The Effects of Censorship in Early British Horror
Censorship ‘haunted’ early British horror; it was “carefully regulated by the censors in order that those films which were perceived by them as having the potential to disturb social, political or moral order did not reach the screen” (Hutchings, 1993:24). At first, the BBFC (previously known as the British Board of Film Censors) ignored British horror, and focused on American-imported horror, creating the H Certificate in 1932. This would later be replaced by the X Certificate, which extended its versatility, in 1951. Wood makes the case that horror is a culmination of the repressions people face on a day-to-day basis, from sexuality and passivity to oppressions like monogamy, masculinity and femininity (Wood, 1985:198), much like how Korean cinema criticised masculinity. This can be interpreted as a ‘censorship’ in real life, and the outburst of these repressions would explain why Frankenstein (Whale, 1931) was such a success; “…the clergy in Tunbridge Wells was the next to attack Frankenstein, doing so from the pulpit. Unfortunately, the result was an increase in attendance at the local cinema” (Johnson, 1997:45).
Frankenstein was a key film in the development of British censorship, being that its release was extraordinarily controversial. Like mentioned above, a number of cinemas refused to screen the film, and a few scenes were even removed from the actual release. The psychology surrounding the phenomenon where curiosity is heightened when told not to do something explains the film’s success; “despite the seemingly endless efforts of the British Board of Film Censors and the Home Office to protect Britons from Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, Hollywood kept pumping out horror movies, and the British (both adults and children) couldn’t get enough” (Johnson, 1997:17). Noticing this, censors began to somewhat extricate their restrictions; “British film censorship [in 1945-1955], while not in any way as liberal as it would later become, was far less restrictive…” (Hutchings, 1993:39). It wasn’t until the late 1950s that the censors would truly recognise the allure of horror, “realising that their old audiences were dwindling, [they] were beginning to accept ‘X’ films as a way of targeting a new market” (Hutchings, 1993:39).
Nonetheless, horror was still pushing boundaries; Dracula: Prince of Darkness (Fisher, 1966) toyed with the idea of religious iconography – I interpreted this as provoking the authorities in an anti-establishment approach, in a way similar to contemporary New Zealand; “the casual blasphemy of the inverted crucifixion…seems to work more on the level of spectacle and dramatic effect (which can also be connected with a testing of what was permissible in terms of censorship)” (Hutchings, 1993:123). The Curse of the Frankenstein (Fisher, 1957) was the first horror film to be recorded in colour, promoted for “seeing blood like never before”. Its most famous scene shows Frankenstein’s monster taking a bullet in the head, in full colour, meaning that the red of the blood, never before seen in film, pioneered a new development in horror. This led to the explosion of popularity within British horror, a globally-recognised brand disparate from the lacking cinema of the 30s; “one of the reasons for there being no considerable body of British work in the horror genre throughout the 1930s was the nature of British censorship at the time” (Hutchings, 1993:24). I found that, due to harsh censorship, though understandable due to the societal climate at the time, British horror was stunted in its early conception, though as boundaries were pushed its popularity increased exponentially. Censorship is often employed as a way to ‘protect’ audiences, but, like Wood theorised, repressed depravities exist in the human mind, and the line for what is perceived as ‘too far’ will consistently be moved, as history has shown.
Bibliography:
Johnson, Tom (1997) Censored Screams: The British Ban on Hollywood Horror in the Thirties. Jefferson, NC: McFarland
Hutchings, Peter (1993) Hammer and Beyond: The British Horror Film. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press
Wood, Robin (1985) ‘An Introduction to the American Horror Film’ In: Nichols, Bill (ed.) Movies and Methods Vol. II (1985). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. pp.195-219