The document provides a history of the horror genre from its origins in Gothic literature in the early 20th century through its evolution in film. It traces key developments including the popularity of horror films following World War I, the rise of silent horror films in the early 20th century including Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the emergence of iconic monsters in films of the 1930s like Dracula and Frankenstein, the impact of World War II which led to films about science and mutations, the rise of slasher films in the 1960s-80s inspired by Psycho, and the controversy around "video nasties" and torture porn films in the 2000s-2010s.

1. History of Horror

2. Gothic Horror
Gothic Horror is one of the earliest forms of horror. In the early 20th
century many popular novels were being turned into horror films.
Often these stories were about a monster and the audience were
meant to feel empathetic towards the creature.
With the arrival of the First World War horror films became even more
popular as the world became more conscious to the real horrors of the
world.
The term “Horror” was not used to describe the genre until the 1930’s.
Until then they were known as “Spook Tales”.

3. Silent Stories
Before sound came to film horror films were being made. There are three famous films made in the
late 19th century and the early 20th century. These four films were all silent.
Le Manoir du Diable, 1896
The Cabinet of Dr Caliagari, 1919
The Golem, 1920
Nosferatu, 1922
In the 20’s the us of silent films was common in German expressionism. The first form of horrors
were German films that would be shown in screen rooms with live orchestras.

4. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, 1919
This horror is considered the “granddaddy of all horror films”. It is the
first horror film on record and although it is considered slow passed by
the modern audience it is stylish and imaginative.
Nosferatu, 1922
Nosferatu is the first vampire film and shows the
grotesque Count Orlock taking his helpless victims. This
film is famous for its use of Chiarascuro, the use of
extreme contrasts between light and dark.

5. Mid-20th Century
With the arrival of sound horror films became increasingly popular. The
most famous of films made around this time are;
Dracula, 1931
Frankenstein, 1931
Dr Jeckll & Mr Hyde, 1931
The Mummy, 1932
King Kong, 1933
The Wolfman, 1941

6. Frankenstein
Being possibly one of the most famous of horror characters,
Frankenstein's monster was very controversial at the time of its birth.
Many religious groups were angry as it depicted Dr. Frankenstein
creating life, a role that only God can do.

7. Monsters and Mad Scientists
The first form of horror characters are monsters and mad men. From the start to
the middle of the 20th century we saw characters such as Dracula, Dr. Caliagri,
Count Orlock and Edward Hyde. It was the rise of Hitler, viewed by everybody as a
mad man, and the rise of Dictatorship and Fascism in Europe that encouraged the
use of these characters. The characters depicted the Dictator’s of the time and their
hunger for power.

8. In the 1930’s and 40’s the use of the wolf was increased. With the rise
of Hitler and his fondness of wolves the popular figure of terror and
menace was the wolf. Universal, having already developed their famous
characters, adopted the wolf and produced many wolf themed films
including Werewolf of London (1935) and The Wolfman (1941). Many
horrors coined on to the idea that man’s worst monster is hidden
within himself.
Universal Studios created most of the horror films in the mid 20th
century. Many of the much loved Gothic Horror monsters are fashioned
by Universal.

9. HAMMER HORROR
Hammer Productions was established in 1934 but due to the flop in the British film industry, Hammer was
forced into bankruptcy in 1937. In 1938, just before the Second World War Hammer found its feet again and
was resurrected during the war. In 1955 Hammer started to produce horror films. They released The
Quartermass Xperiment. This film was an unexpected success and lead to a sequel Quartermass 2 (1957).
Hammer started to produce more horror films following the much loved characters including Frankenstein's
monster in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula in Dracula (1958) and the Mummy in The Mummy
(1959). Hammer brought a craftsmanship to their films which made them successful and popular.
After a change in the market Hammer started to produce films of different genre, but at the start of the 21st
century Hammer revived its horror genre producing the more recent films; Let Me In (2010) The resident
(2011) and The Woman in Black (2012).

10. MUTANTS AND ALIENS
With the industrial scale of death and destruction of WW2 the world was exposed to the horrors
attached to the more human faces of evil. With the knowledge of death camps and the atom bomb
as well as soldiers with their own horror stories, the loved characters like Dracula and Golem were
childish compared to the reality.
Because of the advances of science after the war, audiences started to see more scientific horror
films. Rocketship X-M (1950) was the first out of space film. It incorporates the space race and the
Cold War depicting military sciences. With the use of Nuclear weapons the population were now
afraid of an apocalypse and monsters were themed on mutations of nuclear experiments, such as
the creatures in Rocketship X-M and Godzilla (1954).

11. The Cold War
With the Cold War in the background and the Red Scare and McCarthyism in
America, films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Invaders from
Mars (1953) have hints of anti-communism. With the fear of Communism
spreading through the west and apparently brainwashing the minds of entire
countries, America put all of its efforts into stopping its spread attempting to
intervene in Korea, Vietnam and Cuba. Much of the media included anti-
communist messages.

12. Slashers
In 1960, times were changing with sexual attitudes changing and the generation’s view on war had
changed from the decade before. These slasher films started to explore new ways of perceiving
sexuality and violence. The aging post-war generation had grown wise to the empty promises to the
vivid titles of the day and wanted to see horror that was more real and close to the everyday life
they faced.
1932 saw the film Thirteen Women with elements of the slasher. In 1960 Alfred Hitchcock created
Phsycho. Basing his story on true events, audiences started to love the more realistic horrors. This
film influenced many more stories to come with Halloween (1978), Prom Night (1980) and many
others.

13. Slashers came back to popularity with the 2003 re-boot of The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre. It triggered the remakes of Halloween (2007), Prom Night (2007) and
Friday the 13th (2009).

14. Ghosts, Zombies and Satanism
At the same time as the growing popularity of slashers, ghosts, zombies and the
possessed were growing in popularity also. One of the first zombie films, Night of
the Living Dead (1968), caused a surge of zombie films. This title alone spawned
five sequels, Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), Land of the Dead
(2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009). Popular
possessed characters included children in The Exorcist (1973) and Carrie (1976).
This films caused much controversy as they were unlike anything audiences had
seen on the screen before.

15. Video Nasties
A video nasty is a movie that was banned from being distributed in the
UK. This came around due to the National Viewers’ and Listeners
Association. Films were started to be released on tape, a new
technology in the 1980’s. Smaller companies caught on that there was
nothing to state they couldn’t release their films on tape without being
sanctioned by the UK Film Censors, this meant lots of horror films were
sold in the UK on tape even though they were banned in UK cinemas.
These films were going against the “Obscene Publications Act” that
prohibits ”Deprave and Corrupt” materials to be distrusted.

16. The media can be held responsible for the authorities acting upon
these “video nasties”. The Daily Mail headlined its newspapers claiming
they were affecting young people and a danger to society as the
twisted plots could actually influence immoral and wicked people. A
new law, the video recordings act, forced video tape regulation which
prevented the sale of vide nasties.

17. A total of 74 films were prosecuted, including-
• SS Experiment Camp (1976)
• Canibal Holocaust (1980)
• The Evil Dead (1981)
• I Spit On Your Grave (1989)
• The Driller Killer (1999)

18. All films from the list are now available to watch. They varied having
from 30 seconds to 10 minutes edited out. When you watch them now
due to the graphical content compared to the detail and effects we
have today people may not be to phased, however the views people
have of young children watching gore hasn’t changed.
Today all films are looked at by the British Board Of Film Classification
(BBFC). Due to film makers being aware of the restrictions very rarely
are even banned to this day, if there is something wrong they are
simply re-edited and put with an over 18 Rating. An example of this is
Human Centipede 2, which was rated by the BBFC to be “tasteless and
disgusting” but after 2 minutes and 37 seconds were cut the films was
released in the UK.

19. Gorenography
Following the attacks of September 11th 2001 the population’s perception of what
was frightening changed. With America’s war on terror and invasion of Iraq the
world saw the terror of torture and the way it was being used on prisoners of war.
This theme triggered a new kind of horror film, known as “Torture Porn”, the term
used by film critic David Edelstein. This new wave of film saw the release of Hostel
(2005), the Saw Franchise (2004-2010) and Captivity (2007)