The History of Horror

1920’s

The first horror movies: silent and black and white.

Early horror films are surreal, dark pieces, owing their visual appearance to the expressionist painters and their narrative style to the stories played out.

1930’s

As sound could be recorded, the fearful characters now “grunted and groaned and howled”.

Sound adds an extra dimension to terror, whether it be music used to build suspense or signal the presence of a threat, or magnified footsteps echoing down a corridor.

1940’s

Purpose of horror remained mostly the same, but as they were so popular now “horror movies were cranked out by Hollywood solely to amuse the domestic audience, by using tried and tested methods”

Many horror films were created with the idea of wild animals being a great fear and threat to humans or films in which “men or women were subject to the emergence of a primal animal identity” such as Wolfman and Cat People.

1950’s

This animal theme continued into the early 1950’s. There were also now “faces attached to evil”.

The main audiences of horror films were teenagers, so the aim of the films was to create thrills within the audience.

Also creating of more supernatural and science fiction horror was the introduction of “the unknown”. For example UFO sightings and aliens.

1960’s

The sexual revolution.

More open to nudity, onscreen violence, and other tropes that challenged social mores, the drive-in teen audiences of the 1950s were growing up. They wanted horror that was more rooted in reality, more believable, more sophisticated.

1970’s

Horror movies of the 1970s reflect the grim mood of the decade.

The 1970s marked a return to the big budget, respectable horror film, dealing with contemporary societal issues, addressing genuine psychological fears.

The crumbling family unit becomes the source of much fear and mistrust.

1980's

Technical advances in the field of animatronics, and liquid and foam latex meant that the human frame could be distorted to an entirely new dimension onscreen.

Managed to terrify through suggestion, providing triggers for the audience's imagination and letting them scare themselves.

2000’s

Many commentators have identified the true beginning of the 21st century as September 11th, 2001. The events of that day changed global perceptions of what is frightening, and set the cultural agenda for the following years.

Audiences wanted a good, group scare as a form of escapism