The History of Horror

Here are some facts about the History of Horror:

• Horror films first found their inspiration from Gothic Literature.
• The term "Horror" was not used in films until the 1930's.
• Several experiments were carried out on silent film-making in the horror genre. This included the first Frankenstein which was adapted by the Thomas Edison studios in 1910 and Dante's inferno by Giuseppe de Liguoro in Italy in 1911. 
• Horror is an ancient art form. 
• Since the first communication in man, the horror genre has been used to scare and frighten others.
• Horror is not just in the form of films, it is also in the form of novels, comics, stories and television shows.
• The 1920's and the 1930's were the first decades to show scary films. In this period, there were remakes of classic stories, for example: Brams Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and The Mummy.
• In the 1940's there was a steep decline of horror films. There were however some horror films released such as; Wolf Man, Cat People, House of Dracula and House of Frankenstein.
• The 1950's saw films such as; The Wasp Woman, The Beast from 20,000 fathoms and It cam from beneath the Sea being released.
• The Birds, Carnival of souls, Blood feast and Night of the Living Dead were released in the 1960's.
• In the 1970's films like; The exorcist, Jaws, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Carrie, The Omen and Halloween were released.
• The 1980's saw Hellraiser, Nightmare on elm Street, The Fly, The Thing and The Shining being released.
• Horror films such as; Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, Misery, Candyman and Sixth Sense were released in the 1990's.
• Lastly, in the 2000's films such as; Final destination saga, The Ring, The Grudge and the descent being released.

The Horror Genre is very popular, especially amongst teenagers and young adults. I could use inspiration from all these different films, to use in my Film Opening to make it more lively. Also, I like some of the ideas used in these horror films and therefore want to use them in my own. 

In my opinion, horror films have got more complex and scarier over the decades because of the increasing number of fans and the increasing amounts of different technology they could use to edit the films to make them scarier. 

Here is a trailer from one of my favourite horror films, which was released in 2012. This Horror film is called the Woman in Black based on Susan Hills story: