The history of horror began with Gothic literature in the late 1700s and was first brought to film in the 1890s. German Expressionist films popularized the genre after World War 1. In the 1930s, Universal Studios produced iconic horror films with sound like Dracula and Frankenstein. Independent, low-budget films in the 1940s-50s like Cat People proved horror could be commercially successful on a small scale. Major directors adopted the genre in the 1970s, bringing prestige and bigger budgets to films like The Exorcist and Halloween, spawning many subgenres that are still popular today like slasher, torture porn, and found footage films.

1. The History of Horror

2. How it started
Gothic Horror - Took inspiration from
literature that started in the late 1700’s
-Settings such as haunted castles and
gloomy forests.
-Famous writers include Mary Shelly and
Edgar Allan Poe

3. First Horror Film
1896 saw Georges Méliès make the first
horror film, The Manor Of The Devil.
-It included bats, castles, trolls, ghosts
and demons.
-Elements of gothic horror was prominent
in this film and therefore in the publics
psyche.
-Other films around this era were made,
using the same theme, such as
Frankenstein (1910).

4. German
Expressionism
Post World War 1, Germany took over the horror
industry.
- UFA was formed, but when Germany lost the
war, they seeked to make commercial profit.
-The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) was the
UFA’s first major horror film, and used the
expressionism technique, which created a
unique look and style which was commercially
popular.
-UFA was almost bankrupt, until Hollywood
(Paramount, MGM) bought writes to distribute
their films.

5. Introducing sound
-Universal pictures started the first
Gothic horror cycle in the 1930’s with
sound.
-‘Dracula’ was their first film in this cycle,
followed by ‘Frankenstein’.

6. Low-Budget Horror
Films
Val Lewton was put in charge at a low budget
subsidiary at RKO, to produce horror films at
$150k.
- However, Lewton was given a title from
RKO, and had to base the story around that.
-Cat People (1942) was the first of Lewton’s
films
-They used left over studio sets and painted
shadows.
-It made $4 million over 2 years, which saved
RKO

7. Post WW1-1950’s
Horror films took a backseat and
hollywood concentrated on A-film status
films.
-Horror was still popular with teens
-Pulp science fiction cycle began with
films such as ‘The Thing’ (1951)
-Monsters didn’t always come from
space, such as ‘Godzilla’ (1954)

8. Psychology, sex &
gore (1960’s+)
New styles of horror
-Alfred Hitchcock produced ‘Psycho’ (1960)
which made audiences believe that horrors
could be more than a B-grade film
-Hammer studios introduced their own gothic
horror cycle in the UK, which used universals
monsters.
-It introduced sex & gore in full colour, for the
first time.
- They released 27 horror films based on
Universal pictures’ monsters (1957-74)

9. Horror taking off
Horror started to be taken seriously in both spectrums of the
industry (low & high budget).
-Sub-genres were introduced over the coming decades
-The occult horror cycle was films about satan/supernatural
beings
-This allowed for the greatest film in this sub-genre/cycle,
‘The Exorcist’ (1973)
-Big directors saw potenial in horror, such as Steven
Spielberg, who released ‘Jaws’ in 1975
-Production was a lot better with these high-profile directors
getting involved, which lead to the release of ‘Carrie’ (1976)
and ’Alien’ (1979)
-The 1980’s gave us ‘The Shining’, which went on to become
a must watch classic for any horror fan.

10. Independant horror
& slasher films
As film production technology advanced and prices
decreased, there was a rise in independent film makers,
which meant a rise in new takes on horror
- ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ (1974) was shot on a
very low budget, but it inspired many more teenage
slasher films.
-In 1978 came one of the most successful independent
horror films, ‘Halloween’. Its budget was $325k, and
grossed $240 million by 2012.
-‘Friday the 13th’ (1980) and ‘A Nightmare on Elm
Street’ (1984), were also slasher films and had amazing
successful with numerous sequels

11. 90’s and modern
horror
Slasher films died out, but teen horror was still around, ‘Final
Destination’ (2000)
-Monster films turned to CGI effects, ‘Anaconda’ (1997)
-Psychological horror was popular throughout the 90’s, ‘Seven’
(1995) and ‘Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)
-Modern film introduced new horror cycles
-Torture porn is a modern reboot of splatter cycle (gore). ‘Saw’
(2004) was the first in this cycle.
-Found footage cycle was also introduced, with ‘The Blair Witch
Project’ (1999), which used handheld cameras from the actors
point of view, and mixing it with standard footage. This cycle
also gave us ‘Paranormal Activity’ (2007)
-The Zombie cycle also came back, with films such as ‘World
War Z’ (2013), however it could be dying out because of
comedies such as ‘Zombieland’ (2010)