Horror Films History, Example of progression of horror films

Horror movies have long served both purposes. They deliver thrills by the hearseload, as well as telling us stories of the dark, forbidden side of life (and death) – cautionary tales for grown ups. They also provide a revealing mirror image of the anxieties of their time. Nosferatu (1922) is not simply a tale of vampirism, but offers heart-rending images of a town beleaguered by premature and random deaths, echoes of the Great War and the Great Flu Epidemic fatalities. At the other end of the century Blade (1998) is not just a tale of vampirism either, but reflects a fear of the powerful yet irresponsible elements in society, a lawless elite, echoes down the corridor of the growing invincibility of those at the top. Horror movies of the early 21st century cogitate on global concerns of contagion (28 Days Later), or sound reactionary warning notes about the dangers of leaving moral absolutism behind (The Last Exorcism, The Conjuring). Horror movies provide a unique space for free discourse about the moral, political and societal shifts in our communal paradigms.
 The first horror films are surreal, disturbing pieces, owing their visual appearance in part to expressionist painters and in part to spirit photography of the 1860s, and their narrative style to the stories played out by the Grand Guignol Theatre Company and drawn from Gothic literature. They draw upon the folklore and legends of Europe, and render monsters into physical form. Spirit photography – the practice of using double exposures or superimpositions to depict ghosts within a frame of film – was popular from the 1860s onwards, not only among Spiritualists (who may have believed the images were real, vindicating their belief in the afterlife) but also among stage musicians and their audiences, who delighted in the fakery as entertainment.

Le Manoir du Diable- 1896

The first ever horror film on record was Le Manoir du Diable, which was produced in 1896 and was created by one of films earliest visionaries Georges Melies. Although it was only 3 minutes long, it really captures different elements of a typical horror film in the time and kit included things such as   bats, devils, witches, cauldrons, ghosts, trolls, all appearing and disappearing in puffs of smoke. 


         


The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (1919)

Director: Robert Wiene

Writers: Carl Mayer, Hans Janowitz

This film tells the story of an insane hypnotist (Werner Krauss) who uses a somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) to commit murders.

1930s to the 1940s-

During the early period of talking pictures, Universal Pictures began a successful Gothic horror film series. Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) was quickly followed by James Whale's Frankenstein (1931) and The Old Dark House (1932), both featuring monstrous mute antagonists. Some of these films blended science fiction with Gothic horror, such as Whale's The Invisible Man (1933) and featured a mad scientist, mirroring earlier German films. Frankenstein was the first in a series of remakes which lasted for years. The Mummy (1932) introduced Egyptology as a theme; Make-up artist Jack Pierce was responsible for the iconic image of the monster, and others in the series. Universal's horror cycle continued into the 1940s with B-movies including The Wolf Man (1941), as well as a number of films uniting several of the most common monsters.

Other studios followed Universal's lead. The once controversial Freaks (1932), based on the short story "Spurs", was made by MGM, though the studio disowned the completed film, and it remained banned in the UK for thirty years.Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Paramount, 1931) is remembered for its innovative use of photographic filters to create Jekyll's transformation before the camera. With the progression of the genre, actors like Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi were beginning to build entire careers in horror. Both appeared in three of Val Lewton's atmospheric B-movies for RKO in the mid-1940s, including The Body Snatcher (1945).

1950s  to1960s- 

• The Strange Door

• The Black Castle

• House Of Wax

• The Maze

• The Mad Magician

• The Snow Creature

• Bride Of The Monster

• Cult Of The Cobra

1970s to 80s-

• The Changeling
• Maniac
• The Evil Dead
• Evil Dead Ii
• The Funhouse
• Cannibal Holocaust
• The Howling
• The Entity

2000-2010

Saw III- 2006 

Jigsaw kidnaps a doctor to keep him alive while he watches his new apprentice put an unlucky citizen through a brutal test.

Dark Water- 2002 

A mother and her 6 year old daughter move into a creepy apartment whose every surface is permeated by water.

The Collecter- 2009

Desperate to repay his debt to his ex-wife, an ex-con plots a heist at his new employer's country home, unaware that a second criminal has also targeted the property, and rigged it with a series of deadly traps.

2010 to 2016 

The Babadook- 2014

A single mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son's fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.

Sinister- 2012

True-crime writer Ellison Oswald (Ethan Hawke) is in a slump; he hasn't had a best seller in more than 10 years and is becoming increasingly desperate for a hit. So, when he discovers the existence of a snuff film showing the deaths of a family, he vows to solve the mystery. He moves his own family into the victims' home and gets to work. However, when old film footage and other clues hint at the presence of a supernatural force, Ellison learns that living in the house may be fatal.

The Conjuring 2- 2016

In 1977, paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren come out of a self-imposed sabbatical to travel to Enfield, a borough in north London. There, they meet Peggy Hodgson, an overwhelmed single mother of four who tells the couple that something evil is in her home. Ed and Lorraine believe her story when the youngest daughter starts to show signs of demonic possession. As the Warrens try to help the besieged girl, they become the next targets of the malicious spirit.