Dawn of the blood craze

: the British horror boom and the press 1957-1962

Abstract

This thesis will explore the horror genre through its representation within the British newspaper press during a period of the genre’s global popularity and cultural significance. As an immensely popular but transgressive and controversial cultural object, horror films are well positioned to explore some of the tensions which emerged as a result of the wider shifts within a restless British society on the cusp of a social ‘revolution’.

My work is revisionist, and I will challenge the previously held characterisation of the horror genre as the niche, ‘dark side’ of the British film industry and the press as the co-ordinated armed wing of the cultural establishment. By placing greater emphasis on the reactive and dynamic nature of newspaper discourse, I will highlight how the discourse about the perils of horror appeared to readers alongside the many adverts, articles and interviews with stars who promoted the genre and its successes. As this thesis shall argue, it is only by exploring the tension between these two forms of representation that the cultural significance of the horror film can be critically explored.

A recurring theme across my research is the extent to which the horror genre was intricately connected to wider concerns about the breakdown of traditional family values and the behaviour of the newly emergent teenager class. Over the course of my four chapters, I will explore how these concerns reverberated across the discourse which surrounded the genre. For example, by analysing a number of reports found within Kinematograph Weekly, it becomes possible to deduce how the changes to ‘family life’ registered on an industrial level, as exhibitors and producers debated the value of the genre’s popularity, leveraging the lurid marketing and publicity versus the declining family audience which was choosing to stay at home in front of the television.

As cultural historians have argued, critical histories based solely on press material are fundamentally incomplete and can be complicated through individual, oral accounts. Therefore, using the respondents to the AHRC-funded project, Cultural Memory and British Cinema-going (2013-2015), I will demonstrate how horror films were enjoyed by young people as social commodities which provided them with an opportunity to flaunt parental boundaries, indulge in certain behaviours, and served as a backdrop for social or romantic encounters. Using this material as a counterpoint to what is written in the press, I will demonstrate how the genre played an important role in the changing function of the cinema within post-war life.

The final section of this thesis will use three examples of the British horror genre from the early 1960s as a lens to explore specific anxieties relating to the post-war nuclear family. I will use a selection of contemporary reviews to demonstrate the role which reviewer’s play in the articulation of dominant political and social narratives through the form of cultural critique. This will allow me to illustrate how, unlike the gothic terrors which populated the genre elsewhere, the threats to the family are revealed to be monsters of the everyday, ones that were reported in the newspapers, hiding in plain sight, possibly within the family itself.

Thesis is embargoed until 31 December 2024.

Date of Award	Dec 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership
Supervisor	Sian Barber (Supervisor) & Stefano Baschiera (Supervisor)