Horror Films

1. Horror Films Film Genre

2. Genre • Film genres 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

3. Genres • Action • Adventure • Comedy • Crime/Gangster • Drama • Epics/Historical • Horror • Musicals • Science Fiction • War

4. Horror Films • 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

5. Horror Films • 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.

6. Horror Films • 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'sNosferatu(1922)

7. Dracula • 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.

8. 1950’s • 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

9. 1960’s • 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.

10. Zombies • 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)

11. The Devil • 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'sbox-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)

12. 1970’s • 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.

13. 1970’s • 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).

14. 1970’s • 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.

15. 1970’s • Brian DePalma 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).

16. 1980’s • 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

17. 1980’s • 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.

18. Respectability • 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.

19. Present Day • 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'sThe Ring (2002) - a modern-day, gothic horror classic.

20. Present Day • Early 2000 – emphasis on gore • Saw, Hostel • New term – torture-porn emerges • Currently many remakes • Paranormal Activity – surprise hit last year