Undertake research into horror films and bullet point a brief

history of the genre.

The history of horror films.
1890's - 1920's
The first ever horror movie and coincidently the first ever vampire movie was
called "Le Manoir du Diable" and created in1896. It was a silent film that last for
2 minutes. After being shown to the public the genre boomed as director Georges
Melies began to produce more films after the more than positive reactions from
the audience. In the 1960's the budget for horror movies significantly rose. The
public's fascination with the horror genre made way for many new supernatural
themed and often gruesome horror products.
In the following years (1898) 2 Japanese horror films were released, one called
"Bake Jizo" and the other "Shinin no Sosei". " The second film was about the
resurrection of a corpse.
1930's -1940's
Horror became very successful in the following years. Between the 1930's 1940's, Universal studios began a line of successful horror movies starting with
"Dracula" in 1931. Following that later in the year was "Frankenstein" which
evidently became a film series.
In 1973 "The Exorcist" made its way on to the big screen. Not only did it break
records but it was and still is considered to be one of the most feared films to
watch in all of cinematic history.
1950's - 1960's
Tech advancements within the genre helped to shift it's direction towards 2
subgenres, Armageddon and demonic.
In the late 1950's, Great Britain became the main producer of horror movies.
Films like Alfred Hitchcock's "Birds" (1963) and "Psycho" (1960) acted as the first
products for the new subgenre "slasher". Not long after, in 1968, "Night of the
living dead" was released. It's said that because of the realism in the movie, it
was the first film to bring horror to life.

During this decade the most horror feels that were released had the common
theme of occults, this started with "The Exorcist" in 1973. Many other horror
films followed after, even a series of films about the devil were created.
The 1970's was the best year for slasher horror films. 2 films that were massively
successful were Jon Carpenter's "Halloween" in 1978 and Wes Craven's
"Nightmare on Elm Street" in 1980. These were considered to be extremely
violent slashers movie, that are still popular over 30 years later. After the initial
releases of these 2 films, both created sequels, some even last 5 movie longs,
because of this the 1980's saw a wave of blood and gore develop in it's films.
1990's

Due to the amount of slasher films that had been created and released in the
80's, the genre was suffering and had declined as one of the most favoured
genres. However this was before the cannibalistic "Silence of the lambs had been
released".
In order to try and bring the genre back to what it was, Wes Craven created films
such as "I know what you did last summer" and "scream". These films contained
the same conventions of the horror genre but used them in a way that made the
films parodic and self mocking. In doing so, the director managed to re-ignite the
slasher genre.
2000's
Films that were made in the early 2000's were mostly remakes of older horror
films from previous years. Zombies films began to make a come back following
the release of "28 days later" and "resident evil". As well as zombie movies, the
subgenre torture, blood and gore, made a very memorable appearance in the
form of the 7 saw movies.
2010's
Films from this decade are still somewhat mostly remakes, however because of
the remakes, themes like religion have produced the most successful horror
films. The remake of "Evil dead" had a massive impact on the film industry,
sparking the creation of films such as "The Conjuring" and "Insidious", both of
which have sequels and prequels.

Codes and convention within the horror genre;

Themes - Throughout history the most famous themes within the horror
genre include religion, the supernatural, insanity and the undead. Other
themes that aren't as popular but are still somewhat common are themes
such as revenge, lust, good vs evil and science gone wrong. These themes
can often be linked to other genres like science fiction, thriller and fantasy.

Setting - Setting used in horror are most often then not in rural or isolated
areas. Some locations maybe abandoned or have a hidden past. The
characters are usually found alone at the location at night time because it
is more visually stimulating and suspenseful for the audience.

Characters - When creating any film there will always be a protagonist and
antagonist, alongside other plot building characters such as the sex
appeal and the first person to die. Within the horror genre, the roll of the
protagonist is a female. This roll is often referred to as "the final girl". An
example of this would be the film "Halloween" from 1978. This film's main
roll was played by Jamie Lee Curtis and depicted her trying to escape her
brother's murderous grasp. It is said that this film set the conventions for
all the horror films that have followed after. Aside from the main

characters, horror films will also include characters such as demons/the

devil, monsters, zombies, ect.

Subgenres - Subgenres are genres that aren't as common, for example

psychological. Other subgenres that associate with the horror genre are
satanic, gothic, haunted house and teen terror. An example of sub genre is
the film "cabin fever". This film's subgenre is known as body-horror
because it contains a lot of blood and gore.

Camera movements & shots - Through this convention the audience can
better understand the meaning or message. The camerawork in a film is
one of them most import elements, by filming a shot a certain way you
can influence the audience and manipulate their emotions or perception.
Shots commonly used in horror films are POV, ECU and push pulls. Shots
such as these are used to create suspense. Handheld camera movements
are also a common feature amongst recent horror films because it adds an
element of realism to the product.

Editing & sound - When editing a sequence for a horror film, the use of fast
paced cuts between shots is a good technique for creating a sense of
panic within both the plot and audience. The use of audio and foley is also
for building suspense. Exaggerated diegetic sound can be used to help
build suspense., likewise, fast and loud non-diegetic sound can create
jump scares.

Iconography - There are many different elements that can bee deemed as
iconography. Within horror films, it's things such as the use of dark colours
(red & black symbolic for blood & anger) as well as materialistic things like
props and costumes. Examples of iconic props would be weapons like a
machete (Friday 13th) and a knife (the Halloween series). The use of these
weapons allows the audience to understand how they should be reacting
to a scene because of the use of the prop in previous productions.