The History Of Horror

Since the 1920s, when horror films were first made, the horror genre has gone through many changes and adaptations. This is due to the fact that, throughout history, human fears, strongly influenced by what is happening in our world, have changed as the decades have gone by. It is important that horror films reflect our fears and so the horror genre has had to respond to and adapt to what society finds frightening.

1920's: Key conventions of a film in this era involve dark shadows, male antagonist, female under threat and were Gothic. They reflected the fact that audiences were terrified by mystical monsters found in literature. Nosferatu (1922) was one of the first Gothic horrors to be made. 

1930's: The horrors of the 1930's were Gothic in style and were set in far off lands . They features monsters and were inspired by 19th century novels, and they also had the first use of sound. Dracula (1931) was the first talking horrors and had a gothic theme to it.

1940's: Horror movies were banned in Britain due to the war, so America took over. The Americans kept it safe and recreated the style of horrors from the 30's, which included characters who could turn into animals. Cat People (1942) involved a women being feared, and was the first horror movie to use the trend of the art of suggestion.

1950's: After the war, society feared the effects of radiation from nuclear war and the changes that could occur. Teenagers became the most popular audience for horror. The fly (1958) and The Blob (1958) were two main films that involved changes due to nuclear war. 

1960's: This was a period of massive social change where there were sex, drugs and freedom. Monster's of the 60's were in human form so audience's saw the potential of man, and how twisted the human mind can be. This became a big change within the horror genre because there was a change from mythical creatures being defeated to humans having a twisted mind. Psycho (1960) was one of the first horror films that had a human killer. 

1970's: The introduction to the contraceptive pill and pregnancy defects led to the fear of children. Birth defects became a big fear in this decade because women suffering morning sickness were given a drug called Thalidomide which led to many babies being born with deficits. The idea of the enemy being in your own family came about and the slasher movies were born. The Shining and The Exorcist were two films which involved family members being the enemy. 

1980's: The technological aspects of horror changed and there was an increased use of SFX. Monsters remained human but horrors became more like a show. Nightmare on elm street is a typically 80's horror because it was full of gore and had brightly lit sets. 

1990's: Audiences were becoming sick of guts and gore and wanted more intelligent horror, this was mainly because horror's were coming too predictable. Scream was a horror turn over, where horror conventions became ironic throughout the movie. 

2000's: Audiences are enjoying all types of horror more then ever, and remakes and spoofs are becoming more popular. Horror films involving a game or defeating a force also became well known. Found footage movies rose to the top, and movies became more transportable for example on mobile phones, ipads and on the internet. Paranormal activity, Grave Encounters, Saw and One Missed Call, are examples of typical modern day horror movies.