Children’s horror is a meeting of two genres often considered incompatible, and can thus be considered ‘impossible’. However, as I demonstrate in Chapter One by applying horror genre theory to children’s horror films, they are entirely ‘possible’ and can be identified by their uses of imagery, narrative structures and other conventions of the horror genre, and by their mitigation of horrific, disgusting and other frightening aspects through several distancing strategies. Despite this, the perceived incompatibility of children and horror means that children’s horror is not a widely recognised generic category by the academy, the film industry, film distributors, retailers and audiences. This complicates the method of corpus selection.
Children’s horror films are variously referred to as genres adjacent to horror, such as fantasy, thriller, mystery and Gothic. While many children’s horror films are necessarily hybridised with these genres to mitigate their horrific elements, it also means that actual children’s horror films must be separated from children’s films of other genres which contain monstrous imagery but are not horror, as well as family horror films and teen horror films, with which they are often grouped. This is the case at some film festivals, such as the ‘Teen Mayhem’ strand of science-fiction, horror and fantasy films for younger viewers at the UK’s Mayhem Film Festival, with broadcast strategies such as the US television channel ABC’s annual ‘13 Nights of Halloween’ programming of child-friendly Halloween films each October, and with lists curated by film publications such as Rolling Stone’s ‘12 Scariest Moments in Kids’ Films’ (Ehrlich, 2015). In the latter, films that are considered children’s horror according to this thesis, like The Witches, are grouped with children’s or family films
30 of other genres that merely contain frightening moments, such as Watership Down (Rosen, 1978), Toy Story (Lasseter, 1995) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Newell, 2005).
In relation to the Gothic, I acknowledge that there are significant overlaps between this and horror to the extent that these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, for example in Charlie Higson’s discussion of children’s Gothic/horror texts (2013). For this reason, the arguments of this thesis regularly draw upon scholarly criticism on the Gothic where this proves relevant and useful. Due to the significant overlaps between horror and the Gothic I do not wish to draw a firm line between ‘children’s horror’ and ‘children’s Gothic’. Nevertheless, my use of the label ‘horror’ over ‘Gothic’ needs clarification. One of the major links between horror and the Gothic is that they both intend to evoke fear and anxiety (Punter, 1980: 1; Gross, 1989: 1; Kavka, 2002: 210). Yet while horror is widely accepted as a genre, the Gothic is more often considered an aesthetic, style or mode that also applies to non-narrative forms of art, like architecture and fashion (Wheatley, 2006: 2). As such, ‘Gothic’ is a slippery term, at least more so than horror, and a definition is ‘notoriously difficult to pin down’ (Kavka, 2002: 210). For purpose of this thesis, which is in large part a generic study, the specificity of ‘horror’ makes it a more useful term than the much broader and loosely-defined ‘Gothic’. Definitions of the horror genre, and by extension the children’s horror film, are outlined in Chapter One.
Due to the difficulties posed by the generic overlaps between children’s horror films and children’s films of adjacent genres, potentially suitable films have to be taken on a case- by-case basis. A wide range of methods have been applied to locate as many children’s horror films as possible, including extensively searching film retailers, online search engines and film databases, taking recommendations from friends, colleagues and secondary materials on the subject (which are discussed in Chapter Two), and simply through my own wide viewing habits. Of course, due to the size and scope of this project it would be impossible to give all
31 examples of the subgenre uniformly in-depth attention, but as explained by Tzvetan Todorov, studies of genre ‘[do] not require us to observe every instance of a phenomenon in order to describe it […]. We actually deal with a relatively limited number of cases, from them we deduce a general hypothesis, and we verify this hypothesis by other cases, correcting (or rejecting) it as needs be’ (1970: 4).
Finally, this thesis focuses on children’s horror films that are produced by the Hollywood film industry.5 The children’s horror film is not necessarily unique to the US, but
US-produced children’s horror films are by far the most numerous, as far as I can ascertain given the difficulties in identifying children’s horror films that are outlined above.6 That there
appear to be more examples of children’s horror films produced in the US than in other national contexts may be a result of the global film industry, particularly films aimed at child audiences, being largely dominated by US-produced content. However, given the Western context in which I am sourcing, viewing and analysing these films (as an English-speaking Brit situated in Britain, where a significant portion of theatrically-released films are from the US), it is also possible that barriers of language and geographical positioning prevent children’s horror films from other national contexts coming up in my search. These films may not be available in Western markets or may not be listed in English-language film databases and catalogues (either at all, or with incomplete data that makes identifying their generic status or intended audience difficult). These are limitations which unfortunately cannot be satisfactorily overcome within the size and scope of this project. As for why I have chosen to exclude British examples despite my own background and location, this is because I have been able to locate very few examples of British children’s horror films that are both
5 The term ‘Hollywood’ is used synonymously with the US film industry throughout this thesis. 6 Some examples of children’s horror films from other national contexts include the Canadian films Frankenstein and Me (Tinnell, 1996) and Believe (Tinnell, 2000), and a Mexican trilogy of animated films: La Leyenda de la Nahuala/The Legend of Nahuala (Arniaz, 2007), La Leyenda de la Llorona/The Legend of La Llorona (Rodriguez, 2011) and La Leyenda de las Momias/The Legend of the Mummies
32 addressed to and aboutchildren. One of these is The Witches, included in this study as it is a US co-production and because it changed the nationality of its protagonist from English, as it is in the source novel (Dahl, 1983) to American, thus indicating an address to American audiences. Another is Paperhouse (Rose, 1988), but although it features many of the generic characteristics of children’s horror films (i.e. a focus on the fears and worries of a child protagonist), and is based on a children’s novel (Catherine Storr’s Marianne Dreams [1958]), the film has a BBFC rating of 15, making its status as children’s horror within its national context ambiguous. Finally, there are three horror films that were produced by the Children’s Film Foundation (CFF): The Man from Nowhere (Hill, 1975), Haunters of the Deep (Bogle, 1984) and Out of the Darkness (Krish, 1985). As other academic works have provided thorough accounts of the historical and cultural significance of the CFF (Staples, 1997; Shail, 2016), and because these films appear in such a short time-frame comparative with the US examples discussed in this thesis, I have opted not to include them in this study.
By focusing only on Hollywood children’s horror films, this thesis aims to provide a detailed examination of how the horror genre can be used to address fears and desires associated with childhood, and how the subgenre has developed across time, in one specific national and industrial context in which I can confidently assert that children’s horror films have been a consistent presence for several decades. These films display an engagement with the socio-historical contexts in which they are made and in which there have consistently been cultural anxieties concerning the effects of horror upon children, as well as other threats to children and childhood. My intention is that this can begin a dialogue in the academy on the subject of children’s horror films. This may then be broadened out to consider children’s horror films from other national and industrial contexts, as well as family horror films, children’s films with frightening elements but which are of genres other than horror, children’s horror in other audio-visual media (e.g. television), and empirical studies on children’s responses to children’s horror films.
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