BBC documentary: A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss

Mark Gatiss explores the development of post-war horror films in this documentary. In his series he explains how horror has developed in different time periods. In the latest to be shown "2. Home Counties horror" he shows us how the post-war films began to develop gore scenes and create monsters who were psychologically terrifying as well as physically brutal.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/v9gy5/

In particular he mentions the incorporation of colour and blood effects which were relatively new to the film as the previous black and white cinematography used to mean these effects could easily be created using any dark fluids. This was also a time, 50's + 60's, as the censors were having a hard time with the new arrival of sexual suggestion being put into the films, particularly with dracula. This era was dominated by 'Hammer' films and it was this small group that was slowly leading the way for more independant and mainstream films to be brought into the movie marketplace. Mark goes on to talk about Peter Cushing's influential effect as one of the first 'type-cast' actors to be the ultimate horror star. In particular his work as playing both Frankenstein and Dracula are highly creditted or perhaps even underated.

Peter Cushing as Dracula and Frankenstein

This was the era of gothic horror, heavy make-up and dramatic conflicts litter these expressionistic films. These fantasy driven films helped film-makers to explore the boundaries of what they could do based on facts, such as old witch hunting and mental disorders.