The British Horror Film

The horror film genre targets audience’s pleasures surrounding terror, panic and the fear of the unknown. They transfer audiences peculiar nightmares to a visual form, centring around an “evil force, person, or event”.

Sound in film was introduced in 1927, with the first talkie ‘The Jazz Singer’. Sound in horror became particularly important, presenting filmmakers with incredible opportunities to make a scene more horrific. Effects like non-diegetic, diegetic sound, ambient sound and dialogue presented horror with a new opportunity to enhance this fear. Creaking doors and footsteps highlighted that the monster was lurking, this along with the characters screams enhanced the horror to the audience.

Pre-Hammer, Tod Slaughter was a horror icon, taking the stage in 1905, he started in the theatre often playing the star villain in many Victorian melodramas. He often starred in gruesome crime stories, but also went on to star in the slasher black and white film ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ (1936). Despite his impact on British Horror, critiques saw through Slaughter’s theatrical performances of evil cackles and demanded naturalism. However, they were entertaining, satisfying and brought fear to the audience.

Hammer is one of the oldest companies in the world, founded in 1934. Hammer went onto re-define British horror and helped to create the British identity. ‘The Quatermass Xperiment’ (1955), was advertised by William Castle and referenced as ‘The Creeping Unknown’. Castle used the letter ‘X’ to spell ‘experiment’ to refer to the ‘X’ certificate film rating, making the film sound not suitable for those with a nervous disposition. The film was a “commercial and critical hit” and consisted of gruesome special effects, posing the questions of the unknown of a space virus being brought back down to Earth.

Hammer then went on to release classics including ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ (1957). Described as “a lush colour gothic”, Frankenstein was the first horror film to be filmed in colour and changed the face of horror altogether through one gunshot. The visual drops of blood shown where ground breaking, with the year later release of ‘Dracula’, cemented Hammer into the grounds of successful filmmaking, establishing their name in the likes of the audience and the critics, earning their place in British cinema history, even with a small production team. However, the repetition of Frankenstein and Dracula through endless sequels started the decline of British Horror. What other filmmakers previously looked up to started to diminish, and the attention turned to foreign outlets.

Hammer disbanded in the 1980’s and returned in the 2010’s, venturing into rural horror, with the release of ‘Wakewood’, in 2011. Described as “a classy, darkly menacing horror film”, it delves into areas of ceremonial rituals revolving death and the dangers of meddling with the afterlife. It’s highly disturbing plot and graphic scenes of death, completed by a possessed child, makes this film a terrifying watch but also pleasures the audiences love of fear.