Horror Through the Decades

 According to Wikipedia Horror films are 'Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's primal fears.'

The first ever horror film was created by film pioneer Georges Melies in the late 1890s as is best known as Le Manoir du Diable. It was a short silent film that was a brief sketch in the style of a theatrical comic fantasy that tell the story of an encounter with Devil. 

Before the 1930s horror was not called horror it was described as Gothic or melodramatic. The 1930s was a decade where many significant films were produced and 1939 in particular was considered to be one of the biggest years in Hollywood. 

The 1930s was filled with political turmoil and economic problems due to the Great Depression and Europe dealing with the fallout out of World War I. The uncertainty of what was to come for the era lead to a popularity of fantastical, escapist fare meaning people wanted to escape reality and retreat to fantasy. This made Universal horror films highly successful. Films such as Frankenstein directed by James Whale and Dracula by Tod Browning were very popular and remain infamous today.

The 1950s was the introduction of the television so studios and companies were determined to put audiences back into the theatre. They began to present films using widescreen and big-approach methods such as Cinemascope, VistaVision and Cinerama. With an interest in science from the atomic bomb that stemmed from the Cold war in 1945, there was an increased interest in outer-space and the genre of Science-Fiction was born. As studios were more interested in making science-fiction and challenging the new television, horror proved to be less important and became B-Movies. B-movies were low budget films or inferior quality made to be shown in cinemas as support for the main film. Horror and science-fiction were combined together and many successful films were produced such as 'The incredible Shrinking Man'.

Many films were produced during the 1960s and the horror genre was its best. The 60s were a time of change and there was a big change in what people perceived as scary/horrible. This was due to the fact two world wars had passed and there was a rethink in everything from hemlines to homosexuality. Taboo, sex and violence were perceived in new ways and shown on cinema screens. Psychological horrors were made beyond the typical Dracula/Frankenstein style such as Psycho(1960) and The Birds(1963) by Alfred Hitchcock who was at the height of his career. At this time Great Britain began producing many horrors with the company Hammer Productions and they became known for their 'Hammer Horrors' one of the being 'Peeping Tom.'

The 1970/80s were money making decades for horror films. The infamous 'The Exorcist' directed by William Friednskin starring Linda Blair was released in '1973'. This decade was also the introduction to the sub genre of "Slasher" films which are films where there are a series of violent assaults or murders by an attacker armed with a knife or such. In 1978 Halloween was released and a precursor to slasher films. Cult films also became popular such as the very well known 'The Texas Chain saw Massacre'. The theme of children and family members being the villain dominated these decades and the idea of 'the enemy from within' was actually found inside your home. This was seen in 'The Shining' and 'The Stepford Wives'. More infamous films that were released during these decades were 'Night of the Living Dead', 'Carrie', 'Friday the 13th' and 'Child's Play' which started off the trend of dolls being featured as the enemy in horror. 

By the 1990s audiences were beginning to find horror hilarious rather than scary. Many did the opposite of what the genre was made to do and were unsuccessful however one that proved popular was 'Silence of the Lambs.' It was a psychological horror and was a sleeper hit that eventually received praise. It sparked a lot of controversy and has accusations of homophobia, transphobia and sexism and some believed that it shouldn't have received its 4 Oscars. Horrors began to become more realistic and there was increase in technology so they also became more advanced. One infamous example that took the realistic approach was 'The Blair Witch Project' released in 1999. Film critics said that the film was an embodiment of horror "modernising its ability to be all - encompassing in expressing fear of American Society." It was a psychological horror that was so realistic that there was a lot of controversy surveying whether the footage was real or made the film. Another infamous film of the 90s was Scream which was released in 1996 and was a crowd pleaser with a sequel being released the following year. It mocked previously made horror films and the stereotypes of the genre.

In the early 2000s the horror film making industry were hit hard after the tragic event of 9/11 as they struggled to come to terms with what was acceptable for public viewing. However they've picked up and have proven to be a very successful genre with 'Paranormal Activity' being the most profitable film made. Horror films have varied in terms of sub-genres, however psychological and paranormal films have been very popular. For example 'The Babadook,' 'The Conjuring' and 'Insidious' Horror films have become more realistic introducing the theme of theme of 'the fear of the unknown'. Many TV Series' have become horror inspired and are very successful such as 'American Horror Story', 'Scream Queens' and 'The Walking Dead'.