Gilliam); Gattaca(1997; director: Andrew Niccol);
Starship Troopers(1997; director: Paul Verhoeven);
The Iron Giant(1999; director: Brad Bird); Donnie
Darko (2001; director: Richard Kelly); Children
of Men(2006; director: Alfonso Cuarón); Wall-E
(2008; director: Andrew Stanton); Avatar(2009;
director: James Cameron); Moon(2009; director:
Duncan Jones); and District 9(2009; director: Neill
Blomkamp).
Horror
Like science fiction, the horror genre was born out
of a cultural need to confront and vicariously con-
quer something frightening that we do not fully
comprehend. In the case of horror films, those
frightening somethings are aspects of our exis-
tence even more intimidating than technology or
science: death and insanity. Both represent the ulti-
mate loss of control and a terrifying, inescapable
metamorphosis. In order to enact any sort of nar-
rative conflict with either of these forces, they must
be given a tangible form. And, like horror’s sister
genre, sci-fi, that form is the “other.” Death takes
the shape of ghosts, zombies, and vampires—all of
which pose a transformative threat to the audience.
The only thing scarier than being killed or con-
sumed by the other is actually becoming the other.
So it makes sense that the werewolves, demonic
possessions, and homicidal maniacs that act as cin-
ematic stand-ins for insanity also carry the threat
of infection and conversion.
We could hypothesize that early, primitive
religions—even the source of some modern
religions—derive from the same essential human
need to demystify and defeat these most basic
fears. But the difference between movies and reli-
gious rituals is the intensity and immediacy that
the cinema experience provides. Sitting in a dark-
ened movie theater staring at oversized images of
the other, movie viewers are immersed in a shared
ritual that exposes them to dread, terror, and, ulti-
mately, catharsis. We vicariously defeat death
(even if the protagonist does not), because we
survive the movie and walk back into our rela-
tively safe lives after the credits roll and the lights
come up. We experience the exhilaration of con-
fronting the dreaded other without the devastating
consequences.
Germany, with its strong tradition of folklore
and more developed engagement with the darker
aspects of existence (thanks in part to the devasta-
tion of World War I), created the first truly disturb-
ing horror movies. Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of
Dr. Caligari(1920) sees the world through the dis-
torted perspective of a madman; F. W. Murnau’s
expressionist Dracula adaptation, Nosferatu, a Sym-
phony of Horror(1922), associates its other with
death and disease. The United States embraced the
genre with the release of Dracula(1931; director:
Tod Browning), and thus began Hollywood’s on-
again, off-again relationship with the horror film.
A golden age of Hollywood horror followed, with
the monster others at its center taking top billing:
Frankenstein(1931; director: James Whale); The
Mummy(1932; director: Karl Freund); and The Wolf
Man(1941; director: George Waggner).
With the return of prosperity and the end of
World War II, the classic “monster”-based horror
film faded into mediocrity and relative obscurity
until a new generation of audiences with their own
fears resurrected the genre. Foreign and independ-
ent studios updated and moved beyond the original
monster concept with low-budget productions cre-
ated for the B-movie and drive-in markets. Horror
did not return to the mainstream until veteran
British directors Alfred Hitchcock and Michael
Powell, both of whom were associated with very dif-
ferent motion-picture styles, each unleashed his
own disturbing portrait of an outwardly attractive
young serial killer. By subverting audiences’ expec-
tation of the other, Hitchcock’s Psycho(1960) and
Powell’s Peeping Tom(1960) shocked audiences and
revolutionized the horror genre. Ever since, as our
culture’s needs and attitudes change, and global
awareness of real-life atrocities multiplies, horror
has evolved to become one of cinema’s most diverse
and fluid genres.
A typical horror narrative begins by establishing
a normal world that will be threatened by the
arrival of the other. This monster must be van-
quished or destroyed in order to reestablish nor-
malcy. Often, the protagonist is the only person who
initially recognizes evidence of the threat. BecauseSIX MAJOR AMERICAN GENRES 99