Contagious Horror: Infectious Themes in Fiction and Film

Abstract

Infectious diseases have been a preeminent part of literature since the earliest human writings. In particular, they have contributed greatly to the genre of horror-written or visual art intended to startle or scare. Horror fiction has emphasized infectious themes from the earliest Babylonian and Hebrew texts. In medieval times, stories of vampires and werewolves often had a contagious component, and pivotal works of Victorian horror centered around fear of infection and contamination. As film became prominent in the 20th Century, a strong emphasis on themes of plague and apocalypse developed. An analysis of the use of infection in horror fiction and film shows that it often represents a metaphor for societal concerns, and it is extremely useful in framing challenging issues for a wide audience.

Keywords: Bubonic Plague; History of medicine; Infectious diseases; Syphilis.

Figure 1

Death of the Pharaoh’s Firstborn Son (1872), by Lourens Alma Tadema, depicts the Egyptian ruler mourning his son who died of the 10th plague of Egypt. [Public domain courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, The Netherlands; http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5773]

Figure 2

Max Schreck as the cadaverous Count Orlok in F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror (1922) [Public domain-US-no notice; https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14388881].

Figure 3

A still scene from George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) [Public domain-no notice; http://mentalfloss.com/article/91635/10-facts-about-night-living-dead].

Figure 4

Illustration from The Masque of the Red Death by Harry Clarke, in E.A. Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1919) [Public domain, Image courtesy of the British Library, London, UK].