History of Horror

19^th century – the 19^th century was the Victorian era which started of the gothic theme for films. For example Frankenstein and Dracula where first introduced. For the Frankenstein film it was the earliest example of science fiction films and it was here that it spawned a complete horror genre. Dracula was the first to introduce the character of the vampire which then set a trend form then on. Jekyll and Hyde were also film producers of this time and there work mainly associated with split personally which scared many people as in this time they saw people with mental illnesses as crazy and insane.

The silent era and German expressionism – in these types of films there was no sound or dialogue 10 because there was no technology to record it and 2) it appealed more to middle class because they couldn’t read but from these films they could still get a sense of what was happening. It was here that they expressed the character more through there facial and body expression and often focused more on the mise-en-scene.

Monsters and mad scientists – in this era they started to remake horror films and also introduced monsters and floating ghosts. This was when the great depression was happening and this had a big influence on horror because the films offer an escape from real life for a while for many people. Also many of the films realised in this era introduced us to the sub-genre of supernatural which then started a trend off.

The animal within – horror was banned in Britain in the 1940’s so America took over and many of the films were produced in LA because of the hot weather they could film all year round. The 40’s saw a lot of prime animal films bringing in creatures like werewolf’s and cat people. The wolf man was one of the popular films in this decade. Also cat people was more of a psychological thriller and focused on women being presented as bad.

Mutant creatures and aliens – Godzilla was one of the biggest mutant movies ever and this era used more realistic situations that are supposed to scare people more and they seem like things that could actually happen. It’s exploring the unknown that get people watching and also scared about a film. In this time NASA explored more of the unknown so it scared people as they are based on things that could really happen.

Ghosts, zombies, Satanism and your family – the key horror film in this era was Psycho. The Charles Manson’s killings had a big impact on horrors because it makes people fear what could happen in their back gardens and down the road. Also a major event was landing on the moon which can be related to Satanism because it was so out of this world and hard to believe.

Hammer Horror – ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ became the first hammer horror film in 1958. Horror films before this had never shown blood in a graphic way like this. Dracula was also another film remade with lots of blood and gore which ending up becoming a massive success and breaking box office records in the UK.

Slashers – these are subgenre of American horror films which typically involve a violent psychopath murdering several victims often with bladed tools. Some of these films include Friday the 13^th (1980) Halloween (1981) and Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). A lot of these films were based on a calendar dates like Halloween and Friday the 13^th.

Video nasties – mutilations of bodies, cannibalism and gang rape are just some of the things included in a video nasties. These type of films are films are not supposed to be seen. Because they were banned it made people want to see them more to see what they were all about.