2. Definition
An intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust:
“children screamed in horror”
Middle English: via Old French from Latin horror, from horrere 'tremble,
shudder‘
-Oxford Dictionary
3. Origins
1764-
A supernatural novel was written by Horace Walpole (The Castle of Otranto).
This was the starting point for the horror genre.
1794-
Writer Ann Radcliffe slightly modified Horace's Style of writing and published
“The Mysteries of Udolpho”.
1796- Writer Matthew Gregory Lewis published “The Monk”- and at this
point horror started coming into its own.
Early 1800-
The famous writer Mary Shelley Released “Frankenstein” (a novel that is still
being read till this day).
4. The First Horror Film
During the nineteenth centaury short horror films started to come out, these
movies were commonly silent. A filming technique known as spirit
photography, this technique involved using a process called double exposure
which made it look like their was a ghost.
1895-
Le Squelette joyeux, was a short horror produced by the Lumiere brothers.
Viewers showed a lot of attention to this film which kick-started the horror
film genre.
1919-
The famouse “Cabinet Of Dr Cligan” was released, this film had a huge
impact on horror audiences. The film used non diegetic sound, which
transformed the murder scene in the film.
5. 1930’s
From the 1930s and onwards horror films started having dialog, this made horror
films even more popular.
1931-
The box office hit “Dracula” was released. This was the first horror film to have a
full dialog so the director and the cast did not know the correct way of executing It.
1932-
“The Mummy” was released it was the first film to incorporate ancient evil into its
plot, the film was very slow for a horror film, which might be a strange concept to
modern-day horror viewers but when it was released the slow pace was useful.
1933-
Considered to be one of the greatest monster films of all time “King Kong” was
released, it used clever clay animation effects to give , the film more of a realistic
edge.
6. Sub/Hybrid Genres
Many horror films have sub-genres and hybrid genres. Sub genres are a sub
category of a specific genre, where as hybrid genres are made up of a
number of genres.
Franchise’s are when multiple films are produced under one name but are
directed or produced by different people.
Popular franchise's
• Evil Dead
• Final Destination
• Paranormal Activity
• Jaws
• Blade
7. Monsters
Monsters have been a key element in horror films for a long time, they are
generally used to represent the fears of humanity at that time period, this in
my opinion is why horror has been a popular genre for a long time (it
changes with society), for example zombies in previous horror films have
been portrayed as evil and with their only goal being to multiply, however in
recent films zombies have been portrayed in a positive light, being shown to
have feelings and the ability to make friends.
Types of monsters in horror films
Witches Werewolf's
Clowns Dolls
Children Aliens
Zombies Demons
8. How the horror genre has changed
Things tend to change over time, and in this case the audience
expectation, as technology has advanced in cinema the audience
expectation has increased for example through the use of computer
generated graphics we can now make monsters and vampires look
realistic, in addition to this the modern day audience tolerates violence
however this was not the case, back in the early days of horror too
much violence would of not been accepted.
