1. The History of horror
Aaron Hawkins

2. The birth of horror films - 1910’s
The first horror films were created in the early 20th century, when the films were silent and colourless. This made it impossible to show darkness and shadows in the earliest horror films which in modern day are seen as one of the most important features of the horror genre. The idea of creating horror films was helped shaped through books dating centuries back which mostly included monsters. The early horror films included these unnatural creatures such as in the film ‘The Golem’ (1915) directed by Paul Wegener, which featured a solidly built clay man. Another early horror film is ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’ (1919) which is set in a lunatic asylum, featuring an evil madman. Slightly later, the 1920’s features ‘The Nosferatu’ (1922), the very first vampire film which is a good example of an early horror film as it features many of the codes and conventions we can see in modern horrors.
The Nosferatu (1922)

3. 1930’s
The horror genre was greatly affected in the 1930’s as the aspect of sound was brought into films, which wasn’t previously the case where ghosts and monsters were silent and fear was created through their physical appearance. The addition of sound had a huge impact on horror films as it allowed the diagetic sound of creatures growling and people screaming, as well as the non-diagetic sounds of eerie music to create tension and terror. This meant that the horror genre could now be represented through noise as well as images. At this time horror movies were used as an escape from the viewers normal lives. It mostly features characters in costume such as in ‘Dracula’ and ‘Frankenstein’ both from 1931, as well as ‘The Mummy’ (1932). Each are good examples of the use of costumes in 1930’s horror as well as the use of accents to create the presence of horror through image and sound.

4.
The 1940’s are when horror films began to introduce primal animals and beasts such as ‘The Wolf Man’ (1941). This is when horror movies started to stray slightly from the old 19th century European fictional monsters.
The 1950’s consisted of a similar theme of monsters and beasts, but brought in new ideas for monsters such as giants insects and mutants created through scientific experiments. An example of this being ‘The Wasp Woman’ 1960 which featured the mixing of human and insect body parts. This also included radiation which was a big influence in creating large monsters such as ‘Godzilla’ or the shrinking of existing living things, e.g ‘The Fly’. The 1950’s also included a range of technological advances for horror films putting them into the B-movie category, such as producing films with colour. The use of stop motion on models or the use of blue-screen techniques allowed the monsters to be brought to life.

5.
Horror films developed in the 1960’s as people perception of horror had changed. The traditional featuring of monsters in the horror films was now based more on humans with of a bad nature and with the desire to kill. For example ‘Psycho’ based on a real story of a knife wielding maniac. This era also featured a number of ghost stories such as ‘Carnival of Souls’ (1962). The films of the 1960’s were also more open to nudity and onscreen violence and so the more bloody side of horror films were beginning to show, for example Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1967) featuring hordes of the flesh craving undead.
Leading into the 70’s, horror films began to include the aspect of possession such as in ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968) and ‘The Exorcist’ (1973). As the technology had advanced, greater special effects were able to be used such as mechanical, on-set special effects rather than added in post-production. The 70’s also featured films such as ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974) and ‘Jaws’ (1975).

6.
By now most kinds of creatures featured in horror movies had already been thought up such as supernatural, alien and human based monsters. Movies were able to advance further in the 1980’s as special visual effects could now help create the visions of the movie makers such as in ‘Alien’. Technical advances allowed better animation and thus sparked a new audience of sci-fi fans. Also, the 80’s consisted of a range of slasher films such as ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984). These films featured a number of blade wielding maniacs as the antagonists.
The 1990’s largely featured a range of sequels to the previous films, also including the ‘Friday the Thirteenth’ films and the ‘Halloween’ films. However, these films were growing less and less popular as technology advanced further, meaning the effects used in sci-fi films such as ‘Alien 3’ (1992) were becoming more appealing to audiences.

7. 2000’s
Finally, the 2000’s featured a large amount of horror films that used a large variety of the styles used in the previous decades, bringing back ideas such as ‘zombies’ in films such as ‘Resident evil’ in However, a new era of horror film was created in the form of documentary style, supernatural films such as ‘Paranormal Activity’ (2007). This modern style of filming and the special effects used captivated the audience and hooked them in.
Another emerging trend consisted of psychological horrors, such as ‘The Others’ (2001), as well as complex gory films, including the ‘Saw’ films.