Mark Jancovich. Rational Fears, American Horror in the 1950s. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996.
PREFACE
"The 1950s, it is assumed, constitues a period of conservatism with horror, whether this conservatism is conceived of in aesthetic or political terms, and critics usually establish their owns ares as worthy of study by defining them as different from the horror of the 1950s." (p.1)
He takes issue with Robin Wood: "However, far from being 'all the same', even the 1950s invasion narratives are often markedly different from one another. They may share particular patterns and features, but they deploy them in very different ways." (p.2)
Shift from the relying on gothic horror towards a preoccupation with the modern world. The book is divided in three parts 1] invasion narratives (complex responses to condition of post-war america, internal changes and fear of Soviet agression) 2] the outsider narratives (an alternative to existing norms or feelings of alienation, isolation, estrangement or how American normality has become strange) and 3] narratives concerned with 'crisis of identity' (people unable to rely both on rationality or irrationality, emotion, intuition).
" this situation also helps to account for the fact that many 1950s horror texts have not only acquired the status of classics for horror fans, but have also been so important to contemporary popular culture. 1950s horror not only lives as vital points of reference within popular culture, but many of the key practioners of contemporary horror (and indeed popular culture in general) often refer to 1950s horror text as the most significant and formative texts within their appreciation of horror in particular, and popular culture in general" (p.4)
Conclusion
Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers (1993) is a remake of a 50s horror classic. So is Attack of the 50 foot Woman, The Blob, The Fly, Invaders from Mars, Little Shop of Horrors, The Thing. Furthermore, Alien (1986) borrows from Them!, The Stepford Wives (1974) replicates elements of the Body Snatchers; Jaws takes visual images from the Creature from the Black Lagoon; the opening of It Came from Outer Space reappears in Starman (1984).
"As a result, it is important to note that while the contemporary horror genre has changed since the 1950s, it has not simply broken with the past. As was shown in the case of Psycho, these attempsts not only tend to ignore the processes which culminated in specific transformations, but also tend to ignore the ways in which earlier periods are constantly available for reworking and reinterpretation, and are not simply dispensed with, or rendered redundant" (p.303).
"Indeed, the importance of 1950s horror is that it established many of the preoccupations which are central to contemporary horror. It was the 1950s horror, for example, which moved the genre away from its concerns with exotic locations and began to place it firmly in the context of modern American society" (p.303-4).
It is also important because writers and filmmakers, such as Spielberg and Stephen King, were influenced by them.
"unlike many other areas of 1950s popular culture, 1950s horror has occupied a central place within the development of 'cult' ot 'trash' audiences, an important and well-established section of contemporary popular culture" (p.304) .
About Edward D. Wood's 'excentricity': " His films do no really conform to the dominat tendencies within the period, although he does draw upon certain elements of 1950s horror. Indeed, Wood's contemporary importance is not a product of his significance within the 1950s, but of the specific strategies of interpretation which contemporary 'cult' audiences have brought to the period. His significance is a product of the ways in which the period has been reinterpreted within the present" (p.304)
Pressing need to study the ways in which the readings of contemporary cult audiences are the product of differential distribuition of cultural capital and the struggles between different tastes formations. (Pierre Bourdier. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge,1984)
