Georges Melies was a French director who created some of the first horror films in the late 1890s, drawing from literary works. In the 1930s-1940s, Universal Pictures released films like Dracula and Frankenstein that helped establish the horror genre. Advances in technology in the 1950s-1960s allowed for more advanced special effects in films like Godzilla and helped directors like Alfred Hitchcock cement the genre's place in history. Low-budget horror films' financial successes in the 1970s-1980s led to higher-budget films that changed audience expectations, with films like The Exorcist being among the first major commercial successes. Modern horror films from the 1990s to present continue innovating with sequels

1. Genre History

2. 1890-1920’s
This is the time when the first editions of horror films were introduced by a man
called ‘Georges Melies’. He was a French director who created many short horror
films in the late 1890’s such as ‘Raising spirits’ in 1899. Many of the ideas
generated in this time were drawn from literary adaptations. For example in 1910
the first film version of Frankenstein was created.
Early films to the genre include ‘The hunchback of Notre Dame’, ‘The lost world’
and ‘The magician’.

3. 1930-1940’s
Horror was here to stay as it would be used to officially describe a genre of a film
after Universal Pictures released films like Dracula(1931) and Frankenstein(1931)
which were very popular at the time. The main themes found across most early
horrors were strongly emotional based around romance, violence and suspense. At
this time there was a blend of horror and sci-fi which produced films such as The
invisible man(1933). The mummy(1932) was the first film to introduce egyptology
to the horror scene.

4. 1950-1960’s
Advances in technology has meant that film producers could express more of the
film through features like special effects. Films like Godzilla(1954) were the first to
take advantage of this and set the basis to what we watch today. Hollywood at this
time were experimenting with gimmicky explosions and other effects which we still
use today, however more refined. This was also the time when Alfred Hitchcock
was around to firmly secure the place of this genre in history through films such as
Psycho(1960). This was also when supernatural subgenres emerged in films like
The Innocents(1961).

5. 1970-1980’s
Financial successes of low budget horror films lead to higher budget films which
would change how the audience views the film. The Exorcist(1973) was among the
first to see the success of higher end horror films. Also new themes were adopted
like ‘evil children’ which we saw in the film Audrey Rose(1977) to create new hype
around the genre. The most important difference was that horror films were now
much scarier which is their usp to attract the viewer.

6. 1990’s-Present
From the 1990’s to now there have been so many new innovative and different
horror films produced. There is a need to be better that the one before to keep an
audience interested in your product. For example Paranormal activity(2007-2015)
have created multiple sequels as they have a found audience that will ensure the
film’s success. They use advanced technology in creating something unique and
clever marketing tactics to get the film known internationally my a lot of people.