Most Influential Horror Films timeline

Nosferatu is the most influential horror film ever made for several reasons. It set the template for every horror film that came after it. It set the visual style for horror by creating a distorted world out of the style of German Expressionist Cinema, whilst also giving the genre its first and greatest monster in Count Dracula.

Psycho is the 1960 slasher directed by Alfred Hitchcock that was ground breaking in creating a new sub genre of horror. The film was influential in many ways, one of which being in the shower scene the 180 degree rule was broken which was iconic as many have tried to recreate it and failed since. Another way it was influential was that it was one of the first films to kill off the main character and made the killer a human being meaning that monsters could be in everyday life. We have used this

While Evil Dead set the template for low budget horror films, Halloween seen the template for big budget horrors. While it itself if a low budget film, from Holloween spawned many other big budget films like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream and any other slasher film. It took the template of psycho and adapted it to make a new sub-genre. For my own trailer, as a group we decided to keep the killer as a human. This could create more of a scare as it is possible to happen in real l

Alien is the 1979 science fiction horror directed by Ridley Scott. The hybrid had already been introduced by films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Them! but Alien proved that the mixture of genres could be something other than cheesey. It has since influenced many modern films such as Prometheus. One of the many reasons it became an influential film was the Xenomorph, it was the perfect killer as it's only needs were to kill and to reproduce, before Alien there hadn't been a monster lik

Stanley Kubrick’s 'The Shining' is one of the most influential horror films made and has even been called a 'masterpiece' by many. It's influential in the way that nobody can copy it as it's so completely different to other within the horror genre. The film doesn't rely on cheap scares, but instead builds atmosphere through a series of psychologically tense scenes. While my group didn't take any direct influence from the film, the idea of isolation and nowhere to run for help is similar to our