HISTORY OF HORRORHISTORY OF HORRORDESIREE EHOWO-OTSHUDI

The word ‘horror’ comes from the Latin word

‘horrere’ which means to shudder, stand on end.

Before the 1890’s, there were no films. Films were amateur

and didn’t really make any profit

because first film made in 1890’s.

Early Horror was inspired by art and

literature, for example, ancient

myth and folklore. It mainly focused on

the supernatural and occult for its horror. An iconic painting

called the Nightmare is believed to have

influenced the Gothic novel,

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

LE MANOIR DU DIABLELE MANOIR DU DIABLEThe first horror film was in 1896,

created by Georges Melies, a French film maker. Melies was a pioneer of ‘silent horror movies’.

The film is titled Le Manoir Du Diable (The Devil’s Castle).

Gothic literature was a key influence for the horror genre. The first Gothic

novel was in 1764. It refers to the medieval buildings that the stories took place

in, for example, old castles, gloomy forests, dungeons and secret passage ways.

Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922) is one of the earliest classics of horror. It was an

unauthorized adaptation of Dracula

(Bram Stoker), influenced by German

Expressionism. The Expressionist

movement often dealt with madness, sanity

and betrayal.

NOSFERATUNOSFERATU

Films created during the 1900s were in the 1930’s by Universal

studios after sound was introduced – which gave a new lease of life to the horror movie

genre. Camera technology became more advanced which opened up to new sub-genres, e.g. slasher sub-genre. Films set the standards of what the

horror conventions are.

Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931) and Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931) are two

examples of horror films that were recreated.

1930s

In Hollywood, they started to produce Psychological

Horrors.

Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was an iconic

example of this subgenre.

Psycho is considered as one of Hitchcock’s best films and praised as a

work of art by international film critics. It

set a new level of acceptability for violence

in American films.

Psycho

Children and re-incarnation became more popular subjects

in 1977. The success of low budget gore films such as The

Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) and Carrie (Brian De

Palma, 1976).

Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 The Shining fused the psychological

and the supernatural. This went on to be a classic.

Horror films are now a mixture of things from

gore, psychological thrillers to the end of

the world and monsters.

Present Day Horror