History of the horror genre

1. History of the Horror
genre.

2. The first horror movie, only about two minutes
long, was made by the French filmmaker Georges
Melies, titled The Devil's Castle/The Haunted
Castle containing familiar elements of later horror
and vampire films. They included bats, castles etc.
The first ever horror movies all contained the
typical monster convention e.g. ‘The Vampire
(1913). The first genuine vampire picture was also
produced by a European filmmaker director F. W.
Murnau's feature-length Nosferatu, A Symphony
of Horror (1922) was an unauthorized film
adaptation of Stoker's Dracula with Max Schreck
as the screen's first vampire , a mysterious
aristocrat named Count Graf Orlok living in the
late 1830s in the German town of Bremen.
Because of copyright problems, the vampire was
named Nosferatu rather than Dracula, and the
action was moved from Transylvania to Bremen.’

3. By the 1940s, American horror movies
were the hit. The use of monsters were
still the main convention of the movies
e.g. The wolf man and cat people. Cat
people become one of the first to use
the convention of suggestion in the
genre, a technique which is widely used
and is very effective to this day. In most
of these movies we see the use of the
male gaze. The Woman is usually viewed
as an object, where in cat people, we
see the woman as the villain. The use of
the villain being interpreted as a feline
connotes an animalistic vision, quite
seductive and beautiful. Where the use
of the villain in wold man is strong and
brave, also connoted as brutal where a
feline is wise. (binary opposites.)

4. In the 1950s the main horror
movie was called ‘The blob’.
These were much more
developed movies e.g.
Frankenstein. The blob carried
on the classical convention of a
monster villain who was
unusual and unpredictable.
They was very successful
movies at the era, mostly
aimed at teenagers.

5. In the 1960s to 70’s, possibly
one of the main genres of the
era Is horror, and one of the
most popular horror movies
was ‘psycho’ which is known as
one of the greatest slasher sub-
genres. The villain changes
rapidly from being solely
monster based to murderers.
The use of psycho made the
audience believe if they
committed any wrong doings
the may have to deal with the
consequences by being hunted
down. The hypothermic needle
theory could be adapted to
this.

6. Movies like ‘the Amityville
horror’ was published in the
late 70s, these movies were
apparently based on true
events with the genre of
paranormal horror. These
were some of the first
paranormal horrors of the era.
It related to the audiences as
these are actual events which
occurred possibly in some
peoples areas which produces
fear for the audience.

7. The 80s was a big time for
horror as some of the most
influential horrors was
produced. For example great
movies like ‘Nightmare on elm
street’. This is because this
was the era where great
technology was introduced in
movie techniques and were
much more realistic. The uses
of weapons were also mostly
household objects, e.g. knifes,
chainsaws etc. These movies
were extremely gory and full
of blood and guts. This made
the audience fear their
everyday routines e.g.
sleeping, compared to the
50’s, wasn't really an issue.

8. From the 90’s to the 2000’s,
horrors popularity increased
dramatically, but they became
predictable. Movies like the
‘Saw’ franchise became very
popular throughout the years.
This is because of the idea that
they are intelligent movies, not
predictable at all. Throughout the
years it has became obvious that
the sub-genres of horror have
changed rapidly from monsters to
psychological horrors.
Sources- Wikipedia.