The History of Horror

1890s-1920s

Horror films started as a simple series of shots. Filmmakers, such as Georges Méliès, were important pioneers of early cinema as well as in the horror genre. Méliès led in the development of a film language based on separate scenes edited together in chronological order. Perhaps his most famous films are 'A Trip to the Moon' ('Le voyage dans la Lune'), made in 1902, and 'The Impossible Voyage' ('Le voyage à travers l'impossible') from 1904. These are considered to be some of the most important early science fiction films, although their approach is closer to fantasy. In terms of horror, this can be traced back to Méliès's 'The House of the Devil' ('Le Manoir du diable') in 1896.
In the early 20th century, the first monster appeared in a full-length horror film in the form of Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Many early horror films were created by German filmmakers during the era of 'German Expressionist', such as 'Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror' (1922) by F. W. Murnau, which is credited as being the first genuine vampire film.

1930s-1940s
In the early 1930s, American film producers popularized horror films, bringing in a series of successful Gothic films, including 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein', both in 1931.
Universal Pictures' horror films continued with success in the 1940s with 'The Wolf Man', which is renowned for being one of the most influential werewolf films.

1950s-1960s

A shift in technology caused a great shift from the Gothic sub-genre of horror films. They then seemed to fit into two classic categories: the horror-of-armageddon film and the horror-of-the-demonic film.

A stream of low-budget films were created and included ideas such as alien invasions and deadly diseases, though these were mainly imported from Japan, due to their society having first-hand knowledge of these themes.

Filmmakers stated to explore with science fiction and merged it with horror to create films such as 'The Incredible Shrinking Man' in 1957.

A very influential horror film of the late 1960s was George Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' which blended psychological horror with gore, moving even further away from the gothic horror trends and brought horror into everyday life.

1970s-1980s
In the 1970s, the Devil began to appear in horror films, representing supernatural evil. For example, impregnating women or possessing children, after the success of 'Rosemary's Baby' in the previous decade.
The 60s were also influential in horror films of this time and youths became more involved in the narrative.
The mad-scientist sub-genre was introduced as technology began to take off.

1990s-2000s
The first half of the 1990s continued with many of the trends of the 1980s. However, two main problems meant that horror became less popular in this decade. Firstly, horror wore itself out with non-stop slasher and gore films in the 80s and secondly, the youth audience which were introduced to this type of horror grew up and became less interested. The replacement audience were being entertained with special effects of so-called 'new' cinema.
To reconnect with their audience, horror films began mocking themselves and splatter films came to the extreme.

The start of the 2000s saw a quiet start to the genre, but but still managed to produce a major return to the zombie sub-genre, with films such as '28 Days Later' and '28 Weeks Later'.

In the late 00s, 'Paranormal Activity' (2009) re-introduced 'real-life horror', which bases the storyline on a day-to-day situation, becoming a very powerful and ongoing theme today.

NA NC