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Terms apply. This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. Up next, the history of horror films from the earliest silent versions straight through all of the classics. You have your own favorites; we have ours. To tell the story is Matt Castro, and he has the definitive version of horror film history.
On YouTube, go and search his name, Magic Carp Used Fly, which has over a million subscribers and has all kinds of other interesting items as well. Go to Matt Castro at YouTube, and you will find all of his work. Here's Matt to tell the story of the history of the horror film. Our first stop on the train of terror begins in the early days of the film industry, from the 1900s until the beginning of the 1930s. During this time, the film industry was smitten with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, which is what occupied American theaters in the 1920s.
Horror films in the United States were very far and few in between. Between the 1900s to the 1930s, the silent film era for horror consisted of literary works of past Gothic tales like *The Phantom of the Opera*. And the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the most influential genre films of the era came from the Expressionist movement in Germany, with movies like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu, two films that have iconically given inspiration to some of the most celebrated directors of our time. German Expressionism used tall, sharp, and warped buildings, shadows that were painted on walls to give rooms these unnatural shapes, misshapen windows and doors, exaggerated towns and buildings.
Almost every Tim Burton film uses this art style to show these dreamscapes of the macabre by using these harsh shadows and exaggerated silhouettes as ways to signify feelings of dread and tension. And although Tim Burton is the most well known for his use of expressionism, the influence of these landmarks can be seen in multiple movies throughout film history. Citizen Kane's use of harsh lighting and tilted cameras is very reminiscent of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Noir films also pulled a lot of inspiration from the lighting used in German expressionism.
Even films like Disney's Fantasia have scenes referencing the art style of these gothically set stories. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu is what some consider the beginning of the horror genre, since the term horror film wasn't created until 1931, after the release of Dracula. And although horror films were few and far in between, the film industry in the United States was rapidly growing towards the end of the 1920s. And as more theaters opened up to show more movies to cash in on the new media, Universal Pictures in Hollywood, California, would break into the industry in 1931.
With the greatest addition to film, we've got the Monster Master Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man. Hollywood's horror films were centered around these iconic monsters of the 30s, leading up to the 50s. 1931 marked the first introduction to the Universal Monster Classic with Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, and since the term horror film wasn't created yet, the vampire movie was instead marketed as a love story, calling it the story of the strangest passion the world has ever known. Dracula was filmed two different times and had three versions available for theaters: the English version, the Spanish version, and the silent film version. Instead of dubbing the actors' voices, Universal Pictures would instead hire foreign actors to refilm the movie to release for the foreign market.
During the day, Todd Browning would direct the English version of Dracula, and by night, George Melford would use the sets to create the Spanish version of Dracula.
So there's actually two different versions of the movie.
However, the idea ended up being a flop, and so Dracula was the last film that Universal Pictures did this idea with. Dracula was a resounding success, and Universal Studios wanted to capitalize on their recent venture. Immediately, going into production with their next motion picture, Frankenstein. Production of the film was incredibly quick. It began in August 1931, concluded in October of the same year, and released in November.
Bello Lugosi, who had just found success with Dracula, was hoping to land the role of Henry Frankenstein, but was offered the role of the monster, which at the time of the pitch had no emotional pathos added to it. Lugosi famously turned down the role, and instead, it was given to Boris Karloff in the classic story of a misunderstood man-made creation and its mad scientist. Frankenstein was a cinematic masterpiece with some of the most iconic images in film history. It's been referenced countless times throughout the history. Of cinema and its artistic style of grasping German expressionism influenced some of our favorite movies to this day.
Both Dracula and Frankenstein ended up being censored by the Motion Picture Production Code, commonly referred to as the Hays Code, that took place between 1934 to 1968. It provided films with do's and don'ts on what Hollywood films should be depicting, and studios followed the guideline all the way until I think like around the mid 1950s. The Wolfman stars Lon Chaney Jr., who would reprise his role in four sequels as the Wolfman. He's also the son of Lon Chaney, who was an actor and makeup artist for movies like The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It's really what catapulted the werewolf subgenre into the mainstream.
Released in 1941, the movie is beautifully shot with these mist-covered forests and is a staple of the modern werewolf subgenre. It's also an original screenplay written by the Jewish screenwriter Kurt Seydmark, who used the Wolfman as a way to represent his feelings of being forced to leave Germany when Hitler's Third Reich came to power. Movies like *The Invisible Man*, *The Mummy*, and *Creature from the Black Lagoon* would join the Universal monster lineup, becoming iconic symbols of the Golden Age of Horror, influencing modern directors with their groundbreaking special effects at the time. During this time, other very important horror films were created outside of Universal's scope. One of which was directed by Todd Browning, the director behind Dracula and his next film, Freaks.
When the movie was released, it caused such a huge controversy that its original runtime of 90 minutes was cut down to a little over an hour, with the rest of its content lost to cinema history because of the unfavorable response they gained during test screenings. It was also banned in the UK by the British censors for over 30 years before finally being granted. Granted an X rating in 1963, saying exploited for commercial reasons, the deformed people that it claimed to dignify. Ironically, Todd Browning was actually a circus performer himself at the age of 16 as a contortionist and clown, and insisted on casting the kind of persons with disabilities that he knew from his work experience and fascination with carnivals. Alone, that is remarkable.
Considering if this movie was remade today, it'd probably hire non-disabled actors and instead use makeup and special effects to play their parts instead. Since its retrospective review, the film has become a cult classic and has even been submitted into the National. Film registry for preservation, and although Freaks was sadly swept under the rug, the '30s had another movie that was just too big to fit underneath one. And you've been listening to YouTube Maestro Matt Castro. When we come back, more of Matt and the story of the history of horror films here on Our American Stories.
Here at Our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith, and love—stories from a great and beautiful country that need to be told. But we can't do it without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love our stories and America like we do, please go to ouramericanstories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.
Help us keep the great American stories coming. That's ouramericanstories.com. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past two hundred and fifty years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 semi-quintennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop. New official coins at usmint.gov/semiq. That's usmint.gov/semiq.
This is Hoda Kotb from Joy One Hundred and One with Hoda Kotb. Halloween has a funny way of making you buy things you'd never normally buy. A ten-foot skeleton, sure. A full-size fog machine, why not? Three bags of candy that somehow become six bags of candy.
It happens. Which brings me to the Chase Freedom Flex. Flex card—the savvy decision that will earn you more cash back on the everyday purchases, plus the extraordinary Halloween tricks and treats. With Freedom Flex, you earn even more treats on your Halloween and everyday needs. You get 5% cash back on popular rotating quarterly categories, 3% on dining and drugstores, and 1% on all other purchases.
More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. That's no tricks, all treats. More ways to earn. Learn more ways to get rewarded.
So sign up for the Chase Freedom Flex Card. Learn more at chase.com/getflex. This is a paid collaboration with Chase Freedom Flex. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, member FDIC. Subject to credit approval.
Offer subject to change. Terms apply. Looking for a new way to take control of your health? If diet, exercise, and willpower alone haven't gotten you where you want to be, visit orderlymeds.com. To learn about GLP one treatment options, with a convenient virtual process, you can connect with licensed medical providers from home and see if treatment may be appropriate for you.
Visit orderlymeds dot com today. That's orderlymeds dot com. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Eligibility determined by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary.
See website for details. All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse, being understaffed or being poorly staffed?
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Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a seventy five dollars sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves at Indeed dot com slash podcast. Just go to Indeed dot com slash podcast right now.
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Some days, it's the little things you look forward to most. And with Pepperidge Farms thoughtfully crafted cookies, there's always something worth savoring. Maybe it's a Milano, made with premium chocolate between two delicate biscuits. A Sosolito, baked with rich milk chocolate chunks and macadamia nuts. Or the simple buttery goodness of a Chessman.
So pour the coffee, find a comfy chair, and take a moment to treat yourself to a cookie or two. Pepperidge Farm, have a little taste. And we continue with our American stories and the history of horror films with Matt Castro, a YouTube maestro who has the definitive history of horror films on YouTube. Go and search his name, Magic Carp Used to Fly, which has over a million subscribers. Matt Castro is back to continue the story of the history of horror films.
Remade in 2005, the original King Kong from 1933 still stands the test of time for a modern-day viewing. The movie was incredibly advanced for its time on a technical level, using back projection, stop-motion animation, predating Harryhausen, matte paintings, miniatures, and models to create a beautiful piece of cinema with these lavish landscapes and intense scenes of amazing stop-motion animation. This was all done before green screens, digital effects, and digital editing software. And so, seeing this movie be able to accomplish these fantastical scenes with what they had to work with is truly an eighth wonder of the world. The story is a classic, and its pacing is incredibly good for a movie with two three act structures.
When the crew arrives on the island and rescues their actress, and when they bring Kong back to the states. The movie has been referenced, parodied, and analyzed throughout history as a highly influential film over its existence. Coming off of World War II and into the age of rock and roll and drive-in movie theaters, science fiction became incredibly popular. War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Forbidden Planet were just some of the movies released during this time when, after the horrific events of the atomic bomb, people wondered if technology had gone too far. Capitalizing on the fear of the backlash from nuclear warfare, Japan created the kaiju subgenre with Godzilla in 1954.
The first film of the iconic monster Godzilla. Although with recent kaiju films such as Pacific Rim and Godzilla vs Kong, the subgenre has shifted more towards action and adventure.
However, the roots of the subgenre were born from the black and white Japanese film. The success of Godzilla launched Toho into a kaiju frenzy by spitting out countless campy Godzilla films that became increasingly more ridiculous as the franchise continued. Mothra, Rodan, Gigant, and Ghidorah would become some of the most well-known kaiju monsters to ever bless the Godzilla franchise. Science fiction became the preferred source of media in the U.S. The entire decade was filled with movies about the radioactive, the strange, and the otherworldly.
Almost every horror film at the time had a plot of science fiction, from movies like *The Blob*, a film about a literal mutagenic blob attacking people, and *Them*, a movie about gigantic ants. A lot of films in the 50s were very pro-military, and a majority of horror science fiction relied on the characters going to the government to seek protection from the monsters portrayed in the movies. Movies like them and Invasion of the Body Snatchers heavily relied on the government and military officials to fix the problems that the characters were faced with, whether it's giant monsters, aliens from another planet, or creatures created from the fallout of the atomic bomb. Although it seems hokey and cheesy by today's standards, *Them* was one of the first giant insect creature features that helped shape the landscape of science fiction films during its time. It still holds up to a modern day watch with the amazing special effects used to create the giant ants portrayed throughout the movie.
*Invasion of the Body Snatchers* would also become a science fiction staple, joining the National Film Registry to be preserved as a cultural or historically significant film. It was largely ignored during its first theatrical run, and has since been reassessed as a true classic of the science fiction genre, leading to it being remade in 1978, which is more than likely the version you're probably most familiar with. Where science fiction became a huge influence on films during the 1950s, French films were becoming more unique and stylized, leading to the French New Wave movement going into the 1960s. Directed by Anglade-Jour's Clouzot, *Le Diabolique* is an example of a director who implemented their unique style into the movie. Not only do we see two very strong and independent female characters, which were very hard to come by during the 50s, but the way that the story unfolds and Clouzot's use of film composition.
Staging and lighting techniques stylize the film, unlike most horror movies of its time. Alfred Hitchcock was a huge influence on the French New Wave movement, and Clouseau pays homage to Hitchcock's Rear Window during the final scene, where she investigates a mysterious light at the school. The use of strong, low-key lighting heightens the tension in the movie, and its lack of a musical score further exemplifies the terror. Hitchcock was also reportedly interested in directing an adaptation of the book *She Who Was No More*, but its rights were already given to Clouseau to create *Le Diabolique*, and so Hitchcock instead gained the rights of *The Living and the Dead* from the same creators and turned that into *Vertigo* instead. The influence of *Le Diabolique* on Hitchcock's *Psycho* is almost hard to deny.
Both of them even including a murder located within a bathroom, a location where we as audience members see as a place of safety, which is then turned into a murderous scene. Clouzil's marketing campaign for the film also included a no spoiler warning for audience members. This was later replicated by Hitchcock to the same vein with the release of Psycho in 1960, five years after the release of Le diabolique. This can be looked at as two directors who highly respected one another's work during their time. During the mid 1950s, a production studio called Hammer Films became synonymous with the horror genre after the release of their film *The Quarter Mass Experiment* in 1955.
Where the 1931 Universal monsters were black and white classics, Hammer took the properties and made iconic colorized versions of the films with significantly more on-screen violence and bloodshed. This was due to the advent of Technicolor, and *Dracula*, which has now been renamed as *The Horror of Dracula*, is one of the first British horror films made using the three-strip Technicolor process. Although color was already prominent throughout films during this time, with movies like *Singin' in the Rain*, *The Wizard of Oz*. And Gone with the Wind, the technology of Technicolor was still very difficult to use on set, and horror films had a much lower budget than other bigger Hollywood films that could comfortably use three-strip cameras on their movie sets. It wouldn't be until the late 1950s that color became more standardized in movies with the advent of competition to Technicolor.
Hammer Films were what made actors like Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing become so iconic in the horror community, and is what revitalized the production company into becoming such a powerhouse inside of the horror genre. To avoid censorship from the BBFC, the Hammer Films company would regularly submit their films for review in their black and white prints in order to stifle the BBFC's recognition with their at the time extreme uses of blood. The 1960s was a very strange time for horror films. A majority of audiences were still burned out from the Universal monster classics and the low-budget sci-fi horror adjacent movies of the 50s. Horror movies were put on the back burner of studio minds as just cheap thrills.
However, directors still found ways to take the idea of horror movies and elevate them into a new light, such as the works of Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, and even in Japan, as directors began melding its culture. Folklore mythologies into feature-length films, reflecting Western culture as this revival of feminism began to grow. Instead of placing stereotypical females into these horror movies, their characters became more fleshed out and involved in the actual plot of the films, and not just being you know damsels in distress. This movement becomes a standard portrayal as we move into the modern era of horror films with concepts such as the final girl trope, monstrous menstruation, and just general female empowerment. Eyes without a face is a perfect example of a female-centered horror film about a woman struggling to break out of her father's patriarchy.
It's a black-and-white French movie revolving around a woman whose face becomes scarred and misshapen due to a car accident, leaving only her eyes intact. Her father and his assistant continuously insist that she wear a featureless mask to hide her disfigurement as they kidnap young women and graft their faces onto the daughter. Although poorly received on its initial release, it gained higher critical praise during its theatrical re-release in 1986. Over 25 years since its original run, with its influence reaching to as recent as the 2011 film *The Skin I Live In* as its spiritual successor. Eyes without a face came out during this French New Wave movement, where art house films became more prominent.
And so, when Eyes without a Face was released in France, it was probably shocking. I mean, in the 1960s, watching the scene where they're pulling the face off of their first victim is pretty gnarly for its time. It's so eerie watching this woman walking around with this featureless mask, longing for the outside world to the point of calling her fiancé that thinks that she's dead, and just listening to his voice over the phone. A scene that is later replicated in Halloween when Michael picks up the phone with Laurie on the other end of the line. And you've been listening to Matt Castro tell one heck of a tale about the development of horror films from the silent era straight through to the breakthrough film Dracula, which spawned by Universal, well, many other horror films more akin to monster films.
Frankenstein, a cinematic masterpiece, and then the Wolfman series and the ultimate werewolf subgenre. And then he works his way through to King Kong to Godzilla, and then sort of the the Slow time of the 1960s, where horror films were seen as low rent, low budget. Folks had lost their interest. There was Alfred Hitchcock still playing in the game, and a young director named Roman Polanski. When we come back, the story of the history of horror films continues here on Our American Stories.
Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past two hundred and fifty years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 semi-quintennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint it celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new.
New official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semiqu. That's usmint.gov slash semiqu. This is Hoda Kotb from Joy One Hundred and One with Hoda Kotb. Halloween has a funny way of making you buy things you'd never normally buy. A ten foot skeleton, sure.
A full size fog machine, why not? Three bags of candy that somehow become six bags of candy. It happens. Which brings me to the Chase Freedom Flex. Card the savvy decision that will earn you more cash back on the everyday purchases, plus the extraordinary Halloween tricks and treats.
With Freedom Flex, you earn even more treats on your Halloween and everyday needs. You get five percent cash back on popular rotating quarterly categories, three percent on dining and drugstores, and one percent on all other purchases. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. That's no tricks, all treats. More ways to earn.
More ways to get rewarded.
So sign up for the Chase Freedom Flex card. Learn more at chase.com/getflex. This is a paid collaboration with Chase Freedom Flex. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, member FDIC. Subject to credit approval.
Offer subject to change. Terms apply. Looking for a new way to take control of your health? If diet, exercise, and willpower alone haven't gotten you where you want to be, visit orderlymeds.com. To learn about GLP-1 treatment options with a convenient virtual process, you can connect with licensed medical providers from home and see if treatment may be appropriate for you.
Visit orderlymeds. dot com today. That's orderlymeds. dot com. Compounded medications are not FDA approved.
Eligibility determined by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details. All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse, being understaffed or being poorly staffed?
Well, that's a trick question because both are recipes for chaos. Either way, just say to yourself, "This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs." You'll get matched with candidates that meet the skills, certifications, and everything else you're looking for, or go a different way and get no traction. Seriously, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95 percent more likely to report a higher than non-sponsored jobs. It really is a no-brainer. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes.
Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a seventy-five dollars sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com/podcast. Just go to Indeed.com/podcast right now. Indeed.com/podcast.
Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.
Some days, it's the little things you look forward to most. And with Pepperidge Farms thoughtfully crafted cookies, there's always something worth savoring. Maybe it's a Milano made with premium chocolate between two delicate biscuits, a Sausalito baked with rich milk chocolate chunks and macadamia nuts, or the simple buttery goodness of a Chessman.
So pour the coffee, find a comfy chair, and take a moment to treat yourself to a cookie or two. Pepperidge Farm, have a little taste. And we continue with our American stories, and with Matt Castro telling the story of the history of horror films. Let's pick up where we last left off. 1960 also saw the release of Alfred Hitchcock's most famous film, *Psycho*, a motion picture that forever changed the landscape of horror movies.
At the time of its initial release, there was no other movie that was as controversial, shocking, and violent, leading to mixed reviews. Only to be reassessed years later, much like Eyes Without a Face. From an opening scene with an unmarried woman laying in bed with a man to the cross-dressing likes of Norman Bates, the film relentlessly attacks the audience with imagery far ahead of its culture's time. The shower scene in Psycho is famously displayed in 52 cuts, rapidly spliced together, and in a scene that only lasted about two minutes, it disturbed audiences across the world. Not only did the movie kill off what was believed as the main character halfway through the film, it was incredibly violent and shocking for its time.
The scene is so significant you can draw a visible line in the history of horror movies as films before and films after. The shower scene of Psycho. Violence became a common aspect in films, and no longer were horrors derived from monsters and creatures like Dracula and Godzilla. Instead, the horrors were focused on the dark depths of the seemingly normal people around you. Psycho has been referenced countless times.
It's one of the most recognizable movies in film history, and its score is one of the most iconic to date. Again, we also have these believable, relatable, and independent female characters that make up the cast of the movie, and not just love interests for the male characters. When it comes to psychological films, *Rosemary's Baby* sits at the top as one of the best. It's got an amazing soundtrack, and although it's not the first psychological horror film, it's widely considered as the most quintessential, along with Polanski's earlier film *Repulsion*. Other films would follow in its steps for psychological movies like *The Shining*, and has become a recent subgenre trend in horror films like *The Babadook* and *Midsummer*.
Hereditary actually follows the same themes as Rosemary's Baby, like involuntary motherhood and using the occult to highlight societal fears. Rosemary's Baby highlights the distrust of people moving from rural homes to the city during the 60s, and Hereditary highlights the emotional distancing of the modern family. The occult uses both divisions to then push their agenda. The foundation of the psychological subgenre from Rosemary's Baby can be seen in today's recent trend of horror films. Although the reanimated dead in the film are never referred to as zombies, the 1968 independent classic *Night of the Living Dead* marks the beginning of the modern-day zombie subgenre.
Previously, zombies were referred to as mindless slaves, usually created by voodoo rituals, like *I Walk with the Zombie*. But this idea of flesh-eating cannibalism from reanimated corpses was new territory, and the film shocked audiences with its visceral images and black lead actor. From here, movies like *Blackula* became icons in the black community, where you have these intelligent, in-depth characters that aren't just furniture. *Night of the Living Dead* encompassed the racial turmoil. Of the 1960s, and as the decade passed with more gruesome stories and terrifying films with relatable characters, we moved into the 1970s, where some of the greatest classics and pioneers of the genre were created.
The 1970s of horror is one of the golden ages of the genre. Out of the sheer amount of influential movies that came out during the decade, this was also a time when horror movies started to become increasingly more violent and graphic, leading to an influx in exploitation films. Word of movies like *The Last House on the Left* spread like wildfire through news stations and film critics. With how extreme the movie was, it definitely helped shape this idea of just how dark, twisted, and unnerving could. Movie get it also began the creation of another subgenre called backwoods, along with one of the most influential horror films of all time.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, released in 1974 by Toby Hooper, is a landmark movie in the horror genre. An independent film that gained so much word of mouth due to how much it disturbed people that it gained a wide theatrical release and was subsequently banned by the British Board of Film Censors, restricting the movie from being shown in theaters or on television in the UK. With how much the movie cost to make and how much buzz it received, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre became a financial success in the next couple of years, even with its restrictions. The movie sparked motivation in independent filmmakers to create these strange and exploitive movies that push boundaries, so their movies can spread through word of mouth.
However, watching the movie nowadays, you'd be confused about how this shocked so many people when it's so incredibly tame. For a movie with chainsaw in its name, there's barely any blood and gore in it. Toby Hooper actually intentionally made the movie tame with little to no gore, no nudity, and mild cursing, hoping to get a G rating, but ended. Up getting an X and having to resubmit a cut version for it to have an R rating. It really goes to show how much atmosphere can really lend itself into making somebody feel uncomfortable, even when you're not seeing someone being dismembered by a chainsaw on the screen.
In fact, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre wasn't legally available to Britain in a DVD or VHS format until 1999. That's more than 25 years since its theatrical release. The Exorcist was released one year before the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1973, and became the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture, which is a massive milestone for the genre. When it comes to accolades and awards, it's been documented how much the genre has been shunned with the Academy, generally looking down at the genre as subpar. Out of the 95 Academy Awards, only six horror movies have been nominated for Best Picture in all of cinema history.
Horror films are more or less seen as cheap thrills with no substance, and The Exorcist was able to break that mold with its chilling atmosphere and the unsettling thought of what could happen if your child was possessed by the devil. The movie is so beautiful to watch and breaks ground as a pioneer of the possession subgenre. Followed up by *The Omen*, *The Amityville Horror*, and more recently movies like *The Exorcism of Emily Rose*. Halloween is a horror classic not because it's particularly scary to a modern-day audience, but because of how inventive and progressive the movie is with its low budget. What really sets the movie apart is the soundtrack, which really helps elevate the film, becoming one of the most recognized motion picture soundtracks ever created.
With the growing popularity of the synthesizer and electronic music in the 70s and 80s, it really defined the soundtrack of horror films at the time. John Carpenter's Halloween was filmed on a budget of three hundred thousand and couldn't afford to have an orchestra or studio compose the film score. Instead, inspired by The Exorcist soundtrack and music from the band Goblin, Carpenter created the movie's iconic Halloween soundtrack on his own in the span of three days. While the film was shot in exactly twenty days, just looking at the ground filled with dead leaves when the trees are visibly green and healthy really adds to its charm. The Halloween Requiem in 2018 actually pays homage to this by replicating the same look.
Although Halloween popularized the slasher genre, the tropes you would come to know of the subgenre wouldn't become cemented until the 1980s when the horror genre exploded. And you've been listening to Matt Castro. Tell the story of horror films, and my goodness, anyone who has seen Psycho knows how much can be done with so little actual gore. It's the anticipation of the gore in that scene that's just so powerful, and nobody ever thought about the bathroom the same way again. From sanctuary to terror in no time at all.
And then, of course, the other things that Psycho managed to do—it took the evil and the monster and put it inside an ordinary man. And this had not been done before, not quite this way. Leave it to Hitchcock, the master. And then comes the psychological thriller, *Rosemary's Baby*. Roman Polanski.
And from that springs almost a new genre, leading to the Shining, then the Night of the Living Dead and the zombie films, and then the golden age—the golden age of horror films—leading with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the Exorcist. By the way, only six horror films nominated for Best Picture. And the Exorcist was one. When we come back, more of this remarkable story—the history of horror films—with Matt Castro here on Our American Stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans.
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Some days, it's the little things you look forward to most. And with Pepperidge Farms thoughtfully crafted cookies, there's always something worth savoring. Maybe it's a Milano, made with premium chocolate between two delicate biscuits. A Sosolito, baked with rich milk chocolate chunks and macadamia nuts. Or the simple buttery goodness of a Chessman.
So pour the coffee, find a comfy chair, and take a moment to treat yourself to a cookie or two. Pepperidge Farm, have a little taste. And we continue with our American stories, and Matt Castro telling the story of horror films, the history of horror films. Let's pick up where we last left off. Sean Cunningham, one of the co-producers of *The Last House on the Left*.
Directed the 1980 film Friday the 13th, one of the longest-running horror franchises of all time. Made to capitalize on the hype of Halloween, Cunningham reportedly took an ad out in a newspaper to sell a movie with just the name Friday the 13th and no script to back it up. Luckily for Cunningham, the movie was a giant success, and by 1990, the franchise would have eight installments, releasing almost every single year during the decade. Jason Voorhees would become a horror movie icon, one of the First, along with Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger, since the Universal Monster Classics, to the point where it would be more difficult to find someone that doesn't know who he is. And with a lot of horror movie franchises, you know the original movie is usually the best.
However, Friday the Thirteenth is not one of those cases. I think it's actually insane how bad the first Friday the Thirteenth actually is. There's really no effective scares throughout the whole movie besides the startling ending. Where Jason comes out of the water, and that's it. Also, God bless Tom Savini; that the effects are awesome.
Jason isn't even in the first film until then, and Mrs. Voorhees is such a flat character that you just don't care about her at all. The acting isn't necessarily good. The story isn't necessarily groundbreaking, and the cinematography isn't anything to write home about. It's just a sleazy eighty slasher film, and that's really the charm of the movies.
The Friday the Thirteenth franchise is. Best described as a sum of its parts, and not necessarily about its individual pieces. Its predecessors in Halloween, Psycho, Black Christmas, and Peeping Tom were a lot more classy and put the story first instead of focusing on the death scenes. Friday the Thirteenth went in the opposite direction and instead filled the movies with these terrible, unlikable teenage characters to the point where you begin rooting for Jason to come in and wreak havoc. Also, just watching Jason's costume slowly deteriorate over the course of the movies is so much fun.
With his mask becoming like damaged, broken, and gross by the eighth film, *A Nightmare on Elm Street* really does a great job of encapsulating everything about the '80s, but turning it into a more visceral and supernatural experience while still riding the tropes of the slasher genre. 84's Nightmare compared to the 80s Friday the 13th is such a huge difference in cinema. When you compare the two slasher films together, even though you know Nightmare never reached the same franchise height as Friday the 13th did, Nightmare on Elm Street went with a more surrealist approach to the slasher subgenre, adding in these supernatural elements to progress the story, which is what really separates itself from the rest of the movies in the genre. There's actually been a recent trend in slasher films that have begun to follow a Nightmare on Elm Street steps by adding in surreal or supernatural elements into their movies that other more realism-based slashers don't tread into. Wes Craven returned to the horror genre once again with Scream in 1996, becoming an instant hit and reviving a genre that had grown tired and repetitive.
While also being an ode to the horror films of the past, even if it can be a little on the nose, it has an astounding opening scene that's one of the best cold opens to a movie period. Not only are we pulled into the story with a character that a modern-day audience can connect with in the first 12 minutes, it sets up the rest of the plot of the film. What Scream does really well is that it really brings a lot of love to the genre by using elements from past films and bringing them back to life, like the harassing phone calls from Black Christmas, while elevating the genre to new heights. Scream is a very important part of the horror genre because it really helped elevate the movies that came after it to create more dynamic and interesting characters instead of just sending random stereotypical people out to the slaughter. The Blair Witch Project, released in 1999, helped popularize the found footage subgenre, dating back to *Cannibal Holocaust*.
Found footage films try to blur this line between reality and fiction, giving us these stories of seemingly real scenarios with the camera acting as a window for the audience. And while some films like to visually show their scares and villains, the Blair Witch Project practices in the art of what you don't see is scarier than what you do. Found footage films helped filmmakers break into the industry by utilizing the advent of digital cameras to decrease cost while keeping the cast small to spend as little money as possible to create something terrifying to movie watchers. Marketed as a real documentary to the point of having missing posters for the actors pop up as part of the marketing campaign, the Blair Witch Project garnered enough attention and media coverage to become one of the highest-grossing films to ever exist. Much like the marketing campaign.
For Cloverfield, creators of the movie even launched a website dedicated to the mythos of the Blair Witch in order to help sell the film. Although movies like Cannibal Holocaust predated the Blair Witch project in terms of found footage movies, the Blair Witch project was the one that popularized the subgenre. Released in 1999, the movie would spark the idea of other found footage films going into the 2000s with movies like Paranormal Activity that became commercialized into a franchise. The 2000s oozed with great horror movies. Based on the 1998 Japanese horror film Ringu, which is based on the novel of the same name, the Ring released in 2002 with a rating of PG-13.
Although the ring had little to no gore, the 2000s made up for it by displaying some of the most graphic special effects that would create a subgenre that plagued horror films for years. In 2004, James Wan released Saw as his directorial debut, that sparked a franchise encompassing soon-to-be 10 films, making it the longest-running horror franchise created in the 21st century. You can't talk about the 2000s of horror films without mentioning them, considering a new Saw film was released every year for seven years. That's almost as consistent as Friday the 13th was in the 80s. Much like the 1970s and 1980s, the 2010s contain an outlandish amount of amazing horror films and media.
The 2010s were a huge revival of the genre, with impactful films like Jordan Peele's Get Out, along with Ari Aster's Hereditary and Midsummer. The genre hit the mainstream at the start of 2010 when AMC released The Walking Dead, continuing to capitalize on the zombie subgenre that became popular thanks to the zombie. Craze that quickly gained steam throughout the 2000s. The horror genre would also evolve throughout the decade as streaming services created horror movies and TV shows that helped hook the public audience into the genre, much like Mike Flanagan's *Haunting of Hill House*. Episodic horror became a large trend in the 2010s for both television and streaming services.
Pulling the inspiration of their format from the anthology shows of the past, like Tales from the Crypt or The Twilight Zone, by releasing new episodes every week. Online streaming services let horror fans binge hours of content instead of waiting on a weekly basis, and exploded when shows like Stranger Things became cultural icons. The 2010s sought out a revival for horror films with more sophisticated stories, characters, and cinematography in its independent films. And as the indie scene became more prominent, as streaming services began to take over, commercialized horror films began to blossom with the beginning of Blumhouse Productions. On a budget of 1.5 million, Insidious would go on to make back over 100 million dollars and spark the trend of supernatural horror films from the 2010s.
James Wan went on to create The Conjuring, birthing an entire cinematic universe for horror fans with New Line Cinema and cementing his mark on modern-day horror films. Blumhouse Productions continues to make low-budget films such as Upgrade, Whiplash, Black Klansman, and 2018's Halloween.
However, its most influential horror film is Jordan Peele's Get Out from 2017. Get Out is the sixth horror film to ever be nominated for Best Picture out of the over 90-year span that the Academy Awards have been around. With Jordan Peele making waves, being nominated for Best Director in a low-budget debut feature film. Commercial studios have been pushing horror films into theaters because of how well they're consistently doing. Compared to the superhero films of today, horror movies have been hitting box office records more often than any other genre in the industry.
We currently live in a world where horror films are slowly becoming more recognized for the amount of sheer talent that's been consistently represented throughout the history of the genre. Films that would have once passed through studios' eyes are now readily available and created by these loving directors that enjoy the genre as much as any horror fan would. With films and TV shows popping up from all around the world, even foreign films are beginning to become accepted by Western media. All of these movies. And their culmination of history makes watching a horror film become increasingly more interesting when you can spot the homages and references that the movies are calling out, along with topics that you don't see discussed very often in other movies outside of the genre.
And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Madison Derricutt, and a special thanks to Matt Castro. And you can watch his definitive story of the history of horror films on YouTube. Go to his YouTube channel, Magic Carp Used Fly, and you won't be disappointed. Again, it's Matt Castro. Google his name.
Go to YouTube and watch his material. It's terrific, and what a story he told! The '80s, the Friday the Thirteenth series begins. And by the way, taking an ad out before your script's written—talk about a daring piece of marketing! That.
Came Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, and then the Blair Witch Project, which was a sort of a fake real documentary, which just took the country by storm. Then the Golden Age of the 2000s. It just kept going into the 2010s. Horror films and the genre of horror was here to stay, even on streaming, with shows like Stranger Things. The story of horror films here on our American story.
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