Famously low-budget and genuinely scary: Horror in the 80's
Most horror films, pre 80’s avoided guts and gore. The 1980s is a well-celebrated decade for experimentation in films and filmmaking.
The “horror” film-makers of the “80s” were largely influenced by the shockumentary films which were made during the 1960s. In the 80s, the inglorious “slasher genre” was born. Thus, the 80s came to be known as the “Splatter decade”. The horror films neither touched the sensational topics like in the 1960s but had the same flesh and blood.
For films like The Thing (1980), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Child’s Play (1988) , Re-Animator (1985) and many more—
“Death Is Just The Beginning”
Also in the 70s, there were too many Dracula and Frankenstein films, so the 80s were much more inclined towards adapting H. P. Lovecraft’s novels and novelettes maintaining the same old “indigenous American junkiness” which helped greatly in generating revenues for the films. There was a general lack of proper censorship during that time, and many films were widely released being unrated. This led filmmakers to push the boundaries of different genres and experimentation was much easier.
John Carpenter and Tommy Lee Wallace were the people at the forefront of the horror experimentation. Importantly the Halloween franchise, which inspired the whole slasher genre and continues to do so.
Friday the 13th(1980) was a film which was symptomatic of the era and is credited for initiating the sub-genre of the “stalker” film series. These films fill the audience’s stomach with terrific suspense and unchain it in the heightening climax.
An American Werewolf in London(1981) is also a milestone in the genre, and importantly a landmark film in makeup effects. Although this film revived the popular werewolf genre, there are still a lot fewer werewolf films till now. The effects bring to life a type of horror that viewers couldn’t imagine on their own.
This unease of these films can also be extended to the social culture of the time. The films of the latter portion of the decade were satirically-appropriate to the then times and culture. Although the decade embraces the hazards and possibilities of intricately crafted “American gore” which is drastically different from Japanese or Korean gore which rose to prominence in the early 2000s, these films did not have a far-reaching budget. This led to the use of bad CGI and new developments in prosthetics and makeup. The aesthetic became distinguished so hugely that it imparted these movies a specific, inimitable style — a style that whole series such as ‘Stranger Things’ has overused and profits from even today.
These horror movies were literally “cheap thrills” as it is called now because the motive was to deliver a good volume of thrill and horror, with a low budget. This caused the film market to be saturated with seemingly low-quality slasher films. Such films produced per year were upwards of 80 in Hollywood alone, each of them having easily digestible characters, unambiguous good and evil, and the killer always coming back in the final scene.
Post-80s, especially for horror films, a need for more on-screen gore was very apparent. The supposed reason for this can be traced back to one particular film of the 70s, now regarded as a classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). A major cultural phenomenon, the film according to Richard Zoglin of Time had “set a new standard for slasher films”. Till date, it is one of the very few films which just feel like sun-scorched madness. The impact of the 1974 movie, is clear as much of the next decades try to pull out its guts, study them, and use them as a framework for a new creature.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is now a franchise and has been continued/reshaped/retold through sequels, prequels, cheap remakes, comic books and video games.
Why now?
Despite being vulgar and cheesy in their own way, some of the films of that decade changed the horror game forever. The 80s provide ideal fodder for the up-to-date, fashionable horror and provide nostalgia as well as a context for the present audience, showing how horror films have changed and at the same time not changed, in the past 50 years.
Most such films made now are heavily inspired by the “classics” of that generation and can be considered passionate tributes by filmmakers to their masters as well as their childhood.
Stephen King’s novels are still being adapted, as much of his plots provide spaces to explore confrontational issues. Much of these films now, open like any other horror film from the 80s but become increasingly present-day as the plot unfolds.
Although much of the 20th Century horror has revolved around the “houses possessed by the devil” movies, we are progressing more towards a modern slasher phase but this time with better visual effects and smart use of violence and gore. Horror filmmakers are inclined to make more movies that unsettle the audience than ones that generate raw fear and disgust in them.
It may not be the same old “All hell breaks loose” but definitely “Some hell breaks loose”. The reputation of this horror has not been much till now, but the sub-genres of horror which it has initiated might as well change the game AGAIN!