1. How The Horror Genre Has Evolved
The horror genre has evolved in a very weird and different way to other film
genres. It has areas that have evolved massively, such as the special effects, and
other areas that seem to have barely changed at all, like the sub-genres
associated with horror. They have all stayed around over the last 120 years,
dipping in and out of relevancy.
“There are two different stories in horror: internal and external. In
external horror films, the evil comes from the outside, the other tribe, this
thing in the darkness that we don’t understand. Internal is the human
heart” – (Carpenter – 2011)
Horror has always been around, and people have always wanted to be told
stories that scare them. The creation of the film genre, however, just made it
easier for them to achieve this.
I plan to discuss three main points as to how horror has evolved. These three
points are the most important areas, which show evolution in the genre and how
it’s become what it is today. The origins, special effects, and sub-genre
popularity are each great ways to show horror’s evolution over time. When it
comes to origins, it doesn’t just cover film, but how Horror has evolved over
thousands of years. Focusing on these three key points will really be the best
way to sum up and answer my question.
A History of Horror
Although the horror genre in film is considered to have started with ‘Le Manoir
du Diable’ (Méliès, 1896), the origins can be traced back for thousands of years.
The story of the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh ‘ (Unknown, 1800 B.C) involved contests
between monsters and humans, where the humans were used as tools for the
Gods. One thousand years later another poem that’s similar, ‘Homer’s Odyssey’
(Unknown, 800 B.C), terrified the Greeks. Although scary, none of these came
close to how terrifying ‘Dante’s Divine Comedy’ (Alighieri, 1310) was in its time. It
scared people with its visions of eternal damnation, and although may not be
considered as scary today, in a much more religious time the looming threat of
eternal damnation for sin was very real.
“… Children have long been told fantastic tales of wonder, danger and evil;
sheets passed out at public executions went over crimes in graphic detail;
folk songs and ballads often made murder vivid and death an expressive
state” - (Kawin, 2012)
Fast forward to 1764, and ‘The Castle of Ontranto’ (Walpole, 1764) is released. It
tells the story of a prophecy that the king believes is coming true due to his son
dying, so he attempts to marry his late son’s fiancé to counter this prophecy,

2. leading her to running away. This is considered one of the first ever horror
novels, and contains death, escapes, and excitement. The reason I mentioned all
of these as examples is because similar themes are used today. The horror genre
has both evolved over thousands of years, and in some ways, stayed the same.
Dixon backs up this point in his book ‘A History of Horror’;
“… Nearly all of the major thematic constructs that still fascinate us today
– the man-made monster, the vampire, the pact with the Devil – date from
this early period of experimentation. By the time Bram Stoker published
Dracula in 1897 and the modern serial killer was embodied by Jack the
Ripper, whose string of vicious murders began in August 1888 and ended
with no clear resolution in 1889, most of the major themes of cinematic
horror were fully formed” – (Dixon, 2010)
Looking at more modern, 21st century horror films, this is completely correct.
Going back to ‘Le Manoir du Diable’ (Méliès, 1896), we can see some common
themes within what would be considered classic villains in the horror genre. It
involves the devil, witches, vampires, and even skeletons. Compare this to films
of the 21st century and it isn’t much different. ‘The Witch’ (Eggers, 2016) is the
perfect example of this. Although based in the 17th century, it shows that horror
films still have the same base villains as in the first horror film. Perhaps that
villain can be traced back even further. ‘MacBeth’ (Shakespeare, 1606) told a
story of witches tricking MacBeth into killing the king of Scotland. It wasn’t just
in stories either; people were scared of witches for real, killing women who were
accused of witchcraft around the 15th – 18th centuries. The fact that the same
classic horror villains have been around for hundreds, sometimes thousands of
years is proof that although the genre has evolved in some aspects, it still also
follows its roots in new and interesting ways.
Special Effects in Horror
In early horror, special effects were very difficult to do. ‘The Invisible Man’
(Whale, 1933) is the best example of how difficult they can be. In the
documentary ‘Now You See Him: The Invisible Man Revealed!’ (Skal, 2000) they
talk about how due to the fact that it was the 30s, all the effects were done on
camera. When the invisible man’s bandages were off for him to eat, they had the
actor covered in a black felt which matched the wall in the background. This
created an invisible look which seemed very realistic if you don’t look too
closely. In another shot which involved having footprints in the snow, they had a
fake floor with foot-shaped holes in it and filled the wholes with blocks. They
then layered fake snow above it and unblocked the holes when it was necessary
to create the effect of the invisible man walking. This was also difficult as the
cameras had to have been positioned in a certain way to avoid being able to see
below the snow, where it would’ve fallen. To make the invisible man what he
was, several casts were made of Claude Rains’ entire body. This was all sone in
Frank Williams’s lab, the location where most of the effects originated.

3. “They made a cast and nailed me in. Just my head stuck out. They smeared
me with Vaseline and then stood off and threw plaster at my head. I
thought I was going to die. It was the most alarming operation.” – (Rains,
1933)
This is followed by ‘Jaws’ (Spielberg, 1975). This is another film that was
amazing for its time. Spielberg built three animatronic sharks for $150,000 each.
They were made from polyurethane rubber over a tubular-steel skeleton.
According to Joe Alves, the sharks weren’t tested in water beforehand, so when
they finally got it into saltwater, it started to affect the electrolysis. This made the
shark malfunction as they used pneumatics instead of hydraulics because they
didn’t want to cause oil spills. Spielberg ended up showing less of the shark
because of constant malfunctions. This ended up working in his favour and it
created a much more effective movie by not showing it. The changes he had to
make created more character development and depth to the script, making the
movie so much better. When the sharks did work as well, they looked terrifying.
Animatronics seemed like the way to go as it created the most realistic shark
possible, without getting real ones. Pat Jankiewicz, author of The Jaws
Compendium, mentions this;
“The animatronic shark in Jaws showed how effective an animatronic
special effect could be. While the stories of it malfunctioning are
legendary, it is completely believable and terrifying onscreen. The climax,
where the shark and Roy Shnieder battle to the death, is utterly
dependent on the creature’s effectiveness and it delivers. While Steven
Spielberg hid the shark until the climax, Bob Mattey’s monster lives up to
the film’s build up by being as scary as we were told it would be up to that
point.” – (Jankiewicz, 2009)
Subgenres in Horror
Subgenres in horror are very strange. Throughout history, there have been clear
favourites, a subgenre more popular than the rest, however these genres are
never really forgotten about and movies based on them are still released.
Beginning in the 20s, there wasn’t a set genre in Europe. Europe was still being
experimental in an effort to compete with Hollywood, which heavily favoured
realism. Films such as ‘Häxan’ (Christensen, 1922) featured gore, nudity, and
other variations of explicit imagery, something you wouldn’t usually see in films
around this time. ‘Nosferatu’ (Murnau, 1922) was experimental in a different
way. It mixed expressionist interior design with recognisable exteriors to give
the film a more realistic feeling. However, Hollywood’s love of realism meant
that mad scientist films were heavily featured in horror during the 1920s. ‘Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ (Robertson, 1920) is a film about a good man who creates a
potion to allow him to indulge in sin, which creates an alternate personality (Mr.
Hyde) only for him to grow more and more violent. This was considered to be

4. much more realistic than the dead coming to life, vampires, or witches, and so
that’s the way Hollywood wanted to go.
Horror gained a lot of popularity by the 1930s. For the next decade, it would
dominate the industry. In 1931, ‘Frankenstein’ (Whale, 1931) was released. This
began a change in the genre, moving away from classic twisted love stories, they
instead tended to use regular monsters with no emotional ties. This created a
more cold and darker villain, which in turn created a more intense film, which
sometimes took a direct look into real social fears. Mad scientists now truly
dominated horror films, but were seen as more dangerous than ever.
“Between Dracula and Frankenstein, the Universal films progressed not
just with special effects and the growing language of cinema, but also with
the complexity of the creatures Dracula was clearly a creature of the of
the night who embraced the dark, where Frankenstein and the Wolfman
were much more complicated and tragic” – (Konow, 2012)
By the 40s, horror had declined in both quality and popularity. The formula of
horror films became so well established that they became predictable, using not
only the same story, but the same monsters over and over again. It was around
the same time mimics began to come forward, giving Hollywood restrictions
when they made a horror film. Then, 20 years later, ‘Psycho’ (Hitchcock, 1960)
was made. Loosely based on real life serial killer Ed Gein, the same man who
inspired ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (Demme, 1991). It is considered to be the first
slasher film, and paved the way for a new style of horror.
Skip ahead to the 70s, and Slasher movies were one of the most popular horror
subgenres around. Slasher films and possession really made up most of the
horror films around this time. ‘The Exorcist’ (Friedkin, 1973) was even banned in
the UK. Not only because it was considered to be one of the scariest films at the
time, but nine people who worked on the film have allegedly died in mysterious
accidents and in an unexplained fire which destroyed the set. ‘Carrie’ (De Pamela,
1976) followed a similar story, and both are considered to be iconic today.
Slashers had just as much popularity as possession films in the 70s, with the
most iconic being ‘Halloween’ (Carpenter, 1978). The United States Library of
Congress called the film “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and
they’re right, Halloween popularized slasher films, establishing a formula which
would be considered cliché today. It is considered to have been the inspiration
for other classics, such as ‘Friday the 13th’ (Cunningham, 1980) as well as ‘A
Nightmare on Elm Street’ (Craven, 1984). This is the realist idea that Hollywood
was going for, nothing in this movie is otherworldly.
“To make Michael Myers frightening, I had him walk like a man, not a
monster.” (Carpenter, unknown)
As we move towards more modern films, the favourite subgenre appears less
and less clear. A wider variety of films are made and there isn’t one specific
genre that stands out. Films about the undead have become more popular at this
point, with films such as ’28 days later’ (Boyle, 2002). However, there’s so many
films that got popular, there isn’t one particular genre that stands out. What you
can notice from modern day films, is that they follow specific subgenres.

5. Possession, slashers, and the devil are themes that have always been followed in
horror, so even though the subgenres have changed over time, they have also
stayed true and are still commonly used in horror today.
“It never dies. It just keeps getting reinvented and it always will. Horror is
a universal language; we’re all afraid. We’re born afraid, we’re all afraid of
things: death, disfigurement, loss of a loved one. Everything that I’m
afraid of, you’re afraid of and vice versa. So everybody feels fear or
suspense.” – (Carpenter, unknown)
In conclusion, the horror genre has evolved, but in a way like no other. Although
it has adapted over the years to keep audiences entertained, it’s subgenres have
always stayed the same. You’d find a monster film now that’s both similar and
different to a monster film eighty years ago, or yet another slasher film inspired
by Halloween. The special effects have definitely come along way, from using
black felt to green screen, creating scarier and more realistic monsters that
would either terrify or desensitise us. The horror genre really is one of a kind, no
other genre has evolved like it.
Bibliography:
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Other:
‘A NightmareonElm Street’(Craven, 1984)
‘Carrie’ (De Pamela, 1976)
‘Dante’s DivineComedy’(Alighieri, 1310)
‘Dr. Jekyll andMr. Hyde’ (Robertson, 1920)
‘Epic of Gilgamesh ‘(Unknown,1800 B.C)
‘Frankenstein’(Whale, 1931)
‘Fridaythe 13th’ (Cunningham, 1980)
‘Halloween’(Carpenter, 1978)
‘Häxan’(Christensen, 1922)
‘Homer’sOdyssey’(Unknown,800 B.C)
‘Jaws’ (Spielberg, 1975)
‘Le ManoirduDiable’(Méliès, 1896)
‘MacBeth’ (Shakespear, 1606)

7. ‘Nosferatu’(Murnau, 1922)
‘NowYou See Him:TheInvisibleManRevealed!’ (Skal,2000)
‘Psycho’ (Hitchcock,1960)
‘TheCastle ofOntranto’ (Walpole, 1764)
‘TheExorcist’(Friedkin, 1973)
‘TheInvisibleMan’(Whale, 1933)
‘TheSilence of the Lambs’(Demme, 1991)
‘TheWitch’ (Eggers, 2016)
’28 dayslater’ (Boyle,2002)