Horror films are movies that aim to achieve the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. The main themes include slasher, vampires, zombies, evil childre, cannabalism, haunted houses etc. Many horror movies also include a central villain.
The genre of horror is nearly as old as film itself. "Monster movies" were amongst the first horror themed moviess. These were silent shorts created by Georges Melies in the late 1890's. Films created by German filmmakers in the early 1900's were the earliest horror-themed feature films. Nosferatu (1922) was the first vampire themed film. The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1923) and The Monster(1925) were some of the early Hollywood dramas which dabbled in the horror theme. Both starred Lon Chaney who was the first American horror-film movie star.
In the early 1930's American movie studio's such as Universal Studios created the modern horror film genre. This bought to screen gothic themed films such as Dracula, Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy(1932). These films were designed to thrill but also to bring in some more serious elements and were influenced by the Freudian concept. Actors such as Boris Karloff begain to build careers around the genre.
In the 1950's the tone of horror films shifted away from gothic to more modern. A lot of low-budget productions featured humanity overcmong threats from outside such as alien invasion and deadly mutations. During this time the horror and sci-fi genres were often the same. These films provided opportunity to wow audiences with gimmicks such as 3D and "percepto" which was the electric shock technique used for 1957's The Tingler. This drawed audiences in week after week for bigger and better scares. Some of the good horror films of this period included The Thing From Another World(1951) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. These films managed to channel the paranoia of the Cold War into a creepy atmosphere without resorting to exploitation.
In the late 1950's/early 1960's there was a rise of studios centered specifically around horror such as the British production company Hammer Films which specialised in bloody remakes of horror stories. These sometimes controversial films started a trend for more explicit violence in both horror and mainstream films.
In the late 1960's the genre moved towards non-supernatural psychological horror. Psycho (1960) by Alfred Hitchcock used all too human monsters rather than supernatural ones to scare the audience. Peeping Tom by Michael Powell was an example of this genre.
In the late 1970's mainstream films started to focus on disaster films such as The Towering Inferno and thrillers such as Jaws. Independent filmmakers upped the ante with disturbing gore-fest such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974) by Tobe Hoope. In 1978 the original slasher mobie Halloween debuted with great success. Halloween introduced the teens threatened by superhuman evil theme which was copied by increasingly violent movies throughtout the 1980's such as Friday the 13th.
In the 1990's horror movies turned to self-mocking irony and outright parody. Scream movies featured teenagers who were fully aware and made references to horror movies. It also mixed ironic humour with shocks. Only 1999's The Blair Witch Project attempted straight ahead scares. This was done in the ironic context of a mock documentary.
In the 2000's there has been a mix of teen horror with films such as The Final Destination and more serious attempts such as Night Shyamalan andThe Ring.
