The Brief History Of The Genre Horror

Since the first communication of beings, horror has been seen as a specific genre, used to elicit negative emotional reactions, towards such viewers. From originating in magazines and books, to films and programmers, told around camp fires. Sub genres horrors focus on include popular terrors and mirror anxiety's and taboo subjects to catch out audiences and make them fear the films produced. Horror is a thrill, as it allows the brain to trigger less logical parts of our imagination, giving us an adrenaline rush we desire. Examples of sub genres include, action horror, comedy horror, gothic horror, physiological horror, science fiction horror, zombie horror, classic horror, demonic possession and erotic horror.  Certain films include unsettling themes, designed to create fright or panic, invoking what we fear the most, however somewhat addictive, entertaining us and captivating us into a sense of craving towards the suspense. This creates a cathartic experience, onto the dark side of life, the strange, the unknown, dealing with issues from vulnerability to alienation.

The 1920-30's, was the first decade to present films intended to scare such audience. Generally in this decade appeared classics such as Dracula. However mummy films were popular and movies such as Frankenstein took great popularity. However in the 1940's movies were in decline due to World War II, however few were made regarding similar themes such as monstrosity 'House of Dracula'. Such movies around this time had issues regarding blood, as many feared blood born HIV or other disease with no found cure. During the 1950s such luxuries were brought out, cinemas allowed an audience to gather together and watch movies of the era such as 'The wasp woman'. The 1960s then introduced the first proper thriller, bringing a new aspect to such horror films. 1970s saw such surge of horror movies, creating classics such as jaws, to the exorcist. Due to the improvement in technology and certain devices, films were upgraded in the 1980s to a great standard, as the proliferation in the use of film technology created better graphics such as The Shining and The Fly.  Due to research into popular fears, zombie and vampire movies died out and in the 1990s, new craves entered horror films such as psychopaths and brutal murdering of ordinary humans, this created such plot twist and a believable storyline for an audience to follow, allowing such films to gross millions, such films included Silence of the lambs. Entering the 2000s, popular films explored issues regarding teen horror, which plot based on adolescents picked off from one another, by such killers or monsters, examples include The grudge.