Why are stories that "aim to scare their audience" so popular?
Audiences watch horror films because it gives them a kind of visceral pleasure. There is a part of most people that enjoy the adrenalin rush of being terrified witless, of being brought back to the days when adrenalin could be the difference between running & living, or being eaten by predators. The sheer terror one feels when watching a good horror film is pleasurable and exciting, it can provide an interesting change to the audience's potentially dull life, and this is why the horror is consistently a popular genre in cinemas.What insight can the study of horror monsters give?
Horror movies can provide interesting insight into the popular culture and current affairs at the time of the films release. For example, “Frankenstein” (Whale,1932) alludes to the aristocratic class as a failure that only when fixed can save the country. This is a metaphor created to suggest that the establishment of Germany had to try and fix their wrongdoings in order to save the country, after turning their backs on their duty to protect the country in the war which many people felt could be avoided. In fact the monster himself is said to be “Not as monstrous as the abuse of scientific knowledge that created him” which is another metaphor for the aristocrat’s abuse of power.What did Nosferatu (1922) one of the earliest horror films use the vampire as a metaphor for?
The iconic antagonist of the Post-WW1 German vampire film, Count Orlick, was designed to be a multi-faceted metaphor for the troubles of Germany at the time. As the country had been left financially destitute as a result of the devastating loss of World War One, there was little money for the government to use in order to repair the many problems the country faced. One such large problem was infection and disease, something often symbolized by a rat due to it's urban habitat. As a result of the pressing health problems of the time, the filmmakers made the Vampire Orlick resemble a rat, knowing that it would spark genuine fear in the audiences and produce a much more visceral, chilling reaction
Notes on the article
Major global events such as WW1 made dramatic changes in how films of many kinds, including horror, were constructed. For example “Nosferatu” (Murnau. 1922) was a vampire film that starred the famous vampire Count Orlok, a rodent-like monster whose appearance reflected that of a rat’s, as they are a common symbol for disease and infection which was a particularly large problem now that the country had been left financially destitute after losing WW1. In fact both Nosferatu and “Dracula” (Browning,1931) featured corrupt aristocrats who were the sources of power that led Germany to war, and therefore to failure during WW1.
The rat-like Count Orlok
The monstrous capabilities of mankind revealed in WW2 are reflected in horror films through the focus on “monsters that invaded or infected” and the “science gone wrong” motif, something which is suggested as being related to the horrors of advanced military technology that was in use, for example the nuclear bombs used in Japan in 1945. This ties in with another potential reading of Frankenstein as an allegory for racism in America, as the not-so-villainous “monster” which in reality had no choice in it’s creation (much like most countries had no real choice as to whether they partook in the war), which is eventually killed by a mob who misunderstand the innocent creation because they take it at hideous face value.
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