Special Issue #6
Cover art by Andrew Foley
Classic Horror
2022 is the 90th anniversary of the many amazing classic horror films that were released in 1932, among them Freaks, Island of Lost Souls, The Most Dangerous Game, The Old Dark House, The Mummy, and White Zombie. To mark this anniversary, Horror Homeroom’s sixth special issue takes up classic horror, which we’re defining as any film released prior to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film, Psycho – the film that saw the birth of ‘modern’ horror.
We have an array of fabulous essays that explore witchcraft and rise of documentary horror in Benjamin Christensen’s Swedish silent film Häxan (1922); the difference of James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) – as well as the later Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939) – from Mary Shelley’s novel; Frankenstein as a film about autism; imperialism and the continuing struggle over artifacts in The Mummy (1932); the resonances of Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932) in American Horror Story: Freak Show; representations of mental illness in Bedlam (1946); the 3-D film craze that took off in the 1950s; nuclear holocaust and vaccination fallout in The Werewolf (1956); and representations of colonialism in Hammer’s Dracula (1958).
Our authors are: Erin Harrington, Alissa Burger, Margaret Yankovich, Jessica Parant (of Spinsters of Horror), Aíne Norris, Josh Grant-Young, Katherine Cottle, Zack Kruse, Justin Wigard, and Joseph Hsin-shun Chang. Our cover illustration is by Andrew Foley.
We want to thank them for their brilliant and thoughtful work.
Horror homeroom has featured many other articles on classic horror; here’s a sampling:
Tod Browning’s Dracula and the origins of body horror
Coded queerness in Dracula’s Daughter
Thirteen Women as proto-slasher
Essay Collection
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Documenting Horror in Häxan (1922)
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Frankenstein (1931): Making and Remaking the Creature
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Like Others: Reading Autism in James Whale’s Frankenstein Films
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Acknowledging Imperialism through The Mummy (1932)
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Step Right Up: Sideshow Autonomy from Freaks (1932) to American Horror Story: Freak Show (2014-15)
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In the Shadow of the Asylum: Reflections on Bedlam (1946)
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The “Golden Era” of 3-D Creature Features: Luring Humans Back to the Movie Theater with Interactive Fear
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“‘They know it could happen to anyone!’: The Promise of Nuclear Holocaust and Vaccination Fallout in The Werewolf (1956)”
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Reviving the Undead: The Resurrection of the British Empire in Dracula (1958)