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Isaac Reeder HORROR GENRE HISTORY

Horror genre history

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Page 1: Horror genre history

Isaac Reeder

HORROR GENRE HISTORY

Page 2: Horror genre history

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM• German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in

Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s. These developments in Germany were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central European culture in fields such as architecture, painting and cinema.

• The first Symbolic German Expressionist films, The Student of Prague, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Golem: How He Came Into the World, Destiny, Nosferatu, Phantom and Schatten.

• The German Expressionist movement was largely confined to Germany due to the isolation the country experienced during WWI. In 1916, the government had banned more foreign films in the nation. The demand from theaters to generate films led film production to rise from 25 films to 130 films. With inflation on the rise, Germans were attending films more freely because they knew that their money's worth was constantly diminishing

Page 3: Horror genre history

• Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre of literature that has elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, called A Gothic Story. The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on terror, an extension of Romance that was relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel. Melodrama and parody were other features of the Gothic initiated by Walpole.

• Three great films that were produced surrounding Gothic Horror in the 19 th century were Frankenstein, Dracula and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. All three of these films have seen great success and have been remade on several stages.

GOTHIC HORROR IN THE 19TH CENTURY

Page 4: Horror genre history

• In the 1930’s there were many monsters and mad scientists that were created in horror genre films, such as Lon Chaney from The Phantom of the Opera and also the birth of Frankenstein and King Kong.

• Most of these films are titled under Universal Horror. This is the name given to a series of distinctive horror, suspense and science fiction films made by Universal Studios from 1923 to 1960.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HORROR-1930

Page 5: Horror genre history

• Wartime horror movies were purely an American product. Banned in Britain, with film production curbed throughout the theatre of war in Europe, horror movies were cranked out by Hollywood solely to amuse the domestic audience. The studios stuck with tried and tested ideas, wary of taking risks that might suggest they had no measure of the zeitgeist, and trotted out a series of variations on a theme. This was not an age of innovation, but horror movie memes were, nonetheless, evolving.

PRIMAL ANIMALS IN-1940’S

Page 6: Horror genre history

• There were a vast amount of changes that took place between 1940 & 1950. In ten short years the concept of a terrifying monster had changed massively. Films such as Don’t step on it!, Jaws, Godzilla and The Thing shaped mutant creatures in horror films to what it has become today.

• The actions of WW2 had left over 40 million dead, and millions more exposed to the full spectrum of man's inhumanity to man. Homecoming soldiers and widows had too many horror stories of their own to have the time to watch the big screen, The world could never be the same again.

MUTANT CREATURES & ALIEN INVADERS-1950’S.

Page 7: Horror genre history

• Ghosts became very popular around the 1960’s-70’s era, the first film around that defined ghosts was The Haunting (1963) Where the characters do not believe in the supernatural hauntings until it is too late to change their minds. Ghosts became one of the most popular figures in horror history and have been remade into several types of horror films.

• Zombies are also a massive popular figure in the horror industry and although it wasn’t one of the biggest horror films, a film names Night of the living dead (1968) and it inspired other movies to be re-mastered and remade all over the world. These films made the films such as Shaun of the dead and Dawn of the dead, being inspired by these types of films.

GHOST, ZOMBIES & SATANISM

Page 8: Horror genre history

• Hammer Films is a film production company based in the UK. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic Hammer Horror films made from the 1950s until the 1970s. They also made Science Fiction, Thillers, Film Noir & Comedy. In their prime Hammer Films dominated the film market, having worldwide distributuion and financial success, but the success with help from partnertship studios, such as Warner Bros.

• During the late 1960s and 1970s the saturation of the horror film market by competitors and the loss of American funding forced changes to the previously lucrative Hammer style, with varying scales of success. The company eventually stopped their production in the mid-80s and has since then been in hibernation.

HAMMER HORROR

Page 9: Horror genre history

• Slasher films are very gore filled, and can be mistaken for thrillers too. Usually there are psychopathic killers and a killing sequence of victims are included with tools such as knifes and axes in a very voilent and graphic manner. Although the slasher style can be mistaken for other horror genres it has its own set of characteristics which set it apart from any other genres. Slasher and Gore films are very similar though in that they both focus on portrayals of graphic violence.

• The film Blood Feast was considered the first Splatter/Gore film to be made and to set off the trend.

SLASHER MOVIES, HORROR/GORE 1980’S

Page 10: Horror genre history

• Horror movies surrounding the 1980’s were often surrounding the watershed of visual effects to glorify the gory imaginations of horror fans and the movie makers. The horror films of the early 1980s show a new energy and delight in the genre, as special effects creators fell over each other to create sequences that had never been attempted on film before. Films such as An American Werewolf In London, Re-Animator, Ghostbusters, Gremlin and others are highly associated with this film bracket.

FEARS AND MORAL PANICS-1980

Page 11: Horror genre history

• Horror films are often associated with gore, and under the brackets ‘Gore-Nography’ there are plenty of films that are able to backup its suitable name. Films such as Hostel, SAW, The Hills Have Eyes and many others. Films such as these are developing the horror film genre, doubling the genre of horror films hitting the cinema of 20 up to 40.

• In the 2000’s the rising and falling of the genre ‘Torture Porn’ came about with the help of movies such as Captivity, Human Centipede, A Serbian Film and others. Supposabley the act of torture represents the ultimate corruption of power; as the torturer has the absolute dominance over their victim. They also control the amount of pain inflicted too, which is of far more consequence than death.

GORE VENGEANCE RETURN-2000’S