Evolution of Halloween Stories in Radio, Comics, and Movies
Jul 11th, 2009 by Benedict Fisher
It may seem unbelievable, but stories and scripts influenced by Halloween were first introduced on radio, not in movies. H.G. Wells, the well-known novelist of “War of the Worlds,” the movie version of which starred Tom Cruise, is the first perpetrator of one of the earliest, most daunting, and hair-raising Halloween stories.
H.G. Wells was the creator of the War of the Worlds. So how could people be scared by something as plain as a literary piece? A radio production made by Orson Welles is the genius behind the effective appropriation of War of the Worlds for Halloween.
“And in the news today Aliens!”
Yep, that’s true. Welles is commemorated in Hollywood thriller, horror and comedy movies rolled into one. Parts from the famous novel “War of the Worlds” were exploited as news headlines that can be read between songs on the radio.
Imagine hearing news about aliens landing on Earth, sounding like the regular news you hear everyday. When Welles began the radio production, it was just a few days before Halloween, so the premise couldn’t have been better. People actually got scared and panicked around North America.
New Jersey was the place where most people panicked after hearing the fictional news bits about aliens. It was a stroke of genius, and shot “War of the Worlds” to mainstream popularity. This was only in the 30’s, but what soon followed was a guided effort to use the season of Halloween in popular media.
Literature
The theme of Halloween also managed to make it into printed media. Barely 15 years after the very scary radio production, the writer Anthony Boucher wrote a noir story that focused on reality and the grisly. Boucher’s story was set in California, adding to its realism.
In another five years, Halloween would make its way into the comic book industry. The comic series “Shock” made the idea of Halloween even scarier than it used to be. It told the story of an evil master of an orphan asylum who eventually got turned into a Halloween pumpkin — and as we all know, Halloween pumpkins are hollowed out and have their faces carved out. The “Shock” comic series was a brave venture into establishing Halloween as an event that had a set number of accepted themes.
EC Comics was also not far behind, this time focusing on things like cutting off parts of the body. However, before the sixties, the American Comics Code regulated the use of such literary devices. It was no longer ‘acceptable’ and so the short while that the Code was really active, these comic books died down.
Now, comic series like “Watchmen” from Alan Moore and “Sandman” by Neil Gaiman are showing to be lucrative enterprises in the comic industry. But these stories are not endorsed by American Comics Code. ACC only supports more wholesome comic books like “Archie.”
Halloween on TV and the Movies
For some reason or another, free TV was slow to respond to the Halloween theme. Perhaps it was censorship (the religious Right) that made television productions that much more difficult.
The following are the earliest seen Halloween-inspired shows and movies in North America:
- Whispering Ghosts (Milton Berle)
- Footlight Serenade (Betty Grable & Victor Mature)
- Frankenstein (Boris Karloff)
- The House on the Haunted Hill (Vincent Price)
- Rosemary’s Baby (Audrey Hepburn)
- Night of the Living Dead (George Romero)
- King Kong
- Godzilla
- Psycho (Hitchcock)
- Night of the Demons
