Tuesday, 2 February 2016

The evolution of the horror genre


Up to the 1920’s

The House of the Devil was the first horror film after the advent of motion picture in the late 19th century. This was followed by Phantom of the opera which was very successful.
 


1930's
Universal studios released numerous horror films following the success of Phantom of the opera including Dracula and Frankenstein. The first werewolf and zombie films were also created by the Americans with the creation of the special effects blockbuster; King Kong.
1940’s
Universal studios were struggling with creating more monster movies like Frankenstein and so they resorted to combining genres creating; comedy-horror. MGM, produced The Picture of Dorian Gray, which won an Academy Award for cinematography, and a remake of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, while Paramount released the highly regarded haunted house picture The Uninvited. India entered the horror genre with Mahal making it an international market.
1950’s
The cold war fed fears of invasion which led to the famous film The Blob. Scientific breakthroughs led to mad scientist plots resulting in The fly. Competition increased as numerous other international efforts to create a horror film came from Japan, Italy and France.
1960’s
Horror films now included more controversial levels of violence and sexuality. Horror luminary of the time Alfred Hitchcock produced Pyscho and The Birds.
1970’s
Social issues were tackled in films including sexism, consumerism, religion and war. Graphic sex and violence were included in the film Texas chainsaw massacre. Zombie films were still popular as proven by the success of Dawn of the Dead.  The shock factor pushed films like Jaws and The exorcist to blockbuster success.
1980’s
Friday 13th and Nightmare on Elm street were the infamous films of the 80’s. Adaptions of Stephan King’s  books were made into films e.g The Shining. a-nightmare-on-elm-street-1984-movie-still-robert-englund-as-freddy-kruger
1990’s-2000’s
Unrivalled critical acclaim for the horror genre with The silence of the Lambs which swept major academies. This success encouraged studios to fund large-scale horror themed projects like Blade. Remakes of popular American horror films were made for example Dawn of the Dead and also foreign films for example The Ring. Saw was referred to as ‘torture porn’ and went on to make multiple follow on films. There was international success within the genre.

 

 

 

 

 



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