1890s – 1920s
This is the time in which the first horror genre films we beginning to be made. Supernatural events occurred in several silent shorts made by Georges Méliès. His film Le Manoir du diable which translates as The Haunted Castle is often referred to as the first ever horror film. Soon after, in the early 20th Century the first monster was shown on screen, this was Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre-Dame. The first film with Quasimodo in was released in 1906, three more films featuring the monster followed in 1909, 1910 and 1911 respectively. German Expressionist film makers significantly influenced horror for a period of time soon after and the first vampire film was made in 1922. This was called Nosferatu and was an unauthorised adaptation of Dracula. By 1923 Hollywood had picked up on the horror genre creating versions of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in 1923, The Monster in 1925 and London After Midnight in 1927.
1930s – 1940s
In the early 1930’s Universal studios had begun to make horror films, the earliest of which were Dracula and Frankenstein both in 1931. Universal also produced The Mummy in 1932 which introduced Egyptology to the horror genre for the first time. Universal’s horror cycle continued into the 1940s where they produced The Wolf Man in 1942, this was not the first werewolf film but it has been touted as the most influential. In was in this time period that certain actors became known for appearing in horror genre films and started to build their whole career on this, like Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
1950s – 1960s
In this time period advances in technology were made allowed two sub-genres of horror to become apparent, these were the horror-of-armageddon and the horror-of-the-demonic films. During the late 1950’s Great Britain began to shine when it came to producing horror films, Alfred Hitchcock created the first slasher film in 1960 called Psycho. Another highly influential horror film of this time was Night of The Living Dead in 1968, concerning zombies. The film was made on a low budget but made $30 million internationally.
1970s – 1980s
In the early 1970s paranormal horror films began a rise in popularity. The Exorcist was released in 1973 and was followed by lots of films where the Devil represented the supernatural evil. Evil children and reincarnation also became popular themes for horror films during this time. The Omen in 1976 was also incredibly popular. Through the 1980’s more violent and slasher horror movies were made including Friday the 13th in 1980 and A Nightmare On Elm Street in 1984.
1990s
The slasher theme continued through the first half of the 1990’s with sequels being made for A Nightmare On Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Child’s Play and Halloween. Candyman in 1992 and The Dark Half in 1993 were part of a mini-movement described as metafictional horror films that liked to mix fictional horror with real life horror. However horror took a down turn during this time due the endless amount of slasher movies that had been made in the 1980s and the fact that the teen audience who enjoyed these movies so much had now grown up and moved on. To reconnect with this audience during the second half of the 1990s horror became more ironic and to some extent even parodic. The Scream movies began being released in 1996 and featured young characters who were aware and made references to the history of horror films.
2000s – 2010s
The beginning of the 2000s saw another quiet period for horror films. Psychological horror became popular with the likes of The Ring in 2002 and The Grudge in 2004 being released. However the most popular sub-genre of the 2000s has been zombie themed films. 28 Days Later in 2002 and Dawn of the Dead in 2004 both did incredibly well at the box office and a remake was made of the former. A return to graphic violence has also been accounted in the 2000s with the Saw franchise being the most famous. Updated remakes of older horror films have also proven worthy with today’s horror audience with Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street remakes doing well.
Shannon Cotton 