An insight of the History of the Horror Genre

2. Sub genres
• Supernatural – This consists of things like ghosts, spirits and things of that nature.
In this type of film the main characters are usually disturbed by something.
• Slasher – consists of a psychopath hell-bent on revenge and he/she will kill
whoever gets in their way. The person usually hides their identity (this keeps the
audience wondering who the killer is).
• Comedy – This genre is all about mocking horror movies (a spoof). There aren't to
many successful horror/comedy movies but the most well known would be the
scary movie franchise .
• Action – Usually consists of fights or showdowns with another being (usually
aliens), this can be a very popular genre a great example of this is the alien and
predator franchise.

3. The origins of the horror genre
• The first horror movie was only two minutes long and was made by French
filmmaker Georges Melies it was called Le Manoir Du Diable which
translates to The Devil's Castle/The Haunted Castle and was released in
1896 .It containing familiar elements of later horror and vampire films like
a flying bat, a medieval castle, a cauldron, a demon figure
(Mephistopheles), and skeletons, ghosts, and witches.

4. Monsters used in horror films
• Zombies
• Aliens
• Ghosts
• Mummies
• Demons

5. Zombies
• Zombies are dead people that have come back
to life usually because of an experiment going
wrong or something like a radiation leak.
Zombies either eat humans or turn the human
into a zombie. Zombies are typically slow and
almost dumb due tot eh fact they do not have
a brain. Zombies are unpredictable so this
makes the audience uncomfortable and it
makes the movie tense.

6. Aliens
• Aliens are beings from outside earth that are
either looking to invade or destroy the earth
or even enslaving humanity. Aliens are
unusual beings so the audience do not know
what to expect from them.

7. Ghosts
• Ghosts are scary because you cannot see
them and you cannot do anything to stop
them. They can make the audience jump and
they make scenes very tense and so therefore
the audience is on the edge of their seats.

8. Mummies
• Similar to zombies but are usually to do with
Egyptians and are most likely pharaohs.

9. Demons
• Usually take control of a human body and are
maybe on of the scariest monsters. As it is a
human being it relates to the audience and
the human acts unnaturally and this makes
the audience dislike it.

10. Timeline of horror
• The first horror films were mostly vampire films.
• In the 1930s the first zombie and werewolf films were introduced.
• Horror films became a lot less popular during the world wars probably because
people were already distressed anyway .
• Zombie films came a lot more popular towards the end of WW2 while vampire
films were still going strong.
• Aliens and monsters were brought to the big screen in the 1950s with movies like
‘The Thing from Another World’ and ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms’.
• The 1960s brought us slasher movies like ‘Peeping Tom’ and ‘Psycho’.
• In 1970s Social issues were tackled (sexism (The Stepford Wives), consumerism
(Dawn of the Dead), religion (The Wicker Man) and war (Deathdream) to name a
few). Some horror films became a lot violent like ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’
and ‘The Hills Have Eyes’.

11. Timeline of horror
• The 1980s was all about slashers like ‘Friday the 13th’, ‘Prom Night’ and ‘A
Nightmare on Elm Street’.
• The 1990s brought a critically acclaimed movie for the horror genre with ‘The
Silence of the Lambs’. Such success seemed to make studios want to fund big
horror movies. Screams success reignited the slasher theme with films like ‘I Know
What You Did Last Summer’ and ‘Urban Legend’ being big hits . At the end of the
1990s Blade introduced comic book adaptations in a big way.
• The 2000s has brought us ‘‘torture porn’’ like ‘Saw’ and ‘Hostel fame’. There is a
great variety of edgy material as there has ever been in the genre.

12. What impact has technology had on
the genre?
• Technology has given us CGI and the ability to create special
effects. This has changed the genre as it used to be props that
would make the difference. The advancement of technology
has given film companies the opportunity to create higher
quality films and to make the movies more effective on the
audience.

13. Reflection
It was important for us to research the history of the horror genre so we
know what is expected in certain types of horror e.g. a slasher. Researching
the history showed me what has been successful and why and why some of
the films are better than others and what makes a film a classic horror.