History of Horror

1. History of horror
By Ryan Hughes

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German expressionism 1920’s-1930’s
Expressionism confined to Germany
Film production raised from 24 films to 130 within four years (1914-1918)
Germany became a part of the international film industry
The extreme anti-realism of Expressionism was short lived
Two genres that influenced the Expressionism where Horror films & film Noir

3. Monsters and mad scientists
The horror films in this decade where with characters often being inhuman
or a monster like appearances . Having monsters in films increased films popularity
in this decade. Successful monsters in the era including Dracula, Frankenstein and
King Kong. Mad Scientists was introduced to horror films in the decade for example
the invisible man. Mad Scientists where about a Scientists achieving the impossible
e.g. turning themselves into a monster.

4. The Primal Animal Within
In the 1940s we started to see werewolves and cat people. The horror genre started
Making people that could turn into animals.
• The wolf man is a mishmash of several wolf legends.
• Using werewolves in film as this was the main fear factor
• Werewolves could be seen as Nazi’s, this comes from when human is bite, they transform.
This links to Hitler how he was trying to take over the world
• Cat people came alone in 1942 follows the story of Irena a young woman who carries
With her belief that she is cursed. The is that she turns into a large dangerous cat.

5. Mutants and more monsters
• Existing life forms made into monsters by using blue screen techniques.
• Monsters represented movie technology of that time which draw the audience.
• The mutants and idea of monsters for this era comes from the fear
generated by the atom bomb.
• Monsters offered a vision of destruction created by non-humans.
The blob, released 1958
the message from this
film was to warn people
of space travel. The blob
feed and expands on
individual fears.
Technology scared people in the 50’s as a part of the unknown
Horror films used this and created aliens and Sci-fi horror.
Body Snatchers was a popular
Film in the 1950’s, as the aliens
Taking over there human bodies
Signify communism.

6. Founded in 1934 and created films such as,
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Dracula (1958)
The Mummy (1959)
COF
Colour, not black-&-white
Focused on victim, not creature
Frankenstein on quest for knowledge,
not a criminal
The wheel of inspiration is Universal project moves to change
script than on the audiences if they liked it they would make
another one making it start over again and so on.

7. Ghosts and Satanism 1960’s and 1970’s
1970’s horror films reflected on the grim outlook of the decade, this was also when
big budget and respected horrors returned.
The Exorcist was of this era which was about a little girl Possessed by a demon, this film
Was voted “the scariest film of all times”. These film resolve around the children being
unwanted and doing bad things to their parents.
The most poplar of this time was ghost story's which was seen as a reaction to the
elaborate creatures in the late 1950’s