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1. The History of
Horror
Horror
• Noun 1) an intense feeling of fear, shock or disgust 2) a thing
causing such a feeling 3) intense dismay
- Origin: Latin, from Horrere ‘shudder, (of hair) stand on end’.

2. 1910s - 1920s
• At the beginning or roots of the horror
genre, the literature works of writers such as
Bram Stoker (author of Dracula) were made
on film throughout the 1910s and 1920s.
• Other films from this genre include
Frankenstein or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, both
of which have roots in classic gothic horror
literature.
• These films were the first of their kind,
before being superseded by the silent era of
horror films.

3. 1920s - 1930s
• Entering the 1920s saw the horror movies
adopt total silence, instead only using very
captions to convey any words.
• One of the most well known silent films of
this time was Nosferatu due to controversy
about the film only increasing popularity and
was a film about a frightening vampire-like
creature.
• The impact of ww1 is possibly what prompted
such disturbing and somewhat spiritual work
to be created in the style of German
expressionism

4. 1930s - 1940s
• The 1930s saw the introduction of monsters
films and the mad scientist that created them.
Mainly made by universal studios, mostly
focusing again on the older literature of Dracula
and Frankenstein.
• These more recent adaptations had a greater
use of sound, changing the nature of cinema as
a whole forever.
• As the genre progressed into the 40s, more and
more adaptations of the horror films came
along, becoming more and more farfetched as
the sequels grew tiresome.

5. 1940s - 1950s
• The 1940s saw a change to the general theme of
horror movies.
• Britain banned them, so they were purely an
American product. Aimed to act partly as wartime
propaganda, depicting Americans as safe, heroes
and the villains as the enemies that would loose.
• This led to werewolves being the enemy in these
films, as Adolf means “noble wolf”. Cat people
represented the power back home, as women
replaced all the men's jobs. These films were
targeted at the returning troops to show that
women weren’t afraid of loosing the jobs they had
taken over from the men.

6. 1950s - 1960s
• During the 1950s, there was a large threat and
fear of radiation caused by recent military
events at that time such as the development
and use of nuclear weapons.
• This resulted in films focused around mutated
creatures and also alien invaders because of the
space race to the moon.
• There was also the threat of future nuclear
warfare with the fear of communism at the time.
The films were popular because of this as if they
were to give solace from the bad events that
were happening at the time and to distance
people from reality.

7. 1960s - 1970s
• Going into the 1960s, the public were beginning to
change their perceptions of what was actually horrible.
This decade saw tragic events that influenced films such
as the Manson family murders.
• This brought a family threat element to the films, much
more realistic than farfetched mutant aliens. Rather
Satanism, reanimation and ghosts were first scene,
gradually working their way into horror subgenres that
we know to this day.
• The films played on optimism, bringing horror to the
home. It was more believable and dealt with situations
present in the quickly developing world

8. 1970s - 1980s
• The 1970s saw a change to the optimism of the
1960s and towards addressing genuine
psychological fears. Fears such as childbirth and
children as a whole, a contemporary societal
issue. Often in these films, the children were
represented as innocent, and instead focused on
teenagers.
• Teenagers and their sexual agenda was targeted
and killed due to general carelessness. Reason
being, the films were trying to somewhat deter
teens from it as the disease aids was common at
the time. It also saw the introduction of the first
slasher films.

9. 1980s - 1990s
• The 80s are often referred to as the years of
‘Body horror’ or ‘video nasties’. Films that were
vile to the point of tabloids saying they poison
young minds with how profane they were, along
with slasher films from the outset.
• These films despite effects looking somewhat
comedic compared to modern effects (use of
animatronic props etc.) but at the time had the
desired effect of pure disgust.
• Sequels of these films were made numerous
times as with previous classic horror titles to the
point of postmodern parody with laughably
predictable plots.

10. 1990s - 2000s
• The 90s marked the end of video nasties, which
were soon regarded as classic horror films despite
their vulgarity. Bans on these films were lifted as the
UK introduced film age ratings to prevent damaged
young minds.
• Psychos returned, attempting to make audiences
fear more again rather than to be completely
grossed out by masses of gore.
• Films such as Silence of the Lambs and Scream had
almost notorious serial killers as the main focus,
possibly due to successful branding of previous
killers such as Jason Vorhees or Mike Myers
becoming the faces of horror.

11. 2000s - Present day
• After the millennium, torture became a key part of horror
films. The fears of interrogation techniques prompted this
after the terrorist attacks of September 11th and terror
became the new current affair and fear of the genre.
• This terror and ‘torture porn’ is reflected in films such as
Final Destination and saw, where characters are tortured
both mentally and physically, again playing on severe
realism rather than sci-fi or fantasy monsters.
• The late 2000s towards present day saw the return of
paranormal fears and supernatural forms such as
poltergeists due to localised fears within the home ‘caught
on camera’ following social media trends.