Long Before 'Red Riding Hood,' Romance Had a Place in the Horror Movie

With the buzz over "Red Riding Hood" and the growing popularity of other romantic movies like "Twilight," many horror fans wonder if there is a place for romance in the horror genre. Romance has always had a place in horror, and always will.

In the early days, Universal Studios wanted to make sure that they could appeal to a broad audience, so they made sure that they injected romantic story lines into their monster movies. If you take a look at "Dracula," "Frankenstein," "The Mummy," "The Phantom of the Opera," and "The Wolf Man," they all have underlying romantic subplots. To this day, it is almost impossible to find a vampire, mummy, or werewolf movie without a romantic subplot.

In the late 1970s and into the 1980s, we find that the romantic subplots turned more into sexual situations between secondary characters. Instead of using romance to add depth to the characters, these sexual situations became more of a way to point out who would die soon after having sex. With the AIDS epidemic beginning around this time, it made sense.

The next few decades continued to have more sex in horror movies than romance. The romance, again, was relegated to the vampire, mummy, and werewolf movies. Once "Twilight" came out, Hollywood realized that there was a market again for romance in horror, and that they could also use a horror movie setting to tell a romantic story. Essentially, the main plot and the subplot switched positions and importance. This is not necessarily a bad thing for the horror genre. It could be a good thing.

Think back to the late 1940s and early 1950s when Abbot and Costello started doing their "Meet" movies. These are the ones in which they ran into Frankenstein's monster, and many of the other classic horror creatures. At the time, many worried that horror comedies were going to take over the genre. Instead, what it did was cause comedy fans to be opened up to a new genre of films. It also caused horror movie fans to be opened up to a new genre in comedy. Over the years, comedic horror movies have still appeared from time to time, but have never taken over the genre.

Romance will continue to have a place in horror. Do not worry that romantic horror movies will take over the genre. Remember that horror changes on a regular basis. What is "in" this year will be passe next year, and a cliche in five years.