2. 1896-1910
1896 was the year
of the first horror
film and the
beginning of the
horror film genre.
The technology
that was used
dramatically
changed films at
the time and made
the films much
more scary as the
people of the time
had never seen
anything like this
before.
1911-1913
The years
1911-1913
were big
years for
horror as
they began
to define
horror as an
actual genre
because one
of the first
full length
film “Notre
Dame de
Paris” was
released.
1928-1937
The first ever
horror film
with sound
was released,
adding a
whole other
element that
could be
manipulated to
make films
even more
scary.
1946-1970
The mid 19
hundreds
brought more
developed films
to the genre.
Writers
focussed on the
development of
the film and
made the
overall feel of
the films more
scary, one
example is
“Bedlam” about
a Victorian
insane
institution.
1976-1982
The horror
genre always
brought some
controversy,
but in these
years, people
began to
protest on the
gore starting to
become pared
with horror.
Films such as
Friday the 13th
were released.
1994-2000’s
Many think by the
time the 2000s came
around, the horror
genre had lost its flair
and many films being
released became gore
fests, designed to
disgust the audience.
However, some
classics such as
Chucky and Saw.
3. Under the main genre of horror, there are smaller sub genres. These all add something
individual to the horror genre whilst also containing some main elements found in a film of the
horror genre.
Action Horror- Usually includes fight scenes with the monster in the film, e.g. zombies,
werewolves, etc.
Body Horror- This sub-genre includes lots of gore and contains unnatural things happening
with the human body. Films include: teeth and cabin fever.
Comedy Horror- This combines funny elements in horror type situations, sometimes ripping
off scenes from famous horror films, adding funny twists or taking the Mick out of those films.
Gothic Horror- horror which includes gothic, for example, castles, magic and dark settings. The
early horror films fell under this sub-genre.
Psychological Horror- This sub-genre of horror uses the main characters of the films’ fear to
make the audience scared. Being as real as possible what makes a psychological horror scary.
Science fiction Horror- This sub genre uses unreal scientific elements like to scare the audience.
Films include; Alien, the Thing and invasion of the body snatchers.
6. This particular monster is normally ancient and films revolving
around it will usually take place in a castle. One of the very first
horror films included the vampire. I believe it is an embodiment of
the foreign as vampires were from Pennsylvania, it may play on
the fear of the unknown and because in the old days (1896-1910)
when vampires were introduced, people didn’t travel around as
much and were probably unfamiliar with people of different
cultures making the premise of “vampires” scary.
7. Zombies are basically the un-dead come back to life to eat the
living. This premise varies from film to film such as in 28 days
later, the zombies would starve if they didn’t eat, but the main
cliché of zombies stems from Oscar Romero’s “Dawn of the
Dead”. This fear would probably come from the idea of seeing our
dead loved ones come back to life to eat us. on its head.
8. Aliens- beings from another planet, come to Earth to
kill or humans and take over the world. This is the
main premise for a horror including aliens. This may
make us scared as the idea of the unknown makes us
uneasy and makes us feel powerless compared to
advanced beings from a faraway world.
