A History of Horror

The first appearance of supernatural events in movies were done in the late 1890s in silent shorts created by the film pioneer Georges Méliès. The most well know of these being Le Manoir du diable (The Manor of the Devil) which is often called the first horror movie. The second monster to appear in a horror movie was Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre-Dame who appeared in Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris. The first vampire themed movie was Nosferatu by F. W. Murnau (1922). During the early periods of talking movies Universal Pictures began a series of Gothic horror film series which was successful which included Tod Browning's Dracula(1931) and was quickly followed by James Whale's Frankenstein(1931).
As technology improved the tone of the movies shifted from Gothic towards contemporary concerns and the subgenres horror-of-armageddon and horror-of-demonic. There were also many productions that featured humans overcoming threats from "outside" such as alien invasions and mutations in people animals and plants.
An example of this would be the Godzilla movies from Japan in which nuclear radiation causes mutation.
Hollywood producers also used gimmicks such as 3d and pseudo-electric-shocks a technique used in The Tingler a 1959 movie.
After the end of the production code of america and due to the financial success of low budget gore horrors more movies with occult themes being released such as the Exorcist.
"Evil children" and reincarnation also became popular themes, an example of this would be Robert Wise's film Audrey Rose (1977) in which a father believes his daughter is a reincarnation of another dead person.
In the 80s there was a sudden was of Gory B movies that became cult classics.


The 1990's saw sequels to slasher films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween and Child's Play.