History of Horror

1. HISTORY OF THE
HORROR GENRE

2. Before Horror films, horror came from literature
Some famous writers of the Gothic Horror genre include Edgar
Allan Poe, Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker.
BEFORE FILM

3. In 1896 Georges Méliès created the first ever horror film, in
English it is translated to ‘The manor of the Devil”.
This film however was not as long as ones we have in this day and
age. It was a mere 3 minutes and 18 seconds long.
14 years later in 1910 was when Thomas Edison’s Studios made
the first ever Frankenstein film, however it was a silent film.
FIRST HORROR FILMS

4. During WW1 Germany had become quite isolated, there was a high demand
for film as many films that came from outside of Germany were banned.
This lead to German Expressionism which involved many creative
movements, one of which being a large number of German films being made
for the German public.
In 1922 however German films started to become popular among an
international audience.
Many directors of these German Expressionism films had been part of the
war and many had been scarred mentally by the horrors of war, this
influenced many of the films during German Expressionism.
GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

5. In the late 1920’s sound was introduced to film.
This had a huge impact on films, particularly the horror genre.
Sound had such a massive impact on horror films because sound can
create tension and certain noises are associated with something bad
about to happen, or can make you jump if there is a loud sound for
example.
Sound can also intensify the action occurring in the scene, such as
someone panting as they are running away from the villain of the film.
SOUND IS INTRODUCED

6. Although gothic horror had been very popular, many other
sub genres emerged within the horror genre.
Directors, such as the very famous Alfred Hitchcock,
decided to take gothic horror a bit further by introducing
sex, gore, to the screen.
Things such as blood were not previously presented on
screen so this new style was very effective as they introduced
colour to the films.
THE NEXT STEP

7. In the late 60’s films that included things related to Satan and the
supernatural became increasingly popular.
These movies usually followed a story line similar to either
possession (usually possessing children) or impregnating women.
Children are used as the demon a lot of the time as it challenges
stereotypes of children being innocent and helpless, these films
make the villain even scarier as usually an adult would feel
superior to the child, due to factors such as age and size. In the
case that the child is no longer inferior it is even more
intimidating as they are stronger than their elders.
SATAN AND THE SUPERNATURAL

8. In the early 70’s Slasher films became popular.
One very famous example is ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’
which was in fact based on a real serial killer.
A lot of independent films were slashers, and many were
also made on a low budget.
SLASHER FILMS

9. Some popular sub genres of horror more recently include torture horror and
also a very popular one which has been brought back from its success in the
60’s is Zombie Apocalypse films.
Zombie films are a way of showing a loss of control and a medical pandemic
which we don’t know how to solve.
Although zombie films and programmes have made a very successful
comeback many people are still making spoofs of zombies which may lead to
the end of this zombie cycle.
MODERN HORROR