Assessment 3 Timeline Of Horror

1890's-1920's

Horror films began to appear in the late 1890's with silent shorts created by film pioneers such as George Melies. His most notable film being Le Manoir du diable (aka 'The House Of Devil') which was released in 1896 and is sometimes credited as being the first horror film. Another one of his horror projects was 1898's La Carverne maudite (aka 'The Cave of the Demons').

In 1910, Edison Studios produced the first film version of Frankinstein, thought lost for many years, film collector Alois Felix Dettlaff Sr. found a copy and it saw a 1993 release.

The early 20th Century saw more milestones within the horror genre including the first monster to appear in a full-length horror film.

Earlier full length horror films were created by German film makers in 1910's and 1920's. This era also produced the first vampire-themed feature, F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922)


1930's-1940's

The horror film became more popular in the early 1930's by American film producers, particularly Universal Pictures Co. Inc. They brought a series of successful gothic features to the screen such as Dracula (1931) and Frankinstein (1931) some of which blended sci-fi films with gothic horror. These films were designed to thrill but also included more serious elements and were influenced by the German expressionist films of the 1920's. Some actors began to build careers in these types of films, such as Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. In 1931, Fritz Lang released his epic thriller M, which chillingly told the story of a serial killer of children played by Peter Lorre. Universal horror films continued into the 1940's with 'The Wolf Man' (1941) not the first werewolf film but certainly the most influential. During the decade Universal continued to produce more sequels in the Frankinstein series as well a number of films teaming up with their monsters. The first horror film produced by an indian film industry was Mahal a 1949, Hindi film and it was a supernatural thriller and the earliest known film dealing with the theme of reincarnation.

1950's-1960's

Advances in technology developed in the 1950's therefore the tone of the horror film shifted from being gothic to the late-Century audience. The horror film then fell into three sub-genres the horror-of-personality film, the horror-of-armageddon film and the horror-of-the-demonic film. Film makers continued to merge elements of science fiction and horror over the following decades. The most noticeable film of this era was 1957's 'The Incredible Shrinking Man' from Richard Matheson's novel. In the late 1950's and early 1960's production companies focused on producing horror films including the British company Hammer Film Productions. Hammer enjoyed huge international success from full-blooded technicolour films involving classic horror characters often starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, such as 'The Curse Of Frankinstein'(1957), 'Dracula' (1958) and 'The Mummy' (1959) and many other sequels. Hammer and director Terence Fisher are widely acknowledged as pioneers of the modern horror movie. Alfred Hitchcock's Physco (1960) had a feature-length orginal, two feature-length films, two television movies and a feature-length remake of the original. The horror has a human explanation, steeped in Freudian psycology and repressed sexual desires.

1970's-1980's

Due to the huge success of 'Rosemary's Baby' in the late 60's, more films with occult themes were released in the 1970's, such as 'The Exorist' (1973). 'Evil Children' and reincarnation became popular topics particularly in Robert Wise's 1977 film 'Audrey Rose', written by Frank De Felitta and 'Alice, Sweet Alice' (1977). In the 1970's horror author Stephen King debuted on the film scene as many of his books were adapted for the screen starting with 'Carrie' (1976), which was nominated for academy awards. John Carpenter created 'Halloween' (1978) which went on to become a successful independent film. In 1975 Steven Spielberg began his rise to fame with'Jaws'. Similar animal stories which followed include 'Orca' and 'Up From The Depths'. However 'Jaws is often credited as being one of the first films to use elements such as horror and mild gore in a big-budget Hollywood film. The 1979 film 'Alien' combined the naturalistic acting and graphic violence of the 1970's with the monster movie plots of decades gone by and used science fiction and became a landmark film for that particular genre.

The genre boomed at the start of the 1980's with Sammo Hung's 'Close Encounter's of the Spooky Kind (1981) launching the sub-genre of 'kung-fu comedy horror', a sub-genre often featuring hopping corpses and tempting ghostly females known as fox spirits with the best known examples being 'Mr Vampire' (1985) and 'A Chinese Ghost Story (1987). The 1980's were marked by the growing popularity of horror movie sequels. 1982's 'Poltergeist', which was directed by Toby Hooper, followed by two sequels and a television series. The endless sequels to 'Halloween, Friday the 13th' (1980), and Wes Craven's supernatural 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (1984) were popular horror films in the 80's. 'Creepshow', spawned two sequels in 1987 and 1990 respectively, 'Creepshow 2' and 'Tales from the Darkside:The Movie' aka 'Creepshow 3' as did 'The Evil Dead' (1981). Another trend that appeared in the 80's was the infusion of blatant comedic elements most commonly 'one liners'. 'Motel Hell(1980) was one of the first 1980's films to mock the dark conventions of the previous decade. The laughs were generated by the gore, defining the archtypal splatter comedy.

1990's

During the first half of the 1990's, the genre continued the themes from the 80's. Sequels enjoying some commercial success include 'Child's Play' and 'Leprechaun. Films such as 'A Nightmare on Elm Street', 'Frday the 13th', and 'Halloween' all had sequels in the 90's. In the latter half of the 90's horror became more self-mockingly iconic and outright parodic. Wes Craven's 'Scream' movies, starting in 1996, included teenagers who were fully aware of, and often made reference to, the history of horror movies, and mixed ironic humor with the shocks. Along with 'I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and 'Urban Legend' (1998)'. Amongst the popular English-Language horror films of the late 90's, only 'The Blair Witch Project' (1999) attempted straight-ahead scares. Thr horror was accomplished in the context of a mockumentary or mock-documentary. Hideo Nakatu's 'Ringu', which is a Japanese horror film found international success with a similar formula in 1998.

2000's

At the start of the 2000's it was a quiet period for the genre. A re-release of a restored version of 'The Exorcist' in September 2000 was quite successful. A revival of 'Final Destination' (2000) spawned three sequels featuring teen-orientated humor. There was a major return to the zombie genre in horror movies made after 2000. The Resident evil video game franchise was adapted into a film in March 2002,three sequels followed. A larger trend is a return to the extreme, graphic violence that characterized much of the type of the low budget exploitation horror from the seventies and the post-Vietnam years. Films including 'Wrong Turn'
(2003), and the Austrailian film 'Wolf Creek' (2005), took their cues from 'The Last House on the Left(1972), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre(1974), and 'The Hills Have Eyes'(1977). Remakes of late 1970's horror movies became normal in the 2000's. Some of these include 'Dawn of the Dead'(2004), 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'(2003) and in 2007, Rob Zombie wrote and directed a remake of John Carpenter's 'Halloween'. Not living up to the original it was criticised by most, but was a success in its theatrical run.