History of Horror

Scaring man with tales of death and nightmares has been a time-honoured tradition. But the first major influences of horror film came from great gothic horror writers, like Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), Bram Stoker (Dracula), and Edgar Allen Poe.

Méliès is credited as making the

first horror film entitled The Manor of the Devil; however it wasn't until the end of WWI that the genre matured from an exploration of the medium to an expression of the human psychological state. And this only came about through the launch of German Expressionism. Films like The Cabinet of Dr. Cagliari and Nosferatu are considered to be German Expressionist films, however the movement itself is quite difficult to define and therefore attribute to only certain works.

It took a small division of RKO, the smallest of the Big 5 studios, to spearhead the making of low-budget horror films, which were more psychological and used more sophisticated filmic techniques, like chiaroscuro lighting instead of relying on makeup and costumes. The first of these films was Cat People.

Push forward to the 70's and early 80's where a string of low-budget independent horror films found great success at the box office with both critics and with hardened fans. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is often considered the film that inspired the entire slasher genre. John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) demonstrated that low-budget horror films can be profitable; With a budget of $325,000, Halloween has gone on to gross $240 million dollars, through sequels and merchandising, making it one of the most profitable independent horror films of all time.

Overall I believe it is fair to say that horror has always existed. However it was first, notably, brought to the screen in the 1900’s-1910, before truly coming in to their own, into the mass of sub genres we have today.  The future of horror looks promising with 4D Technology and horror films at an all time high.