Horror film genre and conventions

¶ … American Horror Film, editor Gregory A. Waller brings together essays that dissect and critique many of the most popular horror films of the last few decades. This book is extremely interesting in the way the authors discuss the horror films and why they are so fascinating to filmmakers and viewers. Often, critics and others dismiss horror films as a film genre that is neither important or worth viewing. However, this collection of essays really makes the reader think about horror films and view them in a new light.

The horror genre is not for everyone, and the authors of these essays make this clear. One of the most interesting aspects that showed up in many of the essays is the "normalcy" of the main characters. They are usually young, very typical teenagers, and characters the viewers can identify with and like in at least some cases. Thus, the viewer begins to root for the characters to win out over their horrible adversary. When they do, the viewers are assured that life will get back to normal and good triumphs over evil. When they do not, viewers see a view of the world that is a "product of madness" (Wexman 34) as one writer says of the films of Roman Polanski.

It was interesting to see the commonalities in horror films from decades ago compared with modern films, as well. While the older films sometimes seem hokey and poorly acted the thread of horror that runs through the story and holds it together is still the same, no matter when the film is made or who the actors and director were. The book discusses "Night of the Living Dead," which is still a gross and disgusting film, but it has many of the same qualities of "Friday the 13th," such as young, "normal" protagonists fighting a grisly enemy, and many of them using the fight. It is also interesting that so many critics read so much into these films. At first glance, they are simply "scary movies," but after reading this book, it is clear they are much more than that, and much thought and execution goes into the development and creation of these films. While the characters and situations may not be extremely complex, there are things that bind the films together and make them attractive to the viewer. For example, some films, such as "Rosemary's Baby," "The Exorcist," and "The Eyes of Lara Mars" use sexual situations in the film to add to the feeling of horror and anticipation about what is to come. Most use very graphic violence, but others create characters that are intriguing and larger than life to get their message across (think of "Frankenstein" and even "Carrie").

Another interesting aspect of this book was the idea that not all horror films contain graphic horror at all. One author maintains films such as "Vertigo" are actually horror films because they manipulate some "problem of vision" within them (Kawin 103). Thus, this definition opens up an entire new batch of horror films if the viewer looks at them with another eye for detail. "Vertigo" and other Hitchcock films do have elements of horror in them (such as "Psycho,") but it would not seem at first glance they were truly "horror" films in the classic sense. After reading this book, it pays to look at films from other angles, and see if there are elements of classic horror in them that the viewer may have missed before.