Film Genre
Filmgenres are various forms or identifiable
types, categories, classifications or groups of
films that are recurring and have similar,
familiar or instantly-recognizable patterns,
filmic techniques or conventions
Action
Adventure
Comedy
Crime/Gangster
Drama
Epics/Historical
Horror
Musicals
Science Fiction
War
Designed to frighten and to invoke our
hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying,
shocking finale, while captivating and
entertaining us at the same time
Horror films feature a wide range of styles.
There are many sub-genres of horror:
slasher, teen terror, serial killers, satanic,
Dracula, Frankenstein
A horror film gives an opening into a scary
world
An outlet for the essence of fear itself,
without actually being in danger.
Weird as it sounds, there's a very real thrill
and fun factor in being scared or watching
disturbing, horrific images.
The earliest horror films were Gothic in style
–
meaning that they were usually set in spooky old
mansions, castles, or fog-shrouded, dark and
shadowy locales
The first horror movie, only about three
minutes long, was the French film The Devil's
Castle (1896)
The first genuine vampire picture was
director F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922)
By the early 1930s, horror entered into its classic
phase in Hollywood - the true Dracula and
Frankenstein Eras.
According to Guinness World Records, the
character most frequently portrayed in horror
films is Dracula, with over 195 representations
1950’s UK Dracula films - low-budget films by
employing sensual colors and bloody reds - and
more overt, suggestive sexuality.
This introduced Christopher Lee in one of his
best appearances as the reclusive Count Dracula.
Over 17 more followed.
Many were B-grade movies, inferior sequels,
or atrocious low-budget gimmick films.
Atomic age - much was made of the modern
effects of radioactivity exposure - such as
the development of giant mutant monsters
(Godzilla) or carnivorous insects (Them)
During that time, most of the monster horror
films were cheaply made, drive-in films
Directors began to frankly portray horror in
ordinary circumstances and seemingly-
innocent settings.
The low-budget, television-influenced, B & W
Psycho (1960) could be considered the
'Citizen Kane' of horror films
The Birds (1963) is about the invasion of
coastal town Bodega Bay by birds that attack
the townspeople.
George Romero, now known as the Master of
the 'zombie film,' debuted as director with
the low-budget, black-and-white, intensely-
claustrophobic, unrelenting B&W cult classic
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Roman Polanski's greatest was his adaptation of
Rosemary's Baby (1968) that dared to show the
struggle of a young pregnant woman (Mia
Farrow) against witches and the forces of the
devil.
Evil spirits possessed the body of a young 12
year-old girl (Linda Blair) in director William
Friedkin's box-office success The Exorcist
(1973) with extravagant, ground-breaking
special effects and startling makeup. Its twisting
head, pea-soup vomit spewing, and other
horrific visuals terrified audiences.
The Omen (1976), directed by Richard Donner,
is about a young adopted son named Damien -
Satan's son. (Remake released 6 – 6 – 06 ) (666)
In 1968, the MPAA created a new rating
system with G, M, R, and X ratings, in part as
a response to the subversive, violent themes
of horror films.
In the 1970s, nightmarish horror and terror
lurked everywhere. One of the top box-office
hits in the early 70s was Willard (1971) about
a wimpish 27-year-old loner (and Mama's boy)
who trained his rodent friends to vengefully
attack his enemies.
Master filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's
controversial A Clockwork Orange (1971) was
a film about rape, murder, and behaviorist
experiments to eradicate aberrant sex and
violence.
Two of the most effective, box-office
successes of the 70s included the camp
classic It's Alive! (1974) about a murderous
baby, and Tobe Hooper's exploitative, low-
budget, hand-made cult film - The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre (1974).
John Carpenter's influential, and acclaimed
independent-sleeper horror classic
Halloween (1978) with a creepy soundtrack,
featured Michael Myers as the deranged,
knife-wielding killer of teenage babysitters
who had returned to his old neighborhood
after an escape from a mental institution.
Steven Spielberg's second horror film Jaws
(1975) - was a terrific summer blockbuster
about a threatening great white shark off an
Eastern beach community - Amity Island.
BrianDePalma emerged as a significant
contributor to the horror genre, breaking out
with his first commercial hit Carrie (1976) -
about a socially-outcast, shy schoolgirl (Sissy
Spacek) possessed with telekinetic powers,
and her religious fanatic mother (Piper
Laurie).
An adapted Stephen King tale provided the basis
for Stanley Kubrick's masterfully-directed gothic
film The Shining (1980) about a crazed husband
(Jack Nicholson) with personal demons in the
Overlook Hotel, closed and snowbound for the
winter in Colorado, with his emotionally-abused
wife and psychic young son.
Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
featuring Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) as a
re-incarnated child molester and serial killer
with razor-fingered gloves and a burn-scarred
face
Many of the more successful horror films spawned
inferior, low-budget, sickening slasher, 'schlock' or
'splatter' films in the 80s
Featured shock, gory violence, graphic horror, 'teens
in peril,' and usually a homicidal male psycho who
committed a progressive string of gruesome murders
on female victims.
Many of these films told tales of a vengeful murderer
motivated by some past misdeed or sexual perversity.
Friday the 13th (1980), the first of the horror genre's
most recognizable horror series - with an astonishing
number of sequels (eleven and a remake), tells of
terrorized teen camp counselors.
Classic Wolfman, Dracula/Vampire, and Frankenstein
films were also resurrected and refashioned in the
80s and 90s with bigger budgets and stars.
In 1990, Kathy Bates won the Best Actress Oscar for
her portrayal of a sick celebrity fan in Misery (1990),
based on another Stephen King novel.
Respectability was awarded to the horror film genre
when director Jonathan Demme's shocking
horror/thriller The Silence of the Lambs (1991),
starring Anthony Hopkins as the murderous 'Hannibal
the Cannibal' and Jodie Foster as a vulnerable FBI
agent, walked away with five major Academy Awards
- a clean sweep.
A few other horror films in the mid-1990s surprised the
industry with their phenomenal success and return to
slasher themes.
Wes Craven's horror/thriller Scream (1996), and I Know What
You Did Last Summer (1997), about teens covering up a fatal
hit-and-run accident - with expected horrific results.
The end of the century's low-budget docu-horror The Blair
Witch Project (1999) was filmed as an expressionistic,
hand-held video and captured the public's attention with
its suggestive and understated horror.
Similarly, M. Night Shyamalan's ghost story The Sixth Sense
(1999) created suspense without the typical formulaic and
explicit elements of most slasher films.
One of the most effective, intelligent and stylish horror
films of the new decade was Gore Verbinski's The Ring
(2002) - a modern-day, gothic horror classic.
Early 2000 – emphasis on gore
Saw, Hostel
New term – torture-porn emerges
Currently many remakes
Paranormal Activity – surprise hit last year