1890's to the 1920's
The first viewings or descriptions of supernatural events are shown in many silent shorts in the late 1890's created by George Meilies, one of the most famous ones being 'Le Manoir du diable' which is also known as 'The Haunted castle' (1896) it has been known and called the first horror movie. In 1910 the first version of Frankenstein was created by Edison Studios.
In the early 20th century, the first monster was shown in a horror film called 'Quasimodo' and 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'. Quasimodo then appeared in other films such as 'Esmeralda' in 1906, 'The Hunchback' in 1909, 'The Love of the Hunchback' in 1910 and 'Notre-Dame de Paris' in 1911.
German Expressionist film makers went on to have a major influence later films and not only horror, films that had an impact are 'The Golem' (1920) and 'The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari' by Robert Wiene. In 1922 the first vampire themed movie was produced called 'Nosferatu' by F.W.Murnau.
In Hollywood drama, horror themes would be used such as using versions of the hunchback of ND and the monster.
Other films from the 1920's:
- 'Dr. Jekyll And Mr Hyde'
- 'The Phantom Carriage'
- 'The Lost World'
- 'The Phantom of the Opera'
- 'London After Midnight'
- 'Waxworks'
During this period Gothic horror was becoming very popular and successful. A film such as 'Dracula' by Tod Browning then influenced other films as it was quickly followed by 'Frankenstein' both in 1931. Some Gothic horror films with linked and mixed with sci-fi films for example 'The Invisible Man' in 1933,featuring a mad scientist, this was shown to be mirroring earlier German films. Theses films were produced and designed in order to trill while also implicating serious elements. Frankenstein was a very popular series as it lasted for many years.
After this many other studios were influenced by Universals films. films such as 'Dr.Jekyll and Mr Hyde' is iconic and remembered for the use of colour filters to create the transformation of Jekyll in front of the camera. 'Mystery of the Wax Museum' by Warner Bros and 'The Island of Lost Souls' by Paramount were also important in the history of horror.
In the time technology was evolving so this caused the theme of horror movies to change from Gothic to contemporary concerns. This is where the two sub genres horror of Armageddon and the horror of the demonic came into existence.
Many films now had the theme of humanity defeating threats from 'outside' such as alien invasions, mutated people, insects and plants. This is evident in the Japanese film released in 1954 'Godzilla' where a mutation has occurred due to nuclear radiation.
'The Thing from Another World', 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' both used the paranoia of the cold war to give an atmospheric creepiness to the film. The combination of sci-fi and horror where continued for decades with films such as 'The Incredible Shrinking Man' which was called a pulp masterpiece, even though more it was more sci-fi based it had elements that conveyed fears that people had such as the atomic age and the fear of social alienation. This shows how the makers were using peoples real fears to make these films scary.
Probably on of the most famous horror films of this time and in history is Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' in 1960, which had major psychological elements.
Ghosts and monsters continued to be the main them of horror films, but many films used the supernatural idea to show the horror of the demonic, films such as 'The Innocents' and 'The Haunting'. 'Rosemary's Baby' a psychological horror made in 1968, was set in New York where the devil was made flesh. A major influence in this time period was the film 'Night of the Living Dead', this was a horror or Armageddon film and was about zombies which mixes psychological insights and gore sub-genres, this bought horror into everyday life.
In 1964, the low-budget gore films successful income, and popularity of 'Rosemary's Baby', led to the release of more films with similar ideas and stories in the 1970s. 'The Exorcist' made in 1973 being one of them, this film is a historic horror film and was a major success it then made the convention of possessions by the devil/demons.
'Evil children' and reincarnation became popular themes after that film. A well known and popular Satanic horror movie was 'The Omen' in 1976, it involves a man realizing his 5 year old adopted son is actually the Antichrist. Satan became the villain and main monster in many horror films.
In 1975 director David Cronenburg made a movie called 'Shivers' which was a reinvention of body horror. 'Jaws' was created by Steven Spielberg and was the film that started off killer animal films which became a big hit.
In 1979 'Alien' was released and has scenes of graphic violence combined with sci-fi. This is also seen in the movie 'The Thing'. B movie' (Low Budget) horror films seemed to become popular in the 1980's and later became classics in the history of horror.
1990's
Many of the genres that were seen in the 80's were followed on on the 90's and the slasher films such as 'Friday the 13th', and 'Child's Play' got sequels. And new slasher movies were made like 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'New Nightmare'.
Films such as New nightmare was part of meta fictional horror films this means that it showed the relationship between fictional horror and real world horror.
In the 90's Horror went backwards and the two main problems for this is the fact that the genre wore itself out by producing slasher and gore movies too much in the 80's and the second problem was that there was now a new generation to the one in the 80's and this generations were more interested in sci-fi and fantasy films. So in order to make horror a popular genre again and appeal to its new audience, films were made to mock the genre itself. Films such as 'Braindead' which was over-exaggerated to make it humorous and 'Scream' which mocks previous horror movies and merges them with ironic humour.
This period in time was a quite one for horror movies. 'Final Destination' was a successful film and was made into a sequel, as was 'Jeepers Creepers'. Other films such as 'Orphan', 'Wrong Turn' and 'Cabin Fever' were also films that started to increase the ratings and audience in the theatre. Foreign films became a huge success and trend in the 2000's for example 'Let the right one in' made in Sweden in 2008 was later remade in Hollywood called 'Let Me In'. The use psychology was another trend that was very popular, as it was another way to scare the viewers rather than using gore. A successful psychological horror film in 2001 was 'The Others'. And then there were the remade Asian movies such as 'The Grudge' and 'The Ring'.
Zombie trends seemed to make a big comeback in horror movies. A video game called 'Resident Evil' was made into a film which was then made into a sequel. '28 Days Later' was released in the same year and was a more modern version of 'The Return Of The living', the style being aggressive zombies, this also became a sequel. Another remake of a previous film was 'Dawn of the Dead', which was then adapted into a comedy called 'Shaun of the Dead'.
Violence and gore which was made on low budget returned to the screens with most films taking inspiration from 'The Last House on the Left', 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'The Hills Have Eyes' made in the 70's, films such as 'Wrong Turn', 'Wolf Creek' and 'Audition'.
This sub genre was then extended and films were made with emphasis on torture and violent deaths this is often known as torture porn. Examples of this are films such as 'Hostel' and 'Saw'.
In 2009 we saw 'Paranormal Activity' arrive on our screens with inspiration being taken from the classic 'The Blair Witch Project'.
