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1. The History of Horror
By Sam Lee
“There is no terror in the bang, only in
the anticipation of it.” – Alfred
Hitchcock

2. German Expressionism
1920s–1930s
German Expressionism was a style of cinema that emphasized expression over realistic
depictions of reality. This movement expanded rapidly inside a cultural bubble. Germany didn’t
have the already internationally powerful Hollywood so they had to rely upon German
industries. An amalgamation of German industries came together to convince the military the
importance of a film unit which soon became the ‘Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft’ or the
UFA.
By the time the UFA was operational, Germany had lost the war and the UFA turned to
producing films for profit. In 1919 the grandfather of horror films would be made and directed
by Robert Wiene. This film would be called ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’.
Due to the recent war effort, electricity was very scarce and the German industries had so much
power usage each. The UFA had used almost all of their quota for the year and so decided to
paint the shadows as opposed to using lighting to create them.
This technique was a hit, and saved a lot of money when it came to the production of the films.
This technique gave the films of German Expressionism an unforgettable look to them and was
successful from a commercial perspective as well as popular style of cinema.

3. Films of the era
Classic and moderately successful films from this era included The Golem: How He Came into the
World (1920) which was directed by Carl Boese and Paul Wegener. Nosferatu (1922) which was
directed by F.W. Murnau. And finally Metropolis (1927) which again was directed by F.W.
Murnau.
These movies almost paved the way into the rest of the history of film, and though the use of
light and dark shadows were successful from a stylistic point of view and they all did well at the
box office. These movies were all inspirations unto other directors who would go on to create
spin offs and remakes such as Dracula (1931) which was directed by Tod Browning.
These movies were of course all silent and for their time were incredibly innovated and new.
People hadn’t seen this kind of style of film and these were the forefathers of the film industry
and inspirational to the works we see today.
During the economic criris of 1925 in Germany, the UFA was on the brink of collapse. Hollywood
saw this as a good chance to swallow a once powerful major competitor. Paramount and MGM
lent 4 million dollars in exchange for collaborative rights to UFA studios theatre and distribution
in 1926. This agreement moved German expressionism into Hollywood . The immigration would
leave a mark on the many films to comes over the years.

4. Universal Horrors: Birth of monsters
1930s and 1940s
Much like the use of shadows during the 1920’s with German Expressionism, adding sound to film had
the same excitement about this. This was another addition to film that for the time was a huge artistic
jump. There was one company though in particular who would dominate the first cycle of Horror
movies-Universal Pictures. Of course filming in colour still hadn’t been created during this time so all
the movies were still shot in black and white which allowed for film directors to utilise the German
Expressionism technique of painting the shadows.
During the silent era it was Universal that took credit for such films as The Phantom of the Opera
(1925) and The Hunchback of Norte Dame (1923). In the 30’s Universal decided to kick off things with
Dracula (1931). This initial movie’s success snowballed and inspired such films as Frankenstein (1931)
The Mummy (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933). This was the dawn of some of the classic horror
icons which are being reinvented and reworked into today’s film industry.
However after rinsing the classic monsters with cheap remakes and sequels, Universal’s gothic horror
cycle was collapsing. Universal eventually retired their first string of monsters from serious horror
filmmaking.
In order to scare people and keep the audience on their toes, directors used mood and shadows
rather than makeup and monsters, Cat People(1942) was a prime example of the birth of
Psychological horrors in the industry and more low budget films.

6. Sci-Fi Horrors
1950’s
The 1950’s was probably one of the worst times in the history of cinema. This was just after
world war 2 and just breaching into 1950’s. You had court rulings trying to rip apart the
studio system and more importantly the birth of television watching which was a major
competitor for cinemas, and still is today. Despite all this, Hollywood still battled to remain
relevant and noticed the horror genre was still popular amongst teenagers. This created
the blending of different genres together in order to create something new and exciting,
which is where Science Fiction and Horror came into one to create movies like Godzilla
(1954), The Day the Earth stood still(1951)and Forbidden Planet(1956). These monsters did
not just come from space, we had monsters come from the sea like Creature of the Black
Lagoon(1954).
By the mid 1950’s this hybrid cycle began to decline and directors like William Castle came
onto the scene using gimmicks to sell tickets to some movies like The Tingler (1959). In this
movie a skeleton would be released from the ceiling and fly above the audience, however
these gimmicks got old quickly and children would try to hit it with slingshots. Castle took
some risks in order to keep the industry alive in this time, so by taking these leaps it would
be fair to say, he kept the film industry going. He even promised a 1000 dollar insurance
policy if the audience weren’t scared. It was ideas like this that propelled new directors into
the 1960’s with new styles and cycles. Enter Alfred Hitchcock.

7. Films from the era

8. The birth of the Psychological horror
1960-1970
It was in this period that the works of one the best British horror directors comes to light, Mister
Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock was a genius in the sense he knew how to get a reaction from an
audience, people have described him as the maestro and the audience as the instrument. In
1960 the horror genre became incredibly popular again, and had a lot more freedom once the
censorship of the production code was abandoned in 1964. And it was in 1960 that Psycho
proved itself.
Psycho was interesting in the sense that Norman Bates was in a reality type setting, as opposed
to the classic Hollywood monsters that people were used to, which made it all the more
terrifying by having something like that set in everyday life, Hitchcock did this again with The
Birds(1963). Back in the United Kingdom the company Hammer Films Productions were
beginning to reboot the Universal monsters except adding in more sex and gore due to more
freedom now the censorship was relieved slightly. The first film to be rebooted was Terence
Fisher’s The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) which was shot in full colour.
A producer by the name of Roger Corman began to look at what the audiences actually wanted
in a horror which was, attractive women and blood. He then entered his Edgar Allen Poe cycle
and began to make such films as Tales of Terror(1962) and The Raven (1963). It was during the
60’s that Horror started to be taken seriously and was treated like a craft. And after the
Psychological horror cycle took off, this spurred on the Supernatural movies and the Slashers.

10. Body Horrors: The age of the Slashers
1970’s-1980’s
It was the 70’s and 80’s that created some of the most iconic horrors that we still recognize and love today.
During this time we had a huge variety of cycles, the first being the Occult cycle. These films included
supernatural and satanic themes, starting with Rosemary’s Baby (1968) followed by greats like The Exorcist
(1973) which was considered one of the greatest entries of the occult cycle and the Amityville Horror(1979).
After this came what was known as the ‘Film School generation’ which is when greats like Jaws (1975),
Carrie (1976), Alien (1979), The Thing (1982). It was called this because a lot of the great directors such as
Spielberg, Ridley Scott and John Carpenter finished film school and wanted to get out there in the industry,
these films fueled more cycles like the Shark Cycle and the Teen Horror Cycle. This ‘Film School generation’
was topped off with a Stanley Kubrick classic The Shining(1980) in which became a cult classic for any
filmmaker or student.
It was in the mid 70’s that the Slasher Cycle was born which began with Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw
Massacre (1974). This movie was loosely based of Ed Gein who was inspiration for Psycho, through all this
created the character of Leatherface which is an iconic character for the horror genre. This movie led to John
Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) which birthed the classic horror villain of Michael Myers. Halloween contains
a very little amount of gore which proved that you didn’t need a mass amount of fake blood in order to
create a successful horror movie. You then had Friday the 13th (1980) and Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
which produced Freddie and Jason who are iconic horror villains. However in 1981 a group of teenagers
(Sam Raimi, Bruce Campell and Robert Tapert) put together an independent film and released it called The
Evil Dead. This became a cult movie with heavy blood splatters and gore effects and became a cult film. In
fact it was the promise of distribution through this new technology video tape and cable that unleashed a
flood of blood soaked horror films that were never made for the theater.

12. Horror of the 90’s
1990-2000
Since the Slasher cycle was so popular in the 80’s to early 90’s it had pretty much done all it
could to the point where people began to make parodies. Sam Raimi’s classic magic zombie
cycle was parodied by Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive (1992) which overdid the blood and gore
effects that were used in The Evil Dead.
It was then in 1996 that Wes Craven produced Scream which was huge success and had a
number of sequels. This was a success and showed that more could be done with the Slasher
idea. The production of Scream led to I know what you did Last Summer (1997) and Final
Destination (2000). However, technology had progressed rapidly and no longer did people rely
upon latex and fake blood, but now had CGI to create scares such as in Species (1995).
Psychological and Thriller horrors remained popular throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s which
led to movies like Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Se7en (1995).
People wanted new and exciting genres after seeing multiple Slasher movies and thus became
the creation of the unique genre of Torture Porn. This type of genre was similar to that of the
Hammer era with a reboot of splatter movies. One of the last movies of the 90’s that fit into this
category slightly was Blair Witch Project (1999) which borrowed the interesting handheld
camera idea from Cannibal Holocaust in 1980 but is still used today in such films as Paranormal
Activity. This innovative way of filming put the audience in the character’s shoes which allowed
from some brilliant scares and brought something new to the horror genre.

14. Horror of the present day
2000-2014
Horror has come a long way, in the sense that Hitchcock had to send Psycho to the producers
three times before they allowed it for a fraction for nudity. Censorship has come a long way as
has technology, no longer do we have latex wounds and fake blood, a lot is now done through
technology, but this has allowed for some interesting and ingenious entries of the horror genre.
Finally in the horror timeline comes the sudden outbreak (excuse the pun) of Zombie movies,
which have roots back to George Romero’s Night of the living Dead (1968) which was way ahead
of it’s time in the whole gore aspect of it, it was simple but again is regarded as a cult classic.
The Zombie cycle is one that has a cult following of it’s own, with successful television shows
like The Walking Dead. There was a spinoff cycle called the Zombie Apocalypse cycle which
Danny Boyle adapted on in his 2003 debut of 28 Days Later. We even have zombie comedies
such as Shaun of the Dead (2004) which poked fun at the zombie formula and was successful in
doing so.
Of course we still have psychological horrors that come out at least once a year, such as the
strangely popular Paranormal Activity (2007) which as had a number of sequels and was shot
with a handheld camera in places much like Blair Witch Project and Cannibal Holocaust. This
goes to prove that whilst we get the occasional film that is completely knew and is a huge hit,
we get films which borrow aspects of classics and utilize those to make new formulas (Human
Centipede(2009) and Serbian Film (2010) , it’s totally trial and error. Technology will continue to
flourish and be used within the film industry as a whole so who knows what the horror genre
will become in ten to twenty years.