The roots of horror films come from 18th and 19th century Gothic literature works such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. During the silent film era of the late 19th century, early horror films thrilled audiences without sound effects or dialogue. In the 1930s, films featuring monsters and mad scientists like Frankenstein and King Kong became popular, helping audiences cope with the Great Depression. The 1950s saw the rise of creature features influenced by atomic testing and the Space Race, making science-related horrors more frightening. Slashers and body horror emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as scientific knowledge grew, exemplified in films like Nightmare on Elm Street and Evil Dead 2

1. History of Horror

2. Roots in classic literature
• The roots of horror films come
from the literature written in the
late 18th century and early 19th
century. The three main pieces of
literature were Frankenstein,
Dracula and Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde which created horror forms,
codes and conventions. During
the 18th/19th century, writers
realised the little difference
between fear and awe and the
horror films began to be marketed
towards women and used female

3. The Horror of the Silent Era
• In the 19th century, audiences enjoyed
watching films without sound or
dialogue. Due to the lack of
technology, people were incredibly
thrilled by what directors were
creating. This era produced films such
as; Le squeletter Joyeux and The
devils manor. This was shortly
followed by German expressionism
which were produced in the 1920s and
showed European culture, in horror
films, in ways such as architecture,
painting and cinema. One good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJDIhbgR9fE

4. Monsters and Mad Scientists
• The main horror films in the
1930s were Frankenstein, King
Kong, Dracula and The Mummy.
Monsters and mad scientists took
over the floating ghost imagery in
the 1920s as well as adding sound
to their films. These made mad
scientists come across as bad
and insane which also adding
some laugher from audience
which helped people overcome
the great depression in the 1930s.
These were films were seen as a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN8K-4osNb0

5. The Primal Animal Within
• In the 1940s, we saw films such as; The
Curse of The Cat People and The Wolf
Man. Once the war kicked in, horror
films were banned which lead to
Hollywood producing these animal based
films. Wolves become a key icon of this
time as they were based around the idea
that Nazis were wolves as well as Hitler
himself. Unfortunately, these films which
were massive hits lead to silly sequels to
big franchises which for tired and less
artful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ADPSaybusM

6. Mutant Creatures and Alien Invaders
• In the 1950s, we saw the creation of
Godzilla and the Flight to Mars which
was due to the Atomic bomb testing
and the discovery of space. The fact
that horror films were playing with
what was happening in real life,
people found the horror films of the
1950s more scary because of the
realisation of reality. People began
to fear science and horror played on
this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKrj1ymJzmo

7. Ghosts, Zombies, Satanism and Your Family
• The 1960s and the 1970s reflected the grim
outlook of the decade. Horror movies had big
budgets so the respectable horror returned. One
of the fears of this time was children and
childbirth and one of the films that played on
this was The Exorcist. Ghosts also played a big
part of this time and women were shown on the
frontline for the first time. The films that feature
majorly in this time were; Rosemary’s Baby,
Carnival of Souls, The Stepford Wives and
Halloween.

8. Hammer Horror
• Hammer Horror was founded in 1934
but wasn’t largely successful until the
1950s but died down in the late 60s.
Some classic hammer horror films are
their versions of the classic Dracula
and The prince of Darkness. These
were all low budget films and
therefore had high profits. We can
still see hammer horror in the 21st
century through films like the Woman
and Black and Let the Right one In.

9. Slasher Movies and Body Horror
• The 1980s presented horror audiences becoming obsessed with
the human body because of the growing scientific knowledge
being developed. Evil Dead 2 and the Night of the Creeps
presented this fascination. The slasher/splatter films become a
hit and were filled with lots of blood and violent scenes. These
films were followed by many sequels, remakes and were
inspirations for massive hits such as Nightmare on Elm Street
and Scream.

10. Format Fears and Moral Panics
• This was the era of Video Nasties that were mainly
in the 1980s. Some of these were; The Evil Dead,
Zombie Flesh Eaters, Nightmares in a Damaged
Brain and The Last House on the Left. This was the
time in which the government put into place age
restricted movies and movies that weren’t
appropriate for the public to see. Once people knew
they weren’t allowed these films because of the
sheer goriness of them, people wanted to see what
the fuss was about so they quickly become popular.