A Place of Darkness

<p>Horror is one of the most enduringly popular genres in cinema. The term horror film was coined in 1931 between the premiere of <i>Dracula</i> and the release of <i>Frankenstein</i> but monsters ghosts demons and supernatural and horrific themes have been popular with American audiences since the emergence of novelty kinematographic attractions in the late 1890s. <i>A Place of Darkness</i> illuminates the prehistory of the horror genre by tracing the way horrific elements and stories were portrayed in films prior to the introduction of the term horror film.</p> <p>Using a rhetorical approach that examines not only early films but also the promotional materials for them and critical responses to them Kendall R. Phillips argues that the portrayal of horrific elements was enmeshed in broader social tensions around the emergence of American identity and in turn American cinema. He shows how early cinema linked monsters ghosts witches and magicians with Old World superstitions and beliefs in contrast to an American way of thinking that was pragmatic reasonable scientific and progressive. Throughout the teens and twenties Phillips finds supernatural elements were almost always explained away as some hysterical mistake humorous prank or nefarious plot. The Great Depression of the 1930s however constituted a substantial upheaval in the system of American certainty and opened a space for the reemergence of Old World gothic within American popular discourse in the form of the horror genre which has terrified and thrilled fans ever since.</p>