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Period: to
horror history
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The Gothic Tradition
horror started with Horace Walpole's 1764 novel, The Castle of Otranto, it is full of supernatural shocks and mysterious melodrama. Romantic poets of the reflected the strong emotions of the movement through a glass darkly, recognising that fear and awe aren't so very different sensations. The first great horror classic (Frankenstein 1818) was written by a Romantic Mary Shelley. (http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=early) -
Edger Allen Poe
Poe now gaining his rightful place in the literarcy. . He is credited with inventing the modern detective story (The Murders in The Rue Morgue -1841) and with being the first writer to explore psychoanalysis within a literary format. But was to far ahead of his time. (http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=early) -
Nineteenth Century Masters
Some of the greatest mid- nineteenth century novelists tried their hand at horror fiction, Emily Bronte steeped her magnus opus, Wuthering Heights in gothic situations and sensibilities while Dickens A Christmas Carol. Herman Melville incorporated many supernatural elements into Moby Dick,. As the century advanced, many writer turned to short storys to spook their readers. (http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=early) -
1890's to 1920's
The first depictions of supernatural events appear in several of the silent shorts created by the director Georges Méliès in the late 1890s, the best known being Le Manoir du diable (aka, The Haunted Castle, 1896) which is sometimes called the first horror film. Another of his horror projects was 1898's La Caverne maudite (aka, The Cave of the Unholy One, literally "the accursed cave").(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film#1890s.E2.80.931920s) -
The First Horror Film
"Le Manoir de Diable" (the hunted castle) was the first horror movie It was filmed by Georges Melies in France in 1896
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film#1890s.E2.80.931920s) -
Frankenstien
long films did not exist untill the 1900's. the first American horror film was Edison Studios version of frankenstien. Boris Karloff was picked to play the Monster, yet it is his lumbering, pathetic creation that is now synonymous with Frankenstein. James Whale, still numbered amongst the best horror directors
(http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=1930s) -
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
A story about a doctor who takes a potion which splits his personality which creates havoc.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film#1890s.E2.80.931920s) -
1930's to 1940's
It was in the early 1930s that American film producers, mainly Universal Pictures Co. Inc., popularized the horror film, bringing to the screen a series of successful Gothic features including Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931), some of which blended science fiction films with Gothic horror, such as James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film#1890s.E2.80.931920s) -
Horror Begins To Talk... And Scream
The advent of sound, as well as changing the whole nature of cinema forever, had a huge impact on the horror genre. became scarring peopled by ghostly wraiths floating silently through the terror of mortals, their grotesque death masks a visual representation of 'horror', were replaced by monsters that grunted and groaned and howled.
(http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=1930s) -
Dracula
Dracula was such a well-worn story, it could be dealt with with originality and panache, as Tod Browning does here. The concept of Dracula is taken from the stageplay as opposed to the novel, and the results are highly theatrical. Lugosi laughs evilly throughout; no wonder, his depiction of the Count-as-seducer is aeons removed from the feral creature represented in Nosferatu and is definitive.
(http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=1930s) -
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Early hollwood dramas would use horror themes including the Hunchback Of Notre Dame, also a silent film The Monster
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film#History) -
War Time
Wartime horror movies were an American product, horror movies were put out by Hollywood to amuse the domestic audience. The studios stuck with tried and tested ideas, wary of taking risks that might suggest they had no measure of the zeitgeist, and trotted out a series of variations on a theme. horror movie were, nothing but evolving. the 1940's were mainly anamalistic. with movies like The Wolf Man and Cat People.
(http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=1940s) -
1950's... Mutants
With advances in technology in the 1950s, horror films shifted from gothic toward relevant to the late-Century audience. The horror film was seen to fall into two sub-genres: the horror-of-armageddon film and the horror-of-the-demonic film. A stream of low-budget productions featured humanity overcoming threats from "outside": alien invasions and deadly mutations to people, plants, and insects, movies like Mutant Madness And The Wasp Women. -
1960's
Movies transitoned from thrillers to chillers. (alot scarrier) with movies like the birds, things that go bump, and carnival of souls.
(http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=1960s) -
1970's to 1980's
The end of the Production Code of America in 1964, the financial successes of the low-budget gore films of the ensuing years, and the critical and popular success of Rosemary's Baby, led to the release of more films with occult themes in the 1970s. The Exorcist (1973), the first of these movies, was a significant commercial success, and was followed by scores of horror films in which the Devil represented the supernatural evil. the 1980's saw a a gory "b-movie" horror films, mostly cult movies. -
1970's part two
Horror movies of the 1970s reflect the grim mood of the decade. After the optimism of the 1960s, with its sexual and cultural revolutions, and the moon landings, the seventies were something of a disappointment. It all started to go horribly wrong in 1970; the Beatles split, Janis and Jimi died, and in many senses it was downhill all the way from there: Nixon, Nam, oil strikes, glam rock, , when society goes bad, horror films get good,
(http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=1970s) -
1990's
In the first half of the 1990s, the genre continued many of the themes from the 1980s. Sequels from the Child's Play and Leprechaun series had some commercial success. The slasher films A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Halloween all saw sequels in the 1990s, most had success at the box office,
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film#History) -
1990's part two
each generation needs something to be scared of, and yearns for its fears to be fairly represented on the screen. Finding no satisfaction in sequels and pastiche, Generation X got its own special brand of boogeyman: the serial killer. It can be argued that the so-called psychological thriller took precedence over horror in the first half of the 1990s, and indeed, many dark, disturbing films of this period describe themselves as thriller, not horror. -
2000's
The start of the 2000s saw a quiet period for the genre, due to 9-11-01,The monsters had to change, however. Gone were the lone psychopaths of the 1990s. As the shock and awe of twenty first century warfare spread across TV screens, with multiple re releases and also teen horror films. A large trend of zombie and extreme graphic violence that characterized most of the 2000's.
(http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=2000s)
