The document provides a history of horror movies from their early origins to modern conventions. It discusses how early horror films from the 1910s-1920s used expressionist techniques of darkness and shadows due to film limitations. Notable early films included The Golem (1915), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), and Nosferatu (1922). The 1930s saw the advent of sound which changed horror by adding screams and monster noises. Horror became more mainstream in the 1930s but declined in popularity in the 1950s when it was relegated to B-movies. Modern horror from the late 20th century is categorized into subgenres and gives more choice to audiences and creators.

1. History Of Horror
Kelsey Wheeler

2. "If movies are the dreams of the
mass culture... horror movies are
the nightmares" — Stephen King,
DanseMacabr

3. Oxford English Dictionary
Definition. . .
HORROR • noun
1) an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust.
2) a thing causing such a feeling.
3) intense dismay.
4) informal a bad or mischievous person, especially a child. —
ORIGIN Latin, from horrere ‘shudder, (of hair) stand on end’.

4. Horror Conventions
On this slide you will see a range of horror conventions you would expect in a
horror film/trailer now days, previously majority of these conventions may
not have even been recognized.
WEAPONS
D.I.S.T.I.N.C.T VOICE OVER/COPY
EXTREME EDITS
Don’t
SUPERNATURAL BLOOD
Ignore
Setting
THEME FAST CUTS
Technical
WEATHER
Iconography
VIOLENCE SCREAMS
Narrative
Characterization DARKNESS/DARK COLOURS
Themes. EMPATHY
ACCOMPANIMENT
NON DIAGETIC SOUNDS
SUSPENSION/TENSION
ISOLATED SETTINGS
AND MANY MORE…

5. The First Horror Movies
Early horror films are surreal, dark pieces, owing
theirvisual appearance to the expressionist painters and
their narrative style to the stories played out by the
“Grand Guignol Theatre Company.” Darkness and
shadows, such important features of modern horror,
were impossible to show on the film stock available at
the time therefore back in those days sequences
including a vampire for example If the character was to
be running between trees it would be in broad day light
which seems surreal to us now.

6. The Golem (1915/1920)
“There were several versions of this, dubbed 'the first monster movie'.
Paul Wegener directed and starred in the screen version of the Jewish legend,
set in medieval Prague. A Golem (a solidly built clay man) is fashioned to save
the ghetto, but when his job is done he refuses to cease existing, and runs
amok through expressionist sets, eventually to be confronted and defeated by a
little girl. The legend influenced Mary Shelley during her creation of a monster a
century earlier, and a decade or so later, the cinematic golem influenced
Whale's and Karloff's depiction of a false creation lumbering menacingly
through the streets.” www.filmhistory.co.uk

7. The cabinet Of Dr Caligari (1919)
“Often cited as the 'granddaddy of all horror
films', this is an eerie exploration of the mind
of a madman, pitting an evil doctor against a
hero falsely incarcerated in a lunatic asylum”
www.filmhistory.co.uk

8. Nosferatu (1922)
“Nosferatuis the very first vampire movie, baldly plagiarisingthe
Dracula story to present Count Orlok, the grotesquely made-up 'Max
Schreck', curling his long fingernails round the limbs of a series of
hapless victims. Described as the vampire movie that actually believes
in vampires, Nosferatu gives us a far more frightening bloodsucker than
any of its successors; Shreck is simply inhuman.”
www.filmhistory.co.uk

9. Horror reborn in the 1930’s!
Horror movies were re born in the 1930’s, the advent of
sound, as well as changing the whole nature of
cinema, had a huge impact on the horror genre. In the
1920’s the films people saw were silent
throughout, but around 10 years later, over dramatic
facial expressions for example when a victim saw a
monster, the facial expression would be replaced with
a scream or a grunt from the monster. Most films of
the 1930’s were exotic fairytales, usually set in a a
different period, horror was still essentially the main
genre of this time for moving pictures.

10. Changes.
It is hard to grasp the changes that took place in
popular consciousness between 1940 and 1950. In ten
years the concept of a horrific monster had altered
irrevocably.The 1950s are also the era when horror
films get relegated in to the B-movie category.
“The studios were wildly over busy incorporating
technical changes such as widespread colour
production and trying to meet the challenge posed by
TV to have much truck with making quality horror
pictures.” www.filmhistory.co.uk

11. Further Adaptations
After the 1950’s horror has become further
developed to what we all know as ‘modern
horror’ which can be categorized into sub genres
such as paranormal, psychological, slasher,
thriller, sci-fi, supernatural and many more.
Having this change has benefited the horror
genre in many ways for example, the audiences
can now have wider choices of the types of
horror films they wish to see. Also its benefitted
the directors and producers giving them a chance
to create a horror of their choice without the
worry of repetition.