German Expressionism. Even films like Disney's Fantasia have scenes referencing
(02:23):
the art style of these gothically set stories. The Cabinet
of Doctor Caligari and Knows Ferratu is what some consider
the beginning of the horror genre. Since the term horror
film wasn't created until nineteen thirty one after the release
of Dracula, and although horror films were few and far
in between, the film industry in the United States was
rapidly growing towards the end of the nineteen twenties, and
(02:45):
as more theaters opened up to show more movies to
cash in on the new media. Universal Pictures in Hollywood,
California would break into the industry in nineteen thirty one
with the greatest addition to film. We've Got the Monster,
mass Dracula, Frankenstein's momd Monster, the Wolfman, the Mummy, Creature
from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man. Hollywood's horror film
for centered around these iconic monsters of the thirties leading
(03:08):
up to the fifties. Nineteen thirty one marked the first
introduction to the universal monster classic with Dracula starring Bella Lagosi,
and since the term horror film wasn't created yet, the
vampire movie was instead marketed as a love story, calling
it the story of the strangest passion the world has
ever known. Dracula was filmed two different times and had
(03:28):
three versions available for theaters, the English version, the Spanish version,
and the silent film version. Instead of dubbing the actors's voices,
Universal Pictures would instead hire foreign actors to refilm the
movie to release for the foreign market. During the day,
Todd Browning would direct the English version of Dracula, and
by night George Melford would use the sets to create
(03:49):
the Spanish version of Dracula, so there's actually two different
versions of the movie. However, the idea ended up being
a flop, and so Dracula was the last film that
Universal Pictures did. This idea with Dracula was a resounding success,
and Universal Studios wanted to capitalize on their recent venture,
immediately going into production with their next motion picture, Frankenstein.
(04:11):
Production of the film was incredibly quick. It began in
August nineteen thirty one, concluded in October of the same year,
and released in November Bello Legosi, who had just found
successful Dracula, was hoping to land the role of Henry Frankenstein,
but was offered the role of the Monster, which at
the time of the pitch had no emotional pathos added
to it. Legosi famously turned down the role, and instead
(04:33):
it was given to Boris Karloff in the classic story
of a misunderstood man made creation and its mad scientists.
Frankenstein was a cinematic masterpiece with some of the most
iconic images in film history. It's been referenced countless times
throughout the history of cinema, and its artistic style of
grasping German expressionism influenced some of our favorite movies to
(04:54):
this day. Both Dracula and Frankenstein ended up being censored
by the Motion Picture Production Code commonly referred to as
the Hayes Code that took place between nineteen thirty four
to nineteen sixty eight. It provided films with dues and
don'ts on what Hollywood films should be depicting, and studios
followed the guideline all the way until I think, like
(05:15):
around the mid nineteen fifties. The Wolfman stars Launcheny Junior,
who would reprise his role in four sequels as the Wolfman.
He's also the son of laun Cheney, who was an
actor and makeup artist for movies like The Phantom of
the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It's really
what catapulted the werewolf subgenre into the mainstream. Released in
(05:35):
nineteen forty one, the movie is beautifully shot with these
miscovered forests and is a staple of the modern werewolf subgenre.
It's also an original screenplay written by the Jewish screenwriter
Kurt Seidmach, who used The Wolfman as a way to
represent his feelings of being forced to leave Germany. When
Hitler's Third Ride came to power, movies like The Invisible Man,
(05:55):
The Mummy, and Creature Front The Black Lagoon would join
the Universal Monster lineup, coming iconic symbols of the Golden
Age of horror, influencing modern directors with their groundbreaking special
effects at the time. During this time, other very important
horror films were created outside of Universal scope, one of
which was directed by Todd Browning, the director behind Dracula
in his next film Freaks. When the movie was released,
(06:17):
it costs such a huge controversy that its original runtime
of ninety minutes was cut down to a little over
an hour, would the rest of its content lost to
cinema history because of the unfavorable response they gained during
test screenings. It was also banned in the UK by
the British Censors for over thirty years before finally being
granted an X rating in nineteen sixty three, saying exploited
for commercial reasons the deformed people that it claimed to dignify. Ironically,
(06:42):
Todd Browning was actually a circus performer himself at the
age of sixteen as a contortionist in clown, and insisted
on casting the kind of persons with disabilities that he
knew from his work experience and fascination with carnivals alone.
That is remarkable considering if this movie was remade today,
it probably higher non disabled act and instead use makeup
and special effects to play their parts instead. Since it's
(07:04):
retrospective review, the film has become a cult classic and
has even been submitted into the National Film Registry for preservation.
And although Freaks was sadly swept under the rug, the
thirties had another movie that was just too big to
fit underneath one.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And You've Been listening to YouTube maestro Matt Castro. When
we come back, more of Matt and the story of
the history of horror films here on our American Stories.
Here aret our American Stories. We bring you inspiring stories
of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories from a
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(07:41):
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If you love our stories in America like we do,
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keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories
dot Com. And we continue with our American Stories and
(08:11):
the history of horror films with Matt Castro, a YouTube
maestro who has the definitive history of horror films on YouTube,
go and search his name Magic Karp used to Fly,
which has over a million subscribers. Matt Castro is back
to continue the story of the history of horror films.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Remade in two thousand and five, the original King Kong
from nineteen thirty three still stands the test of time
for a modern day viewing. The movie was incredibly advanced
for its time on a technical level, using back projection,
stop motion animation pre dating Harry Housen, Matt paintings, miniatures,
and models to create a beautiful piece of cinema with
these lavish landscapes and intense scenes of amazing stop motion animation.
(08:56):
And this was all done before Green Screen's digital effects
and digital editing software, and so seeing this movie be
able to accomplish these fantastical scenes with what they had
to work with is truly an eighth Wonder of the World.
The story is a classic and its pacing is incredibly
good for a movie with two three act structures, when
the crew arrives on the island and rescues their actress
(09:18):
and when they bring Kong back to the States. The
movie has been referenced, parodied, and analyzed throughout history as
a highly influential film over its existence. Coming off of
World War Two and into the age of rock and
roll and drive in movie theaters, science fiction became incredibly popular.
War of the Worlds, The Day of the Earth Stood
(09:38):
Still and Forbidden Planet were just some of the movies
released during this time. When after the horrific events of
the atomic bomb, people wondered if technology had gone too far.
Capitalizing on the fear of the backlash of nuclear warfare,
Japan created the kaiju subgenre with Gojira in nineteen fifty four,
the first film of the iconic monster Godzilla. Although with
(09:59):
recent jiju films such as Specific Rim and Godzilla Versus Kong,
the subgenre has shifted more towards action and adventure. However,
the roots of the subgenre were born from the black
and white Japanese film. The success of Gojira launched Toho
into a Kaiju frenzy by spitting out countless campy Godzilla
films that became increasingly more ridiculous. As the franchise continued,
(10:20):
Mathra Rodin, guy Gan, and Godora would become some of
the most well known Kaiju monsters to ever. Bless the
Godzilla franchise, science fiction became the preferred source of media
in the US. The entire decade was filled with movies
about the radioactive, the strange, and the other worldly. Almost
every horror film at the time had a plot of
(10:41):
science fiction. From movies like The Blob, a film about
a literal mutagenic blob attacking people and them, a movie
about gigantic ants, a lot of films in the fifties
were very pro military, and a majority of horror science
fiction relied on the characters going to the government to
seek protection from the monsters portrayed in the movies like them,
(11:01):
An Invasion of the Body Snatchers heavily relied on the
government and military officials to fix the problems that the
characters were faced with, whether it's giant monsters, aliens from
another planet, or creatures created from the fallout of the
atomic bomb. Although it seems hokey and cheesy by today's standards,
Them was one of the first giant insect creature features
that helped shape the landscape of science fiction films during
(11:22):
its time. It still holds up to a modern day
watch with the amazing special effects used to create the
giant ants portrayed throughout the movie. Invasion of the Body
Snatchers would also become a science fiction staple, joining the
National Film Registry to be preserved as a cultural or
historically significant film. It was largely ignored during its first
theatrical run and has since been reassessed as a true
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classic of the science fiction genre, leading to it being
remade in nineteen seventy eight which is more than likely
the version you're probably most familiar with, where science fiction
became a huge influence on films during the nineteen fifties,
French films were becoming more unique and stylized, leading to
the French New Wave movement going into the nineteen sixties.
Directed by Ingrijorge Clouseau, Led di'abolique is an example of
(12:06):
a director who implemented their unique style into the movie.
Not only do we see two very strong and independent
female characters, which were very hard to come by during
the fifties, but the way that the story unfolds and
Cluseeau's use of film composition, staging, and lighting techniques stylized
the film unlike most horror movies of its time. Alfred
(12:27):
Hitchcock was a huge influence on the French New Wave movement,
and Cluseau pays homage to Hitchcock's rear window during the
final scene where she investigates a mysterious light at the school.
The use of strong, low key lighting heightens the tension
in the movie, and its lack of a musical score
further exemplifies the terror. Hitchcock was also reportedly interested in
directing an adaptation of the book She Who was no More,
(12:49):
but its rights were already given to Clouseau to create
Led d'abolik, and so Hitchcock instead gained the rights of
the Living and the Dead from the same creators and
turned that into Vertigo instead. The influence of Led diabo
Leak on hitchcock Psycho is almost hard to deny both
of them, even including a murder located within a bathroom,
a location where we as audience members see as a
(13:11):
place of safety, which is then turned into a murderous scene.
Kluzell's marketing campaign for the film also included a no
spoiler warning for audience members. This was later replicated by
Hitchcock to the same vein with the release of Psycho
in nineteen sixty five, years after the release of Led d'abolik.
This can be looked at as to directors who highly
respected one another's work during their time. During the mid
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nineteen fifties, a production studio called Hammer Films became synonymous
with the horror genre after the release of their film
The Quartermass Experiment in nineteen fifty five, where the nineteen
thirty one universal monsters were black and white classics. Hammer
took the properties and made iconic colorized versions of the
films with significantly more on screen violence and bloodshed. This
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was due to the advent of technicolor, and in Dracula,
which has now been renamed as The Horror of Dracula,
is one of the first British horror films made using
d three strip Technicolor process. Although color was already prominent
throughout films during this time, with movies like Singing in
the Rain, The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind,
the technology of Technicolor was still very difficult to use
(14:16):
on set, and horror films had a much lower budget
than other bigger Hollywood films that could comfortably use three
strip cameras on their movie sets. It wouldn't be until
the late nineteen fifties that color became more standardized in
movies with the advent of competition to Technicolor. Hammer Films
were what made actors like Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing
become so iconic in the horror community, and is what
(14:38):
revitalized the production company into becoming such a powerhouse inside
of the horror genre. To avoid censorship from the BBFC,
the Hammer Film's company would regularly submit their films for
review in their black and white prints in order to
stifle the BBFC's recognition with their at the time extreme
uses of blood. The nineteen sixties was a very strict
(15:00):
time for horror films. A majority of audiences were still
burned out from the universal monster classics and the low
budget sci fi horror adjacent movies of the fifties. Horror
movies were put on the back burner of studio minds
as just cheap thrills. However, directors still found ways to
take the idea of horror movies and elevate them into
a new light, such as the works of Alfred Hitchcock,
(15:21):
Roman Polanski, and even in Japan, as directors began melding
its culture's folklore mythologies into feature length films reflecting Western culture.
As this revival of feminism began to grow, instead of
placing stereotypical females into these horror movies, their characters became
more fleshed out and involved in the actual plot of
the films and not just being you know, damsels in distress.
(15:45):
This movement becomes a standard portrayal as we move into
the modern era of horror films, with concepts such as
the Final Girl trope, monstrous menstruation, and just general female empowerment.
Eyes Without a Face is a perfect example of a
female centered horror film about woman struggling to break out
of her father's patriarchy. It's a black and white French
movie revolving around a woman whose face becomes scarred and
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misshapen due to a car accident, leaving only her eyes intact.
Her father and his assistant continuously insist that she wear
a featureless mask to hide her disfigurement as they kidnap
young women and graft their faces onto the daughter. Although
poorly received on its initial release, it gained higher critical
praise during its theatrical re release in nineteen eighty six,
over twenty five years since its original run, with its
(16:28):
influence reaching to as recent as the twenty eleven film
The Skin I Live In as its spiritual successor. Eyes
Without a Face came out during this French New Wave
movement where art house films became more prominent, and so
when Eyes without a Face was released in France, it
was probably shocking, I mean, in the nineteen sixties watching
this scene where they're pulling the face off of their
first victim is pretty gnarly for its time. It's so
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eerie watching this woman walking around with this featureless mask,
longing for the outside world, to the point of calling
her fiance that thinks that she's dead, and just listening
to his voice over the phone, a scene that is
later replicated in Halloween when Michael picks up the phone
with Laurie on the other end of the line, and you've.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Been listening to Matt Castro tell one heck of a
tale about the development of horror films from the silent
era straight through to the breakthrough film Dracula, which spawned
by Universal, while many other horror films more akin to
monster films, Frankenstein a cinematic masterpiece, and then the Wolfman
series and the Ultimate were Wolf's subgenre, and then he
(17:33):
works his way through to King Khan to Godzilla and
then sort of the slow time of the nineteen sixties,
where horror films were seen as low rent, low budget
folks had lost their interest. There was Alfred Hitchcock still
playing in the game and a young director named Roman Polanski.
When we come back. The story of the history of
horror films continues here on our American story, and we
(18:09):
continue with our American stories and with Matt Castro telling
the story of the history of horror films. Let's pick
up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Nineteen sixty also saw the release of Alfred Hitchcock's most
famous film, Psycho, a motion picture that forever changed the
landscape of horror movies. At the time of its initial release,
there was no other movie that was as controversial, shocking,
and violent, leading to mixed reviews, only to be reassessed
years later. Much like Eyes Without a Face, from an
(18:42):
opening scene with an unmarried woman laying in bed with
a man to the cross dressing likes of Norman Bates,
the film relentlessly attacks the audience with imagery far ahead
of its culture's time. The shower scene in Psycho is
famously displayed in fifty two cuts, rapidly spiced together, and
in a scene that only lasted about two minutes. It
(19:02):
disturbed audiences across the world. Not only did the movie
kill off what was believed as the main character halfway
through the film, it was incredibly violent and shocking for
its time. This scene is so significant you can draw
a visible line in the history of horror movies as
films before and films after the shower scene of Psycho.
(19:24):
Violence became a common aspect in films, and no longer
were horrors derived from monsters and creatures like Dracula and Godzilla. Instead,
the horrors were focused on the dark depths of the
seemingly normal people around you. Psycho has been referenced countless times.
It's one of the most recognizable movies in film history,
(19:45):
and its score is one of the most iconic to date. Again,
we also have these believable, relatable and independent female characters
that make up the cast of the movie, and not
just love interest for the male characters. When it comes
to of psychological films, Rosemary's Baby sits at the top
as one of the best. It's got an amazing soundtrack,
(20:06):
and although it's not the first psychological horror film, it's
widely considered as the most quintessential along with Polanski's earlier
film Repulsion. Other films would follow in its steps for
psychological movies like The Shining and has become a recent
subgenre trend in horror films like The Bobb, a Duke
and Midsommer. Herreditary actually follows the same themes as Rosemary's
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Baby like involuntary motherhood and using the occult to highlight
societal fears. Rosemary's Baby highlights the distrust of people moving
from rural homes to the city during the sixties, and
her Hereditary highlights the emotional distancing of the modern family.
The occult uses both divisions to then push their agenda.
The foundation of the psychological subgenre from Rosemary's Baby can
(20:50):
be seen in today's recent trend of horror films. Although
the reanimated dead in the film are never referred to
as zombies, the nineteen sixty eight end tendent classic Night
of the Living Dead marks the beginning of the modern
day zombie subgenre. Previously, zombies were referred to as mindless slaves,
usually created by voodoo rituals like I Walked with the Zombie.
(21:12):
But this idea of flesh eating cannibalism from reanimated corpses
was new territory, and the film shocked audiences with its
visceral images and black lead actor. From here in, movies
like Blackula became icons in the black community, where you
have these intelligent, in depth characters that aren't just furniture.
Night of the Living Dead encompassed the racial turmoil of
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the nineteen sixties, and as the decade passed with more
gruesome stories and terrifying films with relatable characters, we moved
into the nineteen seventies, where some of the greatest classics
and pioneers of the genre were created. The nineteen seventies
of horror is one of the golden ages of the genre,
out of the sheer amount of influential movies that came
(21:54):
out during the decade. This was also a time when
horror movies started to become increasingly more violent and grond,
leading to an influx in exploitation films. Word of movies
like The Last House on the Left spread like wildfire
through news stations and film critics. With how extreme the
movie was, it definitely helped shape this idea of just
how dark, twisted, and unnerving could a movie get. It
(22:16):
also began the creation of another subgenre called backwoods, along
with one of the most influential horror films of all time,
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, released in nineteen seventy four by
Toby Hooper, is a landmark movie in the horror genre.
An independent film that gained so much word of mouth
(22:36):
due to how much it disturbed people that it gained
a wide theatrical release and was subsequently banned by the
British Board of Film Censors, restricting the movie from being
shown in theaters or on television in the UK. With
how much the movie costs to make and how much
buzz it received, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre became a financial
success in the next couple of years, even with its restrictions.
(22:57):
The movie spark motivation and independent filmmaker to create these
strange and exploitive movies that push boundaries so their movies
can spread through word of mouth. However, watching the movie nowadays,
you'd be confused about how this shocks so many people
when it's so incredibly tamed. For a movie with chainsaw
in its name, there's barely any blood and gore in it.
Toby Hooper actually intentionally made the movie tame, with little
(23:20):
to no gore, no nudity, and mild cursing, hoping to
get a G rating, but ended up getting an X
and having to resubmit a cut version for it to
have an R rating. It really goes to show how
much atmosphere can really lend itself into making somebody feel
uncomfortable even when you're not seeing someone being dismembered by
a chainsaw on the screen. In fact, the Texas Chainsaw
(23:43):
Massacre wasn't legally available to Britain in a DVD or
VHS format until nineteen ninety nine. That's more than twenty
five years since its theatrical release. The Exorcist was released
one year before the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in nineteen seventy
three and became the first warlerror film to be nominated
for Best Picture, which is a massive milestone for the genre.
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When it comes to accolades and awards, it's been documented
how much the genre has been shunned, with the Academy
generally looking down at the genre as subpar. Out of
the ninety five Academy Awards, only six horror movies have
been nominated for Best Picture. In all of cinema history,
horror films are more or less seen as cheap thrills
with no substance, and The Exorcist was able to break
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that mold with its chilling atmosphere and the unsettling thought
of what could happen if your child was possessed by
the devil. The movie is so beautiful to watch and
breaks ground as a pioneer of the possession subgenre, followed
up by the Omen the Ambyville Horror, and more recently,
movies like The Extorcism of Emily Rose. Halloween is a
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horror classic, not because it's particularly scary to a modern
day audience, but because of how inventive and progressive the
movie is with its low budget. What really sets the
movie apart is the soundtrack, which helps elevate the film,
becoming one of the most recognized motion picture soundtracks ever created.
With the growing popularity of the synthesizer and electronic music
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in the seventies and eighties, it really defined the soundtrack
of horror films at the time. John Carpenter's Halloween was
filmed on a budget of three hundred thousand and couldn't
afford to have an orchestra or studio composed the film's score. Instead,
inspired by the Exorcist soundtrack and music from the band Goblin,
Carpenter created the movie's iconic Halloween soundtrack on his own
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in the span of three days while the film was
shot in exactly twenty days, just looking at the ground
filled with dead leaves when the trees are visibly green
and healthy, really adds to its charm. The Halloween requel
in twenty eighteen actually pays homage to this by replicating
the same look. Although Halloween popularized the slasher genre, the
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tropes you would come to know of the subgenre wouldn't
become cemented until the nineteen eighties when the horror genre exploded.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
And you've been listening to Matt Castro tell the story
of horror films, and my goodness, anyone who has seen
Psycho knows how much can be done with so little
actual gore. It's the anticipation of the gore in that
scene that's just so powerful. And nobody ever thought about
the bathroom the same way again, from sanctuary to terror
(26:24):
in no time at all. And then, of course the
other things that Psycho managed to do. It took the
evil and the monster and put it inside an ordinary man.
And this had not been done before, not quite this way,
leave it to Hitchcock the Master. And then comes the
psychological thriller Rosemary's Baby Roman Polanski, and from that springs
(26:44):
almost a new genre, leading to the Shining, then the
Night of the Living Dead and the zombie films and
then the Golden Age, the Golden Age of horror films,
leading with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist. By
the way, only six horror films nominated for Best Picture,
and The Exorcist was one. When we come back more
(27:06):
of this remarkable story, the history of horror films with
Matt Castro. Here on our American stories, and we continue
(27:38):
with our American stories and Matt Castro telling the story
of horror films, the history of horror films. Let's pick
up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Sean Cunningham, one of the co producers of The Last
House on the Left, directed the nineteen eighty film Friday
the Thirteenth, one of the longest running horror franchises of
all time. Made to capitalize on the type of Halloween,
Cunningham reportedly took an ad out in a newspaper to
sell a movie with just the name Friday the Thirteenth
and no script to back it up. Luckily for Cunningham,
(28:09):
the movie was a giant success, and by nineteen ninety
the franchise would have eight installments, releasing almost every single year.
During the decade. Jason Vorhees would become a horror movie Icon,
one of the first, along with Michael Meyers and Freddy Krueger,
since the universal monster classics to the point where it
would be more difficult to find someone that doesn't know
who he is. And with a lot of horror movie franchises,
(28:32):
you know, the original movie is usually the best. However,
Friday the Thirteenth is not one of those cases. I
think it's actually insane how bad the first Friday the
Thirteenth actually is. There's really no effect of scares throughout
the whole movie besides the startling ending where Jason comes
out of the water, and that's it. Also, God blessed
thom Savini that the effects are awesome. Jason isn't even
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in the first film until then, and Missus Borhees is
such a flat character that you just don't care about
her at all. The acting isn't necessarily good, the story
isn't necessarily groundbreaking, and its cinematography isn't anything to write
home about. It's just a sleazy eighties slasher film, and
that's really the charm of the movies. The Friday the
Thirteenth franchise is best described as a sum of its
(29:18):
parts and not necessarily about its individual pieces. Its predecessors
in Halloween, Psycho, Black Christmas, and Peeping Tom, we're a
lot more classy and put the story first instead of
focusing on the death scenes. Friday Thirteenth went in the
opposite direction and instead filled the movies with these terrible,
unlikable teenage characters to the point where you begin rooting
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for Jason to come in and recavoc Also, just watching
Jason's costumes slowly deteriorate over the course of the movies
is so much fun, with his mask becoming like damaged,
broken engrossed by the eighth film, a Nightmare on Elm
Street really does a great job of encapsulating everything about
the eighties but turning into a more visceral and supernatural
(30:02):
experience while still riding the tropes of the slasher genre.
Eighty fours Nightmare compared to the eighties Friday the Thirteenth
is such a huge difference in cinema. When he compared
the two slasher films together, even though you know Nightmare
never reached the same franchise height as Friday the Thirteenth did,
Nightmare on Elm Street went with a more surrealist approach
(30:22):
to the slasher subgenre, adding in these supernatural elements to
progress a story, which is what really separates itself from
the rest of the movies in the genre. There's actually
been a recent trend in slasher films that have begun
to follow in Nightmare on Elm Street steps by adding
in surreal or supernatural elements into their movies that other
more realism based slashers don't tread into. Wes Craven returned
(30:48):
to the horror genre once again with Scream in nineteen
ninety six, becoming an instant hit and reviving a genre
that had grown tired and repetitive, while also being an
ode to the horror films of the past. Even if
it can be a little on the nose, it has
an astounding opening scene that's one of the best cold
opens to a movie period. Not only are we pulled
into this story with a character that a modern day
(31:09):
audience can connect with, in the first twelve minutes, it
sets up the rest of the plot of the film.
What Scream does really well is that it really brings
a lot of love to the genre by using elements
from past films and bringing them back to life, like
the harassing phone calls from Black Christmas while elevating the
genre to new heights. Scream is a very important part
(31:30):
of the horror genre because it really helped elevate the
movies that came after it to create more dynamic and
interesting characters instead of just sending random, stereotypical people out
to the slaughter. The Blair Witch Project, released in nineteen
ninety nine, helped popularize the found footage subgenre, dating back
to Cannibal Holocaust. Found footage films try to blur this
(31:52):
line between reality and fiction, giving us these stories of
seemingly real scenarios with the camera acting as a window
for the audience. And while some films like to visually
show their scares and villains, the Blair Witch Project practices
in the art of what you don't see is scarier
than what you do. Found footage films helped filmmakers break
into the industry by utilizing the advent of digital cameras
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to decrease cost while keeping the cast small to spend
as little money as possible to create something terrifying to
movie watchers marketed as a real documentary, to the point
of having missing posters for the actors pop up as
part of the marketing campaign, The blair Witch Project garnered
enough attention to media coverage to become one of the
highest grossing films to ever exist, Much like the marketing
(32:36):
campaign for Cloverfield, creators of the movie even launched a
website dedicated to the mythos of the Blair Witch in
order to help sell the film. Although movies like Cannibal
Holocaust predated the blair Witch Project in terms of found
footage movies, the blair Witch Project was the one that
popularized the subgenre. Released in nineteen ninety nine, the movie
would spark the idea of other found footage films going
(32:58):
into the two thousand, with movies like Paranormal Activity that
became commercialized into a franchise. The two thousands oozed with
great horror movies based on the nineteen ninety eight Japanese
horror film Ring View, which is based on the novel
of the same name. The Ring released in two thousand
and two with a rating of PG thirteen. Although the
(33:19):
Ring had little to know gore, the two thousands made
up for it by displaying some of the most graphic
special effects that would create a subgenre that plagued horror
films for years. In two thousand and four, James Wand
released Saw as his directorial debut that sparked a franchise
encompassing soon to be ten films, making it the longest
(33:41):
running horror franchise created in the twenty first century. You
can't talk about the two thousands of horror films without
mentioning them, Considering a new Saw film was released every
year for seven years. That's almost as consistent as Friday
the Thirteenth was in the eighties. Much like the nineteen
seven nineteen eighties, the twenty tens contain an outlandish amounts
(34:04):
of amazing horror films and media. The twenty tens were
a huge revival of the genre, with impactful films like
Jordan Peele's Get Out, along with Ariastris, Hereditary, and Midsommer.
The genre hit the mainstream at the start of twenty
ten when AMC released The Walking Dead, continuing to capitalize
on the zombie subgenre that became popular thanks to the
(34:25):
zombie Crazy that quickly gained steam throughout the two thousands.
The horror genre would also evolve throughout the decade as
streaming services created horror movies and TV shows that helped
hook the public audience into the genre, much like Mike
Flanagan's Haunting of Hillhouse. Episodic horror became a large trend
into twenty tens for both television and streaming services, pulling
(34:46):
the inspiration of their format from the anthology shows of
the past like Tales from the Crypt or The Twilight Zone.
By releasing new episodes every week, online streaming services let
horror fans binge hours of content instead of waiting on
a week basis, and exploded when shows like Stranger Things
became cultural icons. The twenty ten sought out a revival
(35:09):
for horror films with more sophisticated stories, characters, and cinematography
and its independent films, and as the indie scene became
more prominent as streaming services began to take over, commercialized
horror films began to blossom with the beginning of Blumhouse Productions.
On a budget of one point five million Insidius would
go on to make back over one hundred million dollars
(35:30):
and sparked the trend of supernatural horror films from the
twenty tens. James Juand went on to create the Conjuring Breathing,
an entire cinematic universe for horror fans with New Line
Cinema and cementing his mark on modern day horror films.
Blumhouse Productions continues to make low budget films such as
Upgrade Whiplash, Black Clansmen, and twenty eighteen's Halloween Recoil. However,
(35:54):
its most influential horror film is Jordan Peele's get Out
from twenty seventeen. Out is the six horror film to
ever be nominated for Best Picture out of the over
ninety year span that the Academy Awards have been around,
with Jordan Peele making waves being nominated for Best Director
in a low budget debut feature film. Commercial studios have
(36:15):
been pushing horror films into theaters because of how well
they're consistently doing compared to the superhero films of today.
Horror movies have been hitting box office records more often
than any other genre in the industry. We currently live
in a world where horror films are slowly becoming more
recognized for the amount of sheer talent that's been consistently
represented throughout the history of the genre. Films that would
(36:37):
have once passed through studio's eyes are now readily available
and created by these loving directors that enjoy the genre
as much as any horror fan would. With films and
TV shows popping up from all around the world, even
foreign films are beginning to become accepted by Western media.
All of these movies and their culmination of history makes
watching a horror film become increasingly more in interesting when
(37:00):
you can spot the homages and references that the movies
are calling out, along with topics that you don't see
discussed very often in other movies outside of the genre.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by Rowna Madison Derricott and a special thanks to Matt
Castro and you can watch his definitive story of the
history of horror films on YouTube. Go to his YouTube channel,
Magic carp Used Fly and you won't be disappointed again.
It's Matt Castro. Google his name, go to YouTube and
(37:32):
watch his material. It's terrific and what a story he
told the eighties. The Friday of the thirteenth series begins
and by the way, taking an ad out before your
script's written. Talk about a daring piece of marketing. Then
came Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream and then the Blair
Witch Project, which was a sort of a fake real
(37:52):
documentary which just took the country by storm. Then the
Golden Age of the two thousands, it just kept going
into the twenty tens, horror films and the genre of
horror was here to stay, even on streaming with shows
like Stranger Things. The story of horror films here on
our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next, the history of horror films, from the earliest
silent versions straight through all of the classics. You have
your own favorites, we have ours to tell the story
is Matt Castro and he has the definitive version of
(00:31):
horror film history on YouTube. Go and search his name
Magic carp Used to Fly, which has over a million
subscribers and has all kinds of other interesting items as well.
Go to Matt Castro at YouTube and you will find
all of his work. Here's Matt to tell the story
of the history of the horror film.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Our first stop on the train of terror begins in
the early days of the film industry, from the nineteen
hundreds until the beginning of the nineteen thirties. During this time,
the film industry was smitten with the likes of Charlie
Chaplin and Buster Keaton, which is what occupied American theaters
in the nineteen twenties. Horror films in the United States
were very far in few in between. Between the nineteen
hundreds to the nineteen thirties, the silent film era for
(01:15):
horror consisted of literary works of past Gothic tales like
The Fantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of over Dame.
The most influential genre films of the era came from
the expressionist movement in Germany, with movies like The Cabinet
Doctor Kaalaghari and Nos Fratu, two films that have iconically
given inspiration to some of the most celebrated directors of
our time. German expressionism used tall, sharp and warped buildings,
(01:39):
shadows that were painted on walls to give rooms. These
unnatural shapes misshape and windows and doors exaggerated towns and buildings.
Almost every Tim Burton film uses this art style to
show these dreamscapes of the Macaw by using these harsh
shadows and exaggerated silhouettes as ways to signify feelings of
dread and tension. And although Tim Burton is the most
(02:02):
well known for his use of expressionism, the influence of
these landmarks can be seen in multiple movies throughout film history.
Citizen Kane's use of harsh lighting and tilted cameras is
very reminiscent of The Cabinet Doctor Caligari. Noir films also
pulled a lot of inspiration from the lighting used in
German Expressionism. Even films like Disney's Fantasia have scenes referencing
(02:23):
the art style of these gothically set stories. The Cabinet
of Doctor Caligari and Knows Ferratu is what some consider
the beginning of the horror genre. Since the term horror
film wasn't created until nineteen thirty one after the release
of Dracula, and although horror films were few and far
in between, the film industry in the United States was
rapidly growing towards the end of the nineteen twenties, and
(02:45):
as more theaters opened up to show more movies to
cash in on the new media. Universal Pictures in Hollywood,
California would break into the industry in nineteen thirty one
with the greatest addition to film. We've Got the Monster,
mass Dracula, Frankenstein's momd Monster, the Wolfman, the Mummy, Creature
from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man. Hollywood's horror film
for centered around these iconic monsters of the thirties leading
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up to the fifties. Nineteen thirty one marked the first
introduction to the universal monster classic with Dracula starring Bella Lagosi,
and since the term horror film wasn't created yet, the
vampire movie was instead marketed as a love story, calling
it the story of the strangest passion the world has
ever known. Dracula was filmed two different times and had
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three versions available for theaters, the English version, the Spanish version,
and the silent film version. Instead of dubbing the actors's voices,
Universal Pictures would instead hire foreign actors to refilm the
movie to release for the foreign market. During the day,
Todd Browning would direct the English version of Dracula, and
by night George Melford would use the sets to create
(03:49):
the Spanish version of Dracula, so there's actually two different
versions of the movie. However, the idea ended up being
a flop, and so Dracula was the last film that
Universal Pictures did. This idea with Dracula was a resounding success,
and Universal Studios wanted to capitalize on their recent venture,
immediately going into production with their next motion picture, Frankenstein.
(04:11):
Production of the film was incredibly quick. It began in
August nineteen thirty one, concluded in October of the same year,
and released in November Bello Legosi, who had just found
successful Dracula, was hoping to land the role of Henry Frankenstein,
but was offered the role of the Monster, which at
the time of the pitch had no emotional pathos added
to it. Legosi famously turned down the role, and instead
(04:33):
it was given to Boris Karloff in the classic story
of a misunderstood man made creation and its mad scientists.
Frankenstein was a cinematic masterpiece with some of the most
iconic images in film history. It's been referenced countless times
throughout the history of cinema, and its artistic style of
grasping German expressionism influenced some of our favorite movies to
(04:54):
this day. Both Dracula and Frankenstein ended up being censored
by the Motion Picture Production Code commonly referred to as
the Hayes Code that took place between nineteen thirty four
to nineteen sixty eight. It provided films with dues and
don'ts on what Hollywood films should be depicting, and studios
followed the guideline all the way until I think, like
(05:15):
around the mid nineteen fifties. The Wolfman stars Launcheny Junior,
who would reprise his role in four sequels as the Wolfman.
He's also the son of laun Cheney, who was an
actor and makeup artist for movies like The Phantom of
the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It's really
what catapulted the werewolf subgenre into the mainstream. Released in
(05:35):
nineteen forty one, the movie is beautifully shot with these
miscovered forests and is a staple of the modern werewolf subgenre.
It's also an original screenplay written by the Jewish screenwriter
Kurt Seidmach, who used The Wolfman as a way to
represent his feelings of being forced to leave Germany. When
Hitler's Third Ride came to power, movies like The Invisible Man,
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The Mummy, and Creature Front The Black Lagoon would join
the Universal Monster lineup, coming iconic symbols of the Golden
Age of horror, influencing modern directors with their groundbreaking special
effects at the time. During this time, other very important
horror films were created outside of Universal scope, one of
which was directed by Todd Browning, the director behind Dracula
in his next film Freaks. When the movie was released,
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it costs such a huge controversy that its original runtime
of ninety minutes was cut down to a little over
an hour, would the rest of its content lost to
cinema history because of the unfavorable response they gained during
test screenings. It was also banned in the UK by
the British Censors for over thirty years before finally being
granted an X rating in nineteen sixty three, saying exploited
for commercial reasons the deformed people that it claimed to dignify. Ironically,
(06:42):
Todd Browning was actually a circus performer himself at the
age of sixteen as a contortionist in clown, and insisted
on casting the kind of persons with disabilities that he
knew from his work experience and fascination with carnivals alone.
That is remarkable considering if this movie was remade today,
it probably higher non disabled act and instead use makeup
and special effects to play their parts instead. Since it's
(07:04):
retrospective review, the film has become a cult classic and
has even been submitted into the National Film Registry for preservation.
And although Freaks was sadly swept under the rug, the
thirties had another movie that was just too big to
fit underneath one.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And You've Been listening to YouTube maestro Matt Castro. When
we come back, more of Matt and the story of
the history of horror films here on our American Stories.
Here aret our American Stories. We bring you inspiring stories
of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories from a
great and beautiful country that need to be told. But
(07:41):
we can't do it without you. Our stories are free
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If you love our stories in America like we do,
please go to our Americanstories dot com and click the
donate button. Give a little, give a lot, help us
keep the great American stories coming. That's our American Stories
dot Com. And we continue with our American Stories and
(08:11):
the history of horror films with Matt Castro, a YouTube
maestro who has the definitive history of horror films on YouTube,
go and search his name Magic Karp used to Fly,
which has over a million subscribers. Matt Castro is back
to continue the story of the history of horror films.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Remade in two thousand and five, the original King Kong
from nineteen thirty three still stands the test of time
for a modern day viewing. The movie was incredibly advanced
for its time on a technical level, using back projection,
stop motion animation pre dating Harry Housen, Matt paintings, miniatures,
and models to create a beautiful piece of cinema with
these lavish landscapes and intense scenes of amazing stop motion animation.
(08:56):
And this was all done before Green Screen's digital effects
and digital editing software, and so seeing this movie be
able to accomplish these fantastical scenes with what they had
to work with is truly an eighth Wonder of the World.
The story is a classic and its pacing is incredibly
good for a movie with two three act structures, when
the crew arrives on the island and rescues their actress
(09:18):
and when they bring Kong back to the States. The
movie has been referenced, parodied, and analyzed throughout history as
a highly influential film over its existence. Coming off of
World War Two and into the age of rock and
roll and drive in movie theaters, science fiction became incredibly popular.
War of the Worlds, The Day of the Earth Stood
(09:38):
Still and Forbidden Planet were just some of the movies
released during this time. When after the horrific events of
the atomic bomb, people wondered if technology had gone too far.
Capitalizing on the fear of the backlash of nuclear warfare,
Japan created the kaiju subgenre with Gojira in nineteen fifty four,
the first film of the iconic monster Godzilla. Although with
(09:59):
recent jiju films such as Specific Rim and Godzilla Versus Kong,
the subgenre has shifted more towards action and adventure. However,
the roots of the subgenre were born from the black
and white Japanese film. The success of Gojira launched Toho
into a Kaiju frenzy by spitting out countless campy Godzilla
films that became increasingly more ridiculous. As the franchise continued,
(10:20):
Mathra Rodin, guy Gan, and Godora would become some of
the most well known Kaiju monsters to ever. Bless the
Godzilla franchise, science fiction became the preferred source of media
in the US. The entire decade was filled with movies
about the radioactive, the strange, and the other worldly. Almost
every horror film at the time had a plot of
(10:41):
science fiction. From movies like The Blob, a film about
a literal mutagenic blob attacking people and them, a movie
about gigantic ants, a lot of films in the fifties
were very pro military, and a majority of horror science
fiction relied on the characters going to the government to
seek protection from the monsters portrayed in the movies like them,
(11:01):
An Invasion of the Body Snatchers heavily relied on the
government and military officials to fix the problems that the
characters were faced with, whether it's giant monsters, aliens from
another planet, or creatures created from the fallout of the
atomic bomb. Although it seems hokey and cheesy by today's standards,
Them was one of the first giant insect creature features
that helped shape the landscape of science fiction films during
(11:22):
its time. It still holds up to a modern day
watch with the amazing special effects used to create the
giant ants portrayed throughout the movie. Invasion of the Body
Snatchers would also become a science fiction staple, joining the
National Film Registry to be preserved as a cultural or
historically significant film. It was largely ignored during its first
theatrical run and has since been reassessed as a true
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classic of the science fiction genre, leading to it being
remade in nineteen seventy eight which is more than likely
the version you're probably most familiar with, where science fiction
became a huge influence on films during the nineteen fifties,
French films were becoming more unique and stylized, leading to
the French New Wave movement going into the nineteen sixties.
Directed by Ingrijorge Clouseau, Led di'abolique is an example of
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a director who implemented their unique style into the movie.
Not only do we see two very strong and independent
female characters, which were very hard to come by during
the fifties, but the way that the story unfolds and
Cluseeau's use of film composition, staging, and lighting techniques stylized
the film unlike most horror movies of its time. Alfred
(12:27):
Hitchcock was a huge influence on the French New Wave movement,
and Cluseau pays homage to Hitchcock's rear window during the
final scene where she investigates a mysterious light at the school.
The use of strong, low key lighting heightens the tension
in the movie, and its lack of a musical score
further exemplifies the terror. Hitchcock was also reportedly interested in
directing an adaptation of the book She Who was no More,
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but its rights were already given to Clouseau to create
Led d'abolik, and so Hitchcock instead gained the rights of
the Living and the Dead from the same creators and
turned that into Vertigo instead. The influence of Led diabo
Leak on hitchcock Psycho is almost hard to deny both
of them, even including a murder located within a bathroom,
a location where we as audience members see as a
(13:11):
place of safety, which is then turned into a murderous scene.
Kluzell's marketing campaign for the film also included a no
spoiler warning for audience members. This was later replicated by
Hitchcock to the same vein with the release of Psycho
in nineteen sixty five, years after the release of Led d'abolik.
This can be looked at as to directors who highly
respected one another's work during their time. During the mid
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nineteen fifties, a production studio called Hammer Films became synonymous
with the horror genre after the release of their film
The Quartermass Experiment in nineteen fifty five, where the nineteen
thirty one universal monsters were black and white classics. Hammer
took the properties and made iconic colorized versions of the
films with significantly more on screen violence and bloodshed. This
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was due to the advent of technicolor, and in Dracula,
which has now been renamed as The Horror of Dracula,
is one of the first British horror films made using
d three strip Technicolor process. Although color was already prominent
throughout films during this time, with movies like Singing in
the Rain, The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind,
the technology of Technicolor was still very difficult to use
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on set, and horror films had a much lower budget
than other bigger Hollywood films that could comfortably use three
strip cameras on their movie sets. It wouldn't be until
the late nineteen fifties that color became more standardized in
movies with the advent of competition to Technicolor. Hammer Films
were what made actors like Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing
become so iconic in the horror community, and is what
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revitalized the production company into becoming such a powerhouse inside
of the horror genre. To avoid censorship from the BBFC,
the Hammer Film's company would regularly submit their films for
review in their black and white prints in order to
stifle the BBFC's recognition with their at the time extreme
uses of blood. The nineteen sixties was a very strict
(15:00):
time for horror films. A majority of audiences were still
burned out from the universal monster classics and the low
budget sci fi horror adjacent movies of the fifties. Horror
movies were put on the back burner of studio minds
as just cheap thrills. However, directors still found ways to
take the idea of horror movies and elevate them into
a new light, such as the works of Alfred Hitchcock,
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Roman Polanski, and even in Japan, as directors began melding
its culture's folklore mythologies into feature length films reflecting Western culture.
As this revival of feminism began to grow, instead of
placing stereotypical females into these horror movies, their characters became
more fleshed out and involved in the actual plot of
the films and not just being you know, damsels in distress.
(15:45):
This movement becomes a standard portrayal as we move into
the modern era of horror films, with concepts such as
the Final Girl trope, monstrous menstruation, and just general female empowerment.
Eyes Without a Face is a perfect example of a
female centered horror film about woman struggling to break out
of her father's patriarchy. It's a black and white French
movie revolving around a woman whose face becomes scarred and
(16:06):
misshapen due to a car accident, leaving only her eyes intact.
Her father and his assistant continuously insist that she wear
a featureless mask to hide her disfigurement as they kidnap
young women and graft their faces onto the daughter. Although
poorly received on its initial release, it gained higher critical
praise during its theatrical re release in nineteen eighty six,
over twenty five years since its original run, with its
(16:28):
influence reaching to as recent as the twenty eleven film
The Skin I Live In as its spiritual successor. Eyes
Without a Face came out during this French New Wave
movement where art house films became more prominent, and so
when Eyes without a Face was released in France, it
was probably shocking, I mean, in the nineteen sixties watching
this scene where they're pulling the face off of their
first victim is pretty gnarly for its time. It's so
(16:52):
eerie watching this woman walking around with this featureless mask,
longing for the outside world, to the point of calling
her fiance that thinks that she's dead, and just listening
to his voice over the phone, a scene that is
later replicated in Halloween when Michael picks up the phone
with Laurie on the other end of the line, and you've.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Been listening to Matt Castro tell one heck of a
tale about the development of horror films from the silent
era straight through to the breakthrough film Dracula, which spawned
by Universal, while many other horror films more akin to
monster films, Frankenstein a cinematic masterpiece, and then the Wolfman
series and the Ultimate were Wolf's subgenre, and then he
(17:33):
works his way through to King Khan to Godzilla and
then sort of the slow time of the nineteen sixties,
where horror films were seen as low rent, low budget
folks had lost their interest. There was Alfred Hitchcock still
playing in the game and a young director named Roman Polanski.
When we come back. The story of the history of
horror films continues here on our American story, and we
(18:09):
continue with our American stories and with Matt Castro telling
the story of the history of horror films. Let's pick
up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Nineteen sixty also saw the release of Alfred Hitchcock's most
famous film, Psycho, a motion picture that forever changed the
landscape of horror movies. At the time of its initial release,
there was no other movie that was as controversial, shocking,
and violent, leading to mixed reviews, only to be reassessed
years later. Much like Eyes Without a Face, from an
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opening scene with an unmarried woman laying in bed with
a man to the cross dressing likes of Norman Bates,
the film relentlessly attacks the audience with imagery far ahead
of its culture's time. The shower scene in Psycho is
famously displayed in fifty two cuts, rapidly spiced together, and
in a scene that only lasted about two minutes. It
(19:02):
disturbed audiences across the world. Not only did the movie
kill off what was believed as the main character halfway
through the film, it was incredibly violent and shocking for
its time. This scene is so significant you can draw
a visible line in the history of horror movies as
films before and films after the shower scene of Psycho.
(19:24):
Violence became a common aspect in films, and no longer
were horrors derived from monsters and creatures like Dracula and Godzilla. Instead,
the horrors were focused on the dark depths of the
seemingly normal people around you. Psycho has been referenced countless times.
It's one of the most recognizable movies in film history,
(19:45):
and its score is one of the most iconic to date. Again,
we also have these believable, relatable and independent female characters
that make up the cast of the movie, and not
just love interest for the male characters. When it comes
to of psychological films, Rosemary's Baby sits at the top
as one of the best. It's got an amazing soundtrack,
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and although it's not the first psychological horror film, it's
widely considered as the most quintessential along with Polanski's earlier
film Repulsion. Other films would follow in its steps for
psychological movies like The Shining and has become a recent
subgenre trend in horror films like The Bobb, a Duke
and Midsommer. Herreditary actually follows the same themes as Rosemary's
(20:28):
Baby like involuntary motherhood and using the occult to highlight
societal fears. Rosemary's Baby highlights the distrust of people moving
from rural homes to the city during the sixties, and
her Hereditary highlights the emotional distancing of the modern family.
The occult uses both divisions to then push their agenda.
The foundation of the psychological subgenre from Rosemary's Baby can
(20:50):
be seen in today's recent trend of horror films. Although
the reanimated dead in the film are never referred to
as zombies, the nineteen sixty eight end tendent classic Night
of the Living Dead marks the beginning of the modern
day zombie subgenre. Previously, zombies were referred to as mindless slaves,
usually created by voodoo rituals like I Walked with the Zombie.
(21:12):
But this idea of flesh eating cannibalism from reanimated corpses
was new territory, and the film shocked audiences with its
visceral images and black lead actor. From here in, movies
like Blackula became icons in the black community, where you
have these intelligent, in depth characters that aren't just furniture.
Night of the Living Dead encompassed the racial turmoil of
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the nineteen sixties, and as the decade passed with more
gruesome stories and terrifying films with relatable characters, we moved
into the nineteen seventies, where some of the greatest classics
and pioneers of the genre were created. The nineteen seventies
of horror is one of the golden ages of the genre,
out of the sheer amount of influential movies that came
(21:54):
out during the decade. This was also a time when
horror movies started to become increasingly more violent and grond,
leading to an influx in exploitation films. Word of movies
like The Last House on the Left spread like wildfire
through news stations and film critics. With how extreme the
movie was, it definitely helped shape this idea of just
how dark, twisted, and unnerving could a movie get. It
(22:16):
also began the creation of another subgenre called backwoods, along
with one of the most influential horror films of all time,
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, released in nineteen seventy four by
Toby Hooper, is a landmark movie in the horror genre.
An independent film that gained so much word of mouth
(22:36):
due to how much it disturbed people that it gained
a wide theatrical release and was subsequently banned by the
British Board of Film Censors, restricting the movie from being
shown in theaters or on television in the UK. With
how much the movie costs to make and how much
buzz it received, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre became a financial
success in the next couple of years, even with its restrictions.
(22:57):
The movie spark motivation and independent filmmaker to create these
strange and exploitive movies that push boundaries so their movies
can spread through word of mouth. However, watching the movie nowadays,
you'd be confused about how this shocks so many people
when it's so incredibly tamed. For a movie with chainsaw
in its name, there's barely any blood and gore in it.
Toby Hooper actually intentionally made the movie tame, with little
(23:20):
to no gore, no nudity, and mild cursing, hoping to
get a G rating, but ended up getting an X
and having to resubmit a cut version for it to
have an R rating. It really goes to show how
much atmosphere can really lend itself into making somebody feel
uncomfortable even when you're not seeing someone being dismembered by
a chainsaw on the screen. In fact, the Texas Chainsaw
(23:43):
Massacre wasn't legally available to Britain in a DVD or
VHS format until nineteen ninety nine. That's more than twenty
five years since its theatrical release. The Exorcist was released
one year before the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in nineteen seventy
three and became the first warlerror film to be nominated
for Best Picture, which is a massive milestone for the genre.
(24:04):
When it comes to accolades and awards, it's been documented
how much the genre has been shunned, with the Academy
generally looking down at the genre as subpar. Out of
the ninety five Academy Awards, only six horror movies have
been nominated for Best Picture. In all of cinema history,
horror films are more or less seen as cheap thrills
with no substance, and The Exorcist was able to break
(24:26):
that mold with its chilling atmosphere and the unsettling thought
of what could happen if your child was possessed by
the devil. The movie is so beautiful to watch and
breaks ground as a pioneer of the possession subgenre, followed
up by the Omen the Ambyville Horror, and more recently,
movies like The Extorcism of Emily Rose. Halloween is a
(24:47):
horror classic, not because it's particularly scary to a modern
day audience, but because of how inventive and progressive the
movie is with its low budget. What really sets the
movie apart is the soundtrack, which helps elevate the film,
becoming one of the most recognized motion picture soundtracks ever created.
With the growing popularity of the synthesizer and electronic music
(25:09):
in the seventies and eighties, it really defined the soundtrack
of horror films at the time. John Carpenter's Halloween was
filmed on a budget of three hundred thousand and couldn't
afford to have an orchestra or studio composed the film's score. Instead,
inspired by the Exorcist soundtrack and music from the band Goblin,
Carpenter created the movie's iconic Halloween soundtrack on his own
(25:31):
in the span of three days while the film was
shot in exactly twenty days, just looking at the ground
filled with dead leaves when the trees are visibly green
and healthy, really adds to its charm. The Halloween requel
in twenty eighteen actually pays homage to this by replicating
the same look. Although Halloween popularized the slasher genre, the
(25:51):
tropes you would come to know of the subgenre wouldn't
become cemented until the nineteen eighties when the horror genre exploded.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
And you've been listening to Matt Castro tell the story
of horror films, and my goodness, anyone who has seen
Psycho knows how much can be done with so little
actual gore. It's the anticipation of the gore in that
scene that's just so powerful. And nobody ever thought about
the bathroom the same way again, from sanctuary to terror
(26:24):
in no time at all. And then, of course the
other things that Psycho managed to do. It took the
evil and the monster and put it inside an ordinary man.
And this had not been done before, not quite this way,
leave it to Hitchcock the Master. And then comes the
psychological thriller Rosemary's Baby Roman Polanski, and from that springs
(26:44):
almost a new genre, leading to the Shining, then the
Night of the Living Dead and the zombie films and
then the Golden Age, the Golden Age of horror films,
leading with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist. By
the way, only six horror films nominated for Best Picture,
and The Exorcist was one. When we come back more
(27:06):
of this remarkable story, the history of horror films with
Matt Castro. Here on our American stories, and we continue
(27:38):
with our American stories and Matt Castro telling the story
of horror films, the history of horror films. Let's pick
up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Sean Cunningham, one of the co producers of The Last
House on the Left, directed the nineteen eighty film Friday
the Thirteenth, one of the longest running horror franchises of
all time. Made to capitalize on the type of Halloween,
Cunningham reportedly took an ad out in a newspaper to
sell a movie with just the name Friday the Thirteenth
and no script to back it up. Luckily for Cunningham,
(28:09):
the movie was a giant success, and by nineteen ninety
the franchise would have eight installments, releasing almost every single year.
During the decade. Jason Vorhees would become a horror movie Icon,
one of the first, along with Michael Meyers and Freddy Krueger,
since the universal monster classics to the point where it
would be more difficult to find someone that doesn't know
who he is. And with a lot of horror movie franchises,
(28:32):
you know, the original movie is usually the best. However,
Friday the Thirteenth is not one of those cases. I
think it's actually insane how bad the first Friday the
Thirteenth actually is. There's really no effect of scares throughout
the whole movie besides the startling ending where Jason comes
out of the water, and that's it. Also, God blessed
thom Savini that the effects are awesome. Jason isn't even
(28:55):
in the first film until then, and Missus Borhees is
such a flat character that you just don't care about
her at all. The acting isn't necessarily good, the story
isn't necessarily groundbreaking, and its cinematography isn't anything to write
home about. It's just a sleazy eighties slasher film, and
that's really the charm of the movies. The Friday the
Thirteenth franchise is best described as a sum of its
(29:18):
parts and not necessarily about its individual pieces. Its predecessors
in Halloween, Psycho, Black Christmas, and Peeping Tom, we're a
lot more classy and put the story first instead of
focusing on the death scenes. Friday Thirteenth went in the
opposite direction and instead filled the movies with these terrible,
unlikable teenage characters to the point where you begin rooting
(29:40):
for Jason to come in and recavoc Also, just watching
Jason's costumes slowly deteriorate over the course of the movies
is so much fun, with his mask becoming like damaged,
broken engrossed by the eighth film, a Nightmare on Elm
Street really does a great job of encapsulating everything about
the eighties but turning into a more visceral and supernatural
(30:02):
experience while still riding the tropes of the slasher genre.
Eighty fours Nightmare compared to the eighties Friday the Thirteenth
is such a huge difference in cinema. When he compared
the two slasher films together, even though you know Nightmare
never reached the same franchise height as Friday the Thirteenth did,
Nightmare on Elm Street went with a more surrealist approach
(30:22):
to the slasher subgenre, adding in these supernatural elements to
progress a story, which is what really separates itself from
the rest of the movies in the genre. There's actually
been a recent trend in slasher films that have begun
to follow in Nightmare on Elm Street steps by adding
in surreal or supernatural elements into their movies that other
more realism based slashers don't tread into. Wes Craven returned
(30:48):
to the horror genre once again with Scream in nineteen
ninety six, becoming an instant hit and reviving a genre
that had grown tired and repetitive, while also being an
ode to the horror films of the past. Even if
it can be a little on the nose, it has
an astounding opening scene that's one of the best cold
opens to a movie period. Not only are we pulled
into this story with a character that a modern day
(31:09):
audience can connect with, in the first twelve minutes, it
sets up the rest of the plot of the film.
What Scream does really well is that it really brings
a lot of love to the genre by using elements
from past films and bringing them back to life, like
the harassing phone calls from Black Christmas while elevating the
genre to new heights. Scream is a very important part
(31:30):
of the horror genre because it really helped elevate the
movies that came after it to create more dynamic and
interesting characters instead of just sending random, stereotypical people out
to the slaughter. The Blair Witch Project, released in nineteen
ninety nine, helped popularize the found footage subgenre, dating back
to Cannibal Holocaust. Found footage films try to blur this
(31:52):
line between reality and fiction, giving us these stories of
seemingly real scenarios with the camera acting as a window
for the audience. And while some films like to visually
show their scares and villains, the Blair Witch Project practices
in the art of what you don't see is scarier
than what you do. Found footage films helped filmmakers break
into the industry by utilizing the advent of digital cameras
(32:15):
to decrease cost while keeping the cast small to spend
as little money as possible to create something terrifying to
movie watchers marketed as a real documentary, to the point
of having missing posters for the actors pop up as
part of the marketing campaign, The blair Witch Project garnered
enough attention to media coverage to become one of the
highest grossing films to ever exist, Much like the marketing
(32:36):
campaign for Cloverfield, creators of the movie even launched a
website dedicated to the mythos of the Blair Witch in
order to help sell the film. Although movies like Cannibal
Holocaust predated the blair Witch Project in terms of found
footage movies, the blair Witch Project was the one that
popularized the subgenre. Released in nineteen ninety nine, the movie
would spark the idea of other found footage films going
(32:58):
into the two thousand, with movies like Paranormal Activity that
became commercialized into a franchise. The two thousands oozed with
great horror movies based on the nineteen ninety eight Japanese
horror film Ring View, which is based on the novel
of the same name. The Ring released in two thousand
and two with a rating of PG thirteen. Although the
(33:19):
Ring had little to know gore, the two thousands made
up for it by displaying some of the most graphic
special effects that would create a subgenre that plagued horror
films for years. In two thousand and four, James Wand
released Saw as his directorial debut that sparked a franchise
encompassing soon to be ten films, making it the longest
(33:41):
running horror franchise created in the twenty first century. You
can't talk about the two thousands of horror films without
mentioning them, Considering a new Saw film was released every
year for seven years. That's almost as consistent as Friday
the Thirteenth was in the eighties. Much like the nineteen
seven nineteen eighties, the twenty tens contain an outlandish amounts
(34:04):
of amazing horror films and media. The twenty tens were
a huge revival of the genre, with impactful films like
Jordan Peele's Get Out, along with Ariastris, Hereditary, and Midsommer.
The genre hit the mainstream at the start of twenty
ten when AMC released The Walking Dead, continuing to capitalize
on the zombie subgenre that became popular thanks to the
(34:25):
zombie Crazy that quickly gained steam throughout the two thousands.
The horror genre would also evolve throughout the decade as
streaming services created horror movies and TV shows that helped
hook the public audience into the genre, much like Mike
Flanagan's Haunting of Hillhouse. Episodic horror became a large trend
into twenty tens for both television and streaming services, pulling
(34:46):
the inspiration of their format from the anthology shows of
the past like Tales from the Crypt or The Twilight Zone.
By releasing new episodes every week, online streaming services let
horror fans binge hours of content instead of waiting on
a week basis, and exploded when shows like Stranger Things
became cultural icons. The twenty ten sought out a revival
(35:09):
for horror films with more sophisticated stories, characters, and cinematography
and its independent films, and as the indie scene became
more prominent as streaming services began to take over, commercialized
horror films began to blossom with the beginning of Blumhouse Productions.
On a budget of one point five million Insidius would
go on to make back over one hundred million dollars
(35:30):
and sparked the trend of supernatural horror films from the
twenty tens. James Juand went on to create the Conjuring Breathing,
an entire cinematic universe for horror fans with New Line
Cinema and cementing his mark on modern day horror films.
Blumhouse Productions continues to make low budget films such as
Upgrade Whiplash, Black Clansmen, and twenty eighteen's Halloween Recoil. However,
(35:54):
its most influential horror film is Jordan Peele's get Out
from twenty seventeen. Out is the six horror film to
ever be nominated for Best Picture out of the over
ninety year span that the Academy Awards have been around,
with Jordan Peele making waves being nominated for Best Director
in a low budget debut feature film. Commercial studios have
(36:15):
been pushing horror films into theaters because of how well
they're consistently doing compared to the superhero films of today.
Horror movies have been hitting box office records more often
than any other genre in the industry. We currently live
in a world where horror films are slowly becoming more
recognized for the amount of sheer talent that's been consistently
represented throughout the history of the genre. Films that would
(36:37):
have once passed through studio's eyes are now readily available
and created by these loving directors that enjoy the genre
as much as any horror fan would. With films and
TV shows popping up from all around the world, even
foreign films are beginning to become accepted by Western media.
All of these movies and their culmination of history makes
watching a horror film become increasingly more in interesting when
(37:00):
you can spot the homages and references that the movies
are calling out, along with topics that you don't see
discussed very often in other movies outside of the genre.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by Rowna Madison Derricott and a special thanks to Matt
Castro and you can watch his definitive story of the
history of horror films on YouTube. Go to his YouTube channel,
Magic carp Used Fly and you won't be disappointed again.
It's Matt Castro. Google his name, go to YouTube and
(37:32):
watch his material. It's terrific and what a story he
told the eighties. The Friday of the thirteenth series begins
and by the way, taking an ad out before your
script's written. Talk about a daring piece of marketing. Then
came Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream and then the Blair
Witch Project, which was a sort of a fake real
(37:52):
documentary which just took the country by storm. Then the
Golden Age of the two thousands, it just kept going
into the twenty tens, horror films and the genre of
horror was here to stay, even on streaming with shows
like Stranger Things. The story of horror films here on
our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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