The horror genre began in the late 19th century with silent films like Le Manoir du Diable that used techniques like cutting to create monsters. In the 1920s, films like Nosferatu and adaptations of Dracula and Frankenstein became popular. The 1930s saw Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula film establish the archetypal version of the character. Horror films grew in the 1970s and 80s with cult classics like The Exorcist and Halloween that used new technology for gory effects. Modern horror often focuses on franchises and remakes due to familiarity with older tropes.

1. History of Horror

2. The Beginning
The Horror genre first began with the French film
‘Le Manoir du Diable’ (The House/Castle of the
Devil), a silent film by Georges Méliès made in 1896.
The three minute film was, through its containment
of slapstick and pantomime elements, intended to
be amusing to the audience, however, because the
horrific, blasphemous presences on screen, and use
of cutting to cause the objects and monsters to
appear and disappear, it is considered to be a
horror film overall.
It is therefore arguable that Georges Méliès inspired the idea of horror created purely as a
means to scare people with and people were now trying to find new and inventive ways to
present ghouls and demons. George Albert Smith is a prime example of this as he wanted to
make a film using double exposure on his camera to create a ghost effect, which he used in
the film ‘Faust and Mephistopheles’ 1898, another silent Horror film containing the Devil
and other classic Horror elements.
It was now becoming clear to all that Horror was a progressing genre, and many saw
potential and opportunity in it.

3. Moving into the 20th century, Horror was becoming more
popular and people looked to the famous Horror literature as
an opportunity to create more popularity for the genre. A play
of ‘Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ was filmed and shown in the
first of many depictions of the tale.
‘Frankenstein’ was then created in 1910; a thirteen minute
depiction of Mary Shelley’s novel, not particularly true to the
story but containing enough of the original tale to make an
impression.

4. 1920s
Horror was growing fast, and the next big
Horror film came in 1922 ‘Nosferatu’, which
was a full length silent film, the story was
taken without permission from the novel
‘Dracula’, Nosferatu is still rated very highly in
the Horror/Vampire film genre, despite the
lawsuit passed, which decreed that all copies
of the film should be destroyed because of
copyright infringement. F.W. Murnau worked
hard at creating effect which would terrify his
audiences. He used chiaroscuro techniques,
creating powerful contrasts on screen, half
visible mysterious figures, long dark hallways,
and distant shots of the harrowing castle
where the vampire lives. The use of
chiaroscuro causes us to mistrust the
environment and creates tense, frightful
moments such as the use of shadows in
enhancing the hidden image of the vampire’s
long claws. In this moment we feel fear for
Thomas Hutter as the threat of impending
doom is very powerfully presented.

5. 1930s
1931 saw the release of Tod
Browning’s ‘Dracula’, the official film
of the novel and from which the
stereotypical Dracula depiction was
created, with the slick combed back
hair and long black cloak. Browning
also used the lighting as a means to
create a creepy effect, but rather
than concentrating on the shadows,
he lit the faces and eyes to
emphasise the evil of the character.
There were many shots in the film
with Dracula’s eyes lit. I thought the
effect worked well, and was probably
very scary for the audience at the
time.

6. 1940s
During the 1940s there was a lapse in
Horror films as the Second World War
broke out, making cinema mostly
obsolete. However, a few titles were
made such as George Waggner’s
‘Wolf Man’ and Erle C. Kenton’s
‘House of Dracula’, which contained
Dracula, the Wolf Man and
Frankenstein, three of the most
famous monsters in History, showing
that because of the War, people
perhaps wanted more to be
distracted by the fear of monsters, or
even that people were less scared by
these monster films, and the three
monsters included was a way to
frighten them properly again.

7. 1950s
A great fear after the war and in the 50s was the threat of nuclear, many
films were being made about mutations, whether it be people or
creatures which mutated as a result of nuclear exposure. There were
many titles such as, ‘Attack of the 50 foot Woman’ 1958, ‘It came from
Beneath the Sea’ 1955, and of course, ‘Godzilla’ 1954.

8. 1960s
The genre of Horror was then
altered slightly, as Alfred
Hitchcock created the film
‘Psycho’ 1960, creating a new
take on Psychotic Horror films,
as the film’s sounds, shots and
effects all contributed in making
the concept of a psychotic
character very real. During the
sixties a few classic horror films
were made, such as Alfred
Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ 1963, and
George A. Romero’s ‘The Night
of the Living Dead’ 1968.

9. 1970/80s
The Horror genre rocketed during the 70s and 80s, many cult classics
being produced such as ‘The Exorcist’ , ‘The Omen’ , ‘Halloween’ , ‘The
Shining’ , ‘The Thing’ etc....
The new technology was allowing these films to create very gruesome
and in some, very realistic effects, for example in ‘The Thing’ which is
one of the most gory Horror films of all time.

10. 1990s
• The 1990s Horror films
contained much more
mystery. Serial Killers and
psychos being once again the
threat, films such as ‘Se7en’,
‘Silence of the Lambs’ and
‘Scream’. However, there were
still many films which were
taking advantage of their good
effects and either creating
reboots or sequels to old
films, such as ‘Exorcist III’ and
‘Night of the Living Dead’, or
creating very gory and
terrifying films using a basic
but terrifying story and villain,
such as ‘It’ or ‘Candyman’.

11. 2000 and Onwards
Horror films consist now, mainly
of big budget action Horror,
such as ‘Deathwatch’, ’28 Days
Later’ and ‘Dog Soldiers’.
Because we have become
accustomed to the fear we felt
when watching the older films,
films have become much more
franchised, as ideas for original,
individual Horror films are
becoming more scarce.
Franchises like, ‘Alien VS
Predator’, ‘Predators’,
‘Paranormal Activity’, ‘Insidious’,
’28 Weeks Later’, ‘Scream’,
‘Saw’, and ‘Texas Chainsaw
Massacre’.