A History of Terror Films
Little twelve-year-old Tommy Jones stood at the newsstand counter. All he had in his hot little hand was $.50. His whole weeks allowance. A princely sum for those days. After all, this was the summer of 1965. These were the years of civil uprise, the Beatles, and the peak of the 'monster craze'. So here was little Tommy, contemplating what to do next. You see, a certain magazine caught his attention. A ghastly image of a werewolf graced the cover. In all its graphic gore, the werewolf snared out at him. Tommy had never seen anything like it before. He was held transfixed by the image of the werewolf on the cover. With trembling hands, he took the magazine off the rack. Leafing through the magazine he sees all these pictures of monsters. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and The Mummy, all these great images. He just had to have this book. But $.50! His whole weeks allowance. He would not have anything left for later if he bought this book. Why for $.50 he could get three comic books and still have enough f
What was it about these monsters that fascinated a twelve year old mind? Why were these monsters of yester-year attracting thousands of adolescent minds across the country? We would have to go back to the beginning of the silver screen. We shall go back to early Germany and the deflection of the great movie makers of their time. But where did all these films come from in the first place? Why, most of them were twenty to thirty years old to begin with. All the great shudder flicks were being shown to a whole new generation of children. Karloff, Lugosi, Chaney, Frankenstein, King Kong, The Creature from the Black Lagoon. He brings the magazine to the clerk and hands over his hard earned money and he takes possession of his new prize. 1965 was the year of the monsters. I guess you had to be there, but the kids of the sixties were busy assembling plastic models of Frankenstein, Dracula, and all the rest. Lets explore the impact names like "Karloff" and "Lugosi" created. Monster magazines were on the racks screaming out the glories of Karloff, Chaney, and all the rest. "The Addams Family", "The Munsters", "The Outer Limits" were the top TV shows of their day. The days when the terror film was made with more care than the president would receive in Walter Reed Hospital.
Common topics in this essay:
Tommy Jones,
Wolfman Mummy,
Karloff Chaney,
Monsters Filmland,
Nazi Germany,
Lagoon Tommy,
Universal Studios,
Outer Limits,
Reed Hospital,
Fw Murnau,
weeks allowance,
famous monsters filmland,
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lon chaney,
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$50 weeks,
image werewolf,
karloff lugosi,
book $50,
famous monsters,
silver screen,
$50 weeks allowance,
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Acceptance Essays
