History of Horror

The development of Horror


The horror genre has been a top genre of film for almost a hundred years, through its time it has developed in key aspects such as make-up, effects, sound and mainly to do with gore and sexual content. which is due to the fact of strict censorship changing in the 1930s by the Motion Picture ProductionCode

(Hays Code). The Motion Picture Production Code where the censorship guidelines that governed the vas majority of united states pictures from 1930 to 1968 when it was replaced by the Motion Picture Association of America Film Rating System

Frankenstien (1910) made by 'Edison' studios, and written by J. Searle Dawley. Where a young medical student trying to create a perfect human being creates a monster, which turned out to be one of the most famous monsters ever made. Frankenstein (1910) is known as the 'holy grail' of horror movies with a run-time of only 16 minutes. lacked on special effects and quality due to the time period it was made, in fact the film went missing and no copies were found until the mid 1970s. ten years later in 1920 the movie "The Cabinet of Dr Caligary" was made directed by Robert Wiene lasting 52 minutes long which could be classed as the first full length horror movie lasting one hour allthough films can last around 2 hours. In 1925 Lon Chainey played the phantom in 'The Phantom of the opera' and designed all of his own makeup and even put egg membrane on his eyeballs to give them a more cloudy look.

In 1931 the horror film genre took a massive leap with director James Whale's version of Frankenstein known to many as the original. Frankenstein opened in New York City at the Mayfair Theater on the 4th of December 1931 and grossed $53,000 in its first week. The plot being the same as the original novel by Mary Shelley Where a young medical student trying to create a perfect human being creates a monster. Borris Karloff played Frankenstein in this film very well and is best remembered for playing in Frankenstien films yet to come.
In one scene, Frankenstien walks through a forest and comes upon a little girl, Maria, who is throwing flowers into a pond. The monster joins her in the activity but soon runs out of flowers. At a loss for something to throw into the water, he looks at Maria and moves toward her. In all American prints of the movie, the scene ends here. But as originally filmed, the action continues to show the monster grabbing Maria, hurling her into the lake, then departing in confusion when Maria fails to float as the flowers did. This bit was deleted because the censors objected to the violent end of the little girl. This scene is restored in the DVD reissue.
At the time of its release Universal Studies were well known for releasing horror movies, others including Dracula (1930), the first horror movie with speech which was filmed also in spanish and "son of Frankenstien". James Whale went on to be classed as the first horror auteur directing classic films such as "Dark House" "bride of Frankenstein" and "Freaks"

During the 1940s RKO Studios grew with their picture "Cat People" produced by Van Luton this was the film that started the Luton Bus Technique which is the shock of something not scary which is still commonly used today.
It is now the Late 1940s and the horror genre has already pushed forward with makeup, filming equipment to produce better quality films and big directors and actors. During the late 1940s sub genres were first introduced and frankenstien was classed as a horror - sci fi along with lots of other films.
The 1950s came and a new sub-genre was made, Hammer films which included more 'gore' with films such as the curse of frankenstein where frankenstein is shot in the eye from close range with a shot gun, the audience see blood gush from frankensteins eye socket and feel un-settled. Dracula and also the mummy were created in what s known as the time period of "The birth of Hammer Horror" 1955 - 1959. Hammer films generally tried to push the boundaries and produce x rated movies that really scare the audience. At the same time Warner Brothers Studios released House Of Wax (1953) which was  the first 3-D color feature from a major American studio. 'House of wax' was a remake of 'Mystery of the wax museum' from 1933.

In the 1960's Alfred Hitchcock (one of the greatest movie directors ever) directed pshyco, most famous for the shower scene which features 77 different camera angle cuts and running for 3 minutes long Most of the shots are extreme close-ups, except for medium shots in the shower directly before and directly after the murder. Psycho had a budget of $806,948 and made a Box Office sum of $32,000,000. Psycho pushed the strict censorship boundaries at the time and is most definitely known as an auteur. The 60s was a great decade of horror after Alfred Hitchcock started pushing the censorship boundries and set records such as first american movie to show a toilet. Another good movie even with such a low budget from the 60's was "Night of the Living Dead" which was a very violent film reflecting political worries in this age of atomic power and children turning against their parents. In the 1960 Ed Gein's cerial killer story inspired Texas Chainsaw Masacre which was a big movie released in 1974. between the 1960 and 70 period Hammer films started producing big sequels to movies such as Frankenstien and Dracula (till 1974 to be exact)