1970s’ Horror Movies, Essay Example

Introduction

According to Barron (2003), the 1970s can be considered one of, if not the most, defining decade in horror movies’ history. Gone was the 1960s free loving spirit, which was immediately replaced with the grim pessimism as a result of the Vietnam War. It is a decade where horrific, dark and gritty violence set the foundation for the films, which also became the major breeding grounds for prolific voices that altered the genre for the better. Even though films normally reflect the economic, social and political events of their times, the decade was unique as the horror movies mainly honed in on the children’s fears, the introduction of oral contraceptives and the sexual revolution. The decade took advantage of the rather loosened laws on censorship, an aspect that allowed the boundaries to be pushed even further compared to before. Towards the end of the 1960s, there was a lot of criticism directed towards the movie industry in the country. At the time, the Vietnam War had a huge impact on many citizens, and as a result, the news footage coming from the media was successful in drowning them with terrifying images (Newland 330). As such, nothing could be depicted in these movies the same as before. The softening of censorship brought a new approach to imagery in the decade of the seventies. The negative public mood, on the other hand, coupled with trauma caused by the war, made most movies lack a reassuring conclusion; realism also became even stronger, and in a way, this was closer to daily life.

The New Decade for Film-Makers

Even though the seventies started with Hollywood going through a serious artistic and financial depression, it was a decade that became a creative high point in the country’s horror movie industry. Restrictions that had previously been placed on violence, sexuality, and general adult content, as well as language had been significantly loosened up, and the elements became very rampant. The changing perception on violence and gender roles, the growth of rock and roll, the civil right movements, drug use and the hippie movement had an impact on the movie industry (Heller-Nicholas 103). As such, Hollywood was in the seventies reborn and renewed after an earlier collapse of entire studio systems and efforts of many experimental and new filmmakers during the new wave of Hollywood. The seventies’ counter-culture had to a great extent influenced the horror movie industry to be freer, to experiment with alternative and to take more risks. Young filmmakers embraced the change as old industry experts and old-style kingpins died out, and a relatively new and young generation of filmmakers was born. The majority of the late 1960s film-makers and audiences had experienced a glimpse of new potentials, more meaningful artistic choices and different story-telling approaches by the influences of different European “New Wave” movements, as well as the original works of many experimental and new film-makers.

The summer of love was gone and destroyed by the new grim outlook and the Manson Family killings of the decade. The sixties’ party was over; Joplin and Hendrix were dead, Woodstock was over. Vietnam was still in motion; the Beatles split up, there were recessions, Westgate and oil strikes. It was a decade that was not about Cultural Revolution or sexual exploration, considering when the world is in turmoil, it is a time to make great horror-based films (Newbury 87). The decade saw a resurfacing of huge budget studio horror movies, coupled with the blossoming of independent horror movies, a situation that greatly impacted mainstream culture. One major reason that these films were taken seriously in the seventies is the late sixties’ film, Rosemary’s Baby movie. The fact that this movie was able to get the mainstream appeal, critical acclaim and because of Mia Farrow and Roman Polanski, its highly regarded lead actress, and director, it was able to influence the masses towards the genre (Stone 7). Movies such as The Omen in 1976, Jaws in 1975, Alien in 1979 and the Exorcist in 1973 all having high profile actresses/actors and famous directors gained a lot of success in the box office, with equal measures of criticism, and several were nominated for the Academy Awards’ best picture. Seventies’ movies such as “Alien,” Jaws,” and “The Exorcist” are today among the list of the best-created films and spawned franchises.

Under the big-budget studio films surface was an explosion of independent horror films created and developed for shoestring budget with huge cult status and box office returns. The movies were mainly focused on the fear of those around an individual or what is regarded as inner horror and not on a pending threat or monsters from another world. Movies such as “The Last House On the Left,” which was made in 1972, had a big influence on the decade’s films’ tone, including the recurring theme of graphic film censorship (Newbury 87). This particular film and the “I Spit On Your Grave” movie in 1978 created the genre of “rape and revenge,” which was not at the time or before exclusive to horror, considering that it comprised films such as “Sudden Impact” (1983) and “Death Wish” (1974). 1974 was marked by some of the very first slasher prototype movies with “Black Christmas” by Bob Clark and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” by Tobe Hooper. Even though the two did not depend on heavy gore, they have the archetype of mysterious killers with the movie’s protagonists being killed one after the other (Stone 32). The two movies were made for $620,000 and $300,000 respectively and grossed millions of dollars. The decade gave the country more and more independent gems like Phantasm (1979); Carrie (1976), Eraserhead (1977) and Alice, Sweet Alice (1976). Two among the most significant 1970s’ independent horror movies were 1979 film “Dawn of the Dead” by George A. Romero and the 1978 movie, “Halloween” by John Carpenter. These movies went ahead to impact the 1980’s slasher genre by providing the silent and slow tropes walking killers, taking the form of Michael Myers’ the legendary, the final girl trope and substance abusers, as well as sexually promiscuous, are killed off.

Style as Cultural Signifier in 1970s Horror Movies

One thing that many people tend to remember from their childhood is one horror movie, which scared them. One might not remember who he or she brought to his or her junior prom or second-grade teacher’s name, but the scenes of that particular horror movie stick to one’s mind for a long time. The seventies’ horror films were a reflection of the decade from which they originated. However, the decade itself was not a mere part of the story, every movie was created through a camera’s lens, and the objects and figures of the movie were part of the frame (Lawrence 86). The frame can be alerted to accomplish numerous narrative goals. Filmmakers in the horror genre utilized the camera, the frame, as well as the many possibilities of cinema in projecting fear. Horror films were in the seventies at their peak, considering that America was a horror show by itself.

At the time, the Vietnam War was fully operational; the police were shooting at students in Kent State simply because they exercised their constitutional rights. It was a decade where factory workers were being replaced by technology, but gasoline was running low regardless. The World War II American hero had disappeared, and the 1970s horror directors were forced to make comments regarding the disappearance. Wes Craven in the 1972 film, “The Last House on the Left,” symbolically uses a family of criminals and juxtaposes them with a rather clean family that rises to run from the post-Vietnam new America. But, the clean family discovers that the war strain, as well as the atrocity, impacts their lives too (Hantke 130). Tobe Hooper, on the other hand, developed an economic degenerate’s family that resorted to cannibalism for survival in the technological encroachment into its “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” rural homeland. As the country thought that it was done with the seventies’ craze, the 1978 film by John Carpenter, Halloween, was created with a physical form of evil, which acted as a reminder that light can never exist without darkness. The above movies presented their narratives through character and narrative development, and their application of film style elements is critical to the successful development of the seventies’ horror movies.

Unique Characteristics of the 1970s Horror Films

It is clear as mentioned before that the horror genre in the seventies greatly benefited from the softened censorship. However, the film’s popularity cannot be attributed to that only; a new generation of directors was quite impactful in the decade. The directors portrayed a natural talent in directing and creating a suitable atmosphere as well in having an eye for proportion. Their unique style and work still have a profound impact on the American movie scene to date, and they are still being copied mainly because of diminishing originality and new ideas in the industry. In the 1970s, Scorsese, Craven, De Palma, Romero, Altman, Friedkin, Hooper, Spielberg, Ridley Scott or Carpenter became “deciding factors” (Newbury 109). Since this generation surfaced, the number of newfound talents reduced with each decade after. In the horror sense of the phrase, all the members of the “list” were responsible for the revolution of one thing or the other- style, a version of it or the whole genre.

One of the most attractive aspects of the 1970s was the great genre variety. The variety was also very much present within the horror movie genre, including mutants, zombies, cannibals, exorcism, religious themes, animals, and exploitation, among many more. In 1975, the limelight was shown on an animal horror and showed the world the start of a great career. Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” also generated dozens of copies in better condition or under bigger budgets, but it was not even anywhere close to the standards that had been set by the original. Spielberg and his team gave life to the film from mere nothing in the editing room, considering that he went through a very tough period during the shooting. The final work on the film swept the audiences off their feet and gave more evidence that human talent, creativity, as well as the ability to put a film together are so much critical than anything else.

All of the horror films highlighted here became classics with time and offered many filmmakers around the world a kind of guideline regarding the best approach to take in their work. In the 1970s, the American horror cinema greatly flourished, the best thing about this being that it was mainly original and directors’ chairs were filled by individuals who had a unique and new perspective and were not mere craftsmen. Three things are very critical when making an outstanding scary film and evident in the seventies’ movies. One of these is the story itself. This is what the creators of a film intend to share with the audience and the exact message to be passed. The majority of the horror movies in the seventies demonstrate good stories, which master interesting characters with whom the audience can even identify with and those who are interesting to watch. The scriptwriters were largely responsible for the story that the audiences saw coming to life on the silver screen. The responsibility of the characters was to a large extent shared between the actors and the writers portraying them (Prohászková 132). The atmosphere, on the other hand, in the majority of the seventies’ films, was mainly the responsibility of the directors or at times editors. A film lacking in atmosphere indicates poor or no directing. These are some of the factors that were present in the seventies’ horror movies and among aspects that are crucial to any cinematographic genre. In the case of horror films in the 1970s, these were collected with the word fear (or flight, scaring, startling). When the trinity above came together, it made the films scaring.

Conclusion

The seventies’ horror movies were a reflection of the decade’s grim mood. After the 1960’s optimism, with its cultural and sexual revolutions, as well as the moon landings, the 1970s were very different. The party was by 1970 over, Janis and Jimi died, the Beatles split, and in many senses, the decade was downhill from there onwards. Oil strikes, Nam, Nixon, glam rocks, medallions, feather haircuts; however, horror films start getting good when a society starts going bad, and the seventies marked a return to the respectable, huge budget horror movies, handling contemporary society matters and addressing genuine psychological fears. The fear of children was a dominant and consistent theme in these films, coupled with the fear of the painful, messy and usually fatal childbirth process. Further, the seventies were marked by a great variety in movie genres. This was also experienced within the horror movie genre, including mutants, zombies, cannibals, exorcism, religious themes, animals, and exploitation, among many more. There various realities of the time, especially the Vietnam War, were very impactful on the genre. The decade was marked by a grim mood, which greatly contributed to the development and growth of the horror movie scene in the country.

Works Cited

Barron, Kevin D. “Horror Films of the 1970s.” Reference & User Services Quarterly 42.3 (2003): 266-270.

Hantke, Steffen, ed. American Horror Film: The Genre at the Turn of the Millennium. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2010. 124-160.

Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra. Found footage horror films: fear and the appearance of reality. McFarland, 2014. 101-109.

Lawrence, Novotny. Blaxploitation films of the 1970s: Blackness and genre. Routledge, 2007. 85-87.

Newbury, Michael. “Fast zombie/slow zombie: Food writing, horror movies, and agribusiness apocalypse.” American Literary History 24.1 (2012): 87-114.

Newland, Paul, ed. Don’t look now: British cinema in the 1970s. Intellect Books, 2010. 329-333.

Prohászková, Viktória. “The genre of horror.” American International Journal of Contemporary Research 2.4 (2012): 132-142.

Stone, Bryan. “The sanctification of fear: Images of the religious in horror films.” Journal of Religion & Film 5.2 (2016): 7-65.