2. Horror is an ancient art form. We have
tried to terrify each other with tales
which trigger the less logical parts of our
imaginations for as long as we've told
stories.
Horror movies have long served both
purposes. They deliver thrills, as well as
telling us stories of the dark, forbidden
side of life and death.
3. Early horror films are surreal, dark pieces, owing their visual appearance to the
expressionist painters and their narrative style to the stories played out.
The Golem (1915)
The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (1919)
Nosferatu(1922)
4. Supernatural events appear in several of the silent shorts
created by the film pioneer Georges Melies
Japan made early production into the horror genre with
two films both made in 1898.
20th century, the first monster appeared in a horror
film: Quasimodo
5. Frankenstein(1931)
Frankenstein is a 1931 horror monster film from
Universal pictures directed by James Whale
and adapted from the play by Peggy
Webling, which in turn is based on the novel
of the same name by Mary Shelly. The film
stars Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and
Boris Karloff. The webling play was adapted
by John L. Balderston and the screenplay
written by Francis Edwards Faragoh and
Garret Fort with uncredited contributions from
Robert Florey and John Russell.
6. With advances in technology, the tone of horror films
shifted from the Gothic towards contemporary concerns.
A stream of usually low-budget productions featured
humanity overcoming threats from "outside": alien
invasions and deadly mutations to people, plants, and
insects. In the case of some horror films from Japan, such
as Godzilla (1954).
The Hollywood directors and producers sometimes found
ample opportunity for audience exploitation.
Filmmakers continued to merge elements of science
fiction and horror over the following decades.
Considered a "pulp masterpiece"[
During the later 1950s, Great Britain emerged as a
producer of horror films. Peeping tom (1960), directed
by Michael Powell, concerns a serial killer who combines
his profession as a photographer with the moments
before murdering his victims.
British born director Alfred Hitchcock's’ - Psycho (1960),
was the first “slasher"
Ghosts and monsters still remained a frequent feature of
horror, but many films used the supernatural premise to
express the horror of the demonic.
7. The end of the Production code of America in 1964,
the financial successes of the low-budget gore films.
The Exorcist (1973), the first of these movies, was a
significant commercial success, and was followed
by scores of horror films in which
the Devil represented the supernatural evil.
"Evil children" and reincarnation became popular
subjects
Another example is The Sentinel (1977 film), in which
a fashion model discovers that her new brownstone
residence may actually be a portal to hell.
Also in the 1970s, horror author Stephen King
debuted on the film scene as many of his books
were adapted for the screen
John Carpentener created Halloween (1978).
Sean Cunningham made Friday the 13th (1980). W
B Movie elements such as horror and mild gore in a
big-budget Hollywood film.
The 1980s saw a wave of gory “B Movie" horror films
8. In the first half of the 1990s, the
genre continued many of the
themes from the 1980s.
Two main problems pushed
horror backward during this
period: firstly, the horror genre
wore itself out with the
repetition of nonstop slasher
and gore films in the eighties.
Secondly, the adolescent
audience which feasted on the
blood and morbidity of the
previous decade grew up.
To re-connect with its
audience, horror became more
self-mockingly ironic.
9. The start of the 2000s saw a
quiet period for the genre.
There has been a major return
to the zombie genre in horror
movies made after 2000]
A larger trend is a return to the
extreme, graphic violence
that characterized much of
the type of low-budget,
exploitation horror from the
post-Vietnam years.
Remakes of earlier horror
movies became routine in the
2000s. In addition to 2004's
remake of Dawn of the dead