History of Colour in Horror Films

By Dylan Mallet

Colour has been used in films in general, for years now. The use
of colour in terms of lighting or colour grading has been used to
convey a specific emotion among the audience or to set the
tonality of a film, typically these tones or emotions are
dependent on the conventions of the film’s genre. Horror films
in particular, use colour in a very globally recognisable way by
using dark lighting and highlighting colours like as dark reds
such as maroon, and some much brighter reds as well, once
again depending on the tone of the film. The film ‘Supiria’
1977, directed by Dario Argento, is famously known for the use
of colour that pervades the film.

Specifically, the use of red is shown throughout almost every scene in order to set the
nightmarish tone of the film and to connote violence throughout the film. The film
was rather revolutionary in terms of it’s use of bright bold colours that films during
that era were not familiar with. The film uses bright primary colours such as red,
blue, green and sometime yellow. The use of contrasting blue and red lighting was
never before seen in a feature film and clearly, successfully used it’s creative
stylisation to strike fear, dread into their audience. The film used the same three-
strip colour process used in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ 1939, another revolutionary film in
terms of it’s use of colour. The film famously went from black and white, to full colour
in order to separate the difference between the old representation of Texas and the
fictitious representation of the new, the world of 'Oz'. To achieve this, they used the
technicolour method that's known as the three-strip method. The three-strip method
consisted of layering three strips of the same images with three different colour
filters over them, red, blue and green. These are the same three primary colours that
modern computers use to create light directly in additive systems.

The horror genre is known for striking fear, dread

and mystery into it’s audiences. Horror and thriller
movies are often grouped in together as they contain
similar conventions such as tense scenes, scary or
intense characters, dark eerie settings ect. The only
real difference is the emotions the filmmakers are
trying to evoque. Horror films are mainly trying to
make the audience scared or disgust by the scenes
within the film. However, on the other hand,
thrillers are trying to induce anxiety for the
characters among their audience.

Horror films conventionally use colours such as black, red, blue, green and white to
show many different things in a way that is unique and stylised based on the tonality
of the film they’re trying to set. As I have previously mentioned, the horror genre
favours red to imbed themes related to violence and blood. They create nightmarish
visuals, especially when contrasted with dark low-key lighting to create an eerie and
ominous atmosphere for their story to play out. Green is also used to tint scenes,
more specifically in thrillers to create a feeling of disgust; it’s a conventionally
unattractive colour and can be related to themes such as illness or pollution.
White is usually used in a meaningful way, to
highlight a prolific theme or motive of the film in a
stylistic manor. For example, costume may be
white in a dark setting to target the character or
entity as the dominant signifier in the scene. Black
and white is also globally recognised as an
aesthetic that is heavily associated with horror as
the genre started out being relatively cheap to
produce, this being the reason behind why so many
great horror and thriller movies are in black and white such as Psycho, Eraserhead
and Night of the Living Dead just to name a few. Black and white, as well as specific
still colours and certain colour contrasts are known to have a psychological effect on
the viewers, an advantage that horror filmmakers use religiously. As I mentioned
earlier, black and white is very strongly associated with the horror genre, so when
audiences see an all black and white screen it undoubtedly forces them into the
mindset that they are watching something dark and ominous.

Over the years, the horror genre has become the most
lucrative film genre. It’s an adventurous genre that can
be explored by, new coming filmmakers and multimillion-
dollar filmmakers alike. Independent films such as ‘The
Blair Witch Project’ and ‘Paranormal Activity’, were
created by student filmmakers, using low budget
camcorder and home surveillance footage but they used
easy yet affective practical effects to set the dark and
mysterious tone of an entity messing with the characters
or paranormal activity going on around them. The genre
is also known for revolutionising colour in film, steering
away from the classic style of horror which was all black
and white through the 1900s until 1957 when Hammer
Films created ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’, which was the
first horror film in colour. Prior to the release of the film,
the company were in and out of bankruptcy from when it
was founded in 1934.

The audience knew that colour would be prolific

throughout the course of the film from the
opening credits, when for the first time horror
audiences saw a solid bright red screen at the
beginning of a film, with huge bold white letters
in a medieval font. This was an impactful decision
by the filmmakers as when paired with music,
sets a very scary and villainous tonality to the
film; It also sets red up to be a firm indicator of importance throughout the film,
weather that be dialogue or just a key moment, it is usually on someone’s character
(Costume) or can simply just be seen in each shot in the background. Similar to
'Supiria', the colour red can be found in numerous scenes throughout the film.
A lot of the time, the setting of the scenes were very bland and bleak, the walls
painted with colours such as grey, white and sometimes a very neutral dark green,
these bleak, yet assertive colours help to set the tone of a high class household as
also suggested by the character's smart costume, hair and well-spoken British accent.
Audiences at the time would have recognised these costumes in particular as dated
because the story is set in the 1880s so these colour schemes would have worked well
due to the old timey, creepy tonality that the film possesses. The colour schemes of
the setting served as a backdrop while something or someone is placed in the
foreground wearing or holding something of a much brighter colour such as red or
blue. This was done to target whatever contained the bright colours as the dominant
signifier in the scene, and therefore force the audience to hone in on what that
character is saying and inevitably driving the plot forwards. The film also does this
the other way around, by putting someone in the foreground wearing a bright white
or all black costume lit in very high-key lighting, and then scatter bright colours such
as red, yellow, or brighter greens in the background to create a real stylised look to
the scenes while still portraying the character
as the dominant signifier. A lot of the time, the
scenes would use this technique by placing
tubes and jars of bright red liquid, both in the
lab scenes where the liquids seem to be some
kind of potion or mixture. In scenes in the
house, they used brown liquor in glasses and lit
It with a dim light from off screen, this
successfully added a red hint to the liquid.

After that, the film company was immediately renamed

among fans as ‘Hammer Horror’. A year later, ‘Hammer
Horror’ created a remake of ‘Dracula’, the 1931 film that
accumulated a box office profit of $700,000 (Valued at
$14,126,460 in today’s money) from a budget of
$341,000 ($6,000,000 today). Meaning the film was
widely successful and gained Hammer Films a lot of
publicity which allowed for them to become a very successful film company and
turned Dracula into an eight-film trilogy which would accumulate an estimated gross
income of up to 70 million dollars in the 1960s. The success from the earlier movies
also generated many separate Dracula movies produced by different studios and
filmmakers. Even the legendary Francis Ford Coppola directed his slant on a classic
Dracula story in 1992 which would go on to gross 215 million dollars worldwide.
Hammer films would also go on to create other successful titles from 1957 to today
where the company is still alive, although their last release was in 2019 named ‘The
Lodge’. The production company is in progression to grow into the $1 billion horror
movie market in coming years.
In conclusion, horror is a truly prolific genre in terms of glorifying colour as an
effective way to express themes and tonality of a production. Stylistically using
cinematography to make an audience feel a certain way, rather than sticking to the
standard way of storytelling and making the audience empathise towards the
characters; which in the time that horror had it's breakthrough, was simply through
good acting, and using the camera to pick up on facial expressions and body language.
The horror and thriller genre flipped this on it's head, using colour to foreshadow and
set the tone of the film and using far more creative control of the motion of the
camera to tell a story. Colour allowed audiences to guess where the plot was going
and made It excellent for creating plot twists, deceiving their audiences. Which In
modern day media is something that can be found In many other genres, such as
comedies, dramas, crime and even romance; showing that horror is a truly admired
and impressionable genre that has and will go on to inspire many filmmakers for
years to come.

From this research I know, that I will have to create a unique stylised film in the
horror genre. A film that uses colour grading and lighting to create a unique, and
stylised look and feel to my production. The colours used in my production will be
used to create a gloomy, eerie and dark tonality and therefore making the audience
feel for the character when I switch that tonality and make the audience feel
empathy for our character.