Recently, horror has been romanticised with romantic codes and
conventions. A hybrid genre has been created, where romance and horror intermingle.
The question is, why has this fusion occurred and more importantly, whether hybrids
have become more popular than traditional gothic horror that avoids romantic mise-en-scènes.
The French word ‘genre’, meaning ‘type or kind’, is often associated with ‘cycles’;
‘referring to groups of films made within a limited time’.
Looking at television, this suggested ‘cycle’ is evident. ‘The Vampire Diaries’
and ‘Penny Dreadful, both show two ‘cycles’ or waves in horror. ‘The Vampire
Diaries’ arrived September 10
th 2009 in the midst of a ‘vampiric
craze’ that swept the media. Consequently, the series bought the biggest
premiere since the 2006 CW network launch; an audience of 5.7 million people
watched the premiere.
‘Penny Dreadful’, a more modern horror show, provides a move away from this
newly discovered hybrid genre. This show differs from the ‘Vampire Diaries’ and
centres less on a romantic love triangle surrounded by paranormal dangers.
‘Penny Dreadful’ is no less successful, having won ‘Most Exciting New Series’ at
the Critic’s Choice Television Awards.
Ultimately, romance has been introduced and resulted in a successful hybrid
genre, whilst traditional gothic horror has been reawakened. Turbulent romantic
feelings, heartbreak or lust, can aid audiences in engaging with fantastical horror,
though because both shows are successful, it may not be necessary.
Firstly, with romance’s introduction,
‘Vampire Diaries’ subverted the conventional horror vampire. This stereotypical
monster evolved into a symbol of eternal or unattainable love. With ‘Vampire
Diaries’, the vampire has become a heroic character (Vladimir Propp),
compared to the original evil villain. Author Neil Gaiman, has discussed ‘vampiric
evolution’ and references genre’s ‘cyclical’ definition, believing that
‘vampires go in waves’, though have currently ‘reached their saturation point’.
[5] He
discusses that vampires now need to be ‘elegant’ and ‘sexual’ in order to
attract audiences (scopophilia) and thus they directly juxtapose with previous
horror representations. For the majority of ‘Vampire Diaries’ opening, Stefan
(Paul Wesley) wears a black leather jacket, connoting him as this conventional
romantic ‘bad boy’ character. Interestingly, character Bonnie implies through
teenage, diegetic dialogue (‘romance novel stare’) that this element of
darkness entices Elena. As she stares at Stefan, a POV shot pans forward. The audience
feels attraction.
Attractive vampires, seen in Stefan and
Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder), introduce a romantic love triangle with
protagonist Elena (Nina Dobrev). This love triangle is conventional to romance.
Producer Kevin Williamson believes that ‘high school is a horror movie’ [6] and
this belief has clearly been imposed on his series. The modern day setting,
allows both genres to mix seamlessly. A typical high school mise-en-scène is
seen; evident in many other romantic shows. Elena, the female protagonist,
meets Stefan and in doing so, the archetype ‘boy meets girl’ romantic narrative
is introduced. Furthermore, Matt (Zach Roerig) appears in a deep focus shot,
alienated from Elena in the foreground. Matt becomes the generic jealous
character of romance; posing a threat to the main relationship and creating
another element of conflict. This keeps the audience ‘hooked’, alongside supernatural
horrors e.g. vampires and witch Bonnie (Katerina Graham).
Philosopher Noël
Carroll
theorizes that horror appeals to ‘curiosity’. He states ‘art- horror is the
price we are willing to pay for revelation of what is impossible or what ‘violates
our conceptual schema’. [7] The
initial night forest setting of ‘Vampire Diaries’ is highly conventional. An
element of chiaroscuro has been used to create necessary sinister tones.
Shadows invade the foreground of the shot as it pans towards the right, with
backlighting to reinforce this unnerving effect. Silhouette branches merge into
one shadowed web to foreshadow to the audience that a tangled web of chaos will
erupt (as expected in horror). As Todorov states, Elena’s equilibrium will be
disrupted with the vampires’ introduction. Close ups of vampire teeth and blood
unsettles the audience, but the love triangle and scopophilic vampires provide
audiences with more ‘unknown’ relationships to ‘unravel’, without having to
‘pay’ for more violence.
Reaching
‘saturation point’, as Neil Gaiman states, explains a shift back towards
traditional horror, within recent ‘Penny Dreadful’. ‘Penny Dreadful’ reanimates
the gothic archetype vampire villain from Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’. The romantic
heroic vampire has faded, whilst conventional monsters are resurrected. As Neil
Gaiman states, vampires should now be ‘outsiders’ luring their prey in. [8] Their
return to villainous roots successfully appears in television horror as the
romantic craze ends. Vampires are seen as feral creatures in episode one of
‘Penny Dreadful’. Close ups of red eyes and drooling fangs reiterates this.
There is no redemption or sympathy for these characters as opposed to the
Salvatore brothers. Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton) has to take power back from
these vampires. Traditional vampiric lore is used in a low angle, as he stakes
a vampire to take back authority. As David Russell suggests, there is
‘uncontrollable flux and violence’ [9] in
the horror genre. The horror genre undergoes ‘cycles’, romance being just
another ‘uncontrollable’ change as audiences’ interests evolve. Romance softens
the attacks in ‘Vampire Diaries’, but ‘violence’ becomes more prevalent in
‘Penny Dreadful’ as the vampiric craze fades. Horror must undergo these
‘cycles’ or waves’ to survive; romance provides a fresh approach and appeals to
a wider audience.
Overall, horror in ‘Penny Dreadful’ is more evident with
the first use of red shown through blood. Also, in the title sequence, a romantically
innocent, pure flower (connoted via the colour white) begins to spill blood.
The presence of blood is a pivotal convention to horror, the stark red
signifying violence that is necessary to horror narratives. The flower drips
blood to connote, that seemingly innocent character Miss Ives (Eva Green) hides
something darker. This innocent outer façade, covering something darker, commonly
occurs in romantic horror hybrids. However, importantly,
despite the fact ‘Penny Dreadful’ focuses on horror, compared to ‘Vampire
Diaries’, both focus little on ‘gore’, compared to insubstantial threats. Using ‘Penny Dreadful’, gothic
horror is described as an ‘offshoot of Romanticism, weaving
stories rife with ancient horrors, dark passions, and doom. It’s bloody, but
the focus is never on the gore.’
Distinctively, modern horror avoids a constant bombardment of ‘gory’ visuals. Penny
Dreadful’ is excellent in following conventional corruption of gothic horror; reanimating
Gothicism by focusing more on earlier foreshadowing of ‘doom’ or ‘dark
passions’ that frighten audiences.
‘Penny Dreadful’ uses a stronger sense
of horror in 1891 London, thus ‘reanimates the gothic horror genre’.
Compared to ‘Vampire Diaries’, chiaroscuro is more heavily evident. Long shots
of shadowed streets, with fog and low lighting concealing frame edges, establish
a gothic setting, perfectly reminiscent of traditional horror. In total, three
months of pre-production went into constructing a Victorian era London, showing
horror has reverted to its origins. Gothic literature from Oscar Wilde, Bram
Stoker and Mary Shelley (Dorian Grey, Dracula and Frankenstein), heavily
influence this series. Using these influences, ‘expressionism’ is seen, where
the ‘psychology of characters (feelings, sexuality, motivation) is evident in
external manifestations and setting.
Penny Dreadful is as successful as ‘Vampire Diaries’, because its stereotypical
gothic London mise-en-scène, allows a strong ‘expressionist’ effect. ‘Vampire
Diaries’ seemingly relies on verisimilitude, the ability for a younger audience
to engage with a realistic high school and youthful dialogue. However, ‘Penny
Dreadful’ creates disturbing effects by projecting the characters’ darkness visually
(low-lit frames and frequent shadows).
Both shows compete in a medium that hinders their
chances of success. Commercials, on television, can interrupt the encoded tense
atmospheres. Some critics believe that ‘
the
idea of watching horror
on television, with gore and nudity replaced by commercials, often
seems pointless’.
In comparison, film provides cinematographers with ‘a larger canvas’, allowing
‘the more demented among them to immerse the audience in nightmare landscapes’.
These limitations have instigated the romanticized hybrid. The romantic aspect
works well with the ‘commercials’, injecting more romantic drama into each
episode; cliffhangers such as will the hero end up with the princess, instead
of breaks in horror tension. Ultimately, horror benefits
when a continuous tense atmosphere is created, i.e. diegetic ‘creaking
footsteps’ or ‘cracks of thunder’ within ‘Penny Dreadful’. Instead, ‘Vampire Diaries’ creates a
continuous, conventional love story with softer warm lighting, for the majority
of the first episode. A wide shot of a sunrise, conventional to romance,
connotes a sense of flourishing feelings between Stefan and Elena; a story that
the audience eagerly follow.
In contrast, these two examples, utilize the
opportunity for long-form storytelling’ (‘serialization’). Eric
Freedman states ‘the advantage of serialization is that it creates the demand
it feeds…the desire to find out ‘what happens next’ only satisfied by viewing
the next instalment.’
Both these shows are successful, because ‘serialization’ urges audiences to
watch further and sate their ‘curiosity’; romance injects further suspense.
Alternatively,
Aaron Smuts reinforces a suggestion that romance has been injected into horror
to make it more believable through ‘Disbelief Mitigation’. Smuts states that ‘the importance of
mitigating disbelief is crucial. Interference with fear, by disbelief, is
harmful…belief provides a semi-cognitive amplifier for viewers response’. [17] Arguably,
because both shows use romantic relationships, in which audiences can
personally identify with, they become more ‘real’. Fantastical horror in both
shows, ‘Vampire Diaries’ witchcraft or ‘Penny Dreadful’s tarot reading, is
unbelievable, with non-diegetic orchestral instruments reinforcing magical
atmospheres. But when you add relationships between Elena and the Salvatore
brothers, in front of curtains with flowers signifying romance, or lustful
attraction between Miss Ives and Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett), the audience
are better equipped to relate to experiences.
Overall,
there is a polarization amongst horror critics, ‘loosely defined as ‘subjectivists
and objectivists’. The ‘objectivists aspire towards a totalizing description of
genre…clearly defined categories of iconography or themes’. Subjectivists, tend
to focus on the genres’ less tangible emotional effects’.
Visually, horror and romance are polar opposites, however their ‘emotional’
effects, as defined by ‘subjectivists’, are closely interlinked. This may be
why genres have successfully interwoven together. Whether it’s Elena’s
emotional heartbreak over Stefan’s vampirism and secretive nature, captured in
an extreme close up, or Ethan Chandlers shock over reanimating corpses from over
the shoulder angles; the audience are subjected to a variety of strong
emotions. It doesn’t matter whether it’s romance or horror. As Professor
Jeffrey Goldstein argues ‘you choose your entertainment because you want it to
affect you’.
Romance and horror, rely on base emotions that active audiences relate to; love
and fear. People choose romantic horror because these emotions are conventional
to the genres and provide a strong ‘affect’.
Carol
Clover argues that ‘horror tends to be made on the basis of imitation’. [20]
This explains the ‘very Hitchcock’ reference in Elena’s dialogue, whilst
situated in a conventional horror graveyard. In ‘Penny Dreadful’, a mother is
attacked whilst in the bathroom, her horror-stricken diegetic scream,
reminiscent of Hitchcock’s renowned ‘Psycho’ shower scene. Williamson is able
to appeal to younger audiences through this hybrid genre. He is praised for ‘realization that young people feel as empowered in their roles as
knowing cultural consumers…fulfilling their romantic longings’. [21] Romantic
conventions can help target the ‘knowing cultural consumers’ of younger teenage
demographics. Younger audiences have economic dependence on older generations, yet
‘Williamson’ credits his success on ‘realisation’ that younger people
contribute considerably as television audiences and as horror enthusiasts.
Therefore, Williamson has introduced romance to instigate ‘romantic longings’,
encouraging younger audiences to develop a personal investment in characters by
making younger target demographics and horror enthusiasts feel appreciated.
Ultimately,
“Genres do not merely exist in their own little worlds. They are
intertextual…organic…feeding off each other hungrily…they play with audience
expectations’. Romance
and horror have intertwined, ‘hungrily feeding of one another’. Kevin
Williamson raises this idea, with the ‘Vampire Diaries’, that themes common to
horror, like ‘immortality, lust and fear’ work well in romantic high school
settings. He uses ‘life and death stakes…and prom night’ and addresses the
challenge of ‘telling stories with emotion’ whilst keeping them ‘real and
grounded’. Romance
enables the horror conventions to be ‘grounded’ and ‘real’. Through this setting,
horror and romance aren’t perceived as polar opposites. These shows are
successful hybrids; the genres mix so seamlessly, because horror has always
been about romance amongst younger generations. Even in the slightly more horror-filled
gothic ‘Penny Dreadful’, relatable emotions establish verisimilitude, ‘grounding’
the supernatural occurrences conventional to horror. These shows are successful
because romance reinforces audience engagement with the darker side of
television. The ‘cycles’ of horror may change, but audience ‘emotions’ behind
these genres, will always dictate any shows’ survival.
Once again, I hope you enjoyed reading this essay. Though, unfortunately, the shows or images are not mine, nor the awesome concepts from source material, I did actually think of the general ideas in this post all on my lonesome so please don't copy. Thank you and until next time...keep on watching random stuff...go for all opportunities offered to you...and just keep smiling!!!
On a side note, in regards to 'Penny Dreadful', I HIGHLY RECOMMEND if not anything else, watching Bille Piper's monologue in the episode 'Memento Mori'. The writing is brutal and often uncomfortably blunt, however Billie Piper delivers it with emotional power that can leave you speechless. Fantastic!
Bibliography: (Interesting sources you may enjoy exploring further!)
