History Of Horror

Alien & Mutant creatures

I focused mainly on this particular genre because it was what I initially had to research there fore know most about this genre.
The 1950's saw the birth of a new genre of horror. Alien and mutant creature movies became the new obsession and sparked a frenzy of new movies. World War 2 and the atomic bomb played a massive role in these movies being created. People were scared that the weapons used in war and the atomic bomb would mutate people and deform them. So this is where the inspiration for mutant creatures came from. Although many movies of this type were released, some were more popular than others. 

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956) was one of the most popular movie. The story depicts an extra-terrestrial invasion in a small Californian town. The invaders replace human beings with duplicates that appear identical on the surface but are devoid of any emotion or individuality. A local doctor uncovers what is happening and tries to stop them. This movie also links in with communism at the time of the 50's. Much like the aliens in the movie, communists tried to take over people and make everybody the same.
A re-make of the film was released in 1978.


The Blob (1958) was an independently made movie and was also another popular film of this genre. The movies shows an amoeba like alien comes down form space and terrorises and town in Pennsylvania. Just like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, its about the human body being taken over, referring to communism at the time.  





History's roots in classic literature

• Frankenstein (1918), Dracula (1931), Dr Jekyl Mr Hyde (1986), were the 3 popular horror films to come from classic literature. Frankenstein being the first released out of the three.
• Mary Shelley, the producer of Frankenstein, came up with the idea of the film whilst on holiday with her husband, the famous writer Percy Shelley and they're good friend Lord Byron, a famous English writer.
• Frankenstein is responsible for the beginning of science fiction and has been the inspiration for movies since in this genre.
• Dracula, directed by Tod Browning in 1931 is the most popular film in the horror genre.
• The film was produced by Universal and is based on the 1924 stage play Dracula by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which in turn is based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.
• Dr Jekyl Mr Hyde is the original title of the novel written by Scottish author Robert Stevenson.
• The idea of DJMH came to Robert in a dream.

Monsters & Mad Scientists

• most popular films of this genre/era: Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy
• Enthusiasm for the horror genre become most popular in the 1920/30's.   
• 80 million people visited the cinema each week in the decade of mad scientists and monsters.

1940s werewolves and catwomen

• The most popular films from this genre were 'The wolf man, Cat People, The curse of the cat people'
•  World War II- Adolf Hitler. Adolf means 'Noble Wolf' in old German. He made his sister change his name to Paula Wolf.
• Werewolves can be seen as Nazi's. An idea of this is that the werewolf bites the human, then they transform and pass it on. The refers to how Hitler was trying to take over the world.
• Cat people- a film about women who dominate the men and seduce them and kill them. Woman and cats are linked together because they're both seen as sly and gracious.  

Hammer Horror Film Production

• Founded 1934
• The curse of Frankenstein (1957), The abdominal Snowman (1957), Dracula (1958), The Mummy (1959), The curse of the werewolf (1961).
• Curse of Frankenstein was in colour, not black and white films. Focused mostly on the victim and not the creature. It successfully led to more films.
• Wheel of inspiration; Universal project- change script- audiences like- make another film.

Ghosts, Zombies, Satanism and your family 1960-1970

• Horror movies in the 70's reflected the grim outlook of the decade.
• It also saw the birth of big budget films.
• The main film of that era was 'The Exorcist' which deal with the fear of children. It was banned in the UK till 1999.
• Many ghost stories appeared in the 60's.
• Popular films from this era; The Exorcist, The Omen, Halloween, Alice sweet Alice

Slasher/ Body Horror movies

• Scream, Halloween, A Nightmare on elm street, Friday 13th, Psycho Childs play are a few films popular from this particular genre
• Slasher movies were first introduced in the 1980's due to advanced technology, bigger budgets and special effects.
• Tom Savini is an American actor, stuntman director but he's most known for being a special effects artist. Some of his work is seen in the big time movies such as Friday 13th, Dawn of the dead, Day of the dead and Texan chainsaw massacre.
• Many killers from these movies are still known today and have caused many sequels of the movies and spin-offs. Some of the most famous killers are; Freddy Krueger, Jason, Mike Myers and Chucky.

Video Nasties

• Movies of this genre almost always made it straight to VHS and never viewed in cinemas due to their nasty content.
• many court cases were filed against the films.
• Horror movies became very popular to watch at home as cinemas refused to show them.   
• Banned films; Absurd, Axe, Blood bath, The beast in heat, Blood feast, Bloody moon.

Gorenography and torture porn

• Gorenography is a genre of film that is purely focused on brutal gore.
• It first emerged through films such as The Wrong turn, Audition and the chainsaw massacre.
• The characters, plot and narrative are almost non-existent in these movies because its all about the gore and very violent deaths.
• People like to watch these type of films because people imagine these disturbing thought in their own minds. They also get a thrill out of the and like to see just how far the gore can be pushed.
• Eli Roth is a famous director who is most known for producing the extremely violent films like Hostel.