The horror Genre

The horror genre began in the late 1800s and early 1900s , before it was technically even a genre. They were reffered to as "spook tales" and were silent movies, usually featuring a monster or creature of some kind

Ie: Le Manoir du Diable (1896)

The genre then progressed to more silent movies that further explored the supernatural with the first real monster and zombie film.These films were German expressionism and and most of the films at this time were made by German directors at the time when thier film industry was booming.

Ie: Golem and Nosferatu (1922) respectivley

Then came an aspect of film that we now consider to be detrimental to the film making process. Sound. This was introduced to mainsteam films in the late 1920s and early 30s. This also marked the introduction of monster movies that we are more familiar with today.

Ie: King Kong (1933), Frankenstein (1931) and The Invisible Man (1933)

Despite this sudden influx, the gothic horror movement began to lose steam, the ideas were remade and re-released and the film industry drastically lowered budget resulting in the beginning of low-budget horror films.

Ie: Cat People (1942)

In the 1950s a new horror cycle began with monsters and aliens. The introduction of aliens was brand new but due to small budgets (post WWII) most horros became B-List status. This cycle included Pulp Science Fiction, which came from the scare of the Cold War and focused primarily on threats for space.

Ie: The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Forbidden Planet (1956)

With the 1960s came the film industries fist real foray into the psychological with the added elements of sex and gore. One director that rose to fame at this time and became very prominent for the revoloutionising of the horror genre was Alfred Hitchcock. This time also saw a more sexualised and gory version of moster movies making a return in the 'Hammer horror' cycle and for the first time ever, being released in colour.

Ie: Psycho (1960) The Birds (1963) (Hitchcock movies) and The Curse of Frenkenstein (1957) (Hammer horror)

After this began a flurry of cycles that spanned the whole of the late 90s and featured classics that a lot of people still enjoy today. These included:

Occult films, focusing more on Satan and the supernatural

Ie: Rosemary's Baby (1975) and The Poltergiest (1976)

The shark cycle focusing on (you guessed it) sharks and feauturing lots of gore.

Ie: Jaws (1975)

Teen horror featuring full casts of younger actors despite the genre.

Ie:Carrie (1976)

And the new concept was born of making films with mixed genres and even go distinct genre at all.

Ie: Alien (1979), The Thing (1982) (mixed genre) and The Shining (1980) (no discernable genre)

During this time there was also a large influx of independent horror filmakers. Due to tight budgets the 'slasher' horror cycle was created and this domestic type of horror became very popular. Splatter horror was also created by independent film companies and focused more on stop motion gore and splatter effects

Ie: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1978) (slasher) and The Evil Dead (1981) (splatter)

As the 90s came the slasher and splatter cycles had run their course and parodies were born. These featured an amusing and occasionally self aware take on the iconic horror movies that had come before, and brought with it a reboot of the teen horror cycle.

Ie: I Know What You Did Last Summer (200) and Scream (1996)

Psychological horror was also still popular at this time

Ie: Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Ring (2002) and Se7en (1995)

And finally we arrive at 'modern horror' an era in filmaking that can be devided into 3 distinct cycles.

The first is 'torture porn' a reboot of the platter genre giving pride of place to gore torture and violence and included the most famous film franchise in the history of horror: Saw

Ie: The Hostel (2005)

Then came the 'found footage' cycle which focused on pieced together footage from eyewitnesses and more hand held camera than you can shake a stick at.

Ie: Paranormal Activity (2007) and REC (2007)

And then the most recent , spanning right up to the present day with the oncoming release of Pride and Predjudice and Zombies: the zombie cycle.These films continued to champion the gore and violence of previous cycles while adding a long term survival aspect that has kept the cycle going for over ten years.

Ie: 28 Days Later (2002) and World War Z (2013)

It is clear from this myriad of subgenres and cycles spanning from the dawn of film to the present day that the horror genre is an evolving yet still incredibly popular genre that, like some of its zombie characters, just refuses to die.