History of Horror

1. A Brief History of Horror

2. 1890's - The Birth of a Genre
Georges Melies creates Le Manoir
Du Diable (The House of the Devil).
A French silent horror film. This is
often credited as being the first
ever horror film.

3. 1920's - Weimar Germany
In the 1920's, during the
Weimar Republic era of
Germany, many directors
began to create horror films
in the style of German
Expressionism. Some
notable films are Robert
Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari, Paul Wegener's The
Golem, and F. W. Murnau's
Nosferatu.

4. 1920's - Hollywood
Meanwhile in Hollywood, the
term 'horror' had not yet been
applied to film, and would not
for another decade.
At this time, many films were
made that would later
influence the horror genre.
Films like The Hunchback of
Notre Dame, The Phantom of
the Opera and The Lost World,
which were considered to be
dark melodramas at the time.

5. 1930's - Universal Monster Movies
During the 1930's, Hollywood began
producing horror films. The most notable
of these are the numerous monster
movies made by Universal Studios.
During the decade, the studio produced
many adaptations of famous horror
novels, such as Dracula, Frankenstein and
The Invisible Man.
During this period in history, many
western countries were still recovering
from the effects of the First World War,
with the second just around the corner.
The anxiety and fear of foreign threat
was reflected in horror films at the time,
as lots of them included foreign (mainly
European) antagonists, such as Count
Dracula.

6. 1950's - Japan
Following World War 2, Japan
was dealing with the
aftermath of the attacks on
Hirsoshima and Nagasaki. The
use of the newly created
atomic bomb created a strong
fear of nuclear radiation
amongst the people.
This lead to the creation of
Godzilla (known as Gojira is
Japan). Godzilla was created as
a symbol of the power and
destruction caused by nuclear
weaponry.

7. 1950's - Hollywood
Meanwhile in the USA, the public
attention was focused on the
growing tensions between the USA
and the USSR. American propaganda
was generating a mass panic around
Russian spies and indoctrination into
the Communist philosophy.
Hollywood's horror films quickly
became focused on alien invaders.
Films like Invasion of The Body
Snatchers, The Blob and Them dealt
with more sci-fi subject matter,
sharing common themes of alien
invasion and abduction.

8. 1950's - Hammer Horror
In the 1950's, Great Britain began to
emerge on the horror scene, due to the
success of Hammer Horror, a film
production company based in the UK.
During the 1950's, Hammer created
numerous horror films, reminiscent of
the Universal monster movies made
twenty years earlier. Two of the major
stars of these films were Peter Cushing
and Christopher Lee, who played the
hero and villain in numerous films, such
as Dracula, Frankenstein and The
Mummy.
Lee once stated that he had made a
career out of "strangling Peter Cushing",
referencing the many times that they had
clashed on screen.

9. 1960's - Zombies
One of the most influential horror
films of the decade (and of all time),
George A. Romero's Night of the
Living Dead gave birth to a genre.
Romero's film defined the codes and
convetions of a zombie movie, that
have been used to this day. Despite
previous films such as White Zombie
(1932), Romero is often considered
the father of the zombie movie.
During the decade, zombies were
used to symbolise both the threat of
Communism and the Red Menace, as
well as the mass consumerism that
was quickly becoming part of the
American lifestyle.

10. 1970's & 1980's - Slasher Horror
Over the next twenty years,
horror film would see the rise
of a new sub-genre of film.
These films revolved around
serial killers that would stalk
the protagonists, picking them
off one by one.
Prominent examples of this
genre are A Nightmare on Elm
Street, Friday the 13th,
Halloween and The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre.

11. 1990's - Rebirth of a Genre
During the 1990's, many of the popular
slasher films from the previous decades
had sequels made, but failed to achieve
the success of the originals.
The horror genre was dying, as audiences
were quickly becoming bored of the
same codes and conventions that had
once made the genre so successful.
In 1996, Wes Craven sought to remedy
this issue with the release of Scream, a
slasher film that utilized elements of
comedy to satirize the cliches that had
become prominent within the genre.
Craven succeeded in revitilising the
genre, bringing new public interest to
horror, and re-igniting the dormant
slasher genre.

12. 2000's to The Present
Since the turn of the millenium, horror has seen
both a success and a failure.
Many remakes of slasher films from the 70's &
80's were made, but once again failed to obtain
the same praise as the originals.
Films like Cabin in the Woods sought to emulate
Scream's formula of satirizing the cliches of the
genre, gaining praise amongst critics and fans.
One of the most prominent sub-genres to gain
popularity in recent years is the supernatural
haunting. Although films such as Poltergeist did
this several decades ago, the genre saw
resurgence over the past decade, with films such
as Paranormal Activity, Insidious and The
Conjuring all gaining critical praise, with
numerous sequels being produced.