History of Horror Films

Horror films have always been a part of cinema and have been around since the early stages of film. They have made a big impact on cinema in the twentieth and twenty-first century. 

1920's 

The first horror films were silent films. The German films, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922) influenced many other films. Hollywood followed suit, with films including Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920), The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and The Unknown (1927), all starring Lon Chaney. Chaney was Hollywood's first horror movie star. 

1930's - 1940's 

In the early part of the 30's, Universal Pictures in America began a successful Gothic horror film series. These included Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi and Frankenstein (1931) starring Boris Karloff. Frankenstein was the first in a series which included the monster, with Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). Other films in the period were Freaks, The Invisible Man (1933), The Wolf Man (1941) Cat People (1942) and The Leopard Man (1943).  

1950's - 1960's 

With advances in technology, the genre focused more on contemporary themes in American horror. Many films focused on humans overcoming threats from aliens and mutations of people, plants and insects. These films included The Thing from Another World (1951), Tarantula (1955) and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). In Britain, Hammer films focused more on Gothic themes from the thirties and re-created Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958) and made successful sequels going into the sixties. In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock made Psycho, which is birth of the modern horror film. Hitchcock then followed Psycho with The Birds (1963). By the end of the 60's the counter-culture was building, and Rosemary's Baby (1968) and George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), with Romero creating his his "Dead" series, were influential and successful and showed what was coming in the seventies. 

1970's - 1980's 

Following the success of Rosemary's Baby, many similar films followed suit including The Exorcist (1973) and the The Omen (1976) which saw the Devil as the villain impregnating women or possessing children. The ideas of the 60's started to influence 70's horror, with the counter-culture the focus in The Last House on the Left (1972), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977). Romero created his 70's zombie film with Dawn of the Dead (1978) set in a shopping mall. Stephen King's novels started to be made into films with Carrie (1976) and The Shining (1980). By the late 70's, the "slasher" film was coming in with John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), Sean Cunningham's Friday the 13th (1980) and Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) were significant for horror movies. These films created many sequels, remakes and even a join up in Freddy vs Jason (2003). The films Jaws (1975) and Alien (1979) saw horror films start to become Hollywood blockbusters and not just 'B' movies. By the end of the 80's the low-budget gorefests became popular, with Sam Reimi's Evil Dead movies, Gremlins (1984) and Fright Night (1985) being prime examples.  

1990's - 2000's 

The 90's saw many sequels of the slasher films A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Halloween although The Silence of the Lambs (1991) was hugely successful. Other films including Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) and Scream (1996) mimicked other horror films and made a lot of references to other films, especially Scream. These films were also teenage influenced and other films like I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and The Blair Witch Project (1999) were like this also. As CGI had advanced and special effects were better, some horror films that used CGI included Blade (1998) and House On Haunted Hill (1999). At the dawn of the new millennium, Hollywood decided to re-create the hay day of horror films, so remakes of Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th were made. Final Destination (2000) dawned more teen-focused horror like the Scream sequels. However the more successful horror films were the new genre known as "horror porn" with a lot of blood and gore. These include Saw (2004), Hostel (2005) and The Human Centipede (2009) which spawned many sequels. Zombie films have been reborn in the 2000's starting with the British films 28 Days Later (2002) and the comedy Shaun of the Dead (2004). This led veteran zombie director George A. Romero to make Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2010). The films I Am Legend (2007) and Zombieland (2009) also helped the rebirth of zombie films which had disappeared in the 90's. 

2010's 

The 2010's have seen a fond for supernatural horror films including Paranormal Activity (2009), Insidious (2011) and The Conjuring (2013). Other supernatural horrors include The Women In Black (2012) and The Cabin in the Woods (2012) These have spawned many sequels due to their successes. There have also been remakes of Carrie and Evil Dead. There have also been a Hollywood blockbuster zombie film World War Z (2013) continuing the zombie rebirth from the 2000's and also many more sequels from the successful horror movies of the 2000's.