HISTORY OF HORROR FILMS
Horror films and the horror genre can be dated back to when film production started way back in the 1890's. Some of the first films out there belong to the horror genre and have increased in their number and scariness as technology has improved. This has been key in shaping the horror film industry as it is today, and has been held responsible for millions of people hiding behind their sofas.
There have been certain films that have started or have been inspirational when talking about the timeline of horror films. The first ever British film was 'The Haunted Castle' and was released in 1897. This three minute long silent clip was directed by George Albert Smith and was the first of its kind.
This horror film used strings to make things seem like they were moving when the actors were not around to create the spooky atmosphere. This film is based on the story The Haunted Hotel by Georges Méliès and the first version is actually French. George Albert Smith worked as not only the writer, but also the producer, cameraman and director. The main role was played by Laura Bayley. It was produced and filmed by GAS Films in Brighton.
However, although this film was the first Britsh horror film it was not the first ever horror film. With Georges Méliès in the late 1890s, who is best known for the short film Le Manoir du Diable, which was the first ever horror film.
Films have progressed massively from the short three minute videos that were played back in the 1890's and have moved from black and white to colour. However, before we look at the more modern films and how they have been made lets look at some iconic films in past years.
Frankenstein.
Frankenstein was released 21 November 1931 in the USA and was an iconic and one of the most remembered films of its time. This film shared the stage with others of its kind like Dracula and The Wolf Man. These films were the real first step in the direction of the horror films which we have today with monsters and vampires being the first step. One of the main features of these films are that they are all black and white. They were played off a tape player machine which was then showed in a cinema and used a role of tape to project the image. These films would last around one hour and these three films were considered as the pinacle movies of their time with gripping story lines and amazing visual effects even though they were still in back and white. These films started to get a reputation for being horrific and therefore in 1932 the film rating of 'H' was published. This definition of 'H' was that the film contained horror scenes and was not advised for all.
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Dracula.
Dracula casted Bela Lugosi as the main character and was released on the 14 February 1931 and lasted a grand total of 75 mins. This story is about a Count Dracula coming to England and starting to pay on Mina, another character in the film. This film was produced for just over $355,000 and as people are still watching it today it is hard to say what the total revenue made from the film is. The film is in black and white and had sound. This enabled the directors to use both non-diegetic and diegetic music when it came to making the film. The dialogue of Bela Lugosi was made to roll all his “Rs” and due to his Hungarian accent this was the birth of what we know as the Dracula voice.This iconic movie has sparked a huge series of movies of 5 movie movies and a 6 currently in cinemas. This chilling story is a land mark in the history as the start of the horror movies for the paranormal.
Iconic Films.
There are a few films that will always be great horror films no matter how old they get. The Exorcist is one of the films that scared the nation, to this day people are still getting the creeps from this film. The film lasted 122 minutes and was well known for Linda Blair's role as the little girl. One of the most iconic scenes in this film is when her head turns 360 degrees around to face the camera. This type of technology was seen as new to the audience at the time (1973) of showing and was seen as revolutionary. This film had the rating of an X which meant that no-one under the age of 18 could watch the film. The voice over was done so well in this film and was also another feature that had not been used before. The voice over matches the actors perfectly. This film was apperently so scary that it caused people to faint, vomit and have heart attacks in the cinema. These incidents caused the film to be banned from 1988 to 1998, ten years later when the DVD version was seen.
The film 'The Shining' was the inconic film due to the 'Heres Jonny' scene which can been seen to the left. This film ran for 119 minutes. However, as this film was about a murder and only contained blood and gore, not possessions and devils it was not removed from the box office. This film was a success and made 44 million US dollars in revenue. Two years after this film was made in 1982 the ratings changed from the 'X' rating to 18, 15, PG, and U causing the rating to change from a 'H' to an 18.
There is another film which I have selected as being inconic for its role in the history of the horror films. This is 'A nightmare on Elm Street'. This follows the genre of horror, not the type of horror that is axe murderers but is about dreams and paranormal activities in the dreams coming over into the real world. This film was realeased in 1984 and lasted 91 minutes long and made over 25 million US dollars in the American box office. This film is one of the first of its kind to use the paranormal possession and therefore is intriguing to see where they have all started from.
Modern Films
With the introduction of CGI and special effects, horror films have become more realistic and more visually entertaining. With this new technology film makers have been able to create amazing and realistic effects causing a viewing to be so visually frightening than ever before due to the enhanced graphics and new advancements in sound technology.
Paranormal activity was the first of its kind to fall under the genre of 'intense' horror. This new genre has had many people scared and frightened to even go home after watching the film. It is filmed all from a camera point of view so it is very simular to a documentary causing the audiences to feel closer to the action. This meant that the film could be a low budget film, however, can still have the visual effects to scare thousands of people. The film made close to 200 million US dollars in revenue and was only 88 minutes long. This film was awarded best horror film in 2010 along with best actor and best wide-release film. This film is one of the modern film that was released in 2007 and has been the start of the new intense horror films which involve amazing sound design along with hide behind the sofa visual effects.
Along with the paranormal horrors such as The Conjuring and Paranormal activity, there are other types of horror that fall under the recent title of extreme horror. Examples of this would be the movie franchise Saw. These films directed by James Wan show detailed and graphic torture scenes and has become popular as an extremely gory and stomach turning films. There have been 5 films in total with the 6 currently in production. The story line is of a vigilante called Jigsaw that takes cheaters drug addicts and criminals and make them trial for their lives in homemade and graphic torture chambers. These come within a huge variety and all of them are extremely graphic and gory in what they show. These films have made a huge revenue with a Budget of $1.2 million and the Box office producing $103.9 million it shows the this type of intense gore is what people want to see in their horror movies. The video to the left is to show the extreme graphic nature of the films so watch at viewers discretion.
The last house on the left is a film not about horror but still falls under the restricted category. This is due to the scenes of fighting and blood. The plot of the story is about a girl that falls into the mix of a gang war fair and gets shot. The girl manages to get back to the house and finds that her attempted killers as at the house. This is where there are a lot of fighting scenes and the extensive use of blood. There is no paranormal or supernatural beings in this film however it is the intense fighting scenes that make it a restricted film. The directors wanted to use more blood scenes however due to the hays code they where not allowed. It was released on the 13th of March 2009 and had a running time of 110 minutes. In box office it made $45,286,228 revenue.
Finally there is the film Scream. There have been 4 different Scream films made and they where released in 1996, 1997, 2000, and 2011. They have all been directed by Wes Craven and all have been popular in the making of the modern day horror films. This films are about a serial killer that is killing teenagers that are alone. The film falls under the restricted movie section and is popular for its masked killer. This started a tend of halloween costumes which have been used in real life murders. The most shocking murder was performed in the cinema which everyone wearing masks it was seen as an act. This meant that the viewers saw nothing wrong with it until it was clear that she was dead. This meant that in the films there had to be certain rules about good ruling over evil so that it cant be seen that someone gets away with murder. This ruling has been made by the Hays code. The films brought way to things such as cold calling for trolls. The films have not paranormal activity in them however still fall under the restricted title due to the stalker fashion in then. This means that people may seen this and consider it a fun thing to do so it was given the rating of 18. The film franchise has made $608,558,434 in total revenue making it one of the largest franchise worldwide.