A History of Horror

262 Pages·2010·2.368 MB·English

by  Wheeler Winston Dixon

A History of Horror

A History of Horror
Wheeler Winston Dixon
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dixon, Wheeler W., 1950–
A history of horror / Wheeler Winston Dixon.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Includes filmography and top horror websites.
ISBN 978-0-8135-4795-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-8135-4796-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Horror films—History and criticism. I. Title.
PN1995.9.H6D59 2010
791.43(cid:2)616409–dc22
2009044965
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Copyright © 2010 by Wheeler Winston Dixon
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University
Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8099. The only exception
to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
Visit our Web site: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
For Dana Miller, who made it through the night
I have found it! What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only
describe the specter which had haunted my midnight pillow.
—Mary Shelley, Preface to Frankenstein
Where there is no imagination, there is no horror.
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1. Origins: 1896–1929 1
2. Classics: 1930–1948 25
3. Rebirth: 1949–1970 65
4. New Blood: 1970–1990 123
5. The Future: 1990–Present 172
Top Horror Web Sites 211
50 Classic Horror Films 215
Bibliography 217
Index 223
vii

Acknowledgments
Brief portions of this book previously appeared in the following
publications: “The Site of the Body in Torture/The Sight of the Tortured
Body: Contemporary Incarnations of Graphic Violence in the Cinema
and the Vision of Edgar Allan Poe,” Film and Philosophy 1.1 (1994):
62–70, Dan Shaw, editor; “The Child as Demon in Films Since 1961,”
Films in Review 37.2 (February 1986): 78–83, Roy Frumkes, editor;
“Cinematic Interpretations of the Works of H. P. Lovecraft,” Lovecraft
Studies 22/23 (Fall 1990): 3–9, S. T. Joshi, editor; “Gender Approaches
to Directing the Horror Film: Women Filmmakers and the Mechanisms
of the Gothic,” Popular Culture Review 7.1 (February 1996): 121–134,
Felicia Campbell, editor; and a brief section on the film Homicidal, pages
18–23, from my book Straight: Constructions of Heterosexuality in the Cinema
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003), courtesy of Jennifer
Doling, Rights and Permissions Manager.
In creating this book, I have been most crucially assisted by Dana
Miller, my typist for more than twenty years and, in many respects, a
guiding force behind the creation of all my books; Jack Gourlay, horror
buff extraordinaire; Dennis Coleman, whose vast knowledge of the
cinema is a source of wonder; and other friends and colleagues, including
Guy Reynolds, Marco Abel, Greg Kuzma, Murray Pomerance, Grace
Bauer, Michael Downey, Stephen C. Behrendt, Steven Prince, Mikita
Brottman, David Sterritt, Peter Brunette, Marcia Landy, Donovan K.
Loucks, Deborah Minter, Kwakiutl Dreher, Bob Hall, Lloyd Michaels,
David Sanjek, and Hilda Raz. Of course, my most sincere thanks also go
to the staff at Rutgers University Press, who made the publication of this
book possible, especially the editor in chief, Leslie Mitchner.
Two research trips to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota,
were invaluable for gathering information to create this manuscript; my
long conversations with Father David Byrne on the theological aspects
ix