A history of film and the Horror genre

1. By Luke Sams

2.  Action
 Body Horror
 Gothic
 Comedy
 Psychological
 Sci-Fi
 Slasher
 Supernatural
 Zombie (Widely considered as it’s own Genre)

3. The Horror genre is designed to frighten and panic the audience to invoke
dread and fear in them. Horror films usually rely on a steady build up and
shocking finale, with minor incidents to keep viewers interested but
books can use the readers own imagination against them with loose or
highly detailed descriptions. Horror films typically focus on the dark and
evil side of things with the exception of comedy subs and prey on people
fear of the unknown.
The following presentation shows the evolution of the horror genre from
an idea in a book way back in 1764 to the Hollywood titles around today.

4.  As with most genres and films themselves horror started in
Literature.
 The first noted ‘Horror piece was ‘The Castle of Otranto’ by
Horace Walpole in 1764, although this was far from film as
movie cameras didn’t come into existence until around the
1880s. This novel is what sparked the fire.
 Throughout the 18th century writers began to delve into this
dark side of writing and in 1818 a horror classic
‘Frankenstein’ was published.

5.  The first moving film or motion picture recorded is
‘Roundhay Garden Scene’ which is a short silent film
recorded at 12 frames per second and last for 2.11 second
was shot in 1888.
 The first horror film didn’t arrive until 1896 and was a silent
film titled ‘Le Manoir Du Diable’ (The Devil’s Castle). The
film revolved around supernatural figures such as ghosts
and was set in a mansion.
 In 1911 the first moving film adaptation of ‘Frankenstein’
was created but after this silent films began to fade out
with the invention of better technology.

6.  One of the major breakthroughs in both motion pictures
and photography was the invention of colour film, to start
with colour was introduced by hand painting black and
white film or tinting the entire film one colour.
 The first attempts to record colour onto film was an
additive colour system which consisted of two colours and
involed a camera capable of recording several strips of film
at once and colour filters on both camera and projector.
 A three colour additive system was later invented.