JP. History of Horror Research

Why are stories that 'aim to scare their audience' so popular?

• Stories that aim to scare their audience have become increasingly popular, Daniel Cohen observes that 'Cultures create and scribe meaning to monsters, endowing them with characteristics derived from their most deep-seated fears'. 
• Audiences have become increasingly exposed to things so film companies need to be more expressive with their story's to grab the audiences attention

What insight can the study of horror monsters give?

• A study of horror monsters can give a good reference into the worry's and concerns of the culture; many horror trends can represent what people are afraid of. 
• For example when the A Nightmare of Elm Street (Craven, 1984) came out, there was a worry of child molesters at the time and although Craven changed Freddy Kreuger from a molester into a murderer but there were still scenes referencing him being a molester such as when Nancy is in the bath he reaches in between her legs.

What did Nosferatu (1922), one of the earliest horror films use the vampire as a metaphor for?

• In Nosferatu (1922) they referred the vampire as an invader that comes from elsewhere which can be interpreted sexually but since Germany was just recovering from the poverty and disease from WWI and with Nosferatu's rat like appearance I would say it was a metaphor for the disease that was unwanted and came from elsewhere. 

Read to the end of the article. Make notes on how there are different readings of horror based on socio/cultural contexts of the decade

Similarly to Nosferatu,  Frankenstein (Whale, 1932) was also influenced by what was going on culturally at the time. When Frankenstein was made during the great depression during which the Russian revolution occurred, in Frankenstein the anger is directed at the monster rather than the ruling class which reflects what was happening at the time. 

• There were different interpretations of the context such as how we sympathise the monster represents the racial tensions which were currently rising in American culture and the monsters death showed how one cannot integrate into another society. 
• During the 1960s; as the social times changed it was reflected in the horror monsters. The first film of the decade was Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) in which the monster is a normal man who goes crazy similarly to Peeping tom (Powell, 1960) 
• These type of horror films create an unsettling amount of realism. By the end of the decade a lot of racial tension was occurring in society, during this time no one would ever think that a main character would ever be a black male but Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968) challenged this. 
• As horror moved into the late 1970s, the films became increasingly violent with The last house on the left (Craven, 1972) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974)

In the final paragraph, why according to Hendry is horror still relevant to audiences?

• Horror is the one genre which has the ability to change to fit into each generations concerns and feelings and that is why horror is still relevant to audiences and will always be