History and Development of Horror Movies

First Horror Movie

Jun 18, 1915

The Golem was the first horror movie and was based on a Jewish legend. It was a silent movie.

1930s Films

Jun 18, 1930

Sound was added to films to give them more depth than the previous silent 1920s horrors. Audiences were more enthusiastic about horror films, charecters such as mad scientists were very popular.

Dracula

Jun 18, 1931

The popular book from 1897 was made into a film for all to watch at the cinema and was a huge sucess for Universal.

Frankinstein

Jun 18, 1931

The mad scientist who tried to make his own human but turned into a monster who terrorised everyone.

King Kong

Jun 18, 1933

The film Kingo Kong was a sucess there was great popularity due to the outrageness of a giant gorilla in the cinema and has influced many films such as Jurassic Park.

1940s Films

Jun 18, 1940

Horror films in the 1940s were an American product as they had been banned in Britain during the war. It was not a time of innovation for horror films but they continued to be made.

Wolfman

Jun 18, 1941

Wolfman was a big hit in America and it incooperated the use of make up and some special effects. There were a lot of wolf themed horror movies at this time due to them being a real threat to people at the time.

1950 Films

Jun 18, 1950

The main audience for the horror movie makers at this time were teenagers who wanted films with thrills. At this time horror movies had become 'B movies' and were not greatly popular.

Godzilla

Jun 18, 1951

Mutation and monster films were popular at the time such as Godzilla which was said to be 'the monster of all monsters'.

Drive Thru Cinemas

Jun 18, 1956

Some of the first drive thru cinemas were opened in 1956 to promote the teenage audience to go and watch films in a different way.

Psycho

Jun 18, 1960

Psycho is one of the most popular horror films and is still at present day. The film was realistic and was just what audiences wanted at the time, there were also mechanical special effects done at the time which greatly improved the quaility of the film.

1960s Films

Jun 18, 1960

In the 1960s their was a great change in what people percived as horrible, they wanted more realistic horror. Due to changes in society such as the introduction of contreption and tales of the horrors of child birth people wanted horrors which could acctually be real.

The Birds

Jun 18, 1963

The birds was another of Alfred Hitchcocks famous horror film about birds but moving on from the teen audience of the 1950s was aimed at adults.

1970s Films

Jun 18, 1970

Horror films of the 1970s reflected the grim mood of the decade and had overall grown up.

The Exorcist

Jun 18, 1973

This film has been voted the scariest film of all time and made people question there faith, it had very good special affects and took itself seriously unlike many of the other horror movies of the time. It was a 'grown up' horror movie.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Jun 18, 1974

Texas Chainsaw Massacre was based partly on a true story of grave robbings in Texas, which obviously appealed to the audiences want for real life horror. Although it was banned in the UK for 20 years.

Jaws

Jun 18, 1975

Was directed by Steven Speilburg and was one of his first films about giant shark attacks. It made over $400million in box office.

1980s Films

Jun 18, 1980

Horror Films in the 1980s had finally developed the speical affects to refelct what the audiences were gorily imagining..

The Shining

Jun 18, 1980

The Shining was one of the first films to use 360 degree visions so looked very different to any other horror films at the time.

Nightmare On Elm Street

Jun 18, 1984

Was one of the first horror films which was filmed in light places to try and show that the horror could happen anywhere at any time.

1990s Films

Jun 18, 1990

Horror films in the 1990s were very much physcokillers but the audience now wanted more comedic elements.

Scream

Jun 18, 1996

Scream is one of the few horror films which is almost a slapstick of all previous horror films such as nightmare on elm street and texas chainsaw massacre. It appealed very much to the young adult generation.

2000s Films

Jun 18, 2000

Many horror films in the 2000s were based on events that were going on at the time such as 9/11. There was also a lot of torturing films such as Saw and these mainly involve the torturing of women.

Final Destination

Jun 18, 2000

The final destination films were testing peoples belief in fate and the idea that people could possibly beleive that these things would acctually happen.