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100 years of horror: a history of modern horror movies

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100 years of horror: a history of modern horror movies

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100 YEARS OF HORROR:
A HISTORY OF MODERN HORROR MOVIES

by

Trevor Keyfauver

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND
JOURNALISM
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM (THE ARTS)

May 2022

Copyright 2022 Trevor Keyfauver

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract.........................................................................................................................................................ii

Introduction, Summary and Link to Podcast……………………………………………………………….1

Chapter 1: Episode 1 Script: The Phantoms and Monsters of World War: 1920s-1930…………………...3

Chapter 2: Episode 2 Script: A Wolf and an Alien Walk into a Bar: 1940s-1950s……………………….27

Chapter 3: Episode 3 Script: Hippies, Slashers and Babies, Oh My!: 1960s-1970s………………………40

Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................59

ii

Abstract
Like most other film genres, horror films are a cultural mainstay. They delight in
shocking, scaring and delighting audiences the world over. Horror films have been a part of the
collective consciousness since the earliest days of the artform. They also have a special place
within moviegoing audiences’ hearts: they are meant to shock and startle, but also compel
audiences back for more repeated jolts due to the strength of the artistic material tackling
pressing and important issues of its day. This thesis podcast project is meant to examine the
evolution and history of horror films as dictated by sociological, political, and historical contexts.
By delving into classic and modern horror films and unpacking the underlying subtext of some
of cinema’s most powerful works, audiences can pinpoint not only the cultural inspirations of
their cinematic nightmares, but also examine the symbiotic relationship between how world
events shape the art that shape our daily lives, and vice versa.

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Introduction, Summary and Link to Podcast
This podcast, about the evolution of horror movies based on sociological, historical, and
political contexts, sometime in undergraduate college. But even before that, I’ve always loved
movies. Loved them. Couldn’t get enough of them. While other kids were jumping hoop or
skateboarding, I would watch movies, especially those like the classic 1940s and ‘50s movies,
and of course the Universal Monsters. The Universal Monsters are some of my earliest memories
both of film and of horror. They held a great place in my heart, though I couldn’t tell you why
they were close to me at age 5. I just really felt sorry for the guys, something a little unexpected
for a kid who watches those movies. When I think of film, no other genre like horror can do it
justice. It’s almost a perfect genre for the silver screen: horror is a very intimate and personal
item, and in an intimate artform like film, your greatest fears can come alive just like you had
imagined.
I first began thinking of a project to approach the history of horror movies from a
sociological approach while I was a freshman living in London. We had to do a final project on
the ways art and culture can carry sociological contexts. I’ve always loved horror films because,
to me, they’ve always reflected a societal cause that was plaguing the country and world at that
time. I chose to discuss, briefly, how horror movies evolve with, and because of, the times. I got
such positive feedback on it that, when I started to develop this thesis project, it immediately
reignited the spark that got me interested in the project again. I had to dig deeper and learn how
films in a decade present similar issues to each other.
My first hope for this project was to make it into a 5-epiosde series, each episode
covering 2 decades, and so I set to work on my research. Of course, many great books were used
like Rick Worland’s “The Horror Film: An Introduction,” and David J Skal’s “The Monster

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Show,” as well as extensive interviews with horror and film experts across the world. Most
importantly, I sat down to make myself become an expert in horror, by watching every single
film that I discuss in this podcast series. These three components of research came to be
somewhat slow-going, especially with collecting interviews, and so my original 5-episode plan
had to be cut down to a 3-episode plan, with the 2 episodes dealing with horror films from the
‘80s to 2020 and beyond. My focus became to put as much production work as I could behind
my three episodes being submitted. The other two will be completed later after graduation, as
this is a project I am still interested in pursuing after school to see it through to completion, so I
can have more time to work on it at my own pace. Think of this podcast like a podcast “project
proposal” for what I hope the whole project will sound like.
I think the biggest thing I learned about horror films, and art in general, are that horror
films can show us parts of ourselves we didn’t even know we are capable of. Horror movies are
extremely humanistic, focusing on the never-ending struggle of the human condition persevering
over the odds, and really, doesn’t great art always have a human element at its core? Another thing
I learned from producing this project is that horror movies, much like world history, is cyclical.
By looking at the state of the times and where society is at, we can see not only where horror
movies will go to see how they play up that fear on the screen, but it may also show us where we,
as a society, are headed next.
Link: https://open.spotify.com/show/0RLvhhShoNv9kUg7fQmxh6?si=3fdb34ac267649d0

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Chapter 1: Episode 1 Script: The Phantoms and Monsters of World War: 1920s-1930s

TRACK: HELLO, AND WELCOME TO “100 YEARS OF HORROR,” A PODCAST SERIES
DEDICATED TO BREAKING DOWN THE EVOLUTION OF HORROR MOVIES BASED
ON EVENTS THROUGHOUT WORLD HISTORY. I’M YOUR HOST, TREVOR
KEYFAUVER.
TRACK: TODAY, IN OUR FIRST EPISODE, WE’LL EXAMINE THE ORIGINS OF
FEATURE LENGTH HORROR MOVIES. WE’LL DISCUSS HOW THE FIRST WORLD
WAR WAS THE CATALYST THAT SPAWNED A FILM GENRE THAT PRODUCED
SOME OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FILMS OF ALL TIME. THROUGH AN
EXAMINATION OF THESE FILMS, AUDIENCES WHO ARE EAGER LISTENERS WILL
BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY NOT ONLY WHAT INSTILLS FEAR IN THEM, BUT ALSO
IDENTIFY SOCIETY’S COLLECTIVE FEARS. HOPEFULLY, AUDIENCES CAN START
TO PINPOINT THE DIRECTION HORROR MOVIES WILL GO AS WE BOLDLY MOVE
INTO AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE. BUT FOR NOW, SIT BACK AND RELAX, AS WE
DELVE INTO “100 YEARS OF HORROR.” JOIN ME…IF YOU DARE.
SOT: THEME MUSIC
TRACK: TO UNDERSTAND HORROR MOVIES AS A WHOLE, WE FIRST NEED TO
LOOK AT WHAT THE WORD “HORROR” MEANS. THE QUESTION SEEMS SIMPLE,
BUT IT’S DIFFICULT TO ANSWER. OXFORD DICTIONARY DEFINES HORROR AS
“AN INTENSE FEELING OF FEAR, SHOCK, AND DISGUST,” AND IF YOU ASK PEOPLE
ON THE STREET, THEY’D PROBABLY GIVE YOU THE SAME ANSWER. BUT WHAT
HORROR MEANS TO PEOPLE IS ANOTHER QUESTION ENTIRELY, AND EVERYONE

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WILL GIVE YOU A PERSONAL ANSWER. RATS ARE MY GREATEST FEAR, BUT
SOME PEOPLE ENJOY THEM AS PETS.
TRACK: HORROR CAN COME IN MANY DIFFERENT SHAPES AND FORMS, BUT THE
FEAR OF DYING IS ALWAYS AT THE CORE OF HORROR STORIES. IT’S THE FORM
OF DEATH THAT CHANGES THROUGHOUT THE DECADES IN RESPONSE TO
WORLD EVENTS. MY THEORY IS THAT WE CAN TRACE THE EVOLUTION OF
HORROR MOVIES BASED ON CONTEMPORARY WORLD EVENTS. THAT MEANS
THE WORD “HORROR” IS A MALLEABLE TERM, WHICH EVOLVES WITH THE
TIMES, GIVING THE GENRE A FRESHNESS AND INVENTIVENESS THAT MAKES IT
UNIQUE. HORROR IS A GENRE OF DEEP FANTASY AND IMAGINATION, WHERE
CREATORS AND ARTISTS HAVE PLUMBED DARK DEPTHS TO HOLD A MIRROR UP
TO SOCIETY’S INJUSTICES AND INEQUALITIES.
TRACK: IN TODAY’S EPISODE, LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT HOW CINEMATIC HORROR
GOT ITS START.
TRACK: FIRST, LET’S LOOK AT WHERE HORROR COMES FROM. HORROR HAS
EXISTED FOR CENTURIES IN MANY FORMS, BUT TO FIND WHERE MODERN
HORROR COMES FROM, OR WHEN HORROR BEGAN TO REFLECT SOCIETY’S
FEARS, WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE LATE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY, WHEN GOTHIC FICTION REIGNED SUPREME.
SOT: SPOOKY CLASSICAL SOUNDING MUSIC
TRACK: GOTHIC FICTION WAS A GENRE OF WRITING WHERE THE SETTING
CREATED A FOREBODING, SCARY MOOD. THE FIRST KNOWN WORK OF FICTION

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TO HAVE ACCOMPLIHED THIS IS HORACE WALPOLE’S NOVEL “THE CASTLE OF
OTRANTO,” WHICH IS SET IN A HAUNTED CASTLE AND MERGED MEDIEVALISM
AND TERROR.
TRACK: WALPOLE WAS THE YOUNGEST SON OF BRITAIN’S FIRST PRIME
MINISTER. HE WAS INSPIRED TO WRITE THE TALE AFTER HAVING A NIGHTMARE
IN HIS GOTHIC REVIVAL HOME, STRAWBERRY HILL HOUSE. THE BOOK WAS A
HUGE SUCCESS, AND SPAWNED A WHOLE LITERARY GENRE, WHERE SOME OF
THE GREATEST ARCHITECTS OF HORROR MADE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES,
INCLUDING MARY SHELLEY, BRAM STOKER, ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, AND
EDGAR ALLAN POE.
TRACK: ON THE SURFACE, THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO SEEMS TO BE ABOUT
NOBILITY IN ENGLAND UNDER THE VENGEFUL WATCH OF GHOSTS. BUT MANY
HAVE ARGUED THAT THE BOOK IS A METAPHOR FOR WALPOLE GRAPPLING
WITH HIS SEXUALITY. WALPOLE NEVER MARRIED, WHICH WAS QUITE UNUSUAL
FOR NOBLE GENTLEMAN OF HIS STATURE. HE ENGAGED IN SUCCESSIVE
FLIRTATIONS WHICH WERE UNCONSUMMATED WITH UNMARRIAGBLE WOMEN
AND COUNTED AMONGST HIS FRIENDS WOMEN SUCH AS ANNE SEYMOUR
DAMER AND MARY BERRY, WHO WERE REPORTEDLY LESBIANS. FURTHERMORE,
THE BOOK SEEKS TO CHARACTERIZE FLAMBOYANT AND EFFEMINATE
BEHAVIOR AS UNNATURAL AND DEMONIC. WALPOLE WAS DESCRIBED BY PEERS
OF HIS TIME AS ‘EFFEMINATE.’
TRACK: WRITER MAX FINCHER ARGUES THAT THE ANTAGONIST OF THE NOVEL,
MANFRED, IS PREOCCUPIED WITH THE THREAT OF HIS IDENTITY BEING

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DISCOVERED IN A WAY THAT PARALLELS THE FEAR OF HOMOEROTIC DESIRE
BEING DISCOVERED. FINCHER ALSO ARGUES THAT THE NOVEL’S MISOGYNY IS
AN ATTEMPT TO PROJECT MASCULINITY, OVERCOMPENSATING FOR THE
CHARACTER’S QUEERNESS AND WEAKNESSES.
TRACK: “THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO” WAS THE FIRST WORK THAT TRAFFICKED IN
HORROR, BUT ALSO HAD SEVERAL LITERARY IDEAS AND SUBTEXTS. IT WAS THE
FIRST WORK TO BUILD ITS PLOT AROUND RESTLESS SPIRITS, AGELESS
MONSTERS, AND UNRESOLVED SINS OF THE PAST COMING BACK TO HAUNT
THEIR CHARACTERS, TROPES THAT STILL EXIST IN HORROR MOVIES TODAY.
THIS WAS A HUGE STEP FORWARD FOR THE GENRE, AND MANY OTHER
LANDMARK STORIES FOLLOWED THROUGHOUT THE NEXT CENTURY.
TRACK: LET'S JUMP AHEAD TO THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, AND
THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH, WHEN MOVIES WERE FIRST INVENTED.
SOT: UPBEAT TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY MUSIC
TRACK: IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY, MAGICIAN-TURNED-FILMMAKER
GEORGES MELIES FIRST SAW THE MOTION PICTURE CAMERA’S ABILITY TO
DISTORT AND TRANSFORM REALITY, STOP TIME, AND MANIPULATE PHYSICAL
SPACE AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO TRANSCEND THE LIMITATIONS OF STAGE
MAGIC. HE CONSTRUCTED A LARGE GLASS-ENCLOSED STUDIO, WITH A GROUP
OF ACTORS AND TECHNICIANS THAT PRODUCED OVER 500 SHORT FILMS. HE
SPECIALIZED IN MAKING “TRICK” FILMS: MOVIES THAT COMBINED STOP-
CAMERA SUBSTITUTION EFFECTS WITH EDITING, DOUBLE EXPOSURES,

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SUPERIMPOSITIONS, AND OTHER PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSIONS TO CREATE
SPECIAL EFFECTS LIKE INSTANTANEOUS MATERIALIZATIONS, SUDDEN
TRANSFORMATIONS, AND OTHER STRANGE OCCURRENCES.
TRACK: THESE EFFECTS OFTEN INVOLVED FANTASTICAL OR MONSTROUS
CREATURES OR DEVILS PURSUING THE PROTAGONISTS OF THE FILM, PLAYING
WITH HORROR IN A FANTASTICAL SENSE. MORE THAN ANYTHING, MELIES
ASSIGNED A SPECTACLE TO FANTASY AND HORROR MOVIES THAT HAVE
BECOME HALLMARKS OF THE GENRE. THE ORIGIN OF HORROR AS A FEATURE-
LENGTH FILM DIDN’T COME UNTIL THE END OF THE DECADE, BECAUSE, IN
ORDER FOR TERROR TO BE REBORN IN A NEW ARTFORM, SOMETHING EQUALLY
HORRIFIC HAD TO TAKE PLACE FIRST. FEATURE-LENGTH HORROR FILMS WERE A
REACTION TO ONE OF THE GREATEST HORRORS THE MODERN WORLD HAS EVER
SEEN: WORLD WAR 1, OR THE WAR TO END ALL WARS.
SOT: OMINOUS MUSIC
TRACK: THE WAR CLAIMED 9 MILLION LIVES IN COMBAT, WHILE OVER 5
MILLION CIVILIANS DIED FROM HUNGER, BOMBARDMENT OR DISEASE.
GENOCIDES AND THE 1918 SPANISH FLU PANDEMIC CLAIMED MILLIONS MORE.
WORLD WAR 1 SAW THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN WARFARE, WITH
MILITARIES TAKING ADVANTAGE OF NEW WEAPON TECHNOLOGY, SUCH AS
MACHINE GUNS AND GRENADES, MUSTARD AND TEAR GAS, TANKS, AND
AIRPLANES. IT WAS THE MOST SERIOUS CONFLICT THE WORLD HAD EVER SEEN
UP UNTIL THAT POINT, LASTING FROM 1914 TO 1918. AT THE END OF THE
1910S, THE MODERN HORROR MOVIE EMERGED, AND IT IS HERE WE WILL

8

DIVERGE AND FOCUS ON TWO SEPARATE COUNTRIES: GERMANY AND THE U.S.
THESE TWO COUNTRIES MADE THE MOST NOTABLE EXAMPLES OF ARTISTIC
FILMS THAT ARE STILL HELD IN HIGH REGARD TODAY.
TRACK: WE’RE GOING TO DISCUSS TWO DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, BUT REALLY
MODERN HORROR FILMS WERE BORN FROM GERMANY. AMERICA DIDN’T
REALLY DELVE INTO FULL-FLEDGED HORROR UNTIL THE END OF THE 1920S,
WHEN THE DEPRESSION HIT. TO UNDERSTAND WHY FULL-LENGTH HORROR
MOVIES CAME FROM GERMANY, YOU MUST CONSIDER THE PERSPECTIVE OF
GERMANS, AND IT WAS A DECIDEDLY MISERABLE TIME TO BE A GERMAN
CITIZEN. THINK ABOUT IT: THE COUNTRY HAD JUST LOST A WAR THAT, IF THEY
HAD WON IT, COULD HAVE POISED THEIR RISE AS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL
NATIONS ON EARTH. THE ECONOMY HAD BEEN DEVASTATED BECAUSE OF WAR
SPENDING, NOT TO MENTION THE THOUSANDS OF GERMAN LIVES LOST IN THE
COMBAT. ON TOP OF ALL THAT, THEIR POLITICAL SYSTEM WAS BEING THROWN
INTO UPHEAVAL. KAISER WILHELM THE SECOND ABDICATED, AND THERE WAS
REVOLUTIONARY SENTIMENT DUE TO THE COUNTRY’S LOSS. IN FACT, THE
ENTIRE COUNTRY OF GERMANY WAS THROWN INTO PSYCHOLOGICAL
UPHEAVAL, CONVINCED THEY DID NOT LOSE THE WAR. MANY FELT THEY WERE
STABBED IN THE BACK BY GERMAN CITIZENS ON THE HOMEFRONT, AND
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISTS, AND MOST NOTABLY, THE JEWS. POLITICAL
CARTOONS FROM THE TIME, DEPICT GERMAN SOLDIERS ON THE FRONTLINES,
RIFLES AIMED AT THE READY, WHILE A JEWISH MAN WITH A NASTILY
ELONGATED NOSE AND A DEVILISH SMILE CREEPS UP BEHIND THE SOLDIER

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WITH A KNIFE DRAWN. GERMANY WAS IN A CHAOTIC MINDSET AS THE NEW
WEIMAR REPUBLIC TOOK SHAPE. GERMANS WERE UNABLE TO ACCEPT THAT
THEY HAD BEEN STRONG ARMED MILITARILY BY THE ALLIED POWERS AND
WERE OUT OF RESERVES BY THE TIME THEY LOST IN 1918. DR. RICK WORLAND,
A PROFESSOR OF FILM AND MEDIA ARTS AT SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY
AND AUTHOR, IS AN EXPERT ON HORROR MOVIES, AND THEIR RISE OUT OF
WORLD WAR ONE.
SOT: Rick Worland, Author and Professor of Film and Media Studies: “It was coupled with that
era of hyperinflation in the early 1920s, when the money in Germany was virtually worthless.”
TRACK: THERE WERE POLITICAL MURDERS AND TWO ATTEMPTED POWER
SEIZURES BY CONTENDING PARAMILITARIES, AS WELL AS CONTENTIOUS
RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE VICTORS OF WORLD WAR 1. FROM THESE ASHES
AROSE “THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI”, DIRECTED BY ROBERT WIENE AND
RELEASED IN 1920.THE FIRST FEATURE LENGTH HORROR FILM WAS BORN.
SOT: Rick Worland: “There seems to be no question that the First World War was such a trauma
in Europe and North America, that it really produced this kind of flowering of modernist art in
the 1920s across the board as a reaction to just trying to process this horrible thing that had
happened.”
SOT: MYSTERIOUS MUSIC FROM “CALIGARI”
TRACK: HANS JANOWITZ AND CARL MAYER, THE SCREENWRITERS OF CALIGARI,
BOTH WERE INSPIRED TO WRITE THE FILM AFTER THEIR EXPERIENCES IN
WORLD WAR 1. JANOWITZ WAS A YOUNG GERMAN MAN WHO WAS EAGER TO

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JOIN THE WAR EFFORT. HE BECAME AN OFFICER IN AN INFANTRY REGIMENT
BUT WAS TURNED INTO A PACIFIST BY WHAT HE HAD SEEN. HE WAS
CONVINCED THAT HE HAD BEEN LIED TO BY AN UNTRUSTWORTHY AUTHORITY
WHO HAD SENT MILLIONS OF MEN TO THEIR DEATH FOR NOTHING.
TRACK: LIKEWISE, MAYER WANTED TO AVOID CONSCRIPTION, SO HE FEIGNED
INSANITY, AND HAD TO SUFFER THROUGH INTENSE QUESTIONING BY MILITARY
PSYCHIATRISTS. THE TWO MEN SET OUT TO WRITE A FILM THAT REPRESENTED
THE FEELINGS MANY GERMAN CITIZENS HAD TOWARDS THE GERMAN
GOVERNMENT AND THEIR AUTHORITY AT THE TIME: THEY WERE NOT TO BE
TRUSTED.
SOT: Rick Worland: “Many of the soldiers on both sides who had fought in the war and average
people, when it was over, just found the whole experience to be completely worthless, to have
just been an utter horror for no particular reason…It’s about the waste of youth.”
TRACK: THE FILM FOLLOWS FREDERICK, A YOUNG MAN WHO TELLS HIS STORY
OF HOW HE AND HIS SWEETHEART WERE TERRORIZED BY EVIL FORCES. DR.
CALIGARI, PLAYED BY WERNER KRAUSSE, IS A CROTCHETY OLD MAN HUNCHED
OVER WITH COMICALLY LARGE GLASSES AND A SNEERING GRIN. HE’S A
SHOWMAN, WHO COMES TO A TOWN NAMED HOLSTENWAL WITH A
SOMNAMBULIST NAMED CESARE, PLAYED BY CONRAD VEIDT. CESARE TELLS
PEOPLE WHEN THEY ARE GOING TO DIE. BY NIGHT, HOWEVER, THE DOCTOR
COMMANDS CESARE TO COMMIT SENSELESS MURDERS, TERRORIZING THE
RESIDENTS. ONE NIGHT CESARE IS SENT TO KILL A YOUNG WOMAN, WHO IS
FREDERICK’S SWEETHEART. BUT INSTEAD OF KILLING HER, HE KIDNAPS HER,

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FLEEING WITH HER UNTIL AUTHORITIES CATCH UP AND KILL HIM. CALIGARI
PROCEEDS TO RUN AWAY, WITH FREDERICK FOLLOWING HIM. IT TURNS OUT
CALIGARI RUNS AN INSANE ASYLUM ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE TOWN, AND
HE’S CONVINCED HE NEEDS TO COMMIT MURDER. IN THE END, IT’S REVEALED
THAT FREDERICK WAS INSANE ALL ALONG, AND CALIGARI AND CESARE,
INSTEAD OF BEING MONSTROUS VILLAINS, ARE THE GENTLE HEAD OF THE
ASYLUM AND A HARMLESS PATRON OF IT.
TRACK: THIS FILM IS THE QUINTESSENTIAL EXAMPLE OF GERMAN
EXPRESSIONISM IN CINEMA, AN ART FORM THAT HAD BEEN TAKING SHAPE
DURING GERMANY’S ISOLATION DURING WARTIME. EXPRESSIONISM DID NOT
TRY TO REPRESENT REALITY OUTRIGHT, BUT TO SHOW REALITY THROUGH THE
PERSPECTIVE OF ITS WARPED AND BROKEN CHARACTERS, ESSENTIALLY
RENDERING NIGHTMARE LANDSCAPES.
SOT: Rick Worland: “What I think is important and interesting about ‘Caligari’ is that…the
treatment of it, the visual design of it, went hand in hand with the presentation of the
story…They were thinking along the lines of some kind of modernist art approach that would
give it a distinctive look…”
TRACK: THE SETS FOR “CALIGARI” WERE CONSTRUCTED BY PAINTING
SHADOWS ONTO CONTROLLED STUDIO SETS, GIVING BUILDINGS A WARPED
PERSPECTIVE THAT HANG EERILY OVER THE CHARACTERS WHEN LIT
CORRECTLY. WHAT IS MOST NOTABLE ABOUT THIS FILM IS THE CHARACTER OF
CESARE.

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TRACK: CESARE IS NOT SO MUCH A GUILTY MURDERER AS HE IS CALIGARI’S
INNOCENT VICTIM. CALIGARI EMBODIES AN UNLIMITED AUTHORITY THAT
IDOLIZES POWER, AND, TO SATISFY ITS LUST FOR DOMINATION, RUTHLESSLY
VIOLATES ALL HUMAN RIGHTS. ACCORDING TO WRITER SIEGFRIED KRACEUR,
THE WRITERS CREATED CESARE TO PORTRAY THE COMMON MAN, WHO, UNDER
PRESSURE OF COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE, IS DRILLED TO KILL AND TO BE
KILLED. VEIDT’S PERFORMANCE AS CESARE IS SPECTACULAR. HE WAS ONE OF
THE FEW IN THE CAST WHO HAD EXPERIENCE WITH GERMAN EXPRESSIONISTIC
THEATRE. HIS TALL SLIM FIGURE DOESN’T MERELY STALK THE SETS AS
BECOME ONE WITH THEM, SHOWCASING HOW HE IS BENT TO THE WILL OF THE
ENVIRONMENT AROUND HIM. HIS PERFORMANCE WAS SO NOTABLE THAT
PRETTY SOON, HE, AND OTHER VISIONARY GERMAN ARTISTS IN THE WORLD OF
FILM, WOULD BE PICKED UP BY HOLLYWOOD.
TRACK: ANOTHER FILMMAKER WHO WOULD BE GIVEN THE HOLLYWOOD
TREATMENT FOR HIS EXEMPLARY WORK WAS F.W. MURNAU, A TECHNICALLY
METICULOUS AND VISIONARY FILMMAKER. HE DIRECTED ONE OF THE MOST
NOTABLE HORROR FILMS IN THIS TIME PERIOD, “NOSFERATU”, RELEASED IN
1922.
SOT: MUSIC FROM NOSFERATU
TRACK: THE FILM IS ACTUALLY AN UNAUTHORIZED ADAPTATION OF BRAM
STOKER’S “DRACULA,” WHICH HAD ORIGINALLY BEEN PUBLISHED IN 1897.
STOKER’S WORKS WERE FIERCELY GUARDED BY HIS WIDOW, WHO HAD DENIED
THEM PERMISSION TO ADAPT IT. THEY DID IT ANYWAYS AND JUST CHANGED

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THE NAMES OF THE CHARACTERS, AND SOME PLOT POINTS. SHE SUED THEM,
WON, AND ALL FILM PRINTS OF THE MOVIE WERE ORDERED TO BE DESTROYED.
TRACK: ALAS, ONE PRINT SURVIVED, AND THIS MOVIE STANDS AS ONE OF THE
MOST INFLUENTIAL FILMS MADE IN GERMANY DURING THIS PERIOD.
“NOSFERATU” FOLLOWS HUTTER, A REAL ESTATE AGENT FROM WISBORG. HE’S
SENT TO THE CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS TO SPEAK WITH COUNT ORLOK, PLAYED
BY MAX SCHRECK, A FOREIGN NOBLEMAN INTERESTED IN BUYING PROPERTY
NEXT TO HUTTER’S. IT TURNS OUT THE COUNT IS A VAMPIRE, WHO TRAVELS TO
WISBORG TO DRAIN THE CITIZENS OF THEIR BLOOD. IT’S ONLY HUTTER’S WIFE,
ELLEN, WHO VANQUISHES THE FOE; BY INVITING HIM UP TO HER ROOM, HE
BEGINS DRAINING HER NECK, ONLY TO BE MELTED BY THE SUN, WHO IS NEVER
TO RETURN AS HUTTER CRADLES ELLEN WHILE SHE SUCCUMBS TO DEATH.
AGAIN, LIKE CALIGARI, “NOSFERATU” IS A PRIMARY EXAMPLE OF
EXPRESSIONISM, AND IT’S NOT AS MUCH ABOUT THE PLOT, AS THE
CHARACTERS MANIFESTING THEMSELVES IN THEIR ENVIRONMENT.
TRACK: INDEED, MAX SCHREK’S PORTRAYAL OF COUNT ORLOK IS EERILY
FRIGHTENING; FREE FROM THE CONVENTIONS OF STEREOTYPICAL VAMPIRE
CHARACTERS, HIS VAMPIRE IS RATLIKE AND SLOW, CREEPING EERILY
TOWARDS HIS VICTIMS WHILE THEY COWER IN HELPLESSNESS. THE
EXPRESSIONISM MANIFESTS ITSELF HERE IN A DIFFERENT WAY THAN IN DR.
“CALIGARI”. “CALIGARI” IS A CHAOTIC FILM, SHOT ENTIRELY IN FILM STUDIOS,
TO CONTROL THE PAINTED SETS AND LIGHTING.

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TRACK: MURNAU DECIDED TO SHOOT “NOSFERATU” ON LOCATION INSTEAD.
THE EXPRESSIONISM IS IN METICULOUSLY COMPOSED SHOTS AND TRICKERY
LIKE MELIES USED; HE WOULD SPEED UP SHOTS OF COUNT ORLOK’S CARRIAGE
TO MAKE IT SEEM LIKE IT MOVES FANTASTICALLY FAST, FLIPPING THE
NEGATIVE OF ONE SHOT IN PARTICULAR TO SHOW COUNT ORLOK’S FOREST AS
AN EVIL DOMAIN, WITH THE SHOT LOOKING LIKE A MOVING X-RAY PIECE.
ORLOK’S MURDERS ARE BLAMED AS A PLAGUE BY THE FRIGHTENED
TOWNSPEOPLE, MIRRORING THE TRAUMA THE SPANISH FLU HAD CAUSED
AUDIENCES ALL OVER THE GLOBE.
TRACK: PERHAPS, MORE THAN ANYTHING, NOSFERATU IS A SCOURGE OF GOD,
IDENTIFIABLE WITH THE PESTILENCE. HE IS A BLOOD-THIRSTY, BLOOD-SUCKING
TYRANT FIGURE LOOMING IN THOSE REGIONS WHERE MYTHS AND FAIRYTALES
MEET. DURING THIS PERIOD GERMAN IMAGINATION, ALWAYS GRAVITATED
TOWARDS SUCH FIGURES, AS IF UNDER THE COMPULSION OF HATE-LOVE. THE
CONCEPTION THAT GREAT LOVE MIGHT FORCE TYRANNY INTO RETREAT. LIKE
VEIDT, MURNAU WAS PICKED UP BY THE HOLLYWOOD SYSTEM. GERMAN
EXPRESSIONISTIC FILMS WERE SEEN AS THE MOST ARTISTICALLY SUCCESSFUL
AND COMMERCIALLY SUCCESSFUL MOVIES OF THEIR TIME, THOUGH
“NOSFERATU” FLOPPED ON RELEASE, DUE TO IT BEING LIMITED AND
UNAUTHORIZED.
SOT: FLAPPER MUSIC
TRACK: MEANWHILE, OVER IN AMERICA, THE UNITED STATES’ SUCCESS IN WAR
WORLD ONE SPARKED A DIFFERENT KIND OF HORROR FILM. THINK ABOUT IT:

15

THE WAR HAS ENDED, THE COUNTRY IS VICTORIOUS, TRUST IN THE AMERICAN
GOVERNMENT WAS AT A HIGH, AND THE ECONOMY WAS BOOMING, RESULTING
IN THE ROARING ‘20S. SIMPLY PUT, AMERICA DIDN’T HAVE AS MUCH TO WORRY
ABOUT FROM THEIR GOVERNMENT AS GERMANY DID. BUT THAT’S NOT TO SAY
THE WAR DID NOT INFLICT TRAUMA ON THE PUBLIC. ADVANCEMENTS IN
WEAPON TECHNOLOGY IMPROVED COMBAT MEDICAL CARE, SO SOLDIERS
COULD WITHSTAND THE NEW FIREPOWER. THAT MEANT A RECORD NUMBER OF
VETERANS RETURNING HOME FROM THE WAR SEVERELY DISFIGURED ON A
MASSIVE LEVEL, THE LIKES OF WHICH THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HADN’T SEEN
BEFORE.
SOT: Rick Worland: “Now, there’s automobiles for ambulances. Now, there’s better roads.
Now, there’s surgery. Now, there’s better techniques, and these men, who would, in previous
wars, have died of their wounds. Now, they survive. Except the surviving means that they often
survive with these terrible physical wounds, and especially cranial-facial wounds, which
inevitably get into our sense of our self, our self-conception.”
TRACK: DISFIGURED VETERANS WERE AS “EVIL,” “SCARY,” AND WERE
SUBSEQUENTLY OSTRACIZED BY SOCIETY. THIS WAS ALSO A TIME WHEN
HOLLYWOOD WAS BEING ESTABLISHED. HERE WAS A NEW BUSINESS, WITH A
PRODUCT THAT COULD BE SOLD MULTIPLE TIMES TO THE SAME AUDIENCE, AN
AUDIENCE FLUSHED WITH CASH, AND NOTHING BETTER TO DO WITH IT THAN
WATCH MOVIES AND BUY BOOZE. IT WAS IN THIS FERVOR UNIVERSAL PICTURES
BEGAN TO CHURN OUT THE FIRST HORROR MOVIES IN AMERICA. THEY HAD
HORROR ELEMENTS IN THEM, BUT THEY WERE REALLY TENSE ROMANTIC

16

MELODRAMAS. THE BIGGEST MOVIE STAR IN THIS GENRE WAS AN ACTOR
NAMED LON CHANEY.
SOT: Rick Worland: “Lon Chaney, in particular, is the first figuration of this image of the
wounded, mangled, disabled veteran after the First World War.”
TRACK: CHANEY HAD YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WITH THEATRE AND PANTOMIME
WHEN HE CAME TO UNIVERSAL, AS WELL AS EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE OF
MAKEUP, WHICH THEATRE ACTORS HAD TO HAVE. HIS SPECIALTY WAS PLAYING
CHARACTERS WITH PHYSICAL MALADIES OR DISFIGUREMENTS, LIKE THE
RETURNING WORLD WAR 1 VETERANS.THESE CHARACTERS OFTEN HAVE A
GENIUS INTELLECT BUT ARE TURNED AWAY BY PEOPLE AND WOMEN DUE TO
THEIR LOOKS. KENNETH TURAN IS A FORMER FILM CRITIC FOR THE L.A. TIMES
AND IS A HUGE FAN OF CHANEY.
SOT: Kenneth Turan, ex-chief film critic of the LA Times: “But the thing you have to remember
about Chaney that is so important is that…even though his people were as grotesque as anything
you ever see on screen. But he was a real believer that these people had humanity. His films
wanted to disturb you, but you wanted to feel that there was a real, feeling person inside, no
matter how grotesque they looked on screen. So, there was a sentimental aspect to his films as
well as a grotesque aspect.”
TRACK: THE FILMS SHOW SOCIETY’S REJECTION OF THESE DISFIGURED
CHARACTERS WHICH CAUSES THEM TO REBEL AND DEVELOP A HATRED AND
SCORN FOR THE WORLD THAT WOULD OFTEN TURN VIOLENT. HIS TWO MOST

17

FAMOUS FILMS FOR UNIVERSAL ARE “THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME,”
RELEASED IN 1923, AND “THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA,” RELEASED IN 1925.
SOT: MUSIC FROM “PHANTOM”
TRACK: “PHANTOM”, IN PARTICULAR, GARNERED MUCH ACCLAIM. AUDIENCES
WERE ENTHRALLED BY THE WAY CHANEY WAS TRANSFORMED BY
MAKEUP. AND, UNIVERSAL HAD A SAVE-NO-EXPENSE ATTITUDE TOWARD
MAKING FILMS. THE STUDIO BUILT, GIGANTIC SETS, SUCH AS THE MASSIVE
PARIS OPERA HOUSE SETTING THAT TOOK UP THE ENTIRETY OF STAGE 28 AT
UNIVERSAL, WHICH WAS BUILT SPECIFICALLY TO HOUSE THE EPIC SET. PARTS
OF IT STILL STAND TODAY, MAKING IT ONE OF THE OLDEST INTACT INTERIOR
SETS. ONE SCENE, IN PARTICULAR, SHOWS THE GENIUS OF THESE FILMS:
CHANEY’S UNMASKING SCENE FROM THE PHANTOM.
TRACK: AS HIS FACE WAS UNLEASHED UPON MOVIEGOERS, AUDIENCE
MEMBERS REPORTEDLY FAINTED AND AMBULANCES WERE ON STAND-BY TO
TAKE STRICKEN MOVIE GOERS TO THE HOSPITAL. THIS MAY HAVE BEEN A
PUBLICITY STUNT BY STUDIO FOUNDER CARL LAEMLEE, WHO WAS KNOWN TO
ENJOY SUCH SPECTACLES. CHANEY’S FACE WAS SKELETAL AND HELD
TOGETHER BY PUTTY, WIRE AND GLUE THAT WOULD MAKE HIS NOSE BLEED
BETWEEN TAKES.
SOT: Kenneth Turan: “You see so much in his face, even though it’s a horrible face to look at,
but you see so many different emotions going across that face. You see his own horror at being
seen, but pride at being seen. You see so many different things crossing his face. His ability

18

creates characters that lived on cinema in a way that reached people very deeply in their psyches
that really got to the darkest and most terrified parts of their souls. It showed what film could do
and what film acting could do.”
SOT: Kenneth Turan: “He was both ahead of his time and completely of his time.”
TRACK: LON CHANEY BECAME ONE OF THE BIGGEST STARS IN HOLLYWOOD. IT
MADE MOVIES WITH DISFIGURED CHARACTERS POPULAR UNTIL THE END OF
THE DECADE AND INTO THE NEXT. ONE OF THE BEST EXAMPLES IS 1932’S
“FREAKS,” DIRECTED BY TODD BROWNING, WHO FREQUENTLY COLLABORATED
WITH CHANEY. THE FILM FOLLOWS A BAND OF CIRCUS FREAKS, PLAYED BY
ACTUAL CIRCUS FREAK SHOW WORKERS. THEY’RE TERRORIZED BY THE
BEAUTIFUL CIRCUS TRAPEZE ARTIST AND THE STRONGMAN. THEY DECIDE TO
REBEL AGAINST THOSE WHO SHUN THEM FOR THE WAY THEY LOOK. THEY,
CHASE THE TRAPEZE ARTIST INTO THE FOREST DURING A RAINY NIGHT,
DETERMINED TO TURN HER INTO ONE OF THEM.
SOT: Clip from “Freaks-One of Us”
TRACK: THE NEXT TIME WE SEE THE TRAPEZE ARTIST, SHE HAS BEEN TURNED
INTO A HALF HUMAN, HALF CHICKEN, MISSING HER ARMS AND LEGS. IT IS A
HORRIFYING MOVIE, TAKING THE THEMES OF THE PAST DECADE TO A WHOLE
NEW VISCERAL LEVEL, BY PUTTING REAL HUMAN BEINGS WITH THESE
MALADIES ON THE SCREEN. THEY LONG TO BE ACCEPTED BUT BROWNING’S
POINT WAS PROVEN: THEY WOULDN’T BE, AND SOCIETY IS JUST AS EVIL AS THE
TRAPEZE ARTIST. THE FILM WAS BANNED FOR DECADES IN SEVERAL

19

COUNTRIES DUE TO DISPLAYING HUMANS WITH STARK PHYSICAL DISABILITIES
AND ITS EXTREME CONTENT.
SOT: MUSIC FROM “MAN WHO LAUGHS”
TRACK: “THE MAN WHO LAUGHS,” IS A 1928 MOVIE DIRECTED BY PAUL LENI, A
CINEMATOGRAPHER FROM GERMANY WHO HAD BEEN SENT FOR BY
HOLLYWOOD. THE FILM STARS CONRAD VEIDT, PLAYING THE ROLE OF
GWYNPLAINE, THE SON OF A DISGRACED NOBLEMAN IN ENGLAND, WHO
SNEERED AT THE KING, AND WAS SENTENCED TO DEATH IN AN IRON MAIDEN.
HIS SON GWYNPLAINE WAS SOLD TO GYPSIES WHO DISFIGURED HIM BY
CARVING A SMILE INTO HIS FACE. VEIDT’S APPEARANCE IN THIS MOVIE IS THE
VISUAL INSPIRATION FOR THE BATMAN VILLAIN “THE JOKER”. GWYNPLAINE IS
TAKEN IN BY A TRAVELING SHOWMAN, WHO FINDS SUCCESS BY MAKING HIM A
SIDESHOW ACT WITH HIS PERMANENT SMILE.
TRACK: GWYNPLAINE LONGS FOR DEA, A GIRL WHO TRAVELS WITH THE SHOW,
BUT IS BLIND AND CANNOT SEE HIS FACE. GWYNPLAINE’S HERITAGE IS
EVENTUALLY RESTORED, AND HE’S NAMED A PEER IN THE HOUSE OF
LORDS. BUT HE DECIDES HE DOESN’T WANT TO BE A PART OF THE CORRUPT
ARISTOCRACY WHO MURDERED HIS FATHER. HE RUNS TO FIND DEA BEFORE
SHE LEAVES THE COUNTRY AND IS REUNITED WITH HER WHEN HE JUMPS ONTO
HER BOAT. THEY LEAVE ENGLAND FAR BEHIND, WITH HIM FINALLY LETTING
HER TOUCH HIS FACE. IT’S UNLIKE MANY OF THE STANDARD HORROR FILMS
THAT WERE BEING MADE THEN., EVEN THOUGH VEIDT’S CHARACTER HAS BEEN
SHUNNED FROM THE WORLD, HE BEARS NO ILL WILL TOWARDS IT. IN FACT, THE

20

ROLE HAD BEEN MEANT FOR CHANEY, BUT HE HAD MOVED TO MGM BEFORE
THE MOVIE WAS MADE. “THE MAN WHO LAUGHS” FULLY SYNTHESIZES GERMAN
EXPRESSIONISM WITH HOLLYWOOD MOVIE MAKING: YOU HAVE THE
OPPRESSED COMMON MAN ATTEMPTING TO DISMANTLE AUTHORITY AND
TYRANNY IN THE ARISTOCRACY ECHOING THE EARLIER FILMS OF “CALIGARI”
AND “NOSFERATU.” BUT “THE MAN WHO LAUGHS” HAS A ROMANTIC ENDING
WITH THE DISFIGURED MAIN CHARACTER NOT SUCCUMBING TO HIS LOT IN LIFE
AND GETTING THE GIRL IN THE END. THIS WOULD BE THE LAST TIME FOR A
WHILE UNIVERSAL WOULD MAKE A FILM THAT COMBINED ARTISTIC
SENSIBILITIES WITH LARGE-SCALE PRODUCTIONS.
TRACK: SOON AFTER THIS MOVIE WAS RELEASED, THE GREAT DEPRESSION HIT
AMERICA, AND HORROR MOVIES WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN. LAEMLLE
PASSED CONTROL OF UNIVERSAL OVER TO HIS SON, CARL LAEMMLE JR., WHO
WANTED TO MAKE THE STUDIO A PRESTIGE PLAYER WITH THE LIKES OF
PARAMOUNT AND MGM. BUT THE DEPRESSION WAS EATING INTO THE COSTS OF
EXTRAVAGANT BUDGETS IN UNIVERSAL’s FILMS, AND IT WAS LOSING MOST OF
ITS BIG ACTORS, LIKE CHANEY, TO OTHER MAJOR STUDIOS.
TRACK: BUT LAEMMLE, JR. WAS IMPRESSED WITH “THE MAN WHO LAUGHS,”
AND DECIDED TO MAKE CHEAPER HORROR MOVIES BASED ON PRE-EXISTING
LITERARY NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES. HE ALSO UTILIZED PREVIOUSLY BUILT
SETS, REDUCED RUNNING TIMES AND CAST UNKNOWN ACTORS. THAT WAS
UNIVERSAL’S WAY TO THE TOP, WHICH USHERED IN THE MONSTER MOVIE ERA
IN THE 1930S.

21

TRACK: “DRACULA,” WAS RELEASED IN 1931 AND STARRED BELA LUGOSI AS THE
TITULAR COUNT. LUGOSI HAD SUCCESSFULLY PLAYED THE ROLE IN THE
HIGHLY POPULAR STAGE ADAPTATION OF THE BOOK.
SOT (Bela Lugosi): “I am Dracula. I bid you welcome. Ah listen, the children of the night! What
music they make!”
SOT: MUSIC FROM “DRACULA”
TRACK: BUT LUGOSI WAS NOT THE FIRST CHOICE. CHANEY WAS MEANT TO
PLAY BOTH DRACULA AND VAN HELSING THE VAMPIRE HUNTER, BUT HE DIED
OF THROAT CANCER BEFORE PRODUCTION BEGAN.
SOT: Kenneth Turan: “The whole movie business went into shock…Hollywood stood still for a
day.”
TRACK: DESPITE CHANEY’S UNTIMELY DEATH, “DRACULA” BECAME A CLASSIC
MOVIE BY ANY DEFINITION-AT LEAST THE FIRST 30 MINUTES OF THE MOVIE.
ALL THE INDELIBLE IMAGES THAT HAVE CREEPED INTO POP CULTURE FROM
THE FILM ARE FROM THAT FIRST PART OF THE FILM, SUCH AS THE LONG
TRACKING SHOT ONTO LUGOSI’S GLISTENING EYES, AND HIS SCENES WITH THE
RENFIELD CHARACTER ARE TENSE AND MYSTERIOUS. HOWEVER, ONCE
DRACULA GETS TO ENGLAND, THE MOVIE FALLS FLAT, PLAYING AT TIMES LIKE
A DIRECT ADAPTATION OF THE PLAY, RATHER THAN A CINEMATIC STORY. IT
WAS FILMED ON VAGUE MOVIE SETS AND THE ACTORS’ DELIVERIES ARE
WOODEN. INDEED, THE SPANISH-LANGUAGE VERSION OF “DRACULA” IS VASTLY
SUPERIOR. IT WAS SHOT ON THE SAME SETS AT NIGHT, BUT WITH A DIFFERENT

22

CAST AND DIRECTOR, EMPLOYING MORE FLUID CAMERA MOVEMENTS.
“DRACULA” IS IMPORTANT FOR SPARKING THE MONSTER MOVIE TREND AT
UNIVERSAL, EVEN THOUGH IT FEELS A BIT LIKE AN EXPERIMENT TO SEE IF
UNIVERSAL COULD PULL OFF LAEMMLE JR.’S VISION.
TRACK: IT WAS THE FIRST FULL-FLEDGED HORROR FILM AMERICAN AUDIENCES
HAD EVER SEEN, A DIRECT RESULT OF THE DEPRESSION.
SOT: Rick Worland: “You can see it as quote, “escapism” ...Unusual times call for unusual
pictures.”
TRACK: AUDIENCE MEMBERS CLAMORED TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE INTENSIFIED
HORRORS ON SCREEN THAT MIMICKED THE INTENSIFIED HORRORS THEY’D
SEEN IN THEIR DAILY LIVES. PEOPLE WERE LOSING THEIR JOBS, HOMELESSNESS
ABOUNDED, AND CRIME INCREASED WITH GANGSTERS AND PROHIBITION.
VAGRANTS WERE ESPECIALLY TO BE FEARED. WANDERING MIGRANT WORKERS
WHO TRAVELED ACROSS THE COUNTRY LOOKING FOR JOBS WERE SEEN AS
DANGEROUS HOBOS WHO WOULD KILL YOU FOR THE MATERIAL GOODS YOU
HAD. THESE FEARS WOULD BE REFLECTED IN UNIVERSAL’S OTHER MONSTER
MOVIE RELEASE OF 1931: “FRANKENSTEIN,” DIRECTED BY JAMES WHALE AND
STARRING BORIS KARLOFF AS THE MONSTER.
SOT: Clip from “Frankenstein-It’s Alive!”
TRACK: WHALE ORIGINALLY PASSED ON DIRECTING “FRANKENSTEIN.” BUT HE
AGREED TO DO IT AFTER HE WAS ALLOWED TO REWORK THE SCRIPT, INJECTING
MUCH MORE HUMOR AND HUMANITY INTO THE PLOT AND CHARACTERS. THESE

23

WERE TYPICAL OF GERMAN EXPRESSIONISTIC MOVIES, OF WHICH HE WAS A BIG
FAN. WHALE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR CASTING BORIS KARLOFF AS THE
MONSTER, WHO BROUGHT GREAT SENSITIVITY AND HEART TO THE ROLE,
PLAYING IT AS A FRIGHTENED CHILD. “FRANKENSTEIN” WAS A MASSIVE
SUCCESS, AND KICKED OFF THE MONSTER MOVIE TREND IN EARNEST, WITH
WHALE, KARLOFF AND LUGOSI ALL GOING OFF TO CREATE TIMELESS WORKS
THROUGHOUT THE 1930s, INCLUDING “THE BLACK CAT” AND “THE RAVEN.” THE
MAD SCIENTIST TROPE, IN PARTICULAR, WAS GAINING POPULARITY, AS
AMERICANS WERE SKEPTICAL OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES THAT LED
TO SO MUCH WARTIME CARNAGE. MANY DECRIED SCIENCES AS A DANGEROUS
CULTURAL PRESENCE THAT CAUSES MORAL HARM.
TRACK: OTHER EXAMPLES ARE “ISLAND OF LOST SOULS”, STARRING CHARLES
LAUGHTON AS DR. MOREAU, “THE INVISIBLE MAN” DIRECTED BY JAMES WHALE
AND STARRING CLAUDE RAINS, AND MOST NOTABLY, “BRIDE OF
FRANKENSTEIN,” AGAIN DIRECTED BY WHALE AND STARRING KARLOFF AS THE
MONSTER.
SOT: MUSIC FROM “BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN”
TRACK: “BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN” HAS TO BE GIVEN CREDIT AS PROBABLY
THE GREATEST MOVIE SEQUEL OF ALL TIME. IT’S SCARIER THAN THE ORIGINAL,
WHILE BEING SMARTER AND DEVILISHLY CLEVER AND FUNNY. THESE MOVIES
DEALT WITH MAD SCIENTISTS STRUGGLING TO MANIFEST THEIR OWN
ARROGANT HUBRIS IN SCIENTIFIC CREATIONS, ONLY TO HAVE THEM TURN ON
THEIR CREATORS AND THE REST OF SOCIETY. “BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN” TOOK

24

IT ONE STEP FURTHER BY INJECTING A SUBTLE HOMOSEXUAL SUBTEXT
BETWEEN THE CHARACTERS OF DR. HENRY FRANKENSTEIN, PLAYED BY COLIN
CLIVE, AND DR. PRETORIOUS, PLAYED BY ERNEST THESIGER. WHALE AND
THESIGER WERE HOMOSEXUAL, AND CLIVE WAS BISEXUAL. THE THREE OF
THEM INFUSE ENOUGH FUN CAMP AND SEXUAL TENSION INTO THEIR
PERFORMANCES THAT IT ADDS A WHOLE NEW LAYER OF COMPLEXITY TO THE
MOVIE. HARRY BENSHOFF, A PROFESSOR OF RADIO, TV, AND FILM AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS, AND AUTHOR OF BOOKS SUCH AS “MONSTERS IN
THE CLOSET,” IS AN EXPERT ON QUEERNESS AND SEXUALITY IN HORROR FILMS.
SOT: Harry Benshoff, Author and Professor of Radio, TV and Film: “Bride of Frankenstein” is
one of those movies that hits the queer meter on all registers because we have a gay filmmaker
inflecting his sensibility into it, doing something very creative and queer with the genre…We got
his usual cast of rather queer actors, including Ernest Thesiger. We get the wonderful prologue at
the beginning that foregrounds non-normative sexuality by having Shelley and Byron and
Mary.”
TRACK: THE CHARACTER OF PRETORIOUS IS WHAT MAKES THE MOVIE GREAT,
WITH HIS MAD SCIENTIST BEING LEAPS AND BOUNDS CRAZIER THAN ANY
OTHER BEFORE.
SOT: Harry Benshoff: “If you look at it in terms of narrative structure…it literally begins with
Pretorious entering Frankenstein’s honeymoon chamber…and dragging him out to his place to
see his etchings…Even besides the performance, which for me, just reads as this deliciously
fruity, kind of old, bitter queen.”

25

TRACK: INSTEAD OF DR. FRANKENSTEIN, WHO HURRIEDLY BREAKS INTO
GRAVEYARDS TO STEAL BODIES, PRETORIOUS FEELS AT HOME WITH THEM. THE
MONSTER FINDs PRETORIOUS SMOKING A CIGAR AT A GRAVE, HUMMING TO
HIMSELF, AND KEEPING THE PARTY GOING WHEN KARLOFF ARRIVES.
PRETORIOUS ASKS HIM TO JOIN HIM TO RELAX.
SOT: Clip from “Bride of Frankenstein- Pretorious has a Plan”
TRACK: NOT LONG AFTER “BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN,” WAS RELEASED IN 1935,
THE MONSTER MOVIE TREND STARTED TO DIE OUT IN AMERICA. HORROR
MOVIES STEADILY DIPPED IN QUALITY THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE
DECADE, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF “SON OF FRANKENSTEIN,” RELEASED IN 1939.
IT’S A FUN, GENUINELY SCARY ROMP THAT BRINGS BELA LUGOSI AND BORIS
KARLOFF TOGETHER AGAIN FOR THE LAST TIME. THEIR TWISTED BROTHERLY
RELATIONSHIP GIVES THE MOVIE ITS HEART. YOU SEE, BY THE END OF THE
1930S, A FAR GREATER HORROR WAS POPPING UP IN GERMANY. ADOLF HITLER
EXTORTED THE YEARS OF RESENTMENT GERMANS FELT OVER WORLD WAR 1.
AND NOW, A NEW WORLD WAR WAS BREWING.
SOT: Nazi Rally Clip
TRACK: JOIN ME NEXT TIME, AS WE MOVE ON TO THE 1940S AND 1950S, AND
EXAMINE HOW HORROR MOVIES CHANGED IN RESPONSE TO WORLD WAR 2. I
USED SEVERAL BOOKS OF RESEARCH IN THIS EPISODE, INCLUDING SIEGFRIED
KRACEUR’S BOOK “FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER,” AND RICK WORLAND’S “THE
HORROR FILM: AN INTRODUCTION.” I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MY GUEST

26

SPEAKERS THIS EPISODE, RICK WORLAND, KENNETH TURAN AND HARRY
BENSHOFF. SPECIAL THANKS TO WESLEY STENZEL, HENRY JENKINS, WILLA
SEIDENBERG, AND KAREN STERNHEIMER, FOR THEIR GUIDANCE AND SUPPORT.
TRACK: SPECIAL CREDIT TO NICK MERVIS FOR THE MAIN THEME MUSIC. THIS
PODCAST WAS PRODUCED AT THE ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR COMMUNICATION
AND JOURNALISM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. UNTIL NEXT
TIME, GOOD-BYE: AND BEWARE OF WHAT GOES BUMP IN THE NIGHT.
OUTRO MUSIC

27

Chapter 2: Episode 2 Script: A Wolf and an Alien Walk into a Bar: 1940s-1950s
TRACK: GREETINGS, AND WELCOME BACK TO “100 YEARS OF HORROR,” A
PODCAST ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF HORROR MOVIES. I’M YOUR HOST, TREVOR
KEYFAUVER, AND TODAY, WE’RE GOING TO TAKE A LOOK AT SOME CLASSIC
MONSTER MOVIES RELEASED THROUGH WORLD WAR 2 AND DISCUSS THE RISE OF
SCI-FI HORROR IN THE 1950S.
TRACK: BY THE END OF THE 1930S, MONSTER MOVIES WERE BECOMING MORE
OF A NOVELTY. COPYCATS TOOK UNIVERSAL PICTURE’S THOUGHTFUL
CREATURES AND DEVOLVED THEM INTO CHEESY, KITSCHY CAMP. 1939’S “SON
OF FRANKENSTEIN,” WAS A LONE EXCEPTION. BY THE EARLY 1940S, MONSTER
MOVIES FELT PASSE. AFTER ALL, WHY DID WE NEED ON-SCREEN MONSTERS
WHEN WE HAD A TRUE LIFE ONE IN THE FORM OF ADOLF HITLER? HITLER WAS
OBSESSED WITH AN ANIMAL THAT WOULD BECOME THE MAIN FOCUS OF
UNIVERSAL’S NEXT WAVE OF MONSTER MOVIES---THE WOLF. HE USED “HERR
WOLF” AS HIS PSEUDONYM, AND HE HAD HIS SISTER CHANGE HER NAME TO
“FRAU WOLF.,” IT’S SAID HE WOULD GO AROUND WHISTLING THE TUNE OF
DISNEY’S “WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF?”
SOT: “Big Bad Wolf” audio clip, segueing into lone acapella whistling, segueing into newsreel
footage of Hitler and his troops
TRACK: AS THE CONFLICT GREW, HORROR AND MONSTER MOVIES
IRREVOCABLY SHIFTED IN ARTISTIC VISION, BREAKING NEW GROUND FOR THE

28

GENRE. JOIN ME AS WE JOURNEY THROUGH THE LAST GREAT MONSTER MOVIES
OF WORLD WAR 2 AND INTO THE ATOMIC AGE…IF YOU DARE.
SOT: Theme Music
SOT: “Wolf Man” Trailer Promo
TRACK: WITH HITLER’S FIXATION ON THE WOLF, IT’S NO WONDER THAT THE
FILM USHERING IN THE 1940S WAS “THE WOLF MAN.” IT WAS RELEASED IN 1941,
STARRING LON CHANEY, JR. AS THE LEAD CHARACTER. HIS BIRTH NAME WAS
CREIGHTON CHANEY AND HE WAS THE ONLY SON OF RENOWNED HORROR ICON
LON CHANEY. CHANEY, JR. DECIDED TO TAKE UP ACTING AFTER HIS FATHER’S
UNTIMELY DEATH IN 1930. HE RESISTED USING JUNIOR UNTIL HE REALIZED HE
WOULD SECURE MORE FILM ROLES. IT WAS THEN THAT HIS ACTING CAREER
FLOURISHED. HE RECEIVED NOTABLE PRAISE FOR HIS PORTRAYAL OF LENNIE
SMALLS IN “OF MICE AND MEN” IN 1939. THAT CONVINCED UNIVERSAL TO CAST
HIM IN FIVE PICTURES IN 1941, AMONG THEM “THE WOLF MAN.”
[music from film]
TRACK: THE FILM, BY UNIVERSAL’S STANDARDS, ARE ALRIGHT, IF NOT A BIT
CORNY: CHANEY Jr. PLAYS THE ROLE OF LAWRENCE TALBOT, THE SON OF A
PRIVILEGED LANDOWNER FROM WALES. HE RETURNS HOME TO BE WITH HIS
FATHER – PLAYED BY CLAUDE RAINS – AND BURY HIS RECENTLY DECEASED
BROTHER. HE VISITS A ROMA, OR GYPSY CAMP, IN THE WOODS TO GET
INFORMATION ABOUT HIS BROTHER’S MYSTERIOUS DEATH WHEN HE COMES

29

ACROSS A WEREWOLF WITH A YOUNG WOMAN IN ITS CLUTCHES. THE
WEREWOLF BITES TALBOT ON THE CHEST, AND A ROMA, PLAYED BY MARIA
OUSPENSKAYA TRIES TO HEAL HIM. SHE REVEALS TO TALBOT THAT HE WAS
ATTACKED BY HER SON, BELA, PLAYED BY BELA LUGOSI.
SOT: “Bela was the wolf…” scene
TRACK: NOW THAT HE’S A WEREWOLF TALBOT GOES ON A MURDEROUS
RAMPAGE. HE’S EVENTUALLY BLUDGEONED TO DEATH BY HIS OWN FATHER,
TO PREVENT HIM FROM SENSELESSLY MURDERING MORE PEOPLE.
[more film sound]
TRACK: THE FILM IS INCREDIBLY ATMOSPHERIC IN ITS SETS, EVEN MORE SO
THAN MOST UNIVERSAL MONSTER MOVIES, RECYCLING MANY OF THE SAME
SETS FROM OTHER MONSTER FILMS TO GREAT EFFECT. THE CAST, FOR THE
MOST PART, ARE TERRIFIC, WITH RAINS AND OUSPENSKAYA GIVING THE MOST
MOVING PERFORMANCES. CHANEY JR. DOES HIS BEST TO PLAY THE FISH-OUT-
OF-WATER PROTAGONIST, EVEN THOUGH HIS LUMBERING AMERICAN DRAWL
CONTRASTS SHARPLY WITH THE IMPECCABLE DELIVERY BY THE REST OF THE
CAST, AND HE IS BURIED FOR HALF OF THE MOVIE UNDER JACK PIERCE’S
INCREDIBLE MAKEUP. “THE WOLF MAN” WAS YET ANOTHER HOLLYWOOD
NIGHTMARE OF A GEOGRAPHICALLY VAGUE “EUROPE.” IT ANXIOUSLY MELDED
TOGETHER CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICA, ENGLAND, AND THE CONTINENT,
PORTRAYING THE CULTURAL MELTING POT IN EUROPE DURING THE FIRST AND
SECOND WORLD WARS. IN FACT, UNIVERSAL’S MONSTERS IN THE 1940S WERE

30

UNCONSCIOUSLY MARKETED AS EUPHEMISMS FOR WARTIME CASUALTIES.
MUCH LIKE HOW THE WOLF MAN WAS UNCONSCIOUSLY INSPIRED BY THE
IMAGERY OF HITLER, FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER BECAME A SYMBOL FOR THE
RESILIENCE OF AMERICAN TROOPS AND THEIR IDEOLOGY: THE MONSTER WAS
ABLE TO REASSEMBLE BLOWN OFF LIMBS WITH EASE AND HAD THE ABILITY TO
DISPOSE OF ANY OBSTACLE.
TRACK: THE POSTER TO PROMOTE 1943’S “FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF
MAN” SHOWS THE TWO MONSTERS FIGHTING EACH OTHER, WHICH SERVED AS A
METAPHOR FOR AMERICAN TROOPS TAKING ON THE GERMANS, EVEN
FEATURING A “BUY WAR BONDS” STICKER. THIS PROVED A RALLYING POINT
FOR WARTIME AUDIENCES.
TRACK: THE WOLF MAN WAS FEATURED IN THREE MORE SEQUELS, 1943’S
“FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN,” 1944’S “HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN,”
AND 1945’S “HOUSE OF DRACULA.” THE WOLF MAN, BOASTED MORE SCREEN
TIME THAN DRACULA AND FRANKENSTEIN COMBINED DURING THIS
DECADE.THE CHARACTER NAMED LAWRENCE (OR LARRY) TALBOT APPEARED
IN ALL 4 FILMS. HIS QUEST TO FIND ETERNAL PEACE, AND HIS FRUSTRATED
ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL IRRATIONAL, VIOLENT, FORCES, WAS A PARABLE OF
THE WAR EFFORT. THE WOLF MAN’S SAGA WAS THE MOST CONSISTENT AND
SUSTAINED MONSTER MYTH OF THE WAR, BEGINNING WITH THE FIRST YEAR OF
AMERICA’S DIRECT INVOLVEMENT IN THE WAR, AND FINISHING UP IN 1945
WHEN THE UNITED STATES DROPPED ATOMIC BOMBS ON NAGASAKI AND
HIROSHIMA.

31

TRACK: WHILE UNIVERSAL WAS CHURNING OUT THE LAST OF ITS GREAT
MONSTER FILMS, R.K.O, BEGAN RELEASING ITS OWN LOW-BUDGET HORROR
MOVIES. RKO HAD BEEN STRUGGLING FINANCIALLY SINCE THE RELEASE OF
“CITIZEN KANE” IN 1941 ALMOST BANKRUPTED THE STUDIO. RKO SOUGHT TO
CAPITALIZE ON THE WARTIME POPULARITY OF ANIMALISTIC
TRANSFORMATIONS AND GIVE UNIVERSAL SOME COMPETITION.
TRACK: VAL LEWTON WAS A THIRTY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD FORMER STORY EDITOR,
WHO WAS PUT IN CHARGE OF THE FLEDGLING R.K.O HORROR UNIT. HE GOT TO
WORK QUICKLY BUT HE WAS DEALING WITH SMALL BUDGETS. LEWTON CAME
TO THE REALIZATION THAT HE COULD GENERATE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCARES,
BY USING SHADOWS, LIGHT, AND SOUND TO SUGGEST THREATS WITHOUT EVER
DIRECTLY SHOWING THEM. THIS WAS THE START OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR
FILMS THAT DIDN’T USE ELABORATE MAKEUP EFFECTS TO SCARE AUDIENCES.
[music]
TRACK: “CAT PEOPLE,” RELEASED IN 1942, REMAINS THE MOST MEMORABLE OF
THESE FILMS. IT HAD ORIGINALLY BEEN CONCEIVED AS A CONTEMPORARY
WARTIME STORY. IN LEWTON’S FIRST TREATMENT, A NAZI PANZER DIVISION
INVADES A BALKAN VILLAGE. THE INHABITANTS OF THE VILLAGE PUT UP NO
IMMEDIATE RESISTANCE. THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO—AT NIGHT, THEY TURNED
INTO GIANT WERE-CATS AND KILLED THEIR OPPRESSORS. LEWTON IMAGINED A
VILLAGE GIRL FLEEING TO NEW YORK CITY, AND TAKING THE CURSE WITH HER.
THE NAZIS WERE EVENTUALLY DROPPED FROM THE FINAL FILM, BUT THE

32

CHARACTER OF THE CAT GIRL REMAINED THE CENTERPIECE OF THE SCRIPT.
THE FILM FOLLOWS IRENA DUBROVNA, PLAYED BY SIMONE SIMON. IRENA IS A
SERBIAN REFUGEE WHO IS ALSO A FASHION DESIGNER. SHE MEETS AND
MARRIES A NAVAL ARCHITECT BUT CANNOT CONSUMATE THE RELATIONSHIP
BECAUSE SHE FEARS THAT SEX WILL TRANSFORM HER INTO A PREDATORY
ANIMAL. HER HUSBAND CONFIDES IN HIS CO-WORKER ALICE AND IRENA
BECOMES MORE AND MORE JEALOUS, CULMINATING IN A HARROWING SCENE
IN WHICH IRENA STALKS ALICE INTO A SWIMMING POOL.
SOT: “Pool” Scene
TRACK: DR. RICK WORLAND, PROFESSOR OF FILM AND MEDIA ARTS AT
SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY AND AUTHOR, IS AN EXPERT ON THE
HISTORY OF HORROR MOVIES.
SOT: Rick Worland: “They were marketed and understood very often this, quote, “horror
films”, and that’s also because the word ‘mystery.’ The mystery could mean either solving a
crime or it could mean an uncanny, weird, “I can’t figure out what is causing this kind of thing”
…so the Lewton movies play so beautifully because we are never fully sure that Irena, this isn’t
all happening in her mind.”
SOT: Benjamin Alpers: “It’s American innocence and positivity, stacked up against the kind of
darkness that is suggested by Irena’s existence.”

33

TRACK: THAT WAS DR. BEN ALPERS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN
INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
AND AUTHOR.
TRACK: “CAT PEOPLE” WAS A SUCCESS, CAUSING R.K.O TO EMBARK ON ITS OWN
HORROR RUN, FOLLOWING UP WITH FILMS LIKE 1943’S “I WALKED WITH A
ZOMBIE,” 1943’S “THE SEVENTH VICTIM”, AND 1945’S “THE BODY SNATCHER.”
LEWTON’S FILMS WERE HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE HE HAD THE FORESIGHT
TO MAKE PICTURES FOR FEMALE AUDIENCES.
SOT: Rick Worland: “Women, by 1942, are the prime audience for movies because more and
more men are away in the military. Different historians have dug up advertising, and it makes it
very clear that there was a pivot in 1942-45, of pitching movies at women. Some of these
movies, including several of the Lewton films, are absolutely female centered.”
TRACK: LEWTON’S FEMALE PROTAGONISTS GAVE WOMEN THE CHANCE TO
RELEASE THEIR OWN WARTIME ANXIETIES, AS WOMEN WERE ASKED TO TAKE
ON MORE JOB RESPONSIBILITIES.WITH MEN FIGHTING IN THE WAR, WOMEN
FILLED THEIR SHOES IN WARTIME MANUFACTURING.
TRACK: WHEN WORLD WAR TWO ENDED, AMERICA ENTERED A NEW ERA OF
PROSPERITY. AT THE SAME TIME, THE WAR HAD CLAIMED THE LIVES OF OVER
40 MILLION SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS. AND IT INTRODUCED RADICALIZED
FORMS OF DEATH, SUCH AS CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND THE ATOMIC BOMB.

34

SOT: Benjamin Alpers: “It’s of this moment where people in 1945-46-47, are trying to figure
out, ‘what does the world look like, after World War 2?”
TRACK: FIVE YEARS AFTER DEFEATING GERMANY AND JAPAN, AMERICA WAS
ONCE AGAIN AT WAR …, THIS TIME IN KOREA. THE UNITED STATES WAS
HAUNTED BY THE SPECTER OF THE H-BOMB, A LOOMING NECRO-TECHNOLOGY
NOW SHARED UNEASILY WITH THE SOVIETS. THIS RESULTED IN A CALL TO
CONFORMITY ACROSS AMERICAN SOCIETY, AND AN ASSUMPTION THAT
HOLLYWOOD FILMS BECAME TIMID AND CONFORMIST AS WELL.
SOT: Rick Worland: “There was this general sense that ‘50s Hollywood were these boring,
conformist, timid movies, that they were all very status-quo, and so on.”
SOT: Benjamin Alpers: “I mean, this is the foundational decades of the modern Civil Rights
Movement, the Montgomery bus boycott in the 1950s. That’s not conformity.”
TRACK: AMERICA IN 1950 MIGHT’VE HAD THE LOOK AND SMELL OF A NEW CAR,
BUT REMNANTS OF MASS WARTIME DEATH AND THE FEAR OF THE BOMB
LURKED BENEATH THE SURFACE OF SUBURBIA. WITH THE GOVERNMENT’S
INTERFERENCE IN THE PHILIPPINES AND THE BEGINNINGS OF VIETNAM,
AMERICA WAS STARTING TO THROW ITS WEIGHT AROUND MORE IN THE
WORLD, AND WAS STARTING TO GROW MORE PARANOID. NICK CULL IS A
PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATION AT USC, AND EXPERT ON THE ROLE OF MASS
COMMUNICATION IN FOREIGN POLICY.

35

SOT: Nick Cull: “I’m sure that it’s nuclear fears. And I think what also happens in horror is that
you project onto others the things that you’re doing. As you become an invasive country, or an
imperialist country, you then fear being invaded.”
TRACK: MOST AMERICANS FOUND IT EASIER TO NOT FACE THESE
INVASION/ANNIHILATION ANXIETIES DIRECTLY. INSTEAD, THEIR FEARS
MANIFESTED IN THE RISE OF SENATOR JOE MCCARTHY’S ANTI-COMMUNIST
WITCH HUNTS. AND THEN THERE WAS THE HYSTERIA OVER UFO’S.
SOT: UFO bit
TRACK: THE 1950s IN AMERICA SAW THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEVISION, A NEW
TECHNOLOGICAL ACHIEVEMENT THAT FLIPPED AMERICAN CULTURE, AND
HORROR MOVIES, UPSIDE DOWN. TRADITIONAL MONSTER MOVIES, WERE
STRUGGLING TO COMPETE WITH THE NEW NOVELTY OF TV. UNIVERSAL
RELEASED “THE CREATURE OF THE BLACK LAGOON” IN 1954 AS A LAST-DITCH
EFFORT TO KEEP AUDIENCES INTRIGUED.
[film sound]
THE FILM FOLLOWS AN AMPHIBIOUS AMAZONIAN CREATURE WHO TERRORIZES
THE CREW OF AN EXPEDITION. IT HAS SPECTACULAR MAKE-UP EFFECTS AND
UNDERWATER SEQUENCES, AND THE UNREQUITED ROMANCE OF THE GIL-MAN
IS EMOTIONAL, IF A LITTLE CORNY. TO COMPETE WITH TV, HOLLYWOOD BEGAN
TO COMBINE HORROR AND SCIENCE FICTION GENRES. THESE TYPES OF MOVIES
WERE POPULAR AFTER THE OVERWHELMING TRAUMA OF WORLD WAR 2. THE

36

THREAT OF MASS DESTRUCTION, WHETHER IT BE FROM COMMUNISM OR
BOMBS, WAS HEAVY IN AMERICANS’ MINDS.
SOT: Rick Worland: “Once you start going back and looking at these movies, and in the horror
genre and science fiction, you find, Oh my god, things were just completely fraught and about to
boil over in ‘50s Hollywood, you can see what’s going to happen in America.”
TRACK: MONSTERS CAME IN TWO BASIC SHAPES IN THE ‘50S. ONE WAS THE
GIGANTIC MUTATIONS, THE PRODUCT OF ATOMIC TESTING. THE OTHER–ALIEN
INVADERS, USUALLY INTENT ON SOME KIND OF BRAINWASHING OR
IDEOLOGICAL CONTROL. THESE VILLAINS PERSONIFIED THE BOMB AS WELL AS
THE COLD WAR BATTLE BETWEEN COMMUNISM AND DEMOCRACY.
SOT: “Godzilla” clip
TRACK: “GODZILLA”, RELEASED IN 1954, IS THE KEY FILM OF THE MUTATION-
METAPHOR. IT FOLLOWS A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS TRYING TO STOP A GIANT
CREATURE WREAKING HAVOC ON TOKYO AFTER THEY EXPOSED IT TO
NUCLEAR RADIATION. THE BEAST WAS CONQUERED IN THE END. THE FILM
PRESENTS A MELANCHOLY TAKE ON JAPAN’S TRAUMA. ITS STARK BLACK-AND-
WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY MAKES THE HOKEY APPEARANCE OF GODZILLA
SEEM MORE INTIMIDATING. IT WAS PRODUCED IN JAPAN, THE ONLY COUNTRY
TO EVER ENDURE A NUCLEAR ATTACK. “GODZILLA” MERGED ATOMIC TRAUMA
ONTO THE KING KONG FORMULA. DURING THE 1950S, THE BOMB DISTORTED
AND MAGNIFIED CULTURAL DREAD. IT CREATED A NEW-WORLD VIEW, WITH
THE BOMB REPRESENTING ALL THE FAITH, HOPE, FEAR AND AWE GENERATED

37

BY THE AMBIGUOUS POST-WAR AGE. OTHER FILMS THAT FOLLOW GODZILLA’S
BASIC ETHOS OF FIGHTING OFF ATOMIC CREATURES INCLUDE “THEM!”
RELEASED IN 1954, AND THE 1958 FILM “ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN”.
TRACK: CLOSELY RELATED TO THE BOMB SCARE WAS THE RED SCARE OF THE
1950S. U.S SENATOR JOSEPH MCCARTHY ALLEGED THAT COMMUNISTS WERE
INFILTRATING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
[sound of McCarthy]
SOT: Nick Cull: “What McCarthy did is he took a genuine problem in American intellectual life,
and in political life, and he exploited it for his own political advancement.”
TRACK: MIND-CONTROLLING EXTRATERRESTRIALS TOOK THE PLACE OF
COMMUNISTS IN A NUMBER OF FILMS, MOST NOTABLY IN “INVASION OF THE
BODY SNATCHERS.” THIS 1956 FILM DIRECTED BY DON SIEGEL REMAINS THE
BEST OF THIS GENRE.
SOT: Benjamin Alpers: “‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ is fascinating, because it is read both
as an allegory of communism and an allegory of McCarthy-ism.”
TRACK: THE FILM’S STORY FOLLOWS THE ALIEN INVASION OF SANTA MIRA, A
SMALL TOWN IN CALIFORNIA. ALIEN PLANT SPORES HAVE FALLEN FROM SPACE
AND GROWN INTO LARGE SEED PODS WHICH CAN PRODUCE A VISUALLY
IDENTICAL COPY OF A HUMAN BEING. AS EACH POD DEVELOPS, IT ASSIMILATES
THE PHYSICAL TRAITS, MEMORIES, AND PERSONALITIES OF A SLEEPING PERSON

38

PLACED NEAR IT; HOWEVER, THE DUPLICATES ARE DEVOID OF ANY HUMAN
EMOTION.
SOT: [clip from the film]
TRACK: AS THE INVASION GROWS, A LOCAL SCIENTIST, PLAYED BY KEVIN
MCCARTHY, ATTEMPTS TO STOP THIS “QUIET INVASION,” TO NO AVAIL. THE
POD PEOPLE ARE SUCCESSFUL IN THEIR ATTEMPTS TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD.
THE FILM HAS A CLEAR COLD WAR RESONANCE, SHOT MORE LIKE A FILM NOIR
THAN A HORROR FILM, TO BETTER ACCENTUATE THE PSYCHOLOGICAL
STRUGGLES OF THE SCIENTIST PROTAGONIST. SIEGEL INDICTS THE TENDENCY
TOWARD BLIND SOCIAL CONFORMITY, THE ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM THAT’s A
TRAIT OF INDUSTRIALIZED SOCIETIES GENERALLY. THE ENEMY IS THEM, AND
US.
SOT: Nick Cull: “The idea of an enemy within resonated with fears of the Communist paranoia.
So, it’s an example of a fear of a society being corrupted from within people being replaced. And
you could see that as playing into the McCarthyite fantasy, but equally, it’s about mass society,
and a fear of people being completely taken over by the priorities of a mass society.”
SOT: “You’re next!” ending
TRACK: AS THE DECADE CAME TO A CLOSE, CULTURAL ANXIETIES SHIFTED
FURTHER AWAY FROM THE OUTLANDISH RED SCARE TOWARD WIDESPREAD
CULTURAL UPHEAVAL WORLDWIDE. CENSORSHIP, BOTH ARTISTIC AND
PHYSICAL, WAS TESTED IN THE TUMULTUOUS DECADE OF THE 1960S. JOIN ME

39

NEXT TIME AS I PLUNGE INTO THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR OF THE ‘60S IN
FILMS LIKE “PSYCHO” AND “ROSEMARY’S BABY.” WE’LL ALSO LOOK AT THE
SEXY RESURRECTION OF MONSTER MOVIES THAT WERE PRODUCED BY
HAMMER STUDIOS AND ROGER CORMAN. WE’LL ALSO DISCUSS THE GIALLO
HORROR FILMS OF DARIO ARGENTO, AS WE MOVE INTO THE CLASSIC SLASHER
FILMS OF THE ‘70S. ALL RESEARCH DONE ON 1940S AND ‘50S HORROR MOVIES
WAS TAKEN FROM “THE MONSTER SHOW” BY DAVID J SKAL AND RICK
WORLAND’S “THE HORROR FILM: AN INTRODUCTION.” I’D LIKE TO THANK MY
GUEST SPEAKERS THIS EPISODE, RICK WORLAND, BENJAMIN ALPERS AND NICK
CULL. SPECIAL THANKS TO WESLEY STENZEL, HENRY JENKINS, WILLA
SEIDENBERG, AND KAREN STERNHEIMER FOR ALL THEIR GUIDANCE AND
SUPPORT. ORIGINAL THEME MUSIC COMPOSED AND PERFORMED BY NICK
MERVIS. THIS PODCAST WAS PRODUCED AT THE ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR
COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA. UNTIL NEXT TIME, MAKE SURE NOTHING’S GOING BUMP IN THE
NIGHT. PLEASANT DREAMS.
OUTRO MUSIC

40

Chapter 3: Episode 3 Script: Hippies, Slashers and Babies, Oh My!: 1960s-1970s
TRACK: HELLO, AND WELCOME BACK TO 100 YEARS OF HORROR. IN THIS
EPISODE, WE’LL BE TAKING A LOOK AT SOME OF THE CLASSIC HORROR FILMS
FROM THE 1960S AND ‘70S, AND HOW THEY WERE BORNE OUT OF THE HARSH
CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CLIMATES OF THAT TIME. JOIN ME…IF YOU DARE.
THEME MUSIC
SOT: “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” music
TRACK: IN THE 1960S, THE BOUNDARIES OF CULTURAL CENSORSHIP WERE BEING
BROKEN THROUGH WITH GUSTO. HORROR AFICIONADOS, PARTICULARLY
ADOLESCENTS, WERE TUNING INTO TELEVISION TO GET THEIR SCARES. THIS
NEW TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH WOULD LEAD TO A MASSIVE INCREASE
OF HORROR PRODUCTS, SUCH AS THE AURORA MONSTER MODELS. TV GAVE
CLASSIC HORROR MOVIES A NEW LEASE ON LIFE. TELEVISION STATIONS SOON
REALIZED THAT KIDS WERE AN UNTAPPED AUDIENCE. THE MOST NOTABLE
EXAMPLE OF TARGETING KIDS WAS “SHOCK THEATRE.” SYNDICATED IN
PHILADELPHIA AND NEW YORK FROM 1957-`1959.
SOT: Roland- Shock Theatre
TRACK: HORROR PUBLICATIONS FOUND GREAT POPULARITY IN YOUNGER
AUDIENCES, THANKS TO T.V’S IMPACT. ONE NOTEWORTHY EXAMPLE IS
“FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND”, ONE OF THE FIRST TIMES A FAN
PUBLICATION FOUND NATIONAL SUCCESS. THE PUBLICATION WAS STARTED BY

41

FORREST J. ACKERMAN, A SCIENCE FICTION FAN BY DAY AND COLLECTOR OF
HORROR GOODS BY NIGHT. JOE MOE IS AN ARTIST, ENTERTAINER, AND WRITER,
AND WAS ACKERMAN’S CARETAKER IN THE LATER YEARS OF HIS LIFE.
SOT: Joe Moe: “He was wanting to be a citizen of Utopia, and he was always thinking of ways
that he could live in this world where everybody was happy and accepted.”
TRACK: ACKERMAN WOULD WRITE TO CARL LAEMLEE JR. AT UNIVERSAL WHEN
HE WAS A KID, ASKING FOR FILM STILLS AND PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL.
EVENTUALLY, HE HAD SO MANY HORROR COLLECTABLES THAT HE DECIDED TO
PUBLISH A ONE-OFF MAGAZINE TO SHOWCASE THE COLLECTION. HE ALSO
HOPED TO PROFIT OFF THE TV CRAZE OF HORROR MOVIES TO SUPPLEMENT HIS
INCOME AS A LITERARY AGENT. “FAMOUS MONSTERS” PROVED TO BE SO
POPULAR THAT THE FIRST ISSUE SOLD OUT, AND ACKERMAN WAS
COMMISSIONED TO MAKE MORE. THIS CULMINATED IN ONE OF THE LONGEST
RUNNING FAN PUBLICATIONS OF ALL TIME, RUNNING FROM 1958 TO 1983.
SOT: Joe Moe: “Ackerman turned the spotlight away for the first time, turns the spotlight in an
entertainment magazine away from the stars in front of the camera, to the people that made the
movies behind the camera.”
TRACK: ACKERMAN, OR ‘UNCLE FORRY’, AS HE WAS KNOWN TO HIS FANS, ALSO
INSPIRED YOUNG FILMMAKERS AND ARTISTS, INCLUDING RICK BAKER, STEVEN
SPIELBERG, AND STEPHEN KING. MATT YOCKEY IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
OF FILM STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO, AND INTERVIEWED
ACKERMAN EXTENSIVELY ABOUT HIS LIFE.MMA

42

SOT: Matt Yockey: “Ackerman was someone who saw all of the flaws and faults in the human
world and instead of despairing about those flaws and faults, embraced reimagining’s of how we
can be as people.”
TRACK: YOUNG PEOPLE WERE BEING DRAWN TO HORROR LIKE MOTHS TO A
FLAME, WHICH WASN’T NEW BUT WAS MORE WIDESPREAD THAN EVER BEFORE.
TRACK: MEANWHILE, LOOSENING CENSORSHIP INTERNATIONALLY LED TO
RADICAL CHANGES IN HORROR MOVIES AND A CULTURAL RECKONING ACROSS
THE GLOBE. THREE HORROR FILMS EXEMPLIFY THE SOCIAL ISSUES OF THE ‘60S
THE BEST; “PSYCHO,” RELEASED IN 1960, AND IN 1968, “ROSEMARY’S BABY”, AND
“NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD”.
TRACK: ALFRED HITCHCOCK DIRECTED “PSYCHO.” HE WANTED TO CREATE A
LOW-BUDGET HORROR MOVIE, INSPIRED BY THE GIMMICKY SUCCESSES OF
WILLIAM CASTLE HORROR MOVIES IN THE 1950S. CASTLE WAS KNOWN FOR
GIVING AUDIENCES A PHYSICAL SCARE.
TRACK: HIS FILM “THE TINGLER,” FOLLOWS AN ALIEN WHO GROWS WHEN FEAR
GRIPS ITS HOST, LEAVING A “TINGLING” SENSATION IN THE BODY. CASTLE
INSTALLED VIBRATORS IN THEATRE SEATS TO SHOCK AND STARTLE PETRIFIED
AUDIENCES.
SOT: William Castle Prologue
TRACK: HITCHCOCK WANTED TO UTILIZE CASTLE’S CHEAP HORROR MOVIE
METHOD TO MAKE A FORTUNE AT THE BOX OFFICE. HITCHCOCK MADE

43

“PSYCHO” ON AN EXTREMELY LOW BUDGET USING HIS TV SHOW CREW TO CUT
COSTS, AND HE FILMED IT IN BLACK AND WHITE. THE MARKETING OF THE
MOVIE SUGGESTED A TWIST SO SHOCKING THAT AUDIENCE MEMBERS WHO
WERE LATE TO THE START OF THE MOVIE WOULD NOT BE GRANTED ADMISSION,
NOT EVEN THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND HERSELF. THE TWIST IN QUESTION? KILL
OFF THE FILM’S STAR, JANET LEIGH, AT THE START.
SOT: Psycho Theme Music
TRACK: LEIGH PLAYS MARION CRANE, AN OFFICE WORKER WHO, STEALS
MONEY FROM HER BOSS AND GOES ON THE RUN TO BE WITH HER BEAU, WHO IS
STRUGGLING FINANCIALLY. ON THE WAY, SHE GETS CAUGHT IN A BAD
RAINSTORM AND DECIDES TO STOP AT THE BATES MOTEL, A SLEEPY
ESTABLISHMENT RUN BY SOFT-SPOKEN NORMAN BATES, AND HIS
DOMINEERING, BUT UNSEEN MOTHER.
SOT: Norman Bates: “Oh, we have twelve cabins…. twelve cabins, twelve vacancies…. well, a
boy’s best friend is his mother.”
TRACK: AUDIENCES WERE SHOCKED TO FIND THAT LEIGH IS MET WITH AN
UNTIMELY END WHEN SHE DECIDES TO TAKE A SHOWER IN HER ROOM. SHE IS
STABBED RELENTLESSLY BY AN UNSEEN ATTACKER, IN A SEQUENCE NOW
DUBBED “THE SHOWER SCENE.”
SOT: “Shower Scene” Music and Sound Effects

44

TRACK: IT'S A PSYCHOLOGICALLY BRUTAL SEQUENCE. BUT BY USING GERMAN
EXPRESSIONISTIC TECHNIQUES OF CINEMATOGRAPHY AND EDITING,
HITCHCOCK CONSTRUCTS THE SEQUENCE WITH A SUCCESSION OF QUICK SHOTS
THAT SUGGEST, BUT DON’T SHOW, ANY ACTUAL VIOLENCE.
[film clip]
TRACK: THIS WAY THE CENSORS WOULDN’T OBJECT BUT ALLOWED THE
PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT OF THE SCENE TO RESONATE IN A POWERFUL WAY. AT
TIMES, THE SCENE FEELS LESS LIKE LEIGH IS BEING ASSAULTED, AND MORE
THAT THE AUDIENCE IS INSTEAD, IN A WAY BREAKING THROUGH THE FOURTH
WALL, A TERM THAT REFERS TO WHERE THE CAMERA IS. NICK CULL IS A
PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA, AND AN EXPERT ON HOW HORROR MOVIES IMPACT POPULAR
CULTURE.
SOT: Nick Cull: “A lot of the power of that film is in the generic shock that you think that Janet
Leigh is the lead, and she disappears 15 minutes into the film, that idea that anything can
happen…Even if you really understood how the film was being marketed, you might have
guessed that was going to happen. But that’s a really interesting thing to have done and to mess
with audiences in that way…Hitchcock was nothing if not a showman.”
TRACK: HITCHOCK WAS THE KEY DIRECTOR IN A HUGE TRANSITION IN GENDER
ROLES AFTER WORLD WAR 2. RICK WORLAND IS A PROFESSOR OF FILM AND
MEDIA ARTS AT SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY, AND AN EXPERT ON
HORROR MOVIES.

45

SOT: Rick Worland: “Psycho was important for breaking cultural taboos, where you have this
level of graphic violence inflicted on a woman.”
TRACK: HITCHCOCK KILLED OFF A FEMALE CHARACTER WHO IS UNASHAMED
OF HER SEXUAL BEING AND HELPED LEAD A SEXUAL REVOLUTION IN FILMS
THAT WOULD MORE ACCURATELY REFLECT THE TIMES. IT WAS AN ERA OF
“NEW HOLLYWOOD.”
SOT: Music from “Rosemary’s Baby”
TRACK: 1968’S “ROSEMARY’S BABY” WAS DIRECTED BY ROMAN POLANSKI AND
LARGELY FOLLOWS HITCHCOCK’S RECIPE. THE FILM FOLLOWS A NEWLY
MARRIED COUPLE, WHO QUICKLY FALL INTO PARANOIA AFTER THE WIFE,
PLAYED BY MIA FARROW, BECOMES CONVINCED SHE IS CARRYING THE DEVIL’S
CHILD, AFTER SHE DREAMED SHE WAS RAPED BY HIM.
SOT: “This is no dream; this is really happening!”
TRACK: IT TURNS OUT ROSEMARY’S HUSBAND AND THEIR SWEET ELDERLY
NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS HAVE FORMED A WITCHES GROUP, KNOWN AS A
COVEN. ROSEMARY’S HUSBAND DRUGS HER IN ORDER FOR THE COVEN TO
SUMMON SATAN SO THAT SHE CAN BIRTH THE ANTICHRIST.
SOT: “What have you done to him? What have you done to his eyes?”
TRACK: BOTH “ROSEMARY’S BABY” AND PSYCHO ARE PLAYING WITH THE IDEA
OF A WOMAN’S LIBERATION AND CONTROL OVER HER OWN BODY. IT ALSO

46

IMPLIES A RISING GENERATIONAL GAP BETWEEN “HIPPIES” OF THE 1960S AND
THE GREATEST GENERATION FROM WORLD WAR 2. BEN ALPERS IS AN
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA AND IS AN EXPERT ON TWENTIETH
CENTURY AMERICAN THOUGHT AND CULTURE.
SOT: Ben Alpers: “It’s the old people who were suspicious in that movie. That’s kind of the joke
of Rosemary’s Baby…It’s the ultimate ‘never trust anyone over 30’ movie.”
TRACK: “ROSEMARY’S BABY” ALSO REFLECTS THE GROWING WOMEN’S
MOVEMENT OF THE SIXTIES. AMY DAVIS IS A LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
HULL AND IS AN EXPERT ON GENDER STUDIES IN HOLLYWOOD HORROR
MOVIES.
SOT: Amy Davis: “Here’s this young woman who is…a housewife and a mother or she’s
becoming a mother…There’s this emphasis on domestication…She’s very much having great
fun…with their lovely apartment that she’s getting all set up, getting to know the neighbors, even
if they are kind of weird….excited about and supportive of her husband’s career as it gets better
and better, excited about her pregnancy. It gets worse and worse and worse and worse…as if
she’s becoming more and more entrapped within, frankly, something that is echoing an older,
patriarchal setup….There’s tensions between…the sort of inbuilt respect we’re supposed to have
for our elders and the experiences they’ve had and all of that…But at the same time, that younger
generation looking at them, and going, ‘You don’t understand me, you don’t know who I am,
you don’t understand my life, you don’t understand my ideals.”
SOT: “Satisfaction” rolling stones

47

TRACK: MEANWHILE, BRITAIN WAS EXPERIENCING A CULTURAL REVOLUTION
AS WELL.
SOT: Nick Cull: “Rapid social change, for instance, there’s also a decriminalization of
homosexuality is something that happens in the UK in the late ‘60s…The U.K. coming back to
life was palpable.”
TRACK: THIS LED TO THE RISE OF A MORE PROVOCATIVE BRITISH FILM
INDUSTRY, WITH HAMMER STUDIOS’ HORROR MOVIES LEADING THE CHARGE.
SOT: Christopher Lee: “I am Dracula, and I bid you welcome.”
SOT: Music from “Dracula”
TRACK: HAMMER STUDIOS WAS A BRITISH FILM COMPANY WHICH FOUND A
WAY TO BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO MONSTER FILMS. IT USED THE LITERARY
INSPIRATIONS OF UNIVERSAL’S MONSTERS, INCLUDING DRACULA,
FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER, AND THE MUMMY, TO MAKE SEXIER HORROR
MOVIES.
SOT: Rick Worland: “The Hammer films are introducing more graphic horror, and more and
more pushing the edge of sexuality. And once the Hollywood censorship was lifted at the end of
1968 and went to the rating system, then you could have these much more violent and much
more explicit horror films.”
SOT: Music from “Suspiria”

48

TRACK: IN ITALY, HORROR FILMS BASED ON PULPY AMERICAN NOVELS AND
STORIES BEGAN GAINING POPULARITY. MUCH LIKE IN BRITAIN, ITALY’S
HORROR FILMS BEGAN TO GET MORE GRAPHIC. DIRECTORS MARIO BAVA AND
DARIO ARGENTO STARTED MAKING FILMS THAT DEALT WITH MYSTERY OR
DETECTIVE ELEMENTS. THESE FILMS HAD TRAITS OF SLASHER, SEXPLOITATION,
AND CRIME PICTURES. THEY WERE SHOT WITH HYPER-STYLIZED COLOR AND
CINEMATOGRAPHY. THIS CREATED A NEW SUB-GENRE OF HORROR CALLED
“GIALLO” FILMS, WHICH BECAME INCREDIBLY POPULAR WORLDWIDE. ROGER
CORMAN, A FILM PRODUCER IN THE U.S., SAW A SIMILAR ROUTE TO SUCCESS,
AND WAS INSPIRED BY HAMMER AND GIALLO’S INCREDIBLY STYLIZED
MANNER. CORMAN CHURNED OUT SEXY LOW-BUDGET ADAPTATIONS OF EDGAR
ALLEN POE STORIES. THEY USUALLY STARRED VINCENT PRICE AND WERE
FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL.
SOT: Vincent Price: “Masque of the Red Death”
SOT: Rick Worland: “Hammer leads into the Roger Corman films. And then the Italians are
consciously picking that up…and they’re made all across Western Europe, there’s Spanish and
French and then Italy and Germany, and all Western European commercial film industries are
turning out these kinds of films in the ‘60s.”
SOT: Music from “Night of the Living Dead”
TRACK: IN 1968, GEORGE A. ROMERO RELEASED “NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD”
ABOUT A ZOMBIE INVASION IN AMERICA. AS THE INVASION RAGES, STRANGERS
HAVE TO HOLE UP IN AN ABANDONED HOUSE TOGETHER, STRUGGLING TO STAY

49

ALIVE, LET ALONE TRUST EACH OTHER. THE FILM IS QUITE EFFECTIVE IN ITS
SCARES, AIMING FOR LOW-KEY THRILLS THAT CREEP UP ON THE AUDIENCE.
SOT: “They’re Coming to Get You, Barbara!”
TRACK: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD BECAME A CENTERPIECE OF THE CIVIL
RIGHTS MOVEMENT WITH THE CASTING OF DUANE JONES AS BEN, THE LEADER
OF THE SURVIVORS, WHO IS BLACK. ROMERO HAS SAID THAT HE DID NOT CAST
JONES FOR HIS RACE, BUT BECAUSE HE WAS THE BEST ACTOR HE AUDITIONED
FOR THE PART. JONES AND THE FILM QUICKLY BECAME SYMBOLS FOR RACE
RELATIONS IN THE U.S.
SOT: Ben’s monologue
TRACK: AFTER SURVIVING THE ZOMBIE INVASION, BEN IS SENSELESSLY
MURDERED BY THE POLICE, WHO MISTAKE HIM FOR A ZOMBIE. HE IS THEN
BURNED AMONG THE REST OF THE NAMELESS FACES.
SOT: “Night of the Living Dead” ending
TRACK: IT’S A POWERFUL MOMENT AND SET A PRECEDENT THAT HORROR
MOVIES HAD SOMETHING EXPLICIT TO SAY ABOUT RACE RELATIONS, A
TRADITION THAT HAS CONTINUED INTO CONTEMPORARY HORROR WITH FILMS
LIKE 2017’S “GET OUT.”
SOT: “Sympathy for the Devil” music

50

TRACK: CULTURAL UPHEAVAL MARKED THE END OF THE 1960S, AND THE
BEGINNING OF THE 1970S.
TRACK: THE PERIOD WAS MARKED BY THE WOMEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT, THE
VIETNAM WAR AND THE COUNTERCULTURE ETHOS OF HIPPIES WHO REBELLED
AGAINST THE ESTABLISHMENT.
TRACK: THESE STRUGGLES ARE DEMONSTRATED IN TWO SUB-GENRES OF
HORROR, WHICH GAINED POPULARITY DURING THE ‘70S, THE REPRODUCTIVE
HORROR FILMS INCLUDE A CHILD, EITHER ALIVE OR AS YET UNBORN, WHO IS
CORRUPTED BY FORCES OF EVIL. THIS IS USUALLY THROUGH POSSESSION OR
THROUGH UNHOLY CONCEPTION. THE SLASHER FILM USUALLY INVOLVES A
MASKED INDIVIDUAL WHO IS TYPICALLY MALE, AND WHO BEGINS STALKING A
GROUP OF TEENAGERS, USUALLY HAVING SEX AND PARTYING. BY THE END,
THEY ALL END UP DEAD, SAVE FOR A LONE FEMALE, WHO IS PORTRAYED AS
MORALLY STEADFAST. THE BEST EXAMPLE OF THESE SUBGENRES ARE 1973’S
“THE EXORCIST,” A YEAR LATER “THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE”AND 1979’S
“ALIEN”
SOT: “The Exorcist” Theme
TRACK: “THE EXORCIST”, DIRECTED BY WILLIAM FRIEDKIN, IS A LESSON IN
ATMOSPHERIC DREAD AND TENSION. THE FILM FOLLOWS MOVIE STAR CHRIS
MACNEIL, PLAYED BY ELLEN BURSTYN, AND HER YOUNG DAUGHTER, REGAN,
PORTRAYED BY LINDA BLAIR. IN THE FILM, MOTHER AND DAUGHTER ARE

51

STAYING IN WASHINGTON D.C. WHERE CHRIS IS SHOOTING A MOVIE. REGAN IS
POSSESSED BY A DEMON, WHO TURNS THE CHILD INTO A SCOURGE OF SATAN.
SOT: Head Spinning Around: “Do you know what she did…Your cunting daughter?”
TRACK: EVENTUALLY, TWO PRIESTS ARE CALLED IN TO BATTLE THE
DEMON. FATHER KARRAS, PLAYED BY JASON MILLER, IS A YOUNG PRIEST WHO
HAS AN AXE TO GRIND WITH THE DEVIL, AFTER HE IS TORMENTED BY SATANIC
VISIONS OF THE DEATH OF HIS MOTHER. THE OTHER IS FATHER MERRIN,
PLAYED BY MAX VON SYDOW, THE TITULAR “EXORCIST” WHO IS SUMMONED
FROM ABROAD TO PERFORM THE RITUAL.
SOT: “The power of Christ compels you…’Your mother sucks cocks in hell, Karras!”
SOT: Nick Cull: “The thing that strikes me about ‘The Exorcist’ is that…we’ve got a religious
element, and a generational element. And the idea that evil might be in children…is a really
powerful, a really, really powerful thing.”
SOT: Nick Cull: “There are…little things in ‘The Exorcist’ …there’s at least 45 minutes…where
nothing supernatural happens. But a lot happens that plays with your own discomfort, including
discomfort with the third world…You see the vandalized church…and you think ‘Oh, what’s the
world coming to that a church can be vandalized and then there’s that terrible business that is
part of every adults fear of the chap having to visit his mother in a mental hospital and her not
really understanding what’s happened to her. And so, for 45 minutes, you’re kind of worked over
like one of those bits of meat in ‘Rocky’...before all hell breaks loose…It kind of opens you up
in this first 45 minutes with primarily sociological discomfort.”

52

TRACK: BY THE END OF THE FILM, THE EXORCISM HAS FAILED, AND FATHER
MERRIN DIES OF A HEART ATTACK HALFWAY THROUGH THE RITUAL.
SOT: Ben Alpers: “They understand what’s going on in the world. And they’re on the side of
good, but they provide seemingly precious little protection. So in that sense, they’re kind of
wrong…There’s no sort of easy victory over the forces of evil.”
TRACK: THE DEMON THEN LEAPS OUT OF REGAN AND POSSESSES FATHER
KARRAS, WHO SAVES HER BY THROWING HIMSELF THROUGH A WINDOW AND
DOWN A FLIGHT OF CONCRETE STAIRS. KARRAS BREAKS THE DEMON’S HOLD
OVER THE GIRL, BUT NOT THROUGH RELIGION; IN FACT, IT’S HIS RELIGIOUS
HUBRIS OF TELLING THE DEMON TO POSSESS HIM, NOT HER, WHICH LEADS TO
HIS DEATH. IN THE FILM, HE IS SHOWN TO HAVE GREAT PHYSICAL WILL, WITH
HIM BEING A BOXER. HE ALSO HAS THE MENTAL WILL TO STRIVE TO DO THE
RIGHT THING, EXAMINED THROUGH HIS GUILT FOR HIS MOTHER’S DEATH.
SOT: “Take Me!” Scene
TRACK: IT IS THROUGH HIS SHEER WILL TO DO THE RIGHT THING THAT SAVES
REGAN IN THE END. YET HE DIES, AND REGAN IS TRAUMATIZED MENTALLY, AS
WELL AS PHYSICALLY, BY THIS UNHOLY VIOLATION. RELIGION DOES NOT WIN.
TRACK: THE SECOND FILM, “THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE,” DIRECTED BY
TOBE HOOPER, FOLLOWS A GROUP OF “HIPPIE” TEENS. THIS INCLUDES SALLY
HARDESTY, A SQUEAKY CLEAN KID, AND HER INVALID BROTHER, FRANKLIN.
THE GROUP IS TAKING A TRIP DOWN TO THE OLD FAMILY HOUSE IN THE

53

BACKWOODS OF TEXAS. THERE, THEY ARE AWAITED BY THE WORKING-CLASS
SAWYER CLAN, AN ABSOLUTELY BATSHIT CRAZY FAMILY OF CANNIBALS WHO
BEGIN MURDERING THE TEENS FOR DINNER ONE BY ONE.
SOT: “Sally, I hear something, stop…stop….”
TRACK: THESE MURDERS ARE USUALLY CARRIED OUT BY ONE OF THE SONS,
LEATHERFACE, WHO IS ALSO THE FIRST SLASHER VILLAIN TO WEAR A MASK,
WHICH IS MADE OUT OF HUMAN SKIN. EVENTUALLY, THE FAMILY GOES AFTER
SALLY, THE ONLY ONE LEFT, CULMINATING IN THE FAMOUS “DINNER PARTY”
SEQUENCE, WHERE THE SAWYERS TREAT SALLY TO A GRUESOME DINNER OF
HER DEAD FRIENDS.
SOT: “Dinner Party” Scene sound effects
TRACK: SALLY ULTIMATELY ESCAPES THE FAMILY IN THE BACK OF A PASSING
PICKUP TRUCK, LEAVING LEATHERFACE BEHIND SWINGING HIS CHAINSAW
MANIACALLY IN THE AIR.
SOT: “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” ending
SOT: “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” music
TRACK: “THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE” IS MASTERFULLY SHOT AND
METICULOUS IN ITS EDITS. THIS FILM FIRMLY CEMENTED THE RULES OF
SLASHER HORROR FILMS. IT ALSO REFERENCES CULTURAL ISSUES OVER THE
VIETNAM WAR’S EFFECT ON THE NUCLEAR FAMILY AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS
ISSUES. IN FACT, THE TWO ARE THROWN TOGETHER IN THE “DINNER PARTY”

54

SEQUENCE. THE FAMILY TORTURES SALLY PHYSICALLY AND RESTRAINS HER,
ALL WHILE TRYING TO ENJOY A NICE FAMILY MEAL. LEATHERFACE EVEN PUTS
ON AN APRON AND WEARS HIS NICE SKIN MASK WITH BLUSH AND ROUGE TO
WELCOME THE GUEST OF HONOR.
SOT: Ben Alpers: “I think the sexual revolution plays really important roles in this in…very
complicated ways… “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” ...clearly the victims are ‘hippies.’
SOT: Ben Alpers: “It’s a film about the decline of the working class, but it’s not a film you sort
of look at and think, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be great to have this working class back…They’re like
murderous loons.”
TRACK: THROUGHOUT THE FILM, THE SAWYER CLAN PREACHES THE WORKING-
CLASS VALUES OF WORKING IN A MEAT FACTORY.
TRACK: “Hitchhiker” scene
SOT: Rick Worland: “The contemporary horror film, which is to say, mostly the ‘60s and ‘70s,
the monster is gestated inside the family. And instead of having the family being protected
against the monster, the family’s the source of the monstrosity.”
TRACK: IT'S ALSO WORTH NOTING THAT IT ESTABLISHED THE “FINAL GIRL”
TROPE IN HORROR.
SOT: Nick Cull: “The expectation is that…you make out with your boyfriend…and you’re
transgressed therefore, something bad’s going to happen.”

55

SOT: Amy Davis: “You can have your fun, but you’re gonna have to be punished for it…You
cannot allow someone to get away with sin.”
TRACK: THE FEMININE IDEAL AS SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T VIOLATE SOCIAL
NORMS, AND TRIUMPHS OVER HER MALE ATTACKERS.
SOT: Music from “Alien”
TRACK: THE THIRD FILM “ALIEN” DIRECTED BY RIDLEY SCOTT, BLENDS THE
DECADE’S ANXIETIES INTO ONE COHESIVE FILM, PERHAPS THE FINEST HORROR
MOVIE OF ITS PERIOD. THE FILM FOLLOWS THE SPACE CREW OF THE
NOSTROMO, A DEEP-SPACE MINING SHIP RETURNING FROM A MISSION. WHILE
EN ROUTE BACK TO EARTH, THE CREW DISCOVERs A DISTRESS SIGNAL COMING
FROM A NEARBY SHIP. AS THEY INVESTIGATE THE SIGNAL, ONE OF THE CREW
MEMBERS, KANE, PLAYED BY JOHN HURT, IS ATTACKED BY A CREATURE WHO
HAS LATCHED ITSELF ONTO HIS FACE. THE CREW BRINGS HIM BACK ONBOARD
IN AN UNRESPONSIVE STATE. DAYS LATER, KANE APPEARS FINE, BUT
THE CREATURE IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. AT DINNER, THE SHIP’S TEAM
REALIZES WHAT HAPPENED: THE FACEHUGGER HAS IMPREGNATED KANE, WHO
OUT OF NOWHERE STARTS CONVULSING AND SCREAMING UNTIL AN ALIEN
BURSTS THROUGH HIS CHEST.
SOT: “Chest Burster” Scene
TRACK: THE ALIEN GROWS IN SIZE AND MURDERS ALL OF THE CREW MEMBERS,
WITH THE LONE EXCEPTION OF RIPLEY, PLAYED BY SIGOURNEY WEAVER. SHE

56

FINALLY KILLS THE CREATURE. THE REPRODUCTIVE ISSUES OF “THE EXORCIST”
ARE PRESENTED IN THE ALIEN BIRTH SCENE, AND THE GENDER ISSUES OF
SLASHER FILMS ARE EXPLORED.
SOT: Amy Davis: “I think the gender politics are very ahead of their time…Ripley was going to
be given to a male actor, and then they change it at the last minute of course, putting Sigourney
Weaver in that role does, automatically change a lot of the politics surrounding it. And then, of
course…the classic, infamous scene where the alien rips through…John Hurt’s chest and
this…sort of terror version of a cesarean section.”
TRACK: IN A SURPRISE TWIST, RIPLEY IS ALMOST SUFFOCATED TO DEATH BY
ASH, THE SCIENCE OFFICER ON THE CREW, WHO TURNS OUT TO BE AN ANDROID
IN DISGUISE. HE TRIES TO CHOKE RIPLEY WITH A PORNO MAGAZINE, AFTER SHE
MAKES IT KNOWN SHE WANTS TO KILL THE ALIEN.
SOT: “Suffocation” scene
TRACK: THIS IS A DIRECT VIOLATION OF ASH’S PROGRAMMING. THE COMPANY
WHO SENT THE CREW INTO SPACE PROGRAMMED HIM TO MAKE SURE THE
ALIEN RETURNS ALIVE. THIS TURNS OUT TO BE THE REAL REASON FOR THE
JOURNEY. THE CREW, UNFORTUNATELY, ARE EXPENDABLE.
SOT: “You can’t kill it” scene
TRACK: WHAT’S MOST GROUNDBREAKING ABOUT THE FILM IS HOW IT
PRESENTS THE ALIEN ITSELF. THIS FILM DIVES INTO WOMEN’S CONTROL OVER
THEIR BODIES, AND CONFRONTS MEN WITH THE SAME ISSUE AS WELL, PITTING

57

THE ENTIRE CREW UP AGAINST A CREATURE THAT IS SEXUALLY SUGGESTIVE
BOTH IN APPEARANCE AND ACTION. A PHYSICALLY LARGE SPECIMEN, THE
ALIEN, WHEN MURDERING CREW MEMBERS, FIRST PENETRATES THEM WITH
SUGGESTIVE PHALLIC IMAGERY OF ITS BODY, ONLY TO DRAG THEM OFF TO BE
DISPOSED OF.
SOT: Nick Cull: “It’s playing with those fears of penetration.”
TRACK: THE PRODUCTION DESIGNER OF THE FILM, H.R. GIGER, DESIGNED THE
CREATURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE SHIP TO BE PHALICALLY AND
SEXUALLY SUGGESTIVE IN APPEARANCE.
SOT: Amy Davis: “It does, in a sense, sort of queer ideas about what is masculine, what is
feminine, it challenges those ideas and perceptions.”
TRACK: THE FILM FLIPS HOTLY DEBATED GENDER ROLES BY ALLOWING THE
MEN, AS WELL AS THE WOMEN, TO BE, IN A WAY, RAPED BEFORE THEY ARE
KILLED.
TRACK: BY THE END OF THE 70S AND MOVING INTO THE 80S, HORROR WOULD
AGAIN TAKE A NEW DIRECTION. REGANOMICS AND THE AIDS EPIDEMIC
TOOK UP RESIDENCE IN THE COLLECTIVE NIGHTMARES OF THE AMERICAN
CONSCIOUSNESS. JOIN ME THEN AS WE DELVE INTO THE HORRORS OF
CONSUMERISM, AND OF THE GLORY DAYS OF BODY HORROR. ALL RESEARCH
DONE ON ‘60S AND ‘70S HORROR FILMS WAS TAKEN FROM “THE HORROR FILM:
AN INTRODUCTION,” BY RICK WORLAND, “THE MONSTER SHOW” BY DAVID J.

58

SKAL, AND “ON THE HORROR FILM: COLLECTED ESSAYS AND REVIEWS.” BY
ROBIN WOODS. I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MY GUEST SPEAKERS FOR THIS
EPISODE, AMY DAVIS, MATT YOCKEY, JOE MOE, BENJAMIN ALPERS, NICK CULL,
AND RICK WORLAND. SPECIAL THANKS TO WESLEY STENZEL, HENRY JENKINS,
WILLA SEIDENBERG, AND KAREN STERNHEIMER FOR THEIR GUIDANCE AND
SUPPORT. ORIGINAL THEME MUSIC COMPOSED AND PERFORMED BY NICK
MERVIS. THIS PODCAST WAS PRODUCED AT THE ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR
COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA. UNTIL NEXT TIME…PLEASANT DREAMS.
OUTRO MUSIC: “Season of the Witch”

59

Bibliography
Interview with Alpers, Benjamin on February 20
th
, 2022
Interview with Benshoff, Harry on February 19
th
, 2022
Interview with Cull, Nick on February 8
th
, 2022
Interview with Davis, Amy on February 22
nd
, 2022
Kracauer, Siegfried, and Leonardo Quaresima. Essay. In From Caligari to Hitler: A
Psychological History of the German Film, 41–77. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2019.
Interview with Moe, Joe on February 17
th
, 2022
Skal, David J. The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, 2001.
Interview with Turan, Kenneth on February 17
th
, 2022
Wood, Robin, Barry Keith Grant, and Richard Lippe. “An Introduction to the American Horror
Film.” Essay. In Robin Wood on the Horror Film: Collected Essays and Reviews, 95–136.
Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2018.
Worland, Rick. The Horror Film: An Introduction. Wiley. Malden, MO: Blackwell Publishing,
2007. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Horror+Film%3A+An+Introduction-p-
9781405139021.
Interview with Worland, Rick on February 10
th
, 2022
Interview with Yockey, Matt on February 10
th
, 2022

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Like most other film genres, horror films are a cultural mainstay. They delight in shocking, scaring and delighting audiences the world over. Horror films have been a part of the collective consciousness since the earliest days of the artform. They also have a special place within moviegoing audiences’ hearts: they are meant to shock and startle, but also compel audiences back for more repeated jolts due to the strength of the artistic material tackling pressing and important issues of its day. This thesis podcast project is meant to examine the evolution and history of horror films as dictated by sociological, political, and historical contexts. By delving into classic and modern horror films and unpacking the underlying subtext of some of cinema’s most powerful works, audiences can pinpoint not only the cultural inspirations of their cinematic nightmares, but also examine the symbiotic relationship between how world events shape the art that shape our daily lives, and vice versa.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Keyfauver, Trevor (author)

Core Title 100 years of horror: a history of modern horror movies

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism (The Arts)

Degree Conferral Date 2022-05

Publication Date 04/18/2022

Defense Date 03/16/2022

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Art,culture,horror,movie,OAI-PMH Harvest

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Jenkins, Henry (committee chair), Seidenberg, Willa (committee member), Sternheimer, Karen (committee member)

Creator Email keyfauve@usc.edu,trevorkeyfauver@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC111014552

Unique identifier UC111014552

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Keyfauver, Trevor

Type texts

Source 20220419-usctheses-batch-929 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

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