My History Of Horror - An Overlooked Genre Of Cinema

Spoiler Warning - some spoilers for The Exorcist, The Babadook, Rosemary's Baby and The Ring

I've previously written a blog about how I consider musicals the worst genre of cinema (and I stand by that) but horror is also an area of cinema that I don't know much about. I was given a very poor introduction to horror through films like Halloween and Child's Play and I maintain that they are awful films. I've never really cared for any of the "slasher" films and I don't like Scream - although that might be more because I was less aware of the conventions they were playing with. A few years ago I watched a very interesting series A History of Horror made and presented by Mark Gatiss. I'm a big fan of Mark Gatiss and despite not knowing much about horror it was very interesting and it did kindle my enthusiasm for getting better acquainted with horror.

I don't like having such gaps in my cinematic knowledge so I sought out horror films that might be worth watching. One of the first was Rosemary's Baby, Roman Polanski's classic horror film about satanists trying to bring forth the birth of the antichrist. I loved the film and the creeping sense of terror and paranoia that took over Rosemary as she slowly became aware of the plot to make her child the antichrist. It is another film that told the viewer don't trust anyone and the closer they were to you just meant they could hurt you more. For a large part of  the film it is unclear whether the satanists are really in touch with the Devil or just think they are. The behaviour of Rosemary's husband was typical not just of being involved a satanic cult but also an abusive husband; belittling Rosemary's opinions, keeping her from seeing friends and family, and trying to control more and more of her life. The shocking conclusion to the film is that Rosemary does give birth and the baby is indeed the child of satan and as the film ends it seemed that Rosemary had agreed to raise the child.

Halloween is a good opportunity to seek out horror films and I picked three- The Exorcist, The Ring and The Babadook and I felt this represented a good range of horror films, a classic Hollywood film, a more modern example in The Ring and absolutely bang up to date with The Babadook. As with Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist is a classic film that I had wanted to watch for some time. I was a little disappointed with the film but bits of it were excellent. Essentially it is the story of a demonic possession and is one of those films that is stitched into culture and parts are so familiar from parodies and other films it has influenced. It also had an excellent soundtrack which turned a rather innocuous tune into something deeply sinister.

 The stand out performance was of the mother of the possessed child and she excellently portrayed the exhaustion and panic that someone going through such a process would have. To the film's credit they spent a long time with doctors pursuing a medical or psychological explanation and it was only in desperation that they turned to an exorcism. Another brilliant move was to have Father Karras be a trained psychiatrist and was as skeptical as anyone about demonic possession.

Next up was The Babadook.This film dealt with some very dangerous territory; what if a parent hated and/or resented their child? The film is about a mother and her young son. the son was going through a difficult time in that he had a lot of nightmares about monsters and so would be unable to sleep, meaning the mother couldn't sleep either. The mother relied on the tested method of reading to her child to get him back to sleep and on one occasion the child picked a book neither of them recognised - The Babadook. It started off being very jolly and the sort of thing for children before completely changing tone and scaring the child senseless. What followed was the Babadook, a sort of ghost and/or monster terrorising the family, who has been seemingly summoned by the reading of the book. At one point the monster seemed to even possess the mother and the possibility of her killing her child is raised. The issue of resenting and or hating the child is skilfully dealt with. The mother's husband died in a car accident driving them to the hospital so she could give birth to the child. Even before the terror of the babadook the mother seemed to be close to some sort of breakdown. When the Babadook possessed her this tension is ramped up and at some points seemed to be on the verge of trying to kill the child. The film dealt with issues of mental illness and depression very well and some people have suggested all the bad things are only happening in the mother's mind.


And so to The Ring. This is the original Japanese version which everybody seemed to agree was far superior to the American remake. I was on the understanding this it was a very scary film and while I enjoyed it I didn't find it particularly scary. I think many of the things I found odd about the film are probably just conventions of Japanese cinema. For example out of the blue one character stated he was psychic and that was never explored or questioned it was just accepted. One character, an elderly Japanese man, is one of the worst actors I've ever seen and whatever he tried to do seemed completely unreal and staged; at times reminded me of the Richard Ayoade's brilliant comedy performance of Dean Lerner/Thornton Reed.

Thornton Reed Bad Actor

There were also some moments that felt more comedic than horrific. Some time ago I watched the recent Japanese film 13 Assassins and while for most of the time it was a very serious, sometimes brutal, samurai film there were odd comedic moments that didn't match the tone of the rest of the film. The initial idea of watching a cursed tape that will lead to your death was very good, especially if like me you're watching it on dvd, but I was surprised at how quickly the characters accepted the curse was happening. Something the four horror films I've mentioned all have in common is children. Obviously in Rosemary's Baby there is a baby, in the Exorcist it is a young girl who is being possessed, in The Babadook the child is one of the two central characters and in The Ring the fact that the main character's son watched the tape has raised the stakes considerably. It is no surprise that anything where children are going to be harmed makes everything a bit more dramatic.


Bringing it back to Mark Gatiss I suppose I did watch some horror on television; namely The League of Gentlemen. Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson formed the bizarre sketch troupe in the mid nineties (and won the Perrier award at the Edinburgh Fringe) and although it was first and foremost a comedy it had plenty of horror. There was the mysterious butcher selling an unknown and addictive "meat", the odd family of toad enthusiasts with their twin daughters who act like the sisters in The Shining, the gypsy circus ringmaster who kidnaps women (who apparently many do find terrifying) and, of course, the proprietors of the local shop who only serve local people. I didn't like the show at first as I think I expected a normal comedy and found it all very weird but I stuck with it and found it to be one of the funniest programmes on television. Mark Gatiss is probably better known now for his contributions to Doctor Who and Sherlock but I still think of him as one of the League of Gentlemen. Shearsmith and Pemberton continued to work together and produced the even weirder Psychoville where horror is far more part of the show and the brilliant Inside Number Nine which at times forgoes comedy altogether and episodes will just be horror (and sometimes oddly emotional as well). Each episode of Inside Number 9 is it's own story with new characters, the hook being they all take place in a place denoted by the number '9'. The first series had an episode almost set entirely in a cupboard with people playing 'sardines', whereas the next episode had virtually no dialogue and relied on silent comedy. The second series has continued in this vein with all kinds of different settings.

 The assorted League of Gentlemen team have always worn their references and influences on their sleeve and I think I must have missed many of the horror references in their work (I did catch the episode of Psychoville which was a homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Rope in which the story took place in realtime and is about people hiding the body of someone they've murdered).

A less funny example of horror television is American Horror Story. I am years behind with this show and only just watching the first season but was intrigued when I learned about how each season works. The first season is very much focused on a particular house that the lead characters move into to. But each new season keeps the cast of actors but has them play completely new characters in a new location and a different theme. So the first season is mainly about this house, Season 2 an asylum, season 3 a coven of witches and so on. Again it took me a little while to get into the show but once I did I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wouldn't say it has been scary as yet but I am considering skipping season 2 completely as anything set in an asylum really freaks me out, whether it be One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest which is a brilliant film that I own but have only watched once or the episode of Peep Show where they keep trying to get each other sectioned under the mental health act.  I do feel that not watching a horror show because it might potentially be too scary can only be a strong recommendation.

So far getting more into horror has only been a good thing but I am sure there are plenty of bad horror films waiting to be watched.