This document provides a history of the horror film genre from its origins in the late 19th century to modern times. It notes that early horror films were inspired by Gothic literature and included monsters like vampires and ghosts. The first true horror film was 1896's Le Manoir Du Diable. Sound was introduced in the 1930s with films like Dracula and Frankenstein. The 1940s saw fewer films due to bans but produced classics like Cat People and The Wolf Man. Color films emerged in the 1950s, starting with The Curse of Frankenstein. Alfred Hitchcock brought psychological horror to the 1960s with films like Psycho. The 1970s addressed societal problems through horror. Special effects advanced in the 1980s,

1. AS MEDIA
RESEARCH
HORROR FILMS
By Damian Zlotorzynski

2. The History of Horror
The Early forms of horror films where ‘Gothic’ in style, evolved around spooky old castles
and featured creatures such as vampires, zombies,evil spirits,ghosts and demons as the
creatures which would terrify the audience .The genre developed from ancient novels,
witchcraft, fables, myths, ghost stories and folktales which over time developed to silent
horror films were the films were very short and had no sound.

3. The First Ever Horror Film
Le Manoir Du Diable (1896) was one of the first horror films
ever, produced by french film maker Georges Méliès. Le
Manoir Du Diable was a silent film that lasted roughly 03:19.
The film included things such as the devil and bats to create a
scary horror atmosphere.
screenshot
of the film
Georges Méliès
1885-1913

4. The 1930s
In 1930s Horror films started to bring in sound which started a
new chapter for the horror film industry. Films moved on from
being a silent film and began a new franchise that featured
sound.
Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931) were the first two
horror films with sound. They both lasted over 70 minutes so
it was a lot longer than some of the other films in 1920s films.

5. The 1940’s
The 1940s were a quiet year for horror movies, they were banned in
the United Kingdom. Although the 1940’s still managed to produce two
big film titles that came out, one of them was ‘Cat People’ (1942) and
the other one was ‘The Wolf man’ (1941). They both have a very good
story line and both been remade up to this date.

6. The 1950’s The First Coloured Horror Film
Early in the 1950’s Horror film procedures stepped their game up by
trying to bring colour to their fast growing industry.The scene was at the
hollywood spotlight at the time and stars were becoming celebrities.
The first coloured horror film to be released in theatres was ‘The Curse
of Frankenstein’ (1957) which was based on the novel of Frankenstein
(1818) by Mary Shelley. The film was a huge success and has been
remade a numerous amount of times up to this day.
Terence
Fisher- The
director of The
curse of
Frankenstein

7. Alfred Hitchcock and the 1960s
Alfred Hitchcock revolutionised the 1960 horror scene by bringing
psychology to the theatre, he showed that you don’t need a
monster for it to be a horror film and that an everyday human can
sometimes be the monster. Psycho (1960) was one of the first
horror films to bring the psychological aspect to the genre, the film
featured mentally sick humans which would be murderess.
Alfred Hitchcock then directed another film in the 1963 The birds
(1963) which was another huge success.
Alfred Hitchcock

8. The 1970s
Society was going downhill during the 1970s, although everyone didn’t
look on the bad side of it; horror used this to their advantage by creating
new ideas and expanding the popularity of the horror scene. In
comparison, the 1970s were based around the problems that society
was suffering from, whereas the 1960s was sexually orientated. In 1973
The Exorcist was created, this was said to be the ‘scariest movie of all
time’.
William Friedkin,
director of the
exorcist

9. The 1980s
The 1980 introduced special visual effects and animations to the
horror scene, liquid and foam latex was also being used meaning
proper props and make-up could be used. This made the audience
want more, after seeing what the scene was capable of doing. 'The
shining' (1980) was one of the biggest horror films of its time, it
took around a year to film. The film was based on the story of
Stephen King’s book based around a haunted hotel, the shining
was a huge seller and still is a very well popular horror film up to
this day.

10. The 1990s
The 1990s was a hard time to make horror films as everyone had already seen
everything, all of the films were now more technical than the early 90s so trying to
impress the audience was becoming difficult. The audience expectations were increasing
as they had seen so much. One of the most popular films made in the 1990s was The
Silence of The Lambs directed by Jonathan Demme.

11. The 2000s
The 21st century was a very successful period of time for the horror film
industry. The Final Destination franchise revolutionised the century, releasing
five different series to it between 2000 and 2011. The story line for these films
where a lot different, there was no murderer, it come down to fate to who
was gonna die. The story line was always strong and had a good narrative.
These films were also offered in 3D offering the audience an incredible
experience at the theatre.