History of Horror

History of Horror

German expressionism were movements which started in Germany before the First World War, it was at its best in the 1920s. One great German expressionist is Fritz Lang.  Fritz Lang is considered as one of the best directors of all time with his dark ominous melodramas. Lang was forced to flee Germany by the Nazis. He eventually ended up in Hollywood in June 1934. His first film in the USA was Fury (1936), this involved a man falsely accused of murder and almost lynched by a mob, this relates to Lang and the Nazis. Lang also made You Only Live Once (1937). Lang had 4 Anti-Nazi movies, including Hangman Also Die! (1943) and Ministry of Fear (1944). This was all part of Lang educating the public about fascism.

The Horror genre wouldn’t be the same today if it wasn’t for The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Nosferatu (1922). Although the storylines prove to be fairly similar, the two films each adapt a distinctive utilization of various cinematic techniques that produce two very different kinds of horror. Nosferatu is not just about vampirism, it shows significant images of a town suffering from premature and random deaths, echoes of the Great War and the Great Flu Epidemic fatalities.

Another part of early horror was ‘Monsters and Mad Scientists’.  These types of horrors were called Universal Horrors. Universal horrors were a series of distinctive horrors with suspense and science fiction films made by Universal studios from 1923-1960. These were movies such as:

·         The Phantom of the Opera (1923)

·         Dracula

·         Frankenstein

·         The Mummy

·         The Invisible Man

·         Bride of Frankenstein

·         Werewolf of London

·         Son of Frankenstein

·         The Wolf Man

·         Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Universal then followed up their 1935 hit The Werewolf of London. There was a well established werewolf mythology leading back to the ancient world but there was no single established story like in Dracula with the vampire myth which was easily adapted. Another director who fled Nazi Germany similar to Fritz Lang was Curt Siodmak. Siodmak then directed a Universal film called The Wolf Man in 1941 which was a mix of several wolf legends. Siodmak combined pentagrams, gypsies, silver bullets and a full moon to create a robust myth.

In the 1950s a horror genre containing mutant creatures and alien invaders became popular. There has been a question for centuries; is there another life form out there? For a lot of people it was a big fear. This was why a lot of these films were successful horrors.  The first Alien of series of films was released in 1979; this was so successful it sparked off a series:

·         Alien

·         Aliens

·         Alien 3

·         Alien Resurrection

·         Predator

·         Predator 2

·         Aliens vs. Predator

·         Alien vs. Predator Requiem

In the 1960-1970s a genre started containing Ghosts, Zombies and Satanism. This is still a popular genre today. Most of the modern horrors today involve Ghosts, Zombies or Satanism. There are currently around 570 zombie films and 515 supernatural horrors films in today’s market. One of the most successful writers of zombie films is George A. Romero. Romero was a film director, screen writer, actor and editor best known for best known for his gruesome and humorous horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He written 7 books and these are the following films associated with George A. Romero:

Year	Film	Credited as				Character George plays
		Director	Writer	Editor	Actor
1968	Night of the Living Dead	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Washington reporter
1971	There's Always Vanilla	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-
1973	The Crazies	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Mayor
	Season of the Witch	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-
1978	Martin	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Father Howard
	Dawn of the Dead	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	TV Director
1981	Knightriders	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-
1982	Creepshow	Yes	-	Yes	-	-
1985	Day of the Dead	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Zombie with scarf
	Document of the Dead	-	-	-	Yes	Himself
1987	Creepshow 2	-	Yes	-	-	-
	Drive-In Madness	-	-	-	Yes	Himself
1988	Monkey Shines	Yes	Yes	-	-	-
1990	Tales from the Darkside: The Movie	-	Yes	-	-	-
	Two Evil Eyes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-
	Night of the Living Dead	-	Yes	-	-	-
1991	The Silence of the Lambs	-	-	-	Yes	FBI Agent in Memphis
1993	The Dark Half	Yes	Yes	-	-	-
2000	Bruiser	Yes	Yes	-	-	-
	The American Nightmare	-	-	-	Yes	Himself
2004	Dawn of the Dead		Yes	-	-	-
2005	Land of the Dead	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Puppeteer
	Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream	-	-	-	Yes	Himself
2008	Diary of the Dead	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Police Chief Arthur Katz
	Day of the Dead	-	Yes	-	-	-
	Dead On: The Life and Cinema of George A. Romero	-	-	-	Yes	Himself
2009	Deadtime Stories	-	-	-	Yes	Himself
	Survival of the Dead	Yes	Yes	-	-	-
2010	The Crazies	-	Yes	-	-	-

 

In 1934 a British film production company was founded called Hammer Studios. Hammer studios went on to be a big British success in 1955-59. Hammer studios had had modest success with low budget TV and radio series. They found there niche with the classic monster horrors. Hammer Studios were known for their gothic horrors: Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy etc.

In the 70’s Hammer Studios couldn’t keep up with the new films like the exorcist. They eventually made their last film in 1976 called To the Devil a Daughter.

In the 1980s Slasher movies became really popular. A slasher film is a type of horror typically involving a killer who kills a group of people in a violent manner. One of the first slasher films was Psycho. Some people may not think Psycho was a slasher film but its influence would be felt for years after its release. If there was no Psycho horror simply wouldn’t be the same and we wouldn’t have seen Freddie, Jason and Michael Myers.

Films such as Scream were warmly received because of their self-aware, parodic take on the subgenre. Roger Ebert called them "Dead Teenager Movies” .This was not the first time he had attacked the genre or coined a term for it: originally during the 80s, he and the late Gene Siskel had a special about the term they used back then, "women in danger" films, where they said how the genre was degrading to women as it would show them at the mercy of a strong brutish man.

In the 1980s films were getting really creative with murders getting more and more realistic from

In 2004 Saw was released which showed people kidnapped and set up in torture games eventually dying. This then sparked of a genre; this was similar to the explosion of slasher films after Friday 13^th. Saw was eventually followed by Hostel, The Human Centipede and more saw films etc. This genre was called Torture Porn or Goreography. This involved people getting tortured and murdered violently and psychotically.