Horror Film History

History of Horror's



1920's



The start of horror had key conventions of; male antagonist, female victim and extremely Gothic. They believed monsters existed at this time so it was very scary. An example of this is Nosferatu.





1930's



The genre of the 20's was continued. The main location was castle and far away. This included the era of Frankenstein, vampires and Werewolf's. The first talking horror always appeared- Dracula (1931).




1940's






A decline in horror films occurred during this time. This was due to World War 2 but also comedy horror became an interest. A new horror was produced where characters turned into animals. This first happened in the film Cat People (1942).




1950's





After the war ended everyone had it on their mind. This lead to films with a plot of invasions, such as, Invasion of the body snatchers. Horror films also experienced the rise of rampaging creatures like Godzilla. A large competing market led to 3-D gimmicks. The first colour horror appeared to; The curse of Frankenstein (1957).



1960's




In the 60's the horror genre became more realistic in that it was based on human evil. At this point the mutant monsters seen in the 50's were beginning to be seen as stupid, so the 60's they introduced as believable 'evil' rather than a surreal 'evil'. A Popular 60's horror was; Psycho.



1970's

A fear of the 70's was the drug Thalidomide, which was given to pregnant women. However, the fear was created because it had the effect of babies being born with deformities. Therefore, films with young children as the antagonist were big hits in the 70's. A successful film was The Exorcist.



1980's

This was the era of gore! Technology evolved largely leading to better SFX. This meant bigger and better blood. This made films more gory and lead to increase of whats known as slasher films. These films included a large number of killings with the use of weapons. An example is Nightmare on elm street.





1990's

In the 90's, horror movies included psychopaths, as people were no longer afraid of "vampires" or "zombies". These films would include brutal murders of humans, which was a more believable twist to the horror genre. Popular films in the 90's included; Scream and the Silence of the lambs.


2000's


 

The 2000's have been so different due to people being immune to past horror films, as they are all somewhat repeated in a way and have become not scary. However, the rise of the unknown has potential fear. This is what most horrors are know like due to being one of few that are scary. An example of these films are; Let the right one in.