Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Figures
- Part I Approaching the Genre
- 1 Horror
- 2 The Monster at the Bedroom Window
- 3 Fear in a Frame
- Part II Subgenres: The Book of Monsters
- 4 Monsters
- 5 Supernatural Monsters
- 6 Humans
- Part III Related Genres
- 7 Horror Comedy
- 8 Horror Documentary
- Notes
- Films Cited
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
8 - Horror Documentary
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 September 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Figures
- Part I Approaching the Genre
- 1 Horror
- 2 The Monster at the Bedroom Window
- 3 Fear in a Frame
- Part II Subgenres: The Book of Monsters
- 4 Monsters
- 5 Supernatural Monsters
- 6 Humans
- Part III Related Genres
- 7 Horror Comedy
- 8 Horror Documentary
- Notes
- Films Cited
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Beyond comedy, there is another situation in which horror seems to have no boundaries and threatens to become infinite: when the horror is real. Our feelings about real horror can be boundless while we are in its grip. There is no consigning the evil to fiction. There is no beauty, no transfiguring or metaphoric imagery, no fantasy. Horror documentaries do not set out to entertain, but they are relevant to the genre in that they attempt to present horror on film. They often accomplish this without imposing a resolution on the material, especially where events have not provided one, leaving the horror open. To consider the documentary is vital to a complete view of the relations between horror and the horror film.
Death on Camera
The World War II documentary Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today (Pare Lorentz, 1946, US) includes authentic footage taken inside a working gas chamber, and we see people die on camera, especially one man. Nuremberg, which contains some of the footage that was used in evidence at the Nuremberg trials, was supposed to have been shown widely after the war to educate people about the kind of evil the Allies had been fighting, but it was finally deemed too horrific for that and was released only in Germany. In the United States it was banned for 40 years. Some of the captured German footage it used, notably of Jews being thrown into a mass grave, appeared in later documentaries including Night and Fog.
What does it mean to see a man die on film? It is an event we witness without being able to affect it, for it is not only an image, but also an image from the past. Our compassion and outrage are aroused but cannot find resolution. There is no narrative to put his suffering and death in context, no history in which he or anyone in his situation was saved. We are overwhelmed by the horror we see and feel because we know the event shown is real. We may feel strongly that the camera should not be there, although we may also feel glad that the evidence is being recorded. Dying is terrible to watch. The film that shows this death is not a narrative horror film, but it is certainly a film that generates and is permeated with horror.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Horror and the Horror Film , pp. 204 - 208Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2012