2. 1930s-1940s
• During the early period of talking pictures, the American Movie studio Universal Pictures began a successful
Gothic horror film series.
• Tod Browning's Dracula (1931), with Bela Lugosi, was quickly followed by James Whale's Frankenstein (also 1931).
• Some of these blended science fiction films with Gothic horror, such as The Invisible Man (1933) and, mirroring
the earlier German films, featured a mad scientist.
• These films, while designed to thrill, also incorporated more serious elements. Frankenstein was the first in a
series which lasted for many years.
• The Mummy (1932) introduced Egyptology as a theme for the genre.
• Make-up artist Jack Pierce was responsible for the iconic image of the monster, and others in the series.
• Universal's horror cycle continued into the 1940s, these included The Wolf Man (1941), not the first werewolf
film, but certainly the most influential, as well as a number of films uniting several of their monsters.
3. 1950s-1960s
• With advances in technology, the tone of horror films shifted from the Gothic towards contemporary concerns.
• Two sub-genres began to emerge: the horror-of-armageddon film and the horror-of-the-demonic film.
• A stream of usually low-budget productions featured humanity overcoming threats from "outside": alien invasions
and deadly mutations to people, plants, and insects. In the case of some horror films from Japan, such as Godzilla
(1954) and its sequels, mutation from the effects of nuclear radiation.
• The Hollywood directors and producers sometimes found ample opportunity for audience exploitation, with
gimmicks such as 3-D and "Percepto"
• Some horror films during this period, such as The Thing from Another World (1951) and Don Siegel's Invasion of
the Body Snatchers (1956), managed to channel the paranoia of the Cold War into atmospheric creepiness.
• Filmmakers continued to merge elements of science fiction and horror over the following decades.
• During the later 1950s, Great Britain emerged as a producer of horror films.
• The Hammer company focused on the genre for the first time, enjoying huge international success from films
involving classic horror characters which were shown in colour for the first time.
4. 1970s-1980s
• The end of the Production Code of America in 1964, the financial successes of the low-budget gore films of the
ensuing years, and the critical and popular success of Rosemary's Baby, led to the release of more films with
occult themes in the 1970s.
• The Exorcist (1973), the first of these movies, was a significant commercial success, and was followed by scores of
horror films in which the Devil represented the supernatural evil, often by impregnating women or possessing
children. The genre also included gory horror movies with sexual overtones.
• The ideas of the 1960s began to influence horror films, as the youth involved in the counterculture began
exploring the medium. Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
(1974) recalled the Vietnam war; George A. Romero satirized the consumer society in his zombie sequel, Dawn of
the Dead (1978)
5. 1970s-1980s
continued
• Movie sub-genre by exploring contemporary fears about technology and society, and reinventing "body
horror", starting with Shivers (1975).
• In 1975, Steven Spielberg began his ascension to fame with Jaws (1975). The film kicked off a wave of killer animal
stories. Jaws is often credited as being one of the first films to use traditionally B movie elements such as horror
and mild gore in a big-budget Hollywood film.
• Alien (1979) combined the naturalistic acting and graphic violence of the 1970s with the monster movie plots of
earlier decades, and used science fiction
6. 1990s
• In the first half of the 1990s, the genre continued many of the themes from the 1980s. The slasher films A
Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween and Child's Play all saw sequels in the 1990s, most of which
met with varied amounts of success at the box office, but all were panned by fans and critics.
• New Nightmare, with In the Mouth of Madness (1995), The Dark Half (1993), and Candyman (1992), were part of a
mini-movement of self-reflexive or metafictional horror films. Each film touched upon the relationship between
fictional horror and real-world horror. Candyman, for example, examined the link between an invented urban
legend and the realistic horror of the racism that produced its villain.
• Two main problems pushed horror backward during this period: firstly, the horror genre wore itself out with the
proliferation of nonstop slasher and gore films in the eighties. Secondly, the adolescent audience which feasted on
the blood and morbidity of the previous decade grew up, and the replacement audience for films of an
imaginative nature were being captured instead by the explosion of science-fiction and fantasy films, courtesy of
the special effects possibilities with advances made in computer-generated imagery.
• To re-connect with its audience, horror became more self-mockingly ironic and outright parodic, and mixed ironic
humour with the shocks (despite Scream 2 and 3 utilising less use of the humour of the original, until Scream 4 in
2011, and rather more references to horror film conventions). Along with I Know What You Did Last Summer
(written by Kevin Williamson as well) and Urban Legend, they re-ignited the dormant slasher film genre.
7. 1900s continued
• Two main problems pushed horror backward during this period: firstly, the horror genre wore itself out with the
proliferation of nonstop slasher and gore films in the eighties. Secondly, the adolescent audience which feasted on
the blood and morbidity of the previous decade grew up, and the replacement audience for films of an
imaginative nature were being captured instead by the explosion of science-fiction and fantasy films, courtesy of
the special effects possibilities with advances made in computer-generated imagery.
• To re-connect with its audience, horror became more self-mockingly ironic and outright parodic, and mixed ironic
humour with the shocks (despite Scream 2 and 3 utilising less use of the humour of the original, until Scream 4 in
2011, and rather more references to horror film conventions). Along with I Know What You Did Last Summer
(written by Kevin Williamson as well) and Urban Legend, they re-ignited the dormant slasher film genre.
8. 2000s
• The start of the 2000s saw a quiet period for the genre. The release of an extended version of The Exorcist in
September 2000 was successful despite the film having been available on home video for years. Valentine
(2001), notably starring David Boreanaz, had some success at the box office, but was derided by critics for being
formulaic and relying on foregone horror film conventions.
• Franchise films such as Freddy vs. Jason also made a stand in theaters. Final Destination (2000) marked a
successful revival of teen-centered horror and spawned four sequels. The Jeepers Creepers series was also
successful. Films such as Orphan, Wrong Turn, Cabin Fever, House of 1000 Corpses, and the previous mentions
helped bring the genre back to Restricted ratings in theaters.
9. 2000s continued
• A French horror film Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) became the second-highest-grossing French language film in
the United States in the last two decades. The success of foreign language foreign films continued with the
Swedish films Marianne (2011) and Let the Right One In (2008), which was later the subject of a Hollywood
remake, Let Me In (2010).
• Another trend is the emergence of psychology to scare audiences, rather than gore. The Others (2001) proved to
be a successful example of psychological horror film. A minimalist approach which was equal parts Val Lewton's
theory of "less is more" (usually employing the low-budget techniques utilized on The Blair Witch Project, 1999)
has been evident, particularly in the emergence of Asian horror movies which have been remade into successful
Americanized versions, such as The Ring (2002), and The Grudge (2004). In March 2008, China banned the movies
from its market.
