Kevin Heffernan,
Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953-1968.
Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004
ISBN: 0 82233 215 9
304pp
US$22.95 (pb)
(Review copy supplied by Duke University Press)
In Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold, Kevin Heffernan explores a series of cultural and economic shifts that took place within the production and reception of horror films between 1953 and 1968. Arguing that “a cultural or aesthetic account of the horror film unmoored from its economic history [is] totally inadequate” Heffernan contributes to academic considerations of horror films by providing one of the first economic histories of the genre (6). Specifically, he identifies the ways in which the production, distribution and exhibition of post-World War II horror films reflected fundamental changes that were taking place in the commercial film industry at that time.
The temporal and discursive parameters of Heffernan’s study are designed to contextualise the cultural and economic significance of the baby-boom horror cycle. Following the 1948 Paramount ruling which effectively ended the studio system by prohibiting film production companies from owning sites of exhibition, the fifteen years between 1953 and 1968 witnessed a dramatic industry recession. Concomitantly, during the same era, external factors such as the arrival of television, increased suburbanisation and improved leisure options all worked to divert money away from the cinema box office.
As the commercial cinema industry attempted to cope with the precipitous box office decline, it turned its attention towards “technological innovation, new patterns of distribution, increasingly aggressive marketing campaigns [and] independent production” (7). According to Heffernan, low-budget horror films of the 1950s and 1960s played a crucial role in all of these adaptations and sustained commercial cinema during a time of audience and economic decline. To this end, the book’s title, Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold refers respectively to the production, distribution and exhibition branches of the movie business.
Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold traces the evolution of the horror genre through two distinct phases. Heffernan identifies the first phase as one of “refinement”, during which the genre witnessed significant increases in character complexity and technological innovations, such as the introduction of colour and widescreen. For Heffernan, this cycle is evident in the colour movies of Hammer Horror and the antics of gimmick film maker William Castle (9). The second phase is concerned with notions of the baroque, whereby familiar conventions became exaggerated and stylised to the level of parody, a point exemplified in the graphic violence of George Romero’s 1968 film Night of the Living Dead (10).
Heffernan’s book is divided into nine chapters. Chapter One, “Horror in Three Dimensions“, explores the “technological race on 1952-54” and the short-lived appeal of the 3-D cycle (14). It traces a number of obstacles encountered by small exhibitors during the early 1950s as film production companies began to produce fewer, costlier films in the hope of receiving higher bids from exhibitors. As Heffernan argues, the result was a short-lived horror cycle which sought to boost profits through the sale of specialised cinema technologies such as 3D film formats and stereo sound. Examples from this era include Warner’s classic film House of Wax (USA, 1953) and Universal-International’s Creature from the Black Lagoon (USA, 1954).
According to Heffernan, the hardest hit sectors of the exhibition industry were third-run neighbourhood cinemas which relied heavily on their capacity to exhibit at least three or four movies per week. Being unable to sustain the financial outlay required for new technologies, neighbourhood cinemas turned instead towards a rapidly emerging teen demographic. In acknowledging the teen market’s appropriation of the horror genre as an outlet for social and sexual interactions, Heffernan spotlights the genre’s carnivalesque emphasis on sensational, violent and horrific cinema content and titles. The result, as Heffernan argues, was the development of the “B” movie double feature; a phenomenon notorious for its grotesque hyperbole and low production quality.
Chapter Two, “The Colour of Blood” investigates Hammer Film’s remake of the 1930s Universal film Curse of Frankenstein (UK, 1957). Taking interest in the film’s use of colour and gore, as well as its origins in international co production, Heffernan marks the Curse of Frankenstein as an “important transitional work in the history of the horror genre” (44). In Chapter Three “Look into the Hypnotic Eye! “, Heffernan charts the development of hyped exploitation films such as The She Creature (USA, 1956) which placed “unusual emphasis” on their topical or horrific content (64). Heffernan goes on to note that the sensational content and brazen promotional gimmicks of this era were effective “strategies to deal with the absence of stars in the films” (89).
Titled “A Sissified Bela Lugosi“, Chapter Four charts the mid-career of horror film icon Vincent Price, who appeared in Twentieth Century Fox’s 1958 classic The Fly (USA) and William Castle’s 1959 gimmick film The Tingler (USA). From this perspective, Chapter Five “Grind House or Art House? ” charts the efforts of two small distribution companies (Distributors Corporation of America and Astor Pictures) as they attempted to provide cinemas with a range of art films and low budget horrors. Throughout this chapter, Heffernan points toward the commercial and aesthetic fluidity of the horror and art genres using Michael Powell’s art-horror hybrid Peeping Tom (UK, 1960).
Chapter Six, “American cinema goes international“, elucidates the remarkable significance of international co-production, with specific emphasis being placed on the Italian horror film industry of the 1960s. Chapter Seven, “Television syndication and the birth of the orphans” explores the “insatiable demand” for colour television productions that coincided with the unprecedented explosion of colour television and UHF during the mid 1960s. Drawing on Roman Polanski’s 1968 release of Rosemary’s Baby (USA, 1968) Chapter Eight, “Demon children and the birth of adult horror” explores the acquisition of major studios by transnational cinema conglomerations. Chapter Nine, “Family monsters and urban matinees“, contextualises the 1968 release of Night of the Living Dead (USA, 1968) as a landmark film which signalled the end of the Baby-boom horror film cycle.
According to Heffernan, 1968 marked an important turning point for the horror film industry as film distributors such as Continental Releasing, embarked on marketing campaigns which sought to simultaneously straddle several potential market demographics per release. In this way, the target youth demographic of the preceding two decades became only one part of the potential market share and a new genre of adult horror was created.
In demonstrating how economic and industrial considerations shaped the horror genre between 1953 and 1968, Heffernan’s Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold stands as a powerful contribution to academic considerations of both horror films and the cinema industry at large. In spanning an impressive breadth of economic data, cultural analysis and horror film fandom the utility of Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold lies in its clear demonstration of how the horror film has been at the heart of changes within the American cinema industry during the past sixty years.
Leanne Downing,
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Created on: Tuesday, 19 July 2005 | Last Updated: 19-Jul-05