Horror, 1960: The Year Horror Became Dangerous

Film Talks

Five films, one year, and horror movies would never be the same again.

As the Hollywood studio system crumbled during the late 1950s, the industry’s self-censorship production guidelines, known as the Hays Code, grew strained. Films such as Duel in the Sun, The Bad Seed, and Some Like it Hot, were popular box office hits despite not earning Code approval. The rising popularity of foreign films, many of which dealt with more mature, sometimes even explicit, material revealed the Code to be increasingly inadequate and ineffectual. Then, in 1960, five landmark horror films were released, leading to a watershed change in the genre. Mario Bava’s debut feature, La maschera del demonio, retitled as Black Sunday for its American release, combined stylish art house visuals with gory Gothic excesses. Meanwhile, Roger Corman’s The Fall of the House of Usher, the first in a cycle of Poe inspired films, brought those same Gothic excesses in vibrant Eastmancolor to America’s burgeoning drive-in circuit. Georges Franju’s Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes without a Face) appalled audiences with its chilling cinema verité while arguably being one of the first pieces of body horror. Made with his TV show crew, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, with its shockingly unconventional narrative twists, was both a major box office hit and a cultural phenomenon. In stark contrast, the similarly themed Peeping Tom proved so controversial that it essentially crushed director Michael Powell’s career. And yet, despite the controversies surrounding their individual releases, each film injected a new and vibrant immediacy into a virtually moribund genre. Going forward, horror grew progressively more subversive, more dangerous, and edging ever closer to the mainstream.

Join us for a screening of The Fall of the House of Usher at the SIFF Film Center on Thursday, April 3rd, 2025.

Streaming Tickets grant access to the film talk virtually, live-streamed via Zoom from 7-9:00pm PT. Access to the recording is not provided after the live session.