History of Horror Films

1920s
Horror films first started over 100 years ago when the first horror movie, only about two minutes long, was made by French filmmaker Georges Melies, titled 'Le Manoir Du Diable' (The Haunted castle/ The devil's castle).  Although America was home to the first Frankenstein movie adaptations, the most influential horror films through the 1920s came from Germany's Expressionist movement, with films like 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' and 'Nosferatu' influencing the next generation of American cinema. 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', 'The Phantom of the Opera' and 'The Monster', were all created in America and set the stage for the Universal dominance of the 1930s.

1930s
After the success of  'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' and 'The Phantom of the Opera', Universal Studios released many hit horror films during the 1930s, beginning with 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein' in 1931. In the early 1930s, Germany continued its artistic streak with 'Vampyr' however, the Nazi rule forced much of the filmmaking talent to emigrate. The first American werewolf film 'The Werewolf of London' (1935), the first zombie movie 'White Zombie' (1932) and the landmark special effects movie 'King Kong' (1933) were also created in the 1930s.

1940s
Even though Universal's monster films were a success in the 1930s, in the 1940s they weren't . Universal Studio resorted to comedy- horror, films such as 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein' which had some success. During the 1940s, other studios created more serious horror films such as 'Cat People' and 'I Walked with a Zombie'.

1950s
Various cultures helped shaped horror movies during the 1950s, the Cold War influenced fears of invasion in the films 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' and 'The Thing from Another World'. Nuclear proliferation influenced visions of rampaging mutants, movies such as 'Them!', 'The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms' and 'Godzilla'. Scientific breakthroughs led to mad scientist plots in movies such as 'The Fly'. International efforts include the first full-length Japanese horror movie 'Ugetsu' and the first Italian horror movie in the sound era 'I Vampiri'.

1960s
Alfred Hitchcock opened the decade with his shocking, taut, blood-curdling film 'Psycho' (1960), his greatest masterpiece of comedy/horror and effective psychological tension. To increase the suspense factor and to tease the public, Hitchcock instructed that no one was to be admitted to theatres once the film started, and an advertising slogan warned viewers to not give away the ending. His next film was 'The Bird' (1963), a big-budget suspense/thriller about an onslaught of bird attacks in a California coastal town - made with startling photographic special effects. It was Hitchcock's only major film without incidental music.


1970s
Horror movies of the 1970s reflect the grim mood of the decade. After the optimism of the 1960s, with its cultural revolutions, the seventies were something of a disappointment. However, when society goes bad, horror films get good, and the 1970s marked a return to the big budget, respectable horror film, dealing with contemporary societal issues, addressing genuine psychological fears.


1980s
Horror movies of the 1980s are when special visual effects finally caught up with the gory imaginings of horror fans and movie makers. Technical advances in the field of animatronics, and liquid and foam latex meant that the human frame could be distorted to an entirely new dimension, onscreen, in realistic close up.

1990s
The Decade of Money, Mega-Spending and Special Effects. In the 1990s for the most part, cinema attendance was up - mostly at multi-screen cineplex complexes throughout the country. Although the average film budget was almost $53 million by 1998, many films cost over $100 million to produce, and some of the most expensive blockbusters were even more. In the early 1990s, box-office revenues had dipped considerably, due in part to the American economic recession of 1991, but then picked up again by 1993 and continued to increase. The average ticket price for a film varied from about $4.25 at the start of the decade to around $5 by the close of the decade.

2000s
September 11th, 2001. The events of that day changed global perceptions of what is frightening, and set the cultural agenda for the following years. The film industry, already facing a recession, felt very hard hit as film-makers struggled to come to terms with what was now acceptable to the viewing public. There was even a call to ban horror movies for world peace But, by 2005, the horror genre was as popular as ever. Horror films routinely topped the box office, it seems that audiences wanted a good, group scare as a form of escapism, just as their great-grandparents chose Universal horror offerings to escape the miseries of the Depression and encroaching world war in the 1930s.