A Brief History of Horror Films

 

 

HISTORY OF HORROR FILMS OVERTIME IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

The Silent Era:

An example of German Expressionism in the 1920's - 1930's. This was initially specifically confined to Germany, but when it got more popular the film production increased from 24 films to 130 films within the first four years (1914 - 1918). Sometime after this Germany became part of the international film industry. However the extreme anti - realism of Expressionism was short lived and nowadays the technique isn't used very often in the film industry. There were two specific genres that inspired and influenced Expressionism were horror films and film noir.

The Concept of Mad Scientists &Monsters:

The horror films which contain characters of being inhuman or have a monster like appearances. Having monsters in films increased their popularity in this particular decade. Such successful monsters in this decade include Dracula, Frankenstein and King Kong. Mad Scientists were introduced to horror films in ways such as The Invisible Man. A Mad Scientist character would be a scientist who has achieved the impossible. Like turning themselves into a monster.

Animalistic Imagery in Horror:

In the 1940's we started to see werewolves and cat people in horror films. The horror genre started to make characters that could turn into animals. The wolf man is a mishmash of several wolf legends, and using werewolves in films was the main attraction and fear factor. There were different characters that werewolves could portray, such as Nazi's (originates from where a human is bit, then they transform). This has links to Hitler trying to take over the world. Cat people came along in 1942 and follows the story of Irena, a young woman who carries with her belief that she is cursed. She ends up turning into a large dangerous cat.

 



Mutants & More Monsters:

Existing life forms made into monsters are done by using blue screen techniques. The monsters represented movie technology of that time which drew the audience in. The mutants and the ideas of monsters for this era comes from the fear generated by the Atom Bomb / Atomic Bomb. Monsters offered a vision of destruction created by humans and non - humans. For example The Blob, which was released in 1958, was to warn people of space travel. The Blob feeds and expands on an individuals fears. Technology did scare a lot of people in the 1950's as part of the unknown. Horror films used this and created aliens and Sci-fi Horror. Also Body Snatchers was a popular film in the 1950's as the aliens taking over there human bodies symbolises communism.

 

Ghosts and Satanism in the 60's and 70's:

1970's horror films reflected on the grim outlook of the decade, this was also when big budget and respected horror films returned. The Exorcist was of this era which was about a little girl possessed by a demon, this film was voted 'the scariest film of all time'. Theses films revolve around the children being unwanted and doing sadistic things to their parents or family. The most popular horror of this time was ghost stories which was seen as a reaction to the elaborate creatures in the late 1950's.

Slasher Movies and Body Horror:

In the 1980's the blood and gore horror movies were born from the minds of fans and directors. The improvements in animatronics, liquid foam and latex meant that the human frame could be changed in realistic close ups. The special effects in the 1980's were good enough to show gruesome action up close, as well as more violence and monsters. Furthermore, the monsters of the 80's were of supernatural origins like ghosts, Freddy and Jason. And human origins were also seen such as Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies. Also there were unknown origins like aliens and Sci-fi. These films in the 1980's were made with a lot of gore and blood as the filmmakers were able to do it due to the advances in gore makeup and film technology. As a result of this the horror films of the 80's were less scary than ones released in previous decades. During the 1980's the audiences became interested in the human body and horror films were released in the 80's were mainly focused on mutilation and modification to the human body. The meaning of a Slasher film was a tight set of conventions which mainly include a psychopathic killer that stalks teenagers with a sharp weapon such as a machete. A lot of Slasher films in the 80's were popular and resulted in multiple sequels and remakes were made.