Spooky Month Shivers

To start with some perspective, here's a little horror film history lesson.

Up until the 1960s, most American horror films took place in a foreign land, like the 1930s and 40s Universal Monster movies, which were typically set in European castles and villages, or blended with science fiction during the 50s with movies about aliens or atomically mutated ants or something.

This likely came from paranoia left over from the first two world wars, with atrocities coming from over there across the globe.

And it was also typical in movies like these for the monsters to be vanquished at the end, leaving the audience with a happy ending

and

all is well.

But in the 60s, and especially the 70s, horror came home.

First, when the gruesome crimes of mass murderer and grave robber Ed Gein in 1957 inspired the novel and the film of Psycho in 1960.

This was followed by the traumatic assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, and between the Charles Manson family murders, race riots, and the Vietnam War in the late 60s and early 70s, Brutal bloodshed and violence became a regular staple on the evening news.

These real-life horrors and the anxiety they created, combined with a growing distrust of government and authority, is what led to game-changing horror films like Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and their countless imitators.

This is why so many films from the 60s and 70s ended with shocking final moments.

They reflected the brutal honesty and fear behind how people were starting to feel about the state of the world.

To start with some perspective, here's a little horror film history lesson.

Up until the 1960s, most American horror films took place in a foreign land, like the 1930s and 40s Universal Monster movies, which were typically set in European castles and villages, or blended with science fiction during the 50s with movies about aliens or atomically mutated ants or something.

This likely came from paranoia left over from the first two world wars, with atrocities coming from over there across the globe.

And it was also typical in movies like these for the monsters to be vanquished at the end, leaving the audience with a happy ending

and

all is well.

But in the 60s, and especially the 70s, horror came home.

First, when the gruesome crimes of mass murderer and grave robber Ed Gein in 1957 inspired the novel and the film of Psycho in 1960.

This was followed by the traumatic assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, and between the Charles Manson family murders, race riots, and the Vietnam War in the late 60s and early 70s, Brutal bloodshed and violence became a regular staple on the evening news.

These real-life horrors and the anxiety they created, combined with a growing distrust of government and authority, is what led to game-changing horror films like Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and their countless imitators.

This is why so many films from the 60s and 70s ended with shocking final moments.

They reflected the brutal honesty and fear behind how people were starting to feel about the state of the world.