A History of Horror
- Dec 8, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 4, 2022
Horror: an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting: a shuddering fear. This is the foundation of the term implemented into the horror genre.
Many of us like a good horror film, whether it is for psychosocial, blood, guts, slashing, comedy, or blood sucking purposes; we are fascinated by the genre.
For over a century, horror films have been made; some flopped, but some became instant classics, yet most of our generation refuse to watch films over 100 years ago. Kim Newman, acclaimed author and film critic who specialises in the horror genre thinks he knows why that’s the case: “Netflix subscribers, that’s the reason! I think it’s because there is so many of these things like Netflix that they only tend to have certain horrors.”
In a recent discussion on Rosie Hughes Reviews Facebook page two in ten said they wouldn’t watch a film from 100 years ago because they felt it wouldn’t hold their interest as it has outdated ideas that puts them off watching the likes of ‘Nosferatu’ and ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.’
‘Nosferatu’ and ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’ are films associated with the German expressionist movement, and, to this day are still classed as two of the greatest films ever to be made. Newman said in relation to ‘Nosferatu’: “It’s a brilliant film, that’s the bottom line. Murnau was an incredible director with the likes of ‘Faust’ and ‘The Last Laugh’. He made brilliant films and with ‘Nosferatu’, even though it was nearly lost because he never got the rights to Dracula, is still one of the best films for its cinematography. It is the same with (The Cabinet of) ‘Caligari’, which has just celebrated its centenary. These films are still being used in film these days and that tells you how filmmakers appreciate them.”
As the decades came and went, horror film productions became more popular. According to liveabout.com, only 15 horror productions made between 1896 and 1927, there was a significant jump in the 1950s with 21 productions being made and the introduction to Japanese horror films starting with ‘Ugetsu’ and the first ‘Godzilla’ film.
The 1950s seen the rise of horror icon Vincent Price with two major productions in the decade with ‘The Fly’ and ‘House on Haunted Hill’ becoming instant classics. Price continued his status as a horror icon right into the 1960s with the likes of, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ and ‘Witchfinder General’. While Price was known for horror in front of the camera, three men behind the camera became horror icons: Alfred Hitchcock for 1960s ‘Psycho’ and 1963s ‘The Birds’, Roman Polanski for his Oscar winning ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ in 1968 and George A Romero’s zombie hit ‘Night of the Living Dead’.
As much as ‘Night of the Living Dead’ became an instant hit, it wasn’t many fans favourite. Neil Hibbert, one of the organisers of the For the Love of Horror convention that has thousands of horror fans descend Manchester every October said: “Dawn of the Dead, it was the first full on film I watched when I was young. I love George A Romeo; I love his work. The rules of the zombie genre were never done before until 68s ‘Night of the Living Dead’. He went against the rules and cast a black actor as the main person, which was unheard of in those times, it took a lot of balls to do that.” Neil also pointed out the real reason why ‘Night of the Living Dead’ was scary: “It was the humans that were the scary thing, you had the older guy, Cooper, he lost the plot, the humans caused more damage than the zombies did. It’s the same with ‘Dawn of the Dead’, George always tackled social issues, same with ‘Day of the Dead’ you know, brings a whole lot of layers to a zombie film.”
When discussing what got Hibbert into horror films, he said: “I’m not sure how old I was but ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ was on channel 4 on a Friday night and I lived with my mum, dad and nana at the time. They knew I wanted to watch it and they wouldn’t let me, so we had three TVs in the house and the unplugged mine. So, I knew that my nan would fall asleep first, so, I sat with my nan and bang as soon as she fell asleep, I put channel 4 on and had my first taste of Freddy Kreuger. It scared the living daylights out of me and that’s when the obsession started.”
In the 1970s, iconic horror films were created; ‘The Omen’, ‘Jaws’, ‘Suspiria’ and ‘The Exorcist’ all of which became box office smash hits. However, it wasn’t until 1978 that we were introduced to the first icon of horror villains – Michael Myers. Michael (also known as The Shape throughout the series) was the main protagonist in John Carpenters ‘Halloween’ and instantly became a force to be reckoned with.
Newman, who viewed the film when it was released said: “In a film series, Jason (Voorhees from 1980s franchise Friday the 13th) had the most kills, but I’m sure Michael has now after ‘Halloween Kills’ with the amount in that film alone. Michael is more than what Freddy (‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’) and Jason are. Yeah, they are all killers, but Michael is more referenced as the boogeyman. Freddy and Jason are all out killers, but Michael in 1978s ‘Halloween’ has very little kills, he is stalking you more, watching you – he is the boogeyman and that genuinely scared me.”
Then came the decade everyone remembers for horror films – the 1980s. With 31 horror films made, there was an expansion of sub-genres within horror. Having ‘The Shining’
kick off the decade, we were then introduced to more superior horror killers than Jack Torrance in the form of Freddy, Jason (who ultimately had a vs film in the early 2000s), Chucky from ‘Childs Play’ and Sci-Fi horror classic ‘Predator’ in 1987.
From the 1990s to present day, horror began to become repetitive, with only a select few in the 1990s being hit horrors like ‘Candyman’ (which website Bloody Disgusting rates as the best horror of the 1990s) and ‘Scream’ – deeming it one of the worst decades that the genre had seen.
In 2004 that all changed with James Wan’s ‘Saw’ and then Eli Roth’s 2005s ‘Hostel’ bringing a new age of violence within the genre. However, Newman said: “I think it’s because there’s so many horror films now being shown with violence rather than anything else. Like ‘Saw’ and ‘Hostel’, more people are watching them now, which are roughly 15 years old. There has been violence for a long time, it’s just more noticeable.”
So, from the beginning of the horror genres conception – why do we really watch horror films? Newman said: “It really depends on what you find frightening. There are so many aspects that are terrifying to all sorts of people. I remember one year when the London Film Festival held a secret horror film screening and they showed ‘Arachnophobia’ and so many people walked out because of their fear of spiders. The horror genre likes to tap into fears of creepy crawlies as well as other things which gives us a variety of elements on the horror scale.”
On a recent question asked on Rosie Hughes Reviews Facebook page, many fans stated the reason they watch horror films is for certain actors, (Jamie Lee Curtis, Patrick Wilson and Boris Karloff were frequently mentioned) but the overall reasoning being they hoped to be scared. There was also a point that was made by one fan that modern day horror films don’t scare them as much, until they recently viewed Edgar Wrights ‘Last Night in Soho’ with the only reason they watched it was for the main star, Anya Taylor Joy and ended up being genuinely scared by its psychological elements.
Whatever draws us to the horror genre, whatever scares us, horror films will always be around to try and evoke fear. It has for over a century, and with upcoming horror films listed on Fansided such as ‘Scream 5’, ‘Halloween Ends’ and ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, which are all sequels to horror classics, we are almost certain that horror films will be with us for many more generations.
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