my horror genre history analysis

1. HORROR GENRE HISTORY
Isaac Reeder

2. GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM
• German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in
Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s.
These developments in Germany were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north
and central European culture in fields such as architecture, painting and cinema.
• The first Symbolic German Expressionist films, The Student of Prague, The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari, The Golem: How He Came Into the World, Destiny, Nosferatu, Phantom and
Schatten.
• The German Expressionist movement was largely confined to Germany due to the
isolation the country experienced during WWI. In 1916, the government had banned more
foreign films in the nation. The demand from theaters to generate films led film production
to rise from 25 films to 130 films. With inflation on the rise, Germans were attending films
more freely because they knew that their money's worth was constantly diminishing

3. GOTHIC HORROR IN THE 19 TH CENTURY
• Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to • Three great films that were produced
as Gothic horror, is a genre of surrounding Gothic Horror in the 19 th
literature that has elements of both century were Frankenstein, Dracula
horror and romance. Gothicism's origin and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde . All three
is attributed to English author Horace of these films have seen great success
Walpole, with his 1764 novel The and have been remade on several
Castle of Otranto, called A Gothic stages.
Story. The effect of Gothic fiction feeds
on terror, an extension of Romance
that was relatively new at the time of
Walpole's novel. Melodrama and
parody were other features of the
Gothic initiated by Walpole.

4. UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HORROR-1930
• In the 1930’s there were many
monsters and mad scientists that were
created in horror genre films, such as
Lon Chaney from The Phantom of
the Opera and also the birth of
Frankenstein and King Kong.
• Most of these films are titled
under Universal Horror. This is
the name given to a series of
distinctive horror, suspense and
science fiction films made by
Universal Studios from 1923 to
1960.

5. PRIMAL ANIMALS IN-1940’S
• Wartime horror movies were purely an
American product. Banned in
Britain, with film production curbed
throughout the theatre of war in
Europe, horror movies were cranked
out by Hollywood solely to amuse the
domestic audience. The studios stuck
with tried and tested ideas, wary of
taking risks that might suggest they
had no measure of the zeitgeist, and
trotted out a series of variations on a
theme. This was not an age of
innovation, but horror movie memes
were, nonetheless, evolving.

6. MUTANT CREATURES & ALIEN INVADERS-1950’S.
• There were a vast amount of changes • The actions of WW2 had left over 40
that took place between 1940 & 1950. million dead, and millions more
In ten short years the concept of a exposed to the full spectrum of man's
terrifying monster had changed inhumanity to man. Homecoming
massively. Films such as Don’t step on soldiers and widows had too many
it!, Jaws, Godzilla and The Thing horror stories of their own to have the
shaped mutant creatures in horror time to watch the big screen, The
films to what it has become today. world could never be the same again.

7. GHOST, ZOMBIES & SATANISM
• Ghosts became very popular around • Zombies are also a massive popular
the 1960’s-70’s era, the first film figure in the horror industry and
around that defined ghosts was The although it wasn’t one of the biggest
Haunting (1963) Where the characters horror films, a film names Night of the
do not believe in the supernatural living dead (1968) and it inspired other
hauntings until it is too late to change movies to be re-mastered and remade
their minds. Ghosts became one of the all over the world. These films made
most popular figures in horror history the films such as Shaun of the dead
and have been remade into several and Dawn of the dead, being inspired
types of horror films. by these types of films.

8. HAMMER HORROR
• Hammer Films is a film production • During the late 1960s and 1970s the
company based in the UK. Founded in saturation of the horror film market by
1934, the company is best known for a competitors and the loss of American
series of Gothic Hammer Horror films funding forced changes to the
made from the 1950s until the 1970s. previously lucrative Hammer
They also made Science style, with varying scales of success.
Fiction, Thillers, Film Noir & Comedy. In The company eventually stopped their
their prime Hammer Films dominated the production in the mid-80s and has
film market, having worldwide since then been in hibernation.
distributuion and financial success, but
the success with help from partnertship
studios, such as Warner Bros.

9. SLASHER MOVIES, HORROR/GORE 1980’S
• Slasher films are very gore filled, and • The film Blood Feast was considered
can be mistaken for thrillers too. the first Splatter/Gore film to be made
Usually there are psychopathic killers and to set off the trend.
and a killing sequence of victims are
included with tools such as knifes and
axes in a very voilent and graphic
manner. Although the slasher style can
be mistaken for other horror genres it
has its own set of characteristics which
set it apart from any other genres.
Slasher and Gore films are very similar
though in that they both focus on
portrayals of graphic violence.

10. FEARS AND MORAL PANICS-1980
• Horror movies surrounding the 1980’s
were often surrounding the watershed
of visual effects to glorify the gory
imaginations of horror fans and the
movie makers. The horror films of the
early 1980s show a new energy and
delight in the genre, as special effects
creators fell over each other to create
sequences that had never been
attempted on film before. Films such
as An American Werewolf In
London, Re-
Animator, Ghostbusters, Gremlin and
others are highly associated with this
film bracket.

11. GORE VENGEANCE RETURN-2000’S
• Horror films are often associated with • In the 2000’s the rising and falling of
gore, and under the brackets the genre ‘Torture Porn’ came about
‘Gore-Nography’ there are plenty of with the help of movies such as
films that are able to backup its Captivity, Human Centipede, A Serbian
suitable name. Films such as Film and others. Supposabley the act
Hostel, SAW, The Hills Have Eyes and of torture represents the ultimate
many others. Films such as these are corruption of power; as the torturer has
developing the horror film the absolute dominance over their
genre, doubling the genre of horror victim. They also control the amount of
films hitting the cinema of 20 up to 40. pain inflicted too, which is of far more
consequence than death.