Horror genre timeline

1. HORROR
GENRE
TIMELINE
By Ryan Griffiths

2. What is
Horror?
Horror film is a genre that aims to create a sense of fear,
panic, alarm, and dread for the audience.These films are
often unsettling and rely on scaring the audience through
a portrayal of their worst fears and nightmares. Horror
films usually centre on the arrival of an evil force, person,
or event.
• Horror can be supernatural or non-supernatural
• Use of semantic codes and Mise-en-scene creates fear
from an audience
• Sound and editing is also used to create this sense of
uneasiness tension or panic
• Horror has a number of sub-genres these include…
Horror sub genres
• Action Horror
• Comedy Horror
• Gothic Horror
• Physiological Horror
• Sci-fi Horror
• Slasher Horror
• Zombie/monster/paranormal/demonic
Horror

3. Horror
Genre
conventions
• Isolated settings or anywhere that connotes being cut off or away from others
• Places with dark history e.g. abandoned hospitals, mental asylums haunted
houses, churches etc.
• High and low angles to create hierarchy
• POV shots
• Close ups and extreme close ups to show reactions of characters
• Fast paced editing to create suspense
• Ambient and non – diegetic sounds to create tension
• Dark colours such as red and black (connoted with death and danger)
• Low-key lighting to create a sense of mystery
• Everyday objects that can be used as weapons – make the film feel more
realistic
• Use of monsters and their link with fear (vampires, zombies , ghosts etc.)
• Open narratives to make room for potential sequels or create more suspense
• ‘last man standing’ after the events of the film this usually highlights the
protagonist of this genre of film
• Strong use of binary opposites especially that of good and evil through the
representation of the hero and villain of the film
• Popular themes include good vs evil, revenge, religion, supernatural, post
apocalyptic Earth, death and insanity

4. Origins of
the horror
genre.
The first books that featured conventions of the horror
genre such as death, fear and monsters came into
circulation mainly during the 1800’s with the publication
of Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein which focuses
on a mad scientist who has an obsession with creating life
and uses the body parts of executed criminals stitched
together in order to create this human-hybrid of a life that
is bought together by lightning and electricity.
Over time the horror genre became more and more
popular and this inspired countless other books
containing these themes which eventually became silent
film adaptations.

5. Silent
Horror films
Within the 19th and the early 20th century bought about
the invention of cameras and other types of filming
equipment this allowed these novels to be bought to
cinemas for the first time in the forms of silent forms and
a number of these films came from the horror genre some
examples of these include ;
•Nosferatu (1922)
•The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
•Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
•The Golem, How He Came into the World.
•The Haunted House (1921)
•The Phantom Carriage (1920)
•Haxan (1922)
•The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
During the year 1896 the horror genre was revolutionised with the release of the 3 minute long short film
‘le manoir du diable’ which contained popular themes within the horror genre such as ghosts, spirits and
witches and these were all well received by audiences.

6. 1915 -1920 • Within these years numerous films were released
which would bring changes to the horror genre and
these included
• The Golem which used varying types of camera work
and Mise en scene in order to create an uncomfortable
atmosphere for those watching the films and this
helped to further influence the genre conventions of
horror.
• Cabinet of Dr. Calligari was one of the first films to use
non-diegetic sound in order to create an eerie feel to a
scene. For example screeching or other high pitched
noises would be used when a death is about to occur.

7. 1930’s • During the 1930’s both diegetic and non-diegetic
sounds were used within horror films and during this
decade iconic horror films such as Dracula and
Frankenstein were released and both included
elements of iconography of the horror genre and
introduced certain types of costumes and settings to
the horror genre .These elements lead to them
becoming the USP of these horror films and would
generally get a good response from audiences
• The werewolf of London was also released in 1935 and
this introduced director Stuart Walker to the horror
genres who directing allowed horror films to become
more realistic due to the use of makeup on characters
such of the werewolf and making him appear to be
more frightening.

8. 1940’s Throughout the 1940’s horror films continued to
become more successful. After seeing the success of
‘the son of Frankenstein’ universal pictures then
started to be rapidly produced during the mid
1940’s.The 1940’s also saw the introduction of the
Wolf Man and numerous sequels containing either
the Frankenstein monster or Dracula creating the
horror sub genre of ‘monster rally’
The 1940’s also saw the release of films such as ‘cat
people’ released in 1942 which focused less on the
visible elements of horror and more on the
physiological aspects of horror and fear.

9. 1950’s Within the 1950’s horror movies were generally made
according to fears peoples had at the current time and as
The ColdWar was just beginning the horror films reflected
the fears that were created by this such as the fear of
invasion, nuclear war and the apocalypse and also
included things such as nuclear mutants and also the plots
of mad scientists.
Godzilla (1954) focused on the fear of a city being
destroyed by a giant reptile that had come about as a
result of using nuclear weapons.This film was unique
because of its use of special effects that would bring
about a new sub genre which was the combination of sci-
fi and horror.
In 1959 low budget horror film ‘House on haunted hill’
was released and was widely considered successful
despite its lack of funding.

10. 1960’s During the 1960’s horror films focused more on
controversial issues and were considered more ‘edgy’ and
chose these issues in order to make horror films seem
more realistic than they were during the 1950’s.
In 1963 the film ‘At midnight I’ll take your soul’ this film
contains the plot in which a village man has a deep dislike
for religion and he believes the only thing that matters is
to have a family and continue his bloodline therefore he
seeks out the perfect woman in order to have his son that
he hopes will become immortal.The audience liked this
change
1963 also saw the release of the film ‘Blood Feast’ which
was one of the first films of the ‘splatter’ genre which
used gore and physical violence in order to provoke a
reaction from audiences.This film once again had a small
budget but was still considered successful due to its
ability to shock audiences with its graphic nature.

11. 1970’s The 1970’s in particular was a time concerned with tackling
social issues such as sexism, consumerism, religion and
conflict.These issues and themes became popular for plots
within horror films.
The 1970’s also saw the increase of violence in horror films as
there was heavier content of death and more graphic sex
scenes within this time period.
In 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released and retold
the horrific true story of this event and this was made even
more terrifying through the use of editing, camera work and
non-diegetic sound which were all used in order to create
tension especially during the killing scenes.
The 1976 release ofThe Omen directed by Steven Spielburg
was considered to be highly successful due to its ability to
create dramatic tension. However films such asThe Exorcist
(1973) were seen as more successful due to its ability to have
a more lasting impact on those who watched it.

12. 1980’s Within the first half of the 1980’s the main sub genre that
was popular within horror was the slasher genre which
involved a group of people being killed off one by one by a
knife wielding cold-blooded killer. However later within
the decade saw the rise in the combination of the horror
and comedy genres.These films were also starting to use
extreme close ups and special effects makeup in order to
make the films more frightening and realistic.
1986 saw the release of Child’s play which was a slasher
film in which the protagonist was represented as a killer
doll this film broadened the horror genre as it allowed the
producers of the film to create their own conventions.
1981An AmericanWerewolf in London combined the
genres of horror and comedy became hugely successful
and raised 30.56 million dollars at the box office and was
best known for its use of special effects makeup.

13. 1990’s The 1990’s saw the horror genre go ‘back to its roots’ in
the sense that it tried to include more monsters that
were realistic and also true to life and once again saw the
combination of genres in order to make more sub-
genres of horror
1991 saw the release of Silence of the Lambs which won
awards due to it being so unique because of it joining the
horror and crime genres together.This led to it winning
several academy awards including best picture and best
actor(s).
1994 New Nightmare was released this filmed
distinguished itself as it showed the characters as being
both on and off set for the film and continuing in their
roles and conforming to horror genre conventions.

14. 2000’s-2010’s During the 21st century typical horror conventions were often
challenged and the way we perceive characters were
changed through films such as the twilight franchise which
made us see vampires not as terrifying but made them more
appealing to younger audiences as they were no longer
portrayed as violent creatures.
Physiological horrors such as the ring also challenged genre
conventions due to their focus on dread and dark horror film
conventions that leave audiences in a state of tension.
However this film might be seen as ridiculous as it is entirely
unrealistic in the eyes of critical reviews of the film.
The 2000’s also allowed ‘amateur horror’ films such as
Paranormal activity with low budgets to become widely
popular as the camera work and use of POV filming gave the
film a more realistic feel and created more suspense due to
its portrayal of the everyday lives of characters which
audiences could relate widely too.

15. Why has the
horror genre
changed
over time?
The primary reason for the change across the decades within
the horror film genre is due to advances in technology which will
make the films either better or worse. For example the use of
certain camera angles can make the film feel more tense or
create ideas of hierarchy within these films or make them more
realistic and therefore scary as this is what many people look for
as they want to be genuinely frightened by these films.
Secondly social changes might lead to a change within this
genre as they might want these films to reflect social events
that are causing fear or panic (Cohen’s moral panic theory) and
therefore they will make the films more realistic as social issues
will not stay the same and therefore if films are made according
to them it is unlikely the audience will become bored of seeing
the same thing over and over. In general the horror genre has
undergone many changes e.g. silent to with sound, black and
white to colour no special effects to elaborate monsters using
special effects and makeup all of which had a positive impact on
the genre as they allowed it to grow and become more
entertaining for the audience that the horror genre was hoping
to reach.