Wednesday, August 11, 2010

A Brief History Of Horror Movies

By Adriana Noton

Horror movies has been around for almost as long as movies have been made. Before looking at the horror movie it may be best to look into horror in literature. Knowing this can help our understanding of horror films and where they come from.

Horror films would not have been as prominent if not for the horror literature. Horror literature is what made the horror film what it is today. It was in the 1764 book by Horace Walpole called The Castle of Otranto the term horror was first mentioned. Other great writers like Edgar Allan Poe helped this genre with timeless classics like The Raven. These old horror tales are what many iconic horror films are based on. Some of them will include the classics from the 1800's like Dracula and Frankenstein.

The supernatural were often the main theme of the early horror movie. At the beginning of movie making there were short silent films made including ones in the horror genre. Georges Melies, a French movie maker, is credited with the first horror film made in 1896 entitled Le Manior du diable. The Japanese also made some horror films at this time called Bake Jizo and Shinin no Sosei.

The first full horror film was an adaptation of the hunchback of Notre-Dame. Many of these first horror films were created by German film makers as the early 1900's were the time of the German expressionist films. These films have influenced horror film makers for decades to Tim Burton. During the 1920's Hollywood started dabbling in the horror genre with Lon Chaney Sr. Becoming the first American horror star.

Hollywood started to popularize the horror film in the 1930's. In this time the classic Gothic movies Frankenstein and Dracula were created. Other films mixed Gothic horror with the supernatural at this time as well. The iconic werewolf movie The Wolf Man was created in 1941 by Universal studios. It should be noted that this was not the first werewolf film but has become the most influential. B pictures like The Body Snatchers were made in 1945 as well.

Technological innovations in film making changed the face of horror films in the 1950's. At this point horror films were classed into two categories. These two categories are demonic films and Armageddon films. Many of the social concerns and fears of the times were indirectly placed into the horror films of this era as well.

There were many iconic movies created in the 1960's that changed the genre. The Birds made by Hitchcock was one of the first American Armageddon horror films set in modern times. Night of the Living Dead is one of the most iconic zombie films. This movie changed how people viewed zombies and changed horror films altogether.

The history of horror movies goes back to the beginning of movies. The long history shows how they changed from Gothic classics to what we know today. - 40723

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