Horror films seek to trigger negative emotions in viewers by playing on fears. They often involve the intrusion of evil forces into everyday life. Some milestones include the first monster in a full film being Quasimodo, and Universal Pictures popularizing the genre in the 1930s with films like Dracula and Frankenstein. Advances in technology in the 1950s shifted themes to threats from aliens and mutations, exemplified by films like The Thing from Another World.

1. Tim Broughton

2.  Horror films seek to trigger a negative
emotional reaction from viewers by playing
on the audience's worst fears. They often
feature scenes that startle the viewer through
the means of supernatural ideas, hence
frequently overlapping with the fantasy and
science fiction genres. The term ‘horror
movie’ first came about following the release
of Dracula (1931)

3.  Plots written within the horror genre often
involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or
personage, commonly of supernatural origin,
into the everyday world. Themes or elements
often prevalent in typical horror films include
ghosts, torture, gore, werewolves, ancient
curses, Satanism, demons, vicious animals,
vampires, cannibals, haunted houses,
zombies and serial killers.

4.  The first appearance of the supernatural
events that occur in horror films was in the
late 1980s in several silent shorts created by
film pioneers such as Georges Melies. The
most notable being his Le Manoir du
diable(1986).

5.  1896 – Le Manoir du diable
 1896 – Une nuit terrible
 1897 – L’Auberge ensorcelee
 1897 – Le Cabinet de Mephistopheles
 1897 – L’Hallucination de l’alchimiste
 1897 – The Haunted Castle (First British film)
 1897 – The X-Rays
 1898 – The Cavalier’s Dream (First USA film)
 1898 – La Caverne maudite

6.  More milestones were brought in the early
20th century this including the first ever
monster to appear in a full movie of the
genre, Quasimodo, whom was the Hunchback
of Notre Damn who had appeared in Victor
Hugo's novel. Films featuring Quasimodo
included Alice Guy's Esmeralda (1906), The
Hunchback (1909), The Love of a Hunchback
(1910) and Notre-Dame de Paris (1911).

7.  1900 – The Prince of Darkness
 1900 – The Troublesome Fly
 1902 – A Fight with Sledgehammers
 1902 – The Murder at the Red Barn
 1903 – Le Monstre
 1903 – Le Chaudron Infernal
 1905 – The Fairy of the Black Rocks
 1905 – Le Diable Noir
 1906 – Le Maison hantee

8.  It was in the early 1930s that American film
producers, particularly Universal Pictures Co.
Inc., popularized the horror film, bringing to
the screen a series of successful Gothic
features including Dracula (1931) and
Frankenstein (1931), some of which blended
science fiction films with Gothic horror, such
as James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933).

9.  Tod Browning, director of Dracula, also made
the extremely controversial Freaks based on
Spurs by Ted Robbins. Browning's film about
a band of circus freaks was so controversial
the studio burned about 30 minutes and
disowned it. These films, while designed to
thrill, also incorporated more serious
elements, and were influenced by the German
expressionist films of the 1920s. Some actors
began to build entire careers in such
films, most notably Boris Karloff and Bela
Lugosi.

10.  1930 – The Bat Whispers
 1931 – Dracula
 1932 – White Zombie
 1933 – Island of Lost Souls
 1934 – The Tell-Tale Heart
 1935 – The Raven
 1936 – The Walking Dead
 1939 – Buried Alive

11.  With advances in technology that occurred in the
1950s, the theme of horror films shifted from the
gothic towards that of some saw as being more
relevant to the late century audience.
 A stream of low budget films featured humans
having to overcome threats from outside: alien
invasions and deadly mutations to people, plants,
and insects, most notably in films imported from
Japan, whose society had first hand knowledge of
the effects of nuclear radiation.

12.  In 1951 a science fiction film called ‘The
Thing from Another World’ was released but
was also linked in with horror this was based
on a novel written by Campbell. It is about an
air force crew and scientists at a remote arctic
research outpost who have to fight a
malevolent plant-based alien being. It stars
Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, Robert
Cornthwaite, Douglas Spencer and James
Arness.

13.  Produced and directed by George A. Romero
 On a budget of $144,000
 It grossed by $12million domestically and
$30million internationally
 This horror of Armageddon brought the
genre of horror even further away from the
gothic theme and featured zombies in
everyday life

14.  In 1964, the end of the Production Code of
America and the financially successful low
budget ‘gore’ films triggered a release in
more films with occult themes, such as the
‘Exorcist’ and even more like it where it
represented the Devil as a supernatural evil.

15.  In the 1970s reincarnation and evil children
became a hot topic for horror movies, and
example would be Robert Wise’s film Audrey
Rose – which was about a man who claims his
daughter is the reincarnation of another dead
person(1977). Another popular movie with a
satanic horror based story was The
Omen(1976).

16.  The Omen was a suspense horror film
directed by Richard Donner, it was the first
film in The Omen series and had been
scripted by David Seltzer. He also wrote the
novel.

17.  A remake of the film came around on 6th June
2006, this date was chosen specifically
because of the well known ‘fact’ that Satan’s
or The Beast’s number was 666 (06/06/2006)

18.  1971 – Virgin Witch
 1971 – Beast of the Yellow Night
 1971 – The Abominable Dr.Phibes
 1971 – The Black belly of the Tarantula
 1971 – Blood and Lace
 1971 – Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb
 1971 – The Brotherhood of Satan
 1971 – Burke and Hare
 1971 – The Butcher of Binbrook

19.  In the early 1990s the genre continued in the
fashion of the 1980s with a variety of
sequels, including sequels from Child’s Play
and Leprechaun. More sequels from a slightly
different sub genre which were ‘slasher’ films
appeared, with the likes of A Nightmare on
Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Halloween all
of which had good success at the box office,
but were panned by fans and critics.

20.  Produced in 1978
 Directed, produced and scored by John
Carpenter
 Co-written with Debra Hill
 Budget = $325,000
 Grossed $47million at the box office in the
United States

21.  1995 – Copycat
 1995 – Creep
 1997 – The Bloody Ape
 1997 – Event Horizon
 1999 – Deep Blue Sea
 1999 – End of Days

22.  The start of the 2000s saw a major increase
in quality for the genre, with the re-release of
The Exorcist(2000) making a great success
despite the film being on home video for
years. Franchise films such as Freddy vs.
Jason also made a big impact with massive
success.

23.  The 2000s also saw a big milestone being
that the French horror film – Brotherhood of
the Wolf – became the second highest
grossing French-language film in the US in
the last two decades.
 Success for foreign language films continued
with the release of the Swedish film Let the
Right One In which late became the subject of
a Hollywood remake – Let Me In.

24.  Produced in 2010
 Based on the story and novel of Let the Right
One In
 Directed by Tomas Alfredson
 Romantic Horror Film
 Budget = $20million

25.  The films of the 2000s were noticeably
improved from previous films in early
years, with new special effects coming in and
the special effects being more realistic than
ever meaning that horror films are having
more of an effect to scare people.

26.  2000 – Scream 3
 2001 – Dragon
 2002 – Cabin Fever
 2003 – Before I Die
 2006 – The Abandoned
 2008 – April Fool’s Day
 2009 – Antichrist