The History of Horror

In the 19th century horror stories like Frankenstein, Dracula and, Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, came about with the influence of Viennese academic, Sigmund Freud, who explored the areas of the human consciousness, assisting in turning classical literature into a psychological plane. The impact they had was portrayed through film rather than book, so people were terrified when the audience could actually see horror before their eyes.The horror of the silent era came from the German expressionism. Horrors made in this era had a much deeper meaning; subtly relating to the world wars. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari was released just before the First World War. It's back drop contains abstract art that appeared unusual and frightening- even the character movement was jerky and created a weird atmosphere. this film set the way of German expressionism and Nosferatu followed shortly after. Nosferatu was a mimic of the book Dracula. When trying to get the rights for the book to be used as a film, they wee rejected and had to change the names and main story line to avoid being used. however, this didn't stop the film from being classed as an influential masterpiece. Within the silent era 24 films became 130 within just a four year period, and Germany became part of the international film industry.

The 1930's paved way to the creation of Monsters taking over the horror scene. The characters were often inhuman or monster-like. In this era, if you had a monster in your film, it'd increase the popularity of your film. This was because it was unknown and showed creativity. This also led to the creation of classic horror cards too that were played as games and now a collectors item. films that were most popular include Frankenstein, King Kong, and Dracula. Mad scientists were also another big hit at the cinema. these films were solely about ingenious/crazy scientists that would achieve the impossible. For example The Invisible Man was to become a Universal Horror classic. This was about a chemist who finds a drug to make himself invisible and plans to take over the world. Monsters and Mad scientists are essentially like horrifying fairytales.

A decade later and people started turning into the Primal Animal Within. This era saw werewolves and cat people being all over the cinemas. the whole werewolves trend may be representative of the Nazis for example, it may show hitlers 'bite' trying to consume the world; turning good to bad. the film The Wolf Man is a mixture of several wolf tales, and uses the werewolf as it's main fear factor to allure the horror audience. Cat People came along towards the end of world war 2. This horror is about a lady who believed she was cursed and eventually turned into a giant cat who then became a dangerous threat to civilisation.

Hammer film productions became a missable British founded in 1934. It later created such films as The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula (1958) and The Mummy. These films weren't in black an white unlike most and focused the story line on the victim rather than the villain, for example, Frankenstein wasn't seen as a criminal but on a quest for knowledge and self justification. these productions became a wheel of inspiration, and changed the script to suit the audience.

Mutant creatures and alien invaders became a huge hit in the 1950's. Horror breaks free of its literary roots and allows technology to take over through blue screens, assisting the creation of a new genre of Sci-Fi horror. This led to the creation of films like The Blob (1958), which was about a an outer space creature that consumed everything in it's path. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers too was an alien idea, that was an attempt to take over the world, and let the human mind fear the alien threat that could be imminently possible. these films correlated to the advances in technology and became somewhat an advertising technique to allure people into the cinema.

In the 1960's and 1970's, Ghosts and Satanism became a new trend in horror. These grim horrors somewhat represented the dull outlook of the decades and big budget horrors made there way back on the scene. The Exorcist is a world rebound film, known as one of the scariest films ever made (although now it doesn't appear as scary). It's about a little girl who gets possessed by a demon and eventually 'seems' to be exorcised. in the actual creation of this, they used hydraulics to make her look as though she is jolting up and down in the air supernaturally, which cause the actress severe back troubles, resulting in her gaining compensation.This era evolved around the idea that neglected children would do bad things to their parents. The Omen followed pursuit of The Exorcist, and both created numerous recreations of the classic. The House became a horror which fell in the category of ghouls within this era too.

Slasher Movies and Body Horror came about in the 1980's. Gore was born from the minds of the fans and directors, progressing horror on to the next level of extreme circumstances. The improvement of technology and use of products meant that animatronics, liquid and foam latex could be used in realistic close-ups of the human frame. Special effects could now allow the viewer to be more up close and personal with the more gruesome and violent scenes. Monsters of the 80s also increased in fear factor and original ideas like vampires, werewolves, and zombies were created on another 'trophic' level. Aliens could be more vividly created as well. Recreation of the films with more blood and gore, that focused on the mutilation of the human body, appealed to a new and old audience setting a new standard for special effects. The Thing and Alien followed suit. Slasher films such as Halloween and Friday the 13th were also created within this time period, consisting of clever psychopathic killers, stalking 'innocent' teenagers, who were also classed as the target audience. Usually attacked with a sharp object which shows male dominance, I.e. A knife/machete. Several remakes were made within this time frame due to their popularity!

Video nasties came about the 80's also. This was about the same time as VHS came onto the scene and became an integral part of horror films success. Low-budget films that wouldn't get a release in the cinemas could go on to VHS and became huge hits within the home. The term 'straight to video' was born as a result. Due to children having access to the videos at home, it wasn't just adults viewing such films. especially seeing as films were unrated back then, whereas now we have the British Board of Film Classification to create an age rating for DVDs or Blu-Ray CDs. 39 films in the 80's we're put onto the 'video nasties' list, and banned in the UK. All the Cannibal films got banned and so did films such as Axe, I Spit on Your Grave, and Zombie Flesh Eaters.

Gore returns with vengeance and is produced as a prezi, explained in more detail, also in label D.