The History of the Horror genre

1. Horrors roots in Classic Literature: lead the way to three great 19th century horror stories Frankenstein,

Dracula and DR Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

The original Dracula was made in 1931 and based loosely on the Romanian prince who ruled over Transylvania and was

known for his gruesome and violent battles, murders and acts of impalement, he was called ‘Vlad the Inpailer’ but his

real name was Vlad Dracula 1456-1462 this film has glamorised the historic man and made him into a iconic horror

character which uses the connotations of the horror genre to make it entertaining and sometimes funny for audiences.

The main killer and focal point of this film is Dracula a very unique, dominate character who looks very menacing the

director of this film Rod Brownings the man behind many famous spin offs has horror during the 1940s, he used low

angles to create a sense of danger for the audience and that the audience and other characters in frame are in

innocent, this creates tension when watching the film as, use of editing is used less in this film because it was filmed on

black and white film so more modern way of editing was harder to do, i think that the use of camera angles and sound

replace this, the film hasn’t lost any of its appeal as i can still see why people would have been scared of it.

The narrative structure unusual for films of that era as it doesn’t follow the traditional narrative structure Todorovs

narrative structure, this structure which was based on old Russian Folk tales and it helps audiences understand what is

happening or what will happen, through familiarity of the pattern, this film uses this structure but breaks it up or mixes

it about to make the film more entertaining and most importantly this is one of the big and popular conventions of the

horror genre, it makes the film more scary.

At the start of the film uses dramatic non diegetic orchestral music this is used to create a atmosphere and sense of waiting for

the action to happen this suspense can make the film more scary, the loud and sudden sounds of high pitched violins remind me

of screams, they are used almost like jump cuts, and jump scares, this non diegetic score is used and repeated throughout the

film almost every time the villain is in shot or something bad is going to happen.

At the beginning of the film there is a short moment of equilibrium where the poor local women are doing house work and seem

nervous for some unknown reason, but then a car pulls up and recognition of disruption is shown almost straight away a the

upper class English man arrives seemingly un aware of the danger in the town, dialogue, script this use of folk law and a heavy

use of superstition, reflects a different culture and where Dracula originates, i think that this use of regional iconography create

a fantasy place audiences can project their own fears and ideas of what it looks like. Religion is also used ‘to protect’ this is used

to reinforce danger and gothic superstitions, i think that it is used to connect the audience with the characters as well, because

Christianity was the dominate religion in the UK. Secondly Point of View shots, slow chorography and close ups are used to

reinforce the disruption as well as strong connotations of horror, like spiders, cobwebs, gothic imagery castles, coffins dirt and

rats, this jump cut to the villain creates a suspense as audiences wonder what will happen to the main protagonist. The

costumes show who are most powerful, or evil, the main protagonist or hero sets off on a quest to move Dracula in a nice light

smart suit but by the end of the film, he is seemingly a mad man, with his costume reflecting this with his shit and trousers

untucked it is much less formal and held together. Whereas Dracula always wear all black and this gives him a very mysterious

and menacing image, i think that the English Doctor has a Similar costume as well, he always wear similar clothes to Dracula and

this suggests the power of the characters, as the professor is seemingly from around the same area as the villain. Women are

shown very traditionally in this film with only 4 women in the whole film and even then the main countess only says a few

words, there is no use of blood or violence in this film, the crime of Dracula is trying to take a young, soon to be married virtue,

she is seen as innocent and fragile, always wearing silk and riches of Jewry, i think that using her as the villains motivation would

have been quite shocking at the time when as a woman giving out any sort of sexual signals would have been completely

unthoughtful of and scandalous.

The screams of the heroine are piercing i think they are used almost like jump scares as they didn’t have the technology to use

the modern day editing, but using black and white film in this creates a more scary image as the low key lighting and heavy use

of shadows. Finally the use of intimidation is shown through having the innocent and good characters sitting down, as the villain

is standing up and leaning over the character.

The roots of the word “horror” came from the Horace Walpole's 1764 novel, The Castle of Otranto, book which was

became gothic tradition in the genre For half a century, gothic novels reigned supreme in the 1800 but at the beginning

of the nineteenth century Romantic poets started to reflected the strong emotions of horror conventions, recognising

that fear and awe aren't so very different sensations. A these two major conventions combined it lead to The first great

horror classic (Frankenstein 1818) was written by a Romantic writer at the heart of the movement - Mary Shelley. Bram

Stoker and Edgar Allan Poe, Everyone from Emily Bronte to Charles Dickens wrote gothic and ghostly fiction novels –

the most famous being the signal man, or a Christmas carol many writers you might not even realise has a strong

supernatural element to their righting.

2. The Silent era of horror: started with German expressionism, the cabinet of Dr Caligari Nosferatu, and the impact of

world war 1 on films, with the exodus to Hollywood just before the war.

Horror was popular in both books and theatre at the time. Although the term horror was not associated with film until

the 1930s, early filmmakers and film watchers showed a strong interest in the macabre, in France this was taken from a

“Spook Tale” from 1895 created by the Lumiere brothers, this use of puppets was some of the first footage shot of a

gothic nature. In 1986 This 40 second video would later grow into becoming one of the first short horror films ever

made. ‘the Haunted castle’ by George Melies. This style and genre was still in the making in this era it was being

explored by many directors who have never seen it before, leading to the first adaption of Dracula in 1910 by Thomas

Edison.

In the Nineteenth century audiences enjoyed seeing ghosts captured in still photography, and magic lantern shows, so it was

natural that the idea of superimposition would be continued onto film in order to tell bizarre story’s, and disturbing imagery.

While the first moving pictures where action and comedy, early filmmakers also used photographic trickery to explore darker

stories with psychological and supernatural themes, things like stop frame animation, these are now recognised as the first

horror films. Film makers had to be challenged by the new and specialist technology of film to broaden the limits of photography

and tell a story powerful enough to make the audience disbelieve and therefor get scared, and hooking people onto the genre

to find out more, or trying to fix the disequilibrium.

3. German Expressionism: was a style of cinema that concentrated expression over realistic expectations of reality.

Starting off throughout Europe, German filmmakers and artist started this unique style inside a small cultural bubble

that was the result the German dictatorship and society’s problems facing World War I. Without any interruption from

the famous powers of Hollywood, the independent Europe and German film industry grew quite quickly and creatively.

A group of German industries came together to convinced the German military of the importance of German films, but

before this could become popular the war ended.

In the first few years of this era, German industries were only allotted power on a rota but the German military used the

majority of this up so film makers started to paint shadows onto sets where they wanted in replacement of lights this gave the

films a more abstract and painterly look that many other films.

This technique combined with strange angles and experimentation with perspective using paint created a unique and

unforgettable look which inspired film makers and artists around the world to break the conventions of film and art in horror. I

really like this era of horror because I think that it shows what people where thinking at the time, as a result of world war 1 and

2 it shows how everyone’s ideas of what’s normal was changing, I think that it also suggests the confusion of everyday people

the film style shows how .. up and bad the economy and life was during the war and the transition into the 20th

century with

new technology and a whole new outcome on life.

After the war the German economy became bankrupt and in debt because of the large expenses and compensation to other

countries this lead to Hollywood taking back the power in film as German films, Hollywood took the popular style and adapted it

to larger audiences as it became harder to make due to the high prices and costs of sets in Europe, but cinema still boomed

because it was the only form of entertainment that Europeans thought that they were getting their money’s worth. It was silent

but included classical music, quick paced string and sudden bangs of pianos, but still leant more towards dance and body

language to replace the use of dialogue, this look also gives the films more dramatic.

Many German film makers fled to America in the war to escape Nazi Germany and this lead to many of them staying in America

to continue the style on for years to come.

4. Monsters and mad scientists American universal studios horror, dominating with European influences on the genre to

make sub/ hybrid genres, linked in response to world war 2.

Analysis of Frankenstein: - reference to Hitler

The original Frankenstein was first adapted from the bestselling book, written by Mary Shelley in 1931 directed by Jack

Smight, Filmed in black and white it used the idea of experimentation, death, science and technology as well as some

special effects and make up to produce on of the most famous and iconic films of the horror genre, i think that this film

incudes all of the tradition iconography, sound and traditional conventions of the genre, it set a base line for all the

horror films to come.

The obvious monster and killer, villain in the film is Frankenstein himself being made out of dead body’s it is the

audiences worst nightmare, but after looking into the film more i realised that infect that Mary Shelley has made the

actual scientist and creator of the ‘monster’ the villan, as the trainee doctor has lost faith in God as his brother died, so

he joins with the devil to restore his brother’s life, at the beginning of the film the ‘creature’ is portrayed as physically

beautiful as a experiment but as the film unravels it becomes increasingly hideous as the idea of going against God

becomes stronger. Only 4 minutes into the film the disruption of the equilibrium starts, the grave digging and idea of

top medical doctors even thinking about experimentations would have been shocking to religious people at the time,

idea that the top intellectuals where doing this creates a sense of disgust, this could have been projected onto other

political and social problems at the time.

The camera is used a lot as eye level, or eye line i think that this creates the idea of the audience being in on the

conversation, almost as if the characters are talking to you. It makes the scene more realistic and personal if it is shot in

their point of view, high angles and the use of wires, reinforces the idea of interfering with God, the magazine hammer

horror, did the makeup and special effects for this film, creating more synergy between fans of the genre, and helping

the sales, high angled tracking shots are used to show that the Dr had to got a very low place to create the ‘creature’

and it has back fired as towards the end of the film, you realised how cruel the experiment it because he has made his

brother almost primeval he won’t have a life, just be imprisoned, frank is shown as innocent and scared of fire, this

shows the audience that in fact the doctor is the monster.

The director has shown the power of the different characters by where they stand on screen, for example in many

scenes, the women and the Dr are sitting down at a low angle whereas Frankenstein is standing up or the dominate

character is standing over them, this intimidation shows the audience how the film is changing. Women don’t have any

power in this film, there is only one main female character in the whole film and she is represented very stereotypically,

she agrees on everything her husband is doing and will go along with everything the male characters do showing she

has now power and is seen as week, this would appeal to the target audience of men, using the cameras p.o.v does this

too as the male gaze theory is used to show intimidation.

i think the film reflects the era this film was made in, a time where new and modern technologies in war fair

and everyday life was breaking up traditional class systems and creating tension with socialists and

communists, in-between the action or dramatic sometimes quite heavy scenes it will jump cut useing linear

editing to show another storyline, this gives the film more continuity and flow, i think that it also keeps the audience

grounded and in the real world, for example strait after the ‘Its Alive!’ scene it cuts to the hero character talking to his

dad and wife, in a old fashioned way, talking about old values and traditions they are sceptical of the Dr and what he is

doing, i really like this contrast in the film as it keep you interested in to finding out what happened and it adds more

depth and layers to the main storyline.

The period between the post war years and the 1950s was the most difficult time holly wood has ever gone through,

because of the rise in popularity of the television and laws to prevent studios being built, Hollywood found it difficult to

stay relevant, and as a result horror films staid strictly under the radar as Hollywood tried to preserve it’s A-list talent

for lavish classics. But horror films where still popular with the target audience of teenagers who wanted thrills even is

the storylines and scripts lacked in talent.

The Horror genre tapped into the threats from the cold war and post war Europe with the strong fear of invasion

blending into the growing popularity of science fiction, using left over sets and the heavy new influence in the use of

more sound in film effected the audience by beginning to transform cinema into a more artistic leap, this effected

horror more than another genre – you can tell this now, just by turning off the sound on your favrioute horror film it

wouldn’t have the same impact.

Universal was one of the main 5 institutions that started off the wave of horror films in the 1930’s

In Macabre 1958, the director promised every customer a $1,000 life insurance policy if they die of fright. The film

House on a Haunted Hill in 1959 triggered a skeleton that would fly around the cinema suspended on wires. Once

audiences knew this was coming they’d bring their slingshots and see who could be the one to shoot it. And the Tingler,

also in 1959, wired up cinema seats with joy buzzers and encouraged the audience to scream as a way of calming down

the monster that was let loose in the cinema.

5. 1940s response to world war 2: Primal animal within, werewolves and cat people.

But as the Universal Gothic Horror Cycle began to lose influence and fall in popularity, this started the making of

the self-parody with titles like the Invisible Man and Frankenstein meets wolf man in 1943, the universal monsters

started to be treated like batman villains bringing all of the famous characters together in parody started the

growth of hybrid horror films, the comedy element became popular as audiences became exhausted with the

serious monsters and film making. I like this style because it pokes fun at the famous classics and gives them life I

think, it might ruin the scariness of the original films but it lead to inspiring many other films in the years to come.

But continuing on with the low budget horror films became more popular, by re using old sets and less costumes and

make up, films makers guided audiences away from the parody’s and started the stylistic ghostly, creepy horror films.

Cat people is one of the first and most obvious use of the male gaze theory(the idea that the camera is in the point of

view of a male horror character) creating suspense, the famous ‘stalk scene’ in Cat People is a good example of this.

This low budget film brought it over $4 million dollars in revenue opening the gates for many more similar films.

This was the era when sexuality and gore was used more to stand out from all the remakes and parody’s being made at

the time, Cat people was one of the first films where sex and eroticism is shown, for example the moment where the

lead character Irena not so subtly takes of her stockings for a bath for instance, this might not stand out to modern

audiences but in 1942 this was a big deal.

Animal themed monsters, like werewolves where very popular in this era as the gothic, human monsters like

Frankenstein and Dracula where out growing the audience and becoming the butt of jokes, whereas animal reflect the

effect of world war 2 on society and what they think of evil. I think that human evil ‘monster’ characters became too

relatable to the war, something the world never thought would happen, did and killed millions of people, Hitler was a

real person so this fear and persona was reflected and recreated in a new fantasy way where audiences can be scared

without being reminded too much of the war and very personal killings around the world.

6. The 1950s response to a shift in literary influences, and a Fear of Communism.

Godzilla analysis:

The original Japanese film is called Gojira filmed in 1954 was one of the first films to feature the mini scenes to show

the destruction of monsters, this film was one of the major step ups, for science films of the era.

This is a films response to ‘the red scare’ influenced by the rise of the cold war and the North/south Koran war against America

this strong fear of communism in society with radical politics and leftism this hysteria created a mounting fear of a revolution

that would change everything, change church, home, marriage, society’s and the American way of life. This started the labour

strikes and more open poverty, but it started to even out the class system in the western world communist leaders have always

been power hungry this became the inspiration to the next wave of horror films.

In addition the black conscientious shift in literature influenced the genre, this shift was a direct response to the protests and

communism change in society, this resulted in protest righting and poems and the shift in attitudes towards literature it showed

how everyday people had more freedom and could be more expressive with society, this effected representation in film and

spawned films like Godzilla and war of the worlds are good examples in which the films subtly show what everyday people

where fearing in a science fiction, horror genre.

Powerful people didn’t want to have everyone to have t he same equal rights people like Cenotor joseph McCarthy started

violent witch hunts and brutally jailing people for following democracy.

Before the cold war America and Russia where the two power houses of the world and they were competing for power,

they were rumoured to making atomic bombs, because of the fear from the 2nd

world war so as war technology

advanced so did the fear of war, after the japan bombed the Perl Harbour In Hawi the fear of attack was strong so that

signalled the beginning of the war for America, from then on the USA started experimenting with different atomic

bombs off the coast of Japan, the day the biggest atomic bomb was released onto the islands a Japanese fishing boat

got contaminated and all the fish on board where found

distorted and mutilated by the effect of the bomb, seven months later the sailors died too, after this disaster, the fear

of an atomic attack was strong in everyday civilians, this resulted in the making of the film.

Directed by Ishiro Honda known for science fiction films, he was inspired by this turn of event threat of war, and

wanted to make a film about it without being controversial or obvious to opposing countries, i think that he has done

this cleverly in this film because there are many times throughout where he has used stereotypes of Americans or

Russians to represent the country’s part in the film, i think that it suggests that the Japanese are wondering what the

Americans and Russians think about what they are doing, it give the film a sense of propaganda, but if you didn’t know

much about the film then you would just think it was just another science fiction horror.

The film starts only 4 minutes in with a recognition of disruption as the Japanese are bombing the Americans at the

famous bombing of perl harbour, this is shown through the point of view of the Japanese’s, using long shots and

tracking shots, to grab audience’s attention and emerge them in the action from the start, but i think that this is

unusual because i am so used of seeing the conflict from the Americans point of view, but this opening scene is used to

reinforce the power and destruction of technology and warfare, i think throughout the film it hints, almost implants the

fear and threat of invasion, through the non-diegetic dramatic music and soundtrack, and military meetings, but you

don’t actually see the result of the threat, the monster until halfway through the film, the use of intimidation is shown

by using point of view shots and extreme close ups of reactions and the impact of the destruction, i think that this

makes the first view of the Godzilla much more memorial, because you already have a fear of it beforehand, i also think

that the sound of the monster helps, its distinctive sound, made by smashing and distorting a base speaker, gives face

and voice to the distorted face, damaged as a result of nuclear warfare.

Shot in black and white to save money, because of the expensive cost of costumes and the set, i think that if the film

was shot in colour it wouldn’t have had the impact it did because, the dark tones and dramatic shadows makes the film

very mysterious, it is one of the main conventions of horror and their for helps the film to be more scary, as you cant

see everything, i think that it covers up the little in perfections and hides the unrealistic miniature set, it keeps the

emphasis of the monster, by using low angles and tracking shots, the explosions and fire look realistic as possible, this

would have been very scary at the time because of the real threat of invasion, i think that audiences would have

projected their own fears onto the film. But in contrast the director has cleverly kept the film grounded by using jump

cuts to break up the disequilibrium, and show the result of it, the effects on schools, hospitals and streets, not many

films did this at the times so reinforcing the reality of the disequilibrium is important to make the film scary.

Finally at the end Godzilla dies for ever i think that this reflects the realistic threat of what bombs do, there is no fantasy

in that sense, there is a large full stop at the end it is abrupt and violent as many people have died as a result, there was

no spin offs or remakes of the film until this year, with the 50th

anniversary the film was adapted with CGIU and an all

star cast, but nothing will be better than the original film.

this era was the first time the villains in these films where woman, playing on the fear of from men as woman became

more politically and socially powerful, as women took over all of the mens jobs over the war, so men were scared of

what they were coming back to. In the 1940s American regulations and censorships made watching American films

difficult giving Europe and western films a chance to get into the popularity of horror. The theme of monsters,

werewolf and aliens came from the fear of ‘men’ as the biggest enemy, for example Hitler’s nick name was “the wolf”

leading to the fact that the monster will always die at the end of the film, suggesting a patriotism or war propaganda as

it shows the enemy always dieing.

Furthermore the Aliens and mutants show the fear of science and technology after the war I think that this reflects how

shocked people where about how suddenly easy it was to kill people whereas before crime was relatively low, there

was also religious implications in this genre as space travel was becoming more realistic the argument of evolution was

challenged and the fear of people bringing back unknown diseases and bacteria from space became a reality that struck

fear into everyone.

7. Hammer horror the success of British horror films;

Is famous for its quitasentualy English using classic gothic castles and old Victorian villages as sets it emerged with

the classic Curse of Frankenstein but because of the success of universal studios British horror films stayed mostly in

the shadows until the 1950 – 1970’s the war created a larger sense of national identity and this was picked up in

film. Hammer horror also brought more sex and gore into the cinema.

The company’s most famous films where the remakes of Dracula, the curse of Frankenstein and the sequels, famous

classics what no one had ever seen in shocking colour, and injecting a bit of sex into this already eye-catching films,

hammer horror films caught on to this niche audience and started rolling out the films over the years after the war,

through many sequels re using sets and keeping a similar and recognisable style through out to make this era its

impact was strong on the horror genre and lead to the next generation of horror.

But by the end of the 70s the British Hammer horror films popularity started to dwindle as more modern realist films

where released at the beginning of the 80s this era shot directors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushings into fame the

men behind the films the wicker man and the lord of the rings.

As the decline in movie sales at the box office British film company’s started to mix different and contrasting genres

together, they didn’t completely abandoned the Draculas and frankenstein of the 70s but breathed new life into

them by creating hybrid genres, for example action and horror or kung foo and horror these where some of the most

controversial and talked about hybrid films because it was so unusual for the company to do this.

8. 1980’s Slasher and body horror and gore, with the descent into the postmodern

parody (scream) and the birth of the horror sequel and franchise.

With advances in technology in the 1980s films visual effects finally caught up with the true and realistic gory images of horror

films and the true idea of gore this pleased horror fans and movie makers, around the world and sporned some of the most

‘classic’ horror films in history. The Technical advances in animatronics and a liquid and foam latex meant that the human frame

could be distorted and destroyed in new and never before seen ways, in a realistic close up. Everything that was in the shadows

in the 1950s could be brought out into open daylight for the first time.

All of the films still followed the same conventions of previous history, with the same ghosts and monsters, but the 80s brought

a new type of monster, replaced by cuddly aliens like in Star Wars and ET were used to balance out in contrast to the grotesque

extra-terrestrials of the Alien Trilogy and The Thing. Werewolves made a strong impact in the early 1980s with

the Howling series and An American Werewolf in London – I think that this, as in the 1940s, reflects a fear of the 'wolves' stalking

each other under the power in response to the Cold War. Ghosts are not as popular in the 80s as gore became more popular,

but they are still a cause for terror, filmed as traditional ghosts, such as those haunting Hotel in The Shining or some of the most

famous characters, Freddy Krueger who is technically a ghost.

The 80s provided images of blood and gore which get audiences reaching for a bucket, a physical reaction of nausea

and fear, this challenges the audience to keep watching despite their revulsion. Experiments on the effects of media

violence have shown that even the most hardened viewers find it difficult to keep watching surgical operations and

experimentations; I think that it is something about watching the insides of our own bodies gets strong responses from

audiences with real repulsion.

The horror genre is very unique compared to other film genres in that there is a recognizable pattern that happens

again and again. A film will be relied and terrify an audience capturing their imaginations and making lots of money

then Filmmakers flock to the popularity to get the money, like vampires to blood, which then leads to sequels and

imitators to try and milk as much money and sales as possible, these sequels are sometimes better than the original.

But eventually the sequels run out of steam and become over played so they become more of a joke and pariody than

serious scary films this leads to create a hybrid or subgenre because the original hit fades into memory and making a

mark on the history, waiting to be rediscovered adapted or reborn in the future. This is one of the unique appeals of

horror because of its low budget and ability to reach a multinational audience, make horror especially susceptible to

this boom and fade cycles. The 1980s was one of these boom cycles.

9. 1980’s video nastiest format fears and moral panics, now regarded as the classics of the genre- VHR where

not under copyright, so a lot of pirated cheap under the radar films ALL became banned by the government.

With the release of VHS in the 80s it started A film ‘drive in’ allowing teenagers to get hold horror movies in a private

space at home in a dark room, without any adult interference, without any one coming in at all, The VCR made movie

watching a solo being able to store just over 80 minutes of film, for the first time in history since kinetoscopes faded

from amusement arcades in the early 1920s.

Film makers and distributors took advantage of this new media, buy spending more money on full page ads at the backs

of magazines highlighting mutilation and murder. With not much thought to censorship, These bloody gore being

distributed on tape, were audiences where able to view films, repeatedly, by anyone with access to a VCR and the tape.

This completely destroyed the rating system as institutions found it hard to control this distribution, soon children

were being exposed to eye-gouging, fingernail-pulling, exploding heads and tree rape, courtesy of their older brothers

and sisters, or even careless parents.

If a film had been released at the cinema, it carried those rating forward to video release, but the straight-to-video,

VHS’s were largely unrated, because people could copy them themselves, VHS rapidly spread.

In the UK this led to the notorious "Video Nasty Debate", as the tabloid press screamed with headlines of the "Sick

Films Warping A Nation's Young Minds". However film makers would not, or could not clean up their act, and continued

to produce violence and gore for an adult market that was buying it regularly. The Evil Dead was cut by a large 49

seconds for both cinema and video release in the UK, and many films where withdrawn after a series of high profile

court cases, in which it was argued that the film was too graphic.

Unlike the monsters of previous horror cycles, the 80s can NOT be mentioned without the famous directors such as

Norman Bates and Alfred Hitchcock, Who’s work where the roots of the psychological thrillers and horror genres, these

films are set and rooted in reality, with an everyday human on the outside, but psychological monster inside, a man,

keeps audiences thinking with the monsters getting into your head, Hitchcock would shoot another classic horror with

the birds in 1965.

The era began rebooting the famous universal Gothic Monsters, as more and more people became accustomed to gore

and blood the British started to mix thrillers with the traditional horror, by modernising it by adding sex and gore this is

called the Hammer Horror era and this is when the British film market came back into relevance, starting the trend

cycle showing gore for the first time in full chilling colour.

This led onto the gornography in the early 2000’s era where horror become much more realistic, not just in effects but

the storylines became closer to home with many based on true story’s and news

happening at the time for example the first example of this was child’s play released in

1980, the character chucky was based on a 10 year old boys torcher and murder in

Michigan, America this shows that horror is still playing on our fears in cultures even

today, from 2003 to 2004 a lot of the famous tortured, messed up films such as saw and

final destination was based

on real events happing in

the Iraq war where solders

where being tortured and

the footage taken on video

cameras where becoming

a threatening force against

terrorism, showing that it

can actually happen closer

to home.