The first horror films appeared in the late 19th century and were very short, around 3 minutes. The 1910 film Frankenstein was the first movie adaptation of a horror novel. Nosferatu in 1922 was considered a masterpiece but all copies were almost destroyed due to copyright issues. In the 1930s, Dracula was the first horror film with sound and influenced modern vampire films. The 1950s saw the rise of 3D horror films and Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers, while Psycho and Night of the Living Dead in the 1960s changed the genres of slasher and zombie films. The 1970s pushed boundaries with films like The Exorcist and Jaws, and the 1980s saw the rise of slas

2. The first ever horror movie (and the first vampire
movie) to be made was “The House of the Devil”
in 1896. It was only 3 minutes long and contained
pantomime type features which are more
commonly used to entertain people.
“Frankenstein” was a 16 minute long horror film
made in 1910. It was the first movie
adaptation. The production was designed to de-
stress the horrific aspects of the story and
focus "...upon the mystic and psychological
problems that are to be found in this weird tale.".
The German expressionist horror film “Nosferatu”
came out in 1922. Due to copyright issues, the
makers were sued and all the copies of the movie
were supposed to be destroyed. However one
print survived and is now seen as a masterpiece of
cinema.

3. The 30’s brought in the new era of the “talkies”. The
first ever horror movie with sound being “Dracula” in
1931. Movies such as this have influenced the modern
day trend and likability of vampire movies (such as
“Twilight”).
The 30’s was also home to the first ever werewolf
movie “The Werewolf in London” and the first zombie
movie “White Zombie”, both of which are now very
popular modern day horror sub-genres.
“King Kong” was also a massive blockbuster as it
popularised the use of stop motion and brought in a
box office of $1,856,000.
The 30’s also birthed the controversial movie “Freaks”,
a horror movies about sideshow performers. It
particularly stood out as the creators decided to use
real people with deformities to star in the movie
instead of using costumes and make up, something
that you wouldn’t commonly see in a modern horror
movie.

4. Horror in the 1940’s began to grow
stale and boring, desperate attempts
to revive monsters with sequels such
as “The Ghost of Frankenstein” and
even films using multiple monsters
like “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf
Man” began to become obvious.
Comedy horrors became more
popular during these stages and
made pairings like “Abbott and
Costello meet Frankenstein”.
Psychological horrors rather than
physical horrors also became
popular, with films such as “Cat
People”.

5. As technology improved, horror movies of the 1950’s
went from Gothic to focusing on contemporary
concerns. From here two sub genres appeared:
armaggedon horror films and the demonic horror
films.
1952-1954 was known as the “golden era” for 3D
movies and was used in the horror classics “House of
wax” (earning an estimated $5.5 million at the North
American box office) and “The Creature from the
Black Lagoon” (which made an estimated
$1,300,000).
During the late 50’s a show called “The Twilight Zone”
was created, it consisted mainly of futuristic or
paranormal events which always ended with a moral.
The series were seen as psychological thrillers/sci fi.
The 50’s were also well known for Alfred Hitchcock’s
thriller classics. These included; Dial M for Murder,
Rear Window, Vertigo.

6. Hitchcock’s reign of terror seeped through into
the 60’s too, with such classics like “Psycho”
which brought in a box office of $50,000,000 and
was known as one of the first ever movies to kill
off the protagonist within the first half of the
movie. Another successful 60’s Hitchcock classic
is “The Birds”, which was honoured by
the American Film Institute as the seventh
greatest thriller.
“Psycho” and “Peeping Tom” influenced future
slasher movies, now a large sub-genre within
modern horror movies. And “Night of the Living
Dead” changed the face of zombie movies.
The 60’s horror movie era emulated the current
social revolution and featured dubious amounts
of gore, violence and sexuality (particularly in
“Psycho” where Marion is shown in her bra after
being in a bed with a man out of wedlock, most
commonly seen as a taboo back then).

7. The 70’s pushed the boundaries even further than
the 60’s. Contemporary social issues were
combatted, from sexism to consumerism to
religion and war. Exploitation movies reached
their peak in the decade, assertively breaking
moral conventions with graphic sex and violence,
the latter echoed particularly in a flood of zombie
movies and cannibal films.
“The Exorcist” was one of the best selling horror
movies of the 1970’s, reaching a box office of
$441,071,011 and was the first ever horror movie
to be nominated for Best Picture. Slasher movies
also advanced in the 70’s with “Halloween” and
“Black Christmas”.
Release of films such as “Jaws” were seen as the
watershed moment in movie history. It brought in
a box office of $470,653,000 and was deemed
as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically
significant".

8. 1980’s horror movies were famous for the
generation of the slasher movies such as “Friday
the 13th”. A mix of horror and comedy also came
about with “Evil Dead” and more.
Stephen King also had some movie adaptations of
his books such as “The Shining” (which has
become one of the most famous horror movies in
history) and “Pet Cemetery”.
“Evil Dead” was also seen as the first horror movie
to use the theme revolving around teenagers alone
in a cabin for a holiday, which has had many
popular successes in future horror movies.
“Child’s Play” has developed a cult following since
it’s release among horror fans. And many people in
the public wanted it to be banned in fear that it
would influence violence in children, much like
how people were influenced by “A Clockwork
Orange”.

9. During the late 90’s, “Scream” brought
back the flame of the slasher movies and
later on films such as “Urban Legend” and
“I know what you did last summer”.
The 90’s also had a trend of psychological
thrillers/serial killer movies such as
“Silence of the Lambs” and “Candyman”.
The two main massive hits of this decade
were “The Sixth Sense” which brought in
a box office of $672,806,292 and had it’s
legendary plot twist at the end. And “The
Blair Witch Project” which had an
extremely low budget but managed to
scrape in $248,639,099. Blair Witch was
filmed using hand held cameras and
managed to cause suspense and horror
without actually showing the witch which
is a highly popular technique nowadays.

10. The 00’s brought on many sequels such as the
“Scary Movie” comedy horror sequels and the
highly popular “Paranormal Activity” sequels and
the “Final destination” sequels, all of which
continued on for several movies.
The 00’s were also popular for their use of
remaking older horror movies, such as “Nightmare
on Elm Street” and “Evil Dead”. Some critics state
that this is due to a sudden lack in ideas for any
new and inventive horror movies.
Another genre that appeared was called “torture
porn” or “splatter films” which had movies such as
“Saw” and it’s franchise and the “Hostel”
franchise.
Films about exorcisms and possession are also
becoming increasingly popular, such as “The Last
Exorcism” and “The Rite”. These movies are
controversial as most of them are set in remote
American towns, a country in which around 45% of
the population are Christian and the movies may
have trouble coming out in a lot of areas.