HISTORY OF THE HORROR GENRE

By Jamie Tilsley

Timeline

1896-1910

These years marked the beginning of the horror film genre. They marked the horror clichés, making use of werewolves, ghosts and Frankenstein. The technology used revolutionised films at the time and made the films much more scary as the people of the time had never seen anything like this before.

1911-1913

The years 1911-1913 were more impactful for horror as they began to define horror as an actual genre as one of the first full length film “Notre Dame de Paris” was released.

1928-1937

These years adapted the horror films along with the film industry in general. The first ever horror film with sound was released, adding a whole other element that could be manipulated to make films even more scary.

1946-1970

The mid 19 hundreds brought more developed films to the genre. Writers focussed on the development of the film and made the overall feel of the films more scary, one example is “Bedlam” about a Victorian insane institution.

1976-1982

The horror genre always brought some controversy, but in these years, people began to protest on the gore starting to become pared with horror. Films such as Friday the 13th were released.

1994-2000’s

Many think by the time the 2000s came around, the horror genre had lost its flair and many films being released became gore fests, designed to disgust the audience. However, some classics such as Chucky and Saw.

Sub-genres of horror Under the main genre of horror, there falls smaller sub genres. These all add

something individual to the horror genre whilst also containing some main clichés found in a film of the horror genre.

Action Horror- Usually includes fight scenes with the antagonist monster in the film, e.g. zombies, werewolves, etc.

Body Horror- This sub-genre includes lots of gore and contains unnatural things happening with the human body. Films include: teeth and cabin fever.

Comedy Horror- This combines funny elements in horror type situations, sometimes ripping off scenes from iconic horror films, adding funny twists or taking the Mick out of those films.

Gothic Horror- Gothic horror includes features of the gothic variety, for example, castles, magic and dark settings. The early horror films fell under this category.

Psychological Horror- This form of horror strongly depends on the shakiness and fear of the characters in the film to shock and make the audience feel uncomfortable. Being as real as possible is a key staple in making a psychological horror.

Science fiction Horror- This sub genre uses unreal scientific elements such as aliens or experiments to scare the audience. Films include; Alien, the Thing and invasion of the body snatchers.

Generic conventions of a Horror

Darkness Fear Death Stabbing Tense situations Villain Killing Scary Woods Weapons Candles Screaming

Monsters in horror films Vampires Aliens Monster Zombie Ghosts The Devil Children Dolls

Vampire This particular monster is normally ancient and films

revolving around it will usually take place in a castle. One of the very first horror films included the vampire. I believe it is an embodiment of the foreign as vampires were from Pennsylvania, it may play on the fear of the unknown and because in the old days (1896-1910) when vampires were introduced, people didn’t travel around as much and were probably unfamiliar with people of different cultures making the premise of “vampires” scary.

Zombie Zombies are basically the un-dead come back to life to

eat the living. This premise varies from film to film such as in 28 days later, the zombies would starve if they didn’t eat, but the main cliché of zombies stems from Oscar Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead”. This fear would probably come from the idea that people coming back to life would turn what we all have accepted in our life ( that death is certain) on its head, confusing us and making us feel uncomfortable.

Aliens Aliens- beings from another planet, come to

Earth to kill or humans and take over the world. This is the main premise for a horror including aliens. This may make us scared as the idea of the unknown makes us uneasy and makes us feel powerless compared to advanced beings from a faraway world.

The horror genre nowFilms falling under the horror genre

nowadays are very different from those back in the 1900s. There is a lot more visible gore, and mature themes placed into horror films that, compared to the older films, are a lot more gruesome. This seems to be because, through the years audiences have became desensitised from all the elements of the horror genre and it has to be amped up to be more gory to please the audience.

Conclusion By doing this research, I have learned the

history of the horror genre which allows me to see the past of the horror genre, leading up till now, showing what has been effective. This will allow me to take these effective elements from the past horror films and implement them in a unique way into my film, depending on the sub-genre I choose.