Recently I decided that watching the old-timey horror classics would be a great way to spend my evenings. Nightmare on elm street, Friday the 13th, The Texas chainsaw massacre, and scream were all on the list. The films haven’t all aged well and some are much more silly than scary but I kept noticing something odd. The characters kept breaking “nighttime safety” rules that I was taught as a kid and dying as a result.
Chicken or Egg?
Here are the rules I was taught either by family members or through school
- If you hear a child, kitten, or puppy crying outside at night don’t investigate because it might be a trap.
- When knocking on a door leave 3ft or more of space between you and the door so you can’t be dragged into the house.
- Don’t hitchhike.
- Don’t pick up hitchhikers
- Always lock your doors.
- Use the buddy system.
- If you have to kill someone, double tap (make sure they are dead).
without fail whenever one of these rules was broken a character would die. I started to wonder, did these rules spawn from old horror movies? Were the rules already existent and horror movies just took advantage of the situations presented by them?
I think it’s probably a mix of both especially for things like hitchhiking or the buddy system. Being alone automatically makes you more vulnerable to both predators and environmental hazards. However, using children of any species to lure out defenceless women sounds like something right out of Hollywood. That specific rule also made it into the Internet era, its still being passed around in chain emails to this day.
Moral safety
There is one more rule that when broken almost always results in death but it’s not like the other rules. I call it the purity test and as far as I can tell its inclusion is almost subconscious. The purity test is amorphous, it evolves and mutates depending on the moral compass of society at large.
To be considered pure a character must meet these prerequisites:
- Virginal
- Non-violent
- Female
Optionally they may also
- Not imbibe liquor
- Not imbibe narcotics
- Have faith in God.
Should one of the optional requirements be broken you can be assured that something sinister will soon happen. Any characters still considered pure will survive though.
This rule harkens back to the very dawn of horror movies where the “monster” is more an expression of the chaotic forces that lurk outside of society rather than a villain. “Punish the wicked that they might be redeemed even unto death” horror movies take this to heart and whether intentional or otherwise reinforce the idea that the wicked will suffer and the pure will endure.
As a core ideal, this makes perfect sense. Society only works when everyone follows the rules and for a long time, the church doctrine was the rule. Media would naturally evolve depicting something evil as being the harbinger of punishment to the wicked, that is after all what the devil is for. Even the three rules of the purity test can be harkened back to depictions of Mary: female, virginal, meek and mild, protected by God.
Overall traditional horror movies highlight and reinforce the rules to be followed for a stable society and punish those who break them. Whether they created or popularised the safety rules I was taught, this genre of movies will always be a mirror showing a cracked reflection of societies morality