Information On The History Of Horror Movies
Horror movies has been around for almost as long as movies have been made. Before looking at the horror movie it may be best to look into horror in literature. Knowing this can help our understanding of horror films and where they come from.
It is the horror stories in literature that gave this genre the push it needed to make films. If the legacy that the literary work had not been there horror movies would not be as we know them. In fact the term horror itself comes from the book The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole written in 1764 which was a book of the supernatural. Other great literary minds like Edgar Allan Poe propelled this genre with works like The Raven. These old horror stories are the bases of many different films including Dracula and Frankenstein which were written during the 1800′s.
The supernatural was the main theme of the horror movie when they first came about. Short silent films were the first place horror films were found in the 1890′s. In 1896 the short silent film Le Manior du diable is thought to be the first horror film. At the same time as Georges Melies made this film the Japanese also made horror films Shinin no Sosei and Bake Jizo.
The full length horror film was first seen as a version of the hunchback of Notre-Dame. In the early 1900′s the German expressionist film was at its peak meaning most of the first horror films were made by Germans. These German films have acted as influential works for many modern film makers like Tim Burton. The 1920′s brought about the first Hollywood dabbling in the genre and the first American horror star in Lon Chaney Sr.
The Hollywood popularization of these movies came about in the 1930′s. At this point movies like Dracula and Frankenstein were made as well as other gothic horror and supernatural mixture movies. The Wolf Man is an iconic movie about werewolves made in 1941 by Universal studios. You should keep in mind that this was by no means the first werewolf film but it is known as the most influential. The 1945 movie The Body Snatcher and other B pictures also came about at this time.
In the 1950′s there had been many innovations in the technology used to make films. Additionally in this time the horror film was divided into two categories being Armageddon films and demonic films. During this time social ideas and fears were placed into movies but in such a way that it was not direct exploitation.
There were many iconic movies created in the 1960′s that changed the genre. The Birds made by Hitchcock was one of the first American Armageddon horror films set in modern times. Night of the Living Dead is one of the most iconic zombie films. This movie changed how people viewed zombies and changed horror films altogether.
Horror movies have a long history that goes back to the start of cinema. It is possible to see the way the movies changed from gothic to modern.
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