Tales from dark side

One of the most famously identifiable lines in horror movie history. It was uttered by what was once a human being, and is now the embodiment of all that is evil and dark within the soul of humanity. It is a creature that literally feeds upon itself - a vampire. It is a creature that is the dark to man's light, the personification of the evil that saps the essence of life and creativity - a creature dedicated only to survival.

In a sense, the definition of a vampire - at least according to Hollywood - is the definition of horror, in a general sense. And we will learn more as we journey through the history of horror decade by decade.

The first "horror" film in film history can be dated to 1910 - FRANKENSTEIN, a two reel short (a whopping ten minutes!) produced by Thomas Edison, and starring Charles Ogle as the monster. This silent epic had the monster created from a steaming vat of chemicals and dispatched by the power of love. However, it did not ignite a torrent of interest in the genre, nor did the Edgar Allan Poe films of D.W. Griffith made during the teens. Across the Atlantic, German expression was finding a home in the dark, brooding corners of horror - and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu (the first screen version of Dracula - and one that Bram Stoker's widow tried to suppress because of copyright infringement) were the fruits of this obsession. While brilliantly photographed and directed, these films also did not start a "cycle" of horror.

Lon Chaney Sr. during the twenties became a superstar because of his makeup genius and penchant for playing bizarre characters. From his makeup box sprang Mr. Wu; The Monster; The Hunchback of Notre Dame - and most famously, The Phantom of the Opera. The majority of his horror roles were played under the direction of Tod Browing - who would later figure again quite prominently in the horror field. However, audiences were still not flocking to horror on screen. Offscreen, ironically enough, horror was filling the seats in legitimate theatres across the country - stage versions of Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Cat and the Canary were playing to full houses. Chaney was a popular film star first and foremost - he actually starred in a just a few straight forward horror films. His appeal was based upon what new appearance he would conjure up, and how he would distort his body for a role.

In 1927, sound replaced silence - and the stock market crashed. The mood of the country caught up with the rest of the world as America entered the Great Depression. And thus was the first great cycle of horror movies born.

Universal Pictures blazed a trail so bright in this genre as to virtual blind every other single studio for the past 70 some odd years. Universal announced that they would begin production on Dracula - and that Lon Chaney would play the vampire king. Unfortunately, Chaney died and was replaced by Bela Lugosi - a dashing Hungarian actor who had played the Count onstage to great acclaim. A top notch cast was assembled and Tod Browning was assigned to direct.

Released on Valentine's Day 1931, Dracula was a huge boxoffice hit. The public wanted to forget their problems - and monsters made them forget. And if the public wanted monsters, then Universal was going to give them monsters. Frankenstein was next - and Lugosi was offered the part, but turned it down because of the makeup requirements and that there weren't any lines to speak! The part went to a former truck driver - Boris Karloff, who made the part his for all time. Lugosi - also a major horror star because of Dracula - was given the vastly underrated Murders In The Rue Morgue - a surprisingly dark and brooding film.

The flood gates simply burst open after Frankenstein - a monster hit, to say the least. The Mummy, Werewolf of London, The Invisible Man, The Old Dark House, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Ray and a slew of others soon followed. As if their franchise wasn't successful enough, Universal paired Lugosi and Karloff in a series of films such as The Black Cat, The Raven and The Invisible Ray - all three of which set box office records. The publicity department worked overtime creating the myth of "monster feud" which further sparked audience interest (the "feud" by the way, was merely a publicity gimmick that unfortunately lasts to this day - the film Ed Wood falls for it, for example).

Other studios tried to horn in on the horror genre by turning out White Zombie (one of Lugosi's best roles, by the way), Mad Love, Mark of the Vampire, Devil Doll, Mask of Fu Manchu (one of the most perverse horror films of the 30's!) and others. However, none of them were able to topple Universal's stranglehold on horror.

The 30's were responsible for the gothic look of the genre - the brooding black and white intensity of the photography which would later flower into film noir - the inventive use of music and special effects to tell the story - and the Golden Age of Horror gave us our most enduring images of horror and the fantastic. Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy became cultural icons - but as the decade began to wane, so did interest in the horror film.

New blood was needed - but what?