A Timeline of Horror Movies

By George Ring

Horror Sub-Genres

• Body Horror• Comedy • Gothic• Psychological• Sci-Fi• Slasher• Supernatural• Zombie• Action

Horror Films are unsettling films designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films effectively center on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most

primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsions, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and

dismemberment, loss of identity, or fear of sexuality.

The following timeline shows off how the horror genre in film has excelled over the years from the ‘first ever’ silent horror movie in 1896 to the

modern day movies that thrill todays society…

Definition of Horror Films

1986 – the first horror movieWith the horror and gothic genre among literature excelling, it was no wonder why people were intrigued to see what would happen should this become a visual reality. It was extremely popular in theatres and books and although it did not specifically come into practice until the 1930s, it can be said the first use of horror in the industry was in 1896 by George Méliè.

The infamous ‘Manor of the Devils’, features bats, trolls, a demon and ghosts.

There were several possibilities of the filmmakers. Several experiments were made including the first Frankenstein adaptation in 1911. After this, silent horror films were becoming scarce due to modern technology incorporating sound.

1896: The House of the Devil

1910: Frankenstein

1913: The Student of Prague

1920: Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

1920: The Golem: Or How He Came into the World

1920: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

1922: Haxan

1922: Nosfertu

1923: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

1924: The Hands of Orlac

1924: Waxworks

1925: The Monster

1925: The Phantom of the Opera

1926: Faust

1927: The Cat and the Canary

Timeline of Horror:1896 - 1930

Universal Sequels: Dracula (1931)

During the silent era, Universal was responsible for the few achievements in American horror most notably The Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame both

starring Lon Chaney. But in the 30s, Universal really sunk their teeth into horror, kicking off the Universal Gothic horror cycle.

Dracula (1930):This was a huge hit among the audience in which sound was first established. It brought a whole new experience to the people who wanted to be thrilled. There were numerous sequels created by Universal who were said to be the new horror distributor…

However, with sequels of the same storyline becoming more and more common among Universal, people began getting bored and eventually gave up with the horror genre. It began to lose steam and eventually the first string of characters retired from the industry.

Alas, the next style of horror movies – psychological – (Cat People), was a success bringing in over $4million while only costing $141,000.

1950’s Horror Movies• Many subgenres were

explored in the 1950’s with graphics becoming technologically advanced.

• Fears of Invasion from previous cultural times meant that many films such as The Blob and rampaging mutants like Godzilla widened the target audience while still highlighting the horror genre.

Psycho and the 1960’s• Psycho was the breakthrough in modern day horror

films. Arguably Hitchcock’s most famous, it was a turning point in the style of horror. With blood, gore and the slasher subgenre explored, the social revolution of the era featuring at the time, controversial levels of violence

• Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho and The Birds)• Vincent Price (Witchfinder General and House of

Usher)• Mario Bava (Black Sunday and Black Sabbath) • The above directors were key in breaking through the

genre with films that changed the genre for decades.• Many people saw the films at the time as too graphic

and over the top, however they were so popular due to being the first of their kind.

The 1970’s• The ‘70s enhanced what we saw in the

1960s however as the audience were aware, we see that the world began preparing itself and enjoyed what they saw.

• The themes of sex, war, religion and violence were shown in the conventions of the horror movies.

• Zombie and Cannibal movies were also explored in the era of horror.

• The shock factor among the audience pushed films like Jaws and The Exorcist, some of the highest voted horror movies of all time were made in the 1970s.

Slasher in the 1980’s

• Horror in the beginning of the 1980’s was enhanced by slasher films such as Prom Night, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th.

• Towards the end of the 1980’s, we were introduced into the comic subgenre and a lighthearted take on horror eg. Ghostbusters.

• “Stalker Thrillers” were also shown greater in the 1980’s.

Horror in the 1990’s

• The early 1990’s bought masses of success for the horror genre with it becoming blockbuster successes…

• The Silence of the Lambs swept the major academy awards in 1992, which spurred studios into funding large-scale horror-themed projects. In 1996, Scream’s success ignited the slasher genre and spawned similar films.

• Overall, big blockbuster hits meant popularity and a wider target audience and more money for the distributors.

Modern Day Horror – 21st Century• The US horror blockbusters were remakes of

previous films with a modern twist, in order to reuse storylines and incorporate new target audiences aswell as previous. These were such as Halloween, Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th. They also incorporated foreign films like The Ring.

• Innovations in the genre were made with most notably one of the most popular horror films of all time with 7 sequels, ‘torture porn’ was a huge success – films like Saw.

• Supernatural films were also enhanced with new technologies, creating realistic settings for films like Paranormal Activity.

• Horror Films of today are the most popular genre in itself as they attribute the highest grossing's and a mass for the growing target audience.