Horror Film History

Horror Film History Timeline


1920 - The 1920s were the birth of the horror film industry. Most of the stories were based on books containing supposed existing monsters as well as gothic horror so this gave the audience a real sense of fear for these films. The antagonists in the films were predominantly male due to the stereotypes of male dominance and males being feared. Women were known to play the roles of helpless victims due to their presumed weakness and vulnerability.




1940 - Due to the on raging war,  Britain's film industry came to an abrupt halt, so the US film industry decided to seize the opportunity to showcase horror films. This decade saw a change to the antagonists of horror. From the gothic Frankenstein's of the 1930s they then moved on to characters which adapted animals.


1960 - The 60s moved on from the creatures and ghouls of the past an brought in a new sub genre of horror film. Film companies began to focus on psychological horror. Rabid creatures were discarded and common looking people became the norm. People who did bad things in the film were repaid with consequences and this was used to show people this could happen to them thus scaring society.


1980 - The 80s came with gore and blood. This was possible due to the investment in special effects and high level film technology. This films were extremely gruesome and became known as slasher films. Weapons used in these films were your everyday household items such as kitchen knives and sometimes chainsaws. This got the public in a state of fear as items that were easily accessible were used for murder and torture.


2000- Due to everyone having seen gory films, creatures, monsters, gothic horror and psychological horror there was a demand for a new kind of horror film. What could it be? And that was the idea, the fear of the unknown itself. This was the rise of the supernatural horror era.


SUMMARY
From all of this information it is easy to see the transition of Horror over time and how consumer trends have changed and adapted as a result of evolving technology as well as new fears. Using this information I will look to apply a substantial amount of psychological and supernatural horror as at the current time period this seems to appeal to our target audience of horror fans the most.