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The Beginning
The earliest horror films were gothic in nature and were often located in old mansions and castles. The main characters included vampires, ghosts, madmen, demons and zombies.
Horror was an art form that became a genre in the 1890’s. The first ever horror film was accredited to Georges Melies “The Haunted Castle” in 1896. -
Monsters in Horror Films
The first horror film monster was Quasimodo in the early 20th Century and appeared in films such as “Esmeralda” in 1906, and “Notre-dame de Paris” in 1911. -
German Expressionists
German Expressionists were accredited with significantly influencing horror films and other genres. The first vampire style movie was F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” in 1922.
Hollywood started using horror themes, including variants of “the Hunchback of Notre Dame” in 1923 and “The Monster” in 1925, both of which starred the first American horror movie star, Lon Chaney. -
Talking Pixtures and Universal Pictures
During the beginning of talking films, Universal Pictures started a very successful Gothic themed horror series. James Whale’s “Frankenstein” in 1931 is an example, as is Todd Browning’s “Dracula” in 1931. -
1950's-1960's
In the 1950’s-1960’s the advancements in technology meant that horror films shifted towards the horror-of-Armageddon and the horror-of-the-demonic sub genres. “Godzilla” in 1954 is an example of this, where the horror was mutations from the effects of radiation. “Night of the Living Dead” in 1968 was a very influential horror film and moved the genre away from gothic themes and more towards everyday life. -
1970's-1980's
In the 1970’s-1980’s the abandonment of the Production Code of America in 1964 lead to low budget successful cult and gore themed films. “The Exorcist” in 1973 was a successful film of this style and was followed by many other films of similar style. -
1990's
In the 1990’s slasher films such as “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13th” were very popular. Horror was starting to be pushed backwards in popularity after nonstop gore and slasher films in the 80’s and the generation of teens that thrived on such films grew up. Science-fiction and fantasy started to replace horror with the introduction of CGI. -
2000's
In the 2000’s Franchises such as “Final Destination” marked a revival in teen-centered horror films after a quiet period. A current and ongoing trend in modern horror films is the emergence of psychological horrors such as “The Others” and Americanized versions of Asian horror films such as “The Ring” in 2002 and “The Grudge” in 2004. Films such as “Saw” were the emergence of the trend of horror films involving torture and suffering, sometimes referred as “gore-nography”. Remakes of older horror