'American Scary' documents a cultural obsession with horror in the United States

American horror has deep historical roots. Stretching from the early English settlers and their religious worldviews that instigated the Salem witch trials to contemporary portrayals of witches in modern media, American horror reflects a nation's changing fears and social concerns.

The Puritan roots of American horror in the 17th century

The origins of American horror are anchored in the deeply religious and superstitious beliefs of its first European settlers. These Puritan settlers brought with them a worldview imbued with a fear of the devil and suspicion of marginalized groups. Their hysteria over perception of witchcraft led to one of the most infamous episodes in American history: the Salem witch trials. This event has become a foundational moment for the American horror narrative, illustrating early Americans' fears and social anxieties.

The influence of slavery and the Civil War on early American horror

The cultural landscape of horror in America was further shaped by the institution of slavery and the Civil War. Jeremy Dauber explains that during this tumultuous period, narratives from the Union portrayed the abject horrors of slavery as part of their campaign to end it, while the South circulated stories that played on fears of slave uprisings. These narratives presented the terror of an imagined inversion of the social order, where the en ...

Jeremy Dauber provides insight into how horror fiction often mirrors the prevalent societal fears and anxieties of various American eras, from the Great Depression to the digital age.

Depression-era horror's focus on class and economic anxieties

During the 1930s, America was grappling with the Great Depression, and horror narratives began to reflect the period's economic despair and class struggles.

Zombie narratives in this period, like "Night of the Living Dead," depicted the working class as undead, soulless laborers

Dauber notes that the first major zombie movie in America, released in this tense economic climate, portrayed zombies as endless laborers in factories, resonating with the era’s fears of soulless labor and lost autonomy. “Night of the Living Dead,” while later than the 1930s, continued to carry these themes, depicting the terror of dehumanization amid a rapidly industrializing society.

The slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s as a reflection of sexual and moral anxieties

Horror films took a turn in the 1970s and 1980s, evolving metaphors that touched upon rising sexual and moral anxieties of the time.

These films often punished sexually active teenagers, tapping into the "sex is scary" mindset of the Reagan-era moral majority

Dauber discusses the slasher film craze, noting how many films of that era targeted sexually active characters, signifying the fear and stigma surrounding sex during the moral majority era of Ronald Reagan and the AIDS crisis. Horror films, in a sense, were used to endorse the belief that deviating from traditional sexual mores would have terrifying consequences.

Contemporary horror's exploration of digital isolation and mistrust of neighbors

Current horror films mirror today’s unique fears, from virtual ident ...

In horror narratives, familiar figures like witches, zombies, and slashers have transformed significantly over time reflecting society's shifting anxieties and preoccupations.

The shifting depictions of witches over time

Witches have seen a dramatic shift in their role within horror narratives. Dauber illuminates the journey from Puritan-era witches, perceived as palpable threats during events such as the Salem witch trials, to the more whimsical and fantastical interpretations of shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The terror once evoked by witches during 17th-century New England has morphed into complex, often less malign, characterizations.

The changing societal symbolism of zombies

Dauber also explores the evolution of zombies in horror. The Depression-era zombies represented class anxieties, as they often depicted undead laborers - a fear deeply rooted in socioeconomic disparities. However, modern portrayals, such as those in "The Walking Dead," have shifted from these class anxieties, suggesting new societal concerns embedded within the narrative of the undead.

The rise and evol ...