Horror has an interesting history. Essentially, the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft posits the existence of a race of supernatural beings which are hostile to human life, eagerly awaiting their chance to reclaim the earth and rid it of human beings. Lovecraft, especially in such stories as "The Colour Out of Space," "The Shadow over Innsmouth," and "The Rats in the Walls," was perhaps the first Western author to write exclusively in the horror genre, and he quickly learned how to manipulate the intuitive revulsion that human beings have towards tentacled and clawed creatures. And, in addition, Lovecraft's creatures, besides being hideously and abnormally ugly, reek horribly.
Of course, there are other works of horror which do not precisely conform to the tentative definition of horror, such as Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Yet what these works posit is that if there is anything demonic or Un-Holy that exists, it consists of those obscure motivations and desires which lurk within the human mind. These works conform to what we can label "modern horror," as opposed to "classic horror."
Concerning "classic horror," one of the first great horror films, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), certainly subscribes to the "modern horror" genre also. What is ostensibly a tale of insane authority becomes the musings of a madman. In fact, the influence of German Expressionism on Hollywood films of the Thirties and Forties was tremendous. As an art form, Expressionism is generally considered to be best represented by the works of Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Edward Munch. In painting, Expressionistic art is characterized by a sense of imbalance in the pictorial arrangements in order to achieve distortion; the use of oblique angles and sharp curves; a distortion of line and color, where primary colors are generally used in violent contrast; and a subjective vision of the exterior world. Expressionism also usually incorporates the style of grisaille, painting in grey monotone in which objects are often seen only with a suggestion of form and outline without attention to precise detail. The content of Expressionistic art is characterized by its grotesqueness and implausibility. It is a revolt against both Naturalism and Impressionism and has similar counterparts in literature and sculpture.
The enormously creative German cinema in the 1920s was influenced, on the one hand, by the theater of Max Reinhardt, an innovative stage director, and, on the other, it was influenced by Expressionistic art. The advances in lighting techniques, pioneered by Reinhardt, coupled with the rise of Expressionism, was of supreme importance to the experimental film-makers in post World War I Germany. Most of the actors in the early Expressionistic films were members of Reinhardt's acting company; later, some of them became film directors themselves.
The first great Expressionistic masterpiece in film is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, and directed by Robert Wiene. Janowitz was deeply impressed by the work of Paul Wegener, a member of Reinhardt's acting troupe, who had directed the influential Student of Prague (1913), in collaboration with the Dane Stellan Rye, and The Golem (1915), remade in 1920.
