If one horror film hits, everyone says, ‘Lets go make a horror film.’ It’s the genre that never dies.

– George A. Romero

About Horror Films

Introduction

Horror is a film genre that seeks to draw out negative emotional reaction such as trepidation and fright from the audience by exploiting audience’s fear of the unknown as well as uncertainty on what is coming next. This genre has a long history dated back to more than a century ago and the plots of the horror films often involve frequent themes such as supernatural and macabre. Although this genre has its own unique characteristics, it often overlap with the Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller genres.

Horror films are inspired by various sources such as Gothic/Victorian novels written by English Novelist, Mary Shelley, and literature authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson  as well as Bram Stoker.

1.2 Plots and elements of horror genre

The plots involved in the horror genre includes the intrusion of an evil/supernatural force, a event or personage into the everyday world. Common elements found in the horror genre includes:

  • Ghosts
  • Vampires
  • Werewolves
  • Demons
  • Gore
  • Witches
  • Zombies
  • Serial Killers
  • Cannibals
  • Psychopaths
  • Monsters
  • Vicious Animals
  • Extraterrestrial life/beings

This genre are made up of unsettling films that are designed to invoke audience’s hidden fear with shocking and frightening finale, at the same time entertaining and captivating the audience in a cathartic experience. Horror films revolutionise over the years, from the earliest silent Nosferatu classic to the present’s Computer-generated Imagery (CGI) animated beings. It utilises multiple tools and tactics to create these effects, however, some of these are cliché in the present era partially due to the rise in complexity of these Special Effects involved, overusing as well as audience desensitisation due to the repeated exposure to these effects.

1.3 Subgenre of horror films

subgenre

Horror films can be branched out to various sub genres and there may be overlapping of several sub genre in a single horror film. The following are a brief summary of each sub genre:

1.3.1 Action Horror

It is a sub genre that combines the intrusion of an evil force, event or rye supernatural in horror films with gun fights and frenzied chases that can be found in action genre. Themes and elements that are commonly found/seen in Action Horror genre includes: vicious animals, vampires, demons, gore and most commonly, zombies.

Some examples of Action Horror films would be: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Priest, Feast.

1.3.2 Comedy Horror

It is a combination of comedy and horror fiction elements. This genre almost always inevitably crosses over with the black comedy genre. Comedy horror genre is usually quite corny and features a compulsory happy ending. Sometimes, these Comedy Horror may be parodies of the horror films or it being a brand new ideas whereby the plots are not adapted from other horror films. The intent of this sub genre is to scare and make the audience laugh at the same time.

One very popular example of Comedy Horror would be the short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, as it was cited as “the 1st great comedy horror story”. Some recent examples of Comedy Horror films would be: Jennifer’s Body, Fright Night, Nina Forever.

1.3.3 Body Horror

It is derived from a mixture of vulnerability of the human body as well as graphic deconstruction or degeneration of the body/body parts. Some of the common scenes that we can see from Body Horror genre would be body/body parts deconstruction or degeneration are:

  • Disfigurement
  • Decay
  • Parasitism
  • Mutation
  • Dismemberment

On some cases when graphic violence is taken to a whole new level, monsters are created out of human body parts such as l anatomically incorrect placement of limbs, unnatural movements of the body and even dysfunction to induce fear from the audience.

The purpose of this sub genre is to focus on graphic that portrays graphic violence and gore by using excessive blood, special effects and guts, as well as the stagecraft of it mutation. Some of the notable directors of the Body Horror genre includes:

Some examples of Body Horror films includes: Cabin Fever, Dead Ringers, The Fly and Starry Eyes

1.3.4 Holiday Horror

With a long history dated back to the 70s, Holiday Horror genre, which is also known as Holiday-themed horror, usually adopt the Christmas themes with tinsel-decorated homes as well as creepy Christmas music as a backdrop to frighten the audience.  The protagonist would normally be a psychopathic killer will creep up to a series of victims in a extreme manner. The killer is usually dressed up as a Christmas characters such as Santa Claus and an elf. Furthermore, the weapons used to conduct the killings with a bladed tools such as axe and knife.

Some examples of Holiday Horror genre includes: Krampus, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Jack Frost.

1.3.5 Horror Drama

Horror Drama’s plot are set in a horror setting and it focuses on characters that are imperil whereby they are dealing with internal struggles such as emotionally or mentally, usually involving flawed family relations. The elements of these subgenre are often used as a setting to an unraveling climatic plot.

Some examples of Horror Drama includes: Lights out, The Babadook, Thirteen Ghosts and Dark Water.

1.3.6 Psychological Horror

Psychological Horror is usually based on disturbed and disoriented human psyche which mind explore insanity, altered realities or involve a human monster with frightful and eerie elements. It utilises a deep, comprehensive explorations of mental’s anguish to petrify through the protagonist’s fears, guilt, beliefs together with appropriate and relevant eerie sound effects as well as music. Furthermore, it plays with the character’s emotional instability and occasionally, the supernatural and mysterious elements to further the plot, build up the tension of the climax and evoke fear out of the audience.

The element of horror usually comes from the reality of the Psychological Horror Subgenre and it is usually written from a tight viewpoint. This will lead the audience’s mind to think whether the protagonist is really seeing horrible things battling against human conspiracies or associated with demonic possession or is it the protagonist’s insanity? Well, the game could change by casting a deranged and psychotic main lead such as a tormented serial killer.

Some notable example of psychological horror sub genre includes: The Shining, The Uninvited, Donnie Darko, Jacobs Ladder.

 

1.3.7 Science Fiction Horror

Science Fiction Horror is a sub genre that utilises horror to portray how sciences and scientific knowledge can be used as a aiding tool for evil deeds, how leading edge research can go haywire and how crippling a lack of knowledge can be. It often deals with the paranormal activities and includes killer extraterrestrial beings, crazy scientists that conducts insane and bizarre experiments that gone wrong.

The sub genre also associate with technology such as a monster is created from a corrupted technology or a failed technological experiments, when the aliens threatened to invade the Earth. It also portrays how insignificant and tiny humans are in the vast universe and the threats that lives within the universe that would destroy the living.

Some examples of the Science Fiction Horror includes Frankenstein, Alien, Resident Evil and The Blob.

 

1.3.8 Slasher Film

Slasher film subgenre involve a lot of violence whereby it cast a deranged serial killer who secretly stalks numerous victims and kills them with a specific choice of weapon. Common scenes we could see from the subgenre is a traditionally male antagonist, and the elimination of the main characters one at a time and the only one who survived would go on to defeat the killer.

The subgenre utilises a lot of camerawork with lots of shadow as well as special effects, and it tends to invoke claustrophobia or isolate vastness. Silence were interrupted with creaking doors, surrounding sounds which indicates approaching danger.

Some example of the Slasher film subgenre includes: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream.

 

1.3.9 Splatter Film

Splatter film subgenre deliberately focus on graphic that portrays graphic violence and gore by using excessive blood, special effects and guts, as well as the stagecraft of it mutation. Furthermore, it tends to display apparent interest in human body/body parts’ vulnerability. One important thing to note is that not all splatter films are slashers film and not all splatter films are horrors.

Some example of Splatter Film Subgenre includes: Saw, The Human Centipede, Train and Inside.

1.3.10 Supernatural Horror

Mythologies about evil spirits and the netherworld have existed long ago across cultures with horrific tales involving mass massacre, reimagined similar tragedy from past and future. The reason of deaths could be slaughtering, plague or monsters invasion. This subgenre includes ominous ghosts, demonic spirits and other form of supernatural phenomenon. It often tap into audience’s primal fears such as what is awaiting on the “other side”, and somewhere deep in the corner of the audience’s dream. Common themes of this subgenre includes witches, demonic possession, devil, vengeful and hostile ghosts.

Plot of this subgenre are as follow:

The evil spirits would stalk and follow someone into their house and they would remain in the person’s house and haunt the place such as apartment, building, castles and dungeons ruined landscapes.

Some examples of this supernatural horror subgenre includes: The Ward, The Amityville Horror, Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project.

1.3.11 Gothic Horror

This subgenre contains elements of gothic and horror. Occasionally, amidst the horror tale, there may be romance unfold among the characters. Some horror films in the past were under this subgenre.

Some example of Gothic Horror includes: Crimson Peak, Nosferatu, Dracula and Sleepy Hollow.

1.3.12 Natural Horror

This subgenre features nature running amok in the form of mutated beasts, carnivorous insects or living beings and harmless animals turned into cold-blooded murderers. There will have some overlapping with the Science-Fiction, Action and Adventure Subgenres.

Some example of Natural Horror includes:Piranha 3D, Eaten Alive, Jaws and Alligator.

1.3.13 Zombie Film

This subgenre feature the fictional undead that are being created through either reanimated corpses or human beings who have lost their mind and soul. Distinct sub genres have evolved; “zombie comedy” and “zombie apocalypse”.

Some example Zombie Film subgenre includes: Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Creeps, REC and 28 Days Later.

Peeking in to the History and Trends of Horror Films

2061826260_c895317ef8_z

Evolution of Horror Films Throughout the Years

Afraid of the folklore and old folks tales passed down by old people? Frighten by the supernatural events happening near you or you have personally experienced?

Horror Films has a long history dated way back, with a bunch of folk tales focus on supernatural events or anything that are related to evoking and exploiting human’s fear of the unknown as well as death.

With such a strong precedent in literature and oral history, the horror genre progressed and advanced soon after the advent of cinema. Over the years, this genre has been through many ups and downs till achieve what it has today. After saying so much, let us explore and peek at the evolution of the horror films, at the same time appreciating the geez of it.

First Horror Film

Horror element was discovered and came into fashion upon Horace Walpole’s novel – The Castle of Otranto in the 18th century which inspired the gothic romance novel. Without these gothic innovators like Walpole himself and the more well-known ones like Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker, it will be likely not to have Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King. However in the present, when we talked about horror, we would think of 2 aspects: the movies in the cinemas that involves the subgenre that was mentioned at the “About” session of this website such as supernatural elements, monsters, suspense, demonic possession that adapted from true stories and the uncertainties of what’s coming next or the real life horror experiences people has been through, see and hear.

But where and how does horror film came about?

Was it the showing of Frankenstein by James Whale and Dracula by Tod Browning in 1931? Of course, these were classic films by gurus of the genre, however they did not originate the horror film genre. A few years back in 1922, there is one famous horrifying silent film, Nosferatu, by F.W. Murnau. But is it still not the origin of the horror film.

Now let’s explore the German expressionism. Roger Ebert argued that The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Robert Weine in 1920:

“was the first true horror film”

“subjective psychological fantasy”

“unspeakable horror becomes possible”

But even before Weine’s cinematic work which evoke fear from audiences worldwide, there was The Golem in 1915 by Paul Wegener which was one of the most significant precedent to the film Frankenstein of Boris Karloff and James Whale.

Looking back to 1910, there was a film produced by Thomas Edison which was adapted from Monster Story by Mary Shelley.

We noticed that every time we brought up a film that are possibly the origin of this genre as perceived by a percentage of the audience, we realised that the are another before this. So what is actual first horror film?

The origins of this film genre started with the works of a French Special Effects genius, George Mellies. The very first  “horror movie”, a three plus minute short above – Le Manoir du Diable (The Manor of the Devil/The Devil’s Castle/The Haunted Castle) that is recognised by many is created in 1896, a few years after filmmakers emerge in the 1890s. The very first “horror movie” included various “horror” elements such as animated skeletons, transforming bats, ghosts, witch’s cauldrons and not forgetting the incarnation of Devil spirits.

According to Earlycinema.com,

In the Autumn of 1896, an event occurred which has since passed into film folklore and changed the way Méliès looked at filmmaking. Whilst filming a simple street scene, Méliès camera jammed and it took him a few seconds to rectify the problem. Thinking no more about the incident, Méliès processed the film and was struck by the effect such a incident had on the scene – objects suddenly appeared, disappeared or were transformed into other objects.

Mellies’ film has been deemed as the first example of a horror film that involves supernatural elements which was then set as a precedent for future productions of horror film.

The Literary Years: 1890-1920s

As mentioned early, the film that was being credited as the first horror film was George Mellies’ Le Manoir du Diable The Manor of the Devil/The Devil’s Castle/The Haunted Castle) in 1896. It was the first few depictions of supernatural events which appeared on the screen.Another of his horror film would be the La Caverne maudite (The Cave of the Demons) in 1898. Out of France, there’s Japan which made early attempt to adopt the horror genre in 1898 with Bake Jizo as well as Shinin no Sosei.

During this period of time where many filmmakers has just emerged and trying to find their feet with this genre, they often turned to literature classics for references. One such literary adaptations would be with the works of Poe and Dante. In 1908, Edison Studios produced a film with adaptation to the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and subsequently in 1910, the first adaptation of Frankenstein was released. The macabre nature used in the films made it identical and in line with the horror film genre.

Again, as mentioned earlier, German Expressionist made an impact in the Weimar Republic era. Some of the influential films at that time are:

  • The Golem – Paul Wegener, 1920
  • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Robert Wiene, 1920
  • The Man Who Laughs – based on Victor Hugo’s novel

In 1922, the first vampire movie which had a significant influence would be, Nosferatu, by F.W. Murnau. It was an unauthorised adaptation from Bram Stoker’s film, Dracula.

Although the word “horror” was officially used to describe the film genre in the 1930s after the Universal Pictures released both Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931, the horror themes were commonly used in Hollywood dramas in the 1920s. Some influential examples includes:

  • The Phantom Carriage – 1920
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame – 1923
  • Waxworks – 1924
  • The Phantom of the Opera 1925
  • The Lost World – 1925
  • The Unknown – 1927

These films were often regard as dark melodramas due to the emotional plot which focuses on romance, suspense as well as violence and the stock characters used in the film.

It has became a trend of injecting the macabre element into melodrama and the trend continues into the 1920s. Some well-known master of inserting the macabre element into the film would be Maurice Tourneur, Rex Ingram as well as Tod browning. One example of Browning’s work of inserting the macabre element as well as morbidity would be The Unholy Three in 1925. The film was remade as The Terror, in 1930, as a talkie (with sound) and it was also the first horror film with sound. 

The Golden Age: 1930 – 1940s

Widely referred to as the finest era of the genre, many classics were produced between 1920s and the 1930s. This 2 decades can be split between the eras of the classics and the talkies.

As mentioned previously, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922) were the first few influential ones of the genre which attempts to invoke fear and instil unsettling thoughts into the audiences’ mind.

1930s onwards is when the technology breakthrough has taken over the silent era whereby we have a surplus of astounding movies that paved the way for this genre, specifically in the field of monster films. Some examples include – Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932) and the first color adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931).

“Horror” was officially used to describe the film genre in the industry in 1930s. However, the genre faces with heavy censoring and public outcry with each release which causes the members of the public to be worried. One example of a film that faced this ordeal would be Freaks in 1932 as the plot of the film was so horrifying that it got cut extensively to the point that the original version of the film could not be found. It was banned in the UK for 30 years. The films are not the only one who suffers such ill-fate, directors of the films such as Tod Browning found his career floundering on the controversy of the issue. Despite that, the film Freaks has astounding plot which led to a high shock value, and it is still a highly disturbing watch presently.

During the early 1930s, Universal Pictures has successfully developed the Gothic horror film series. Some films at that time mixes the science-fiction elements with Gothic horror – The Invisible Man by James Whales in 1933 which features a mad scientist. It reflects the german films in the past. Although the era was not that advance in terms of technology as well as the effects used to spice up the eeriness of the film, some films’ plots manage to make an impact that stands out from others and undergo a series of remake which lasted for years. One such film would be Frankenstein. Furthermore, in 1932, Egyptology was introduced as a theme from the film The Mummy.

Universal Pictures brought the horror productions into the 1940s with B-movies such as The Wolf Man in 1941 as well as producing a number of films which involves the most common monsters. As a leading picture studio at that time, others too followed Universal Picture’s direction.

With the advancement and progression of the horror genre in the industry, actors such as Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi began to shift their focus to this genre and build their career with it. Both actors were involved in 3 atmospheric B-movies by Val Lewton in the mid 1940s.

The Atomic and Gimmicky  Years: 1950 – 1960s

Founded in 1934, the Hammer Horror Company started to turn prolific during global dominance in the 1950s due to the advantageous and money-making distribution agreement with Warner as well as a few other picture studios based in the United States. Furthermore, it owned its success from producing coloured films involving classic horror characters for the first time. To stable its feet in the industry, it produces films with adaptations from other precedent films such as Dracula. Subsequently, it then followed up with a series of psychological thrillers and Television shows.

During the 1940 – 1950s period, the type of subgenre found in the horror films were significantly correlated with what was happening during that time. War. People were fear of the nuclear fallout which was running uncontrolled and war was destroying Europe, therefore, the films produced started to cast antagonists that were in the form of less supernatural, but more of picking similar elements relating to war such as radioactivity and twist it to the horror aspect; radioactive mutation as well as individual fear of invasion. Some films that are relevant to it would be The Shrinking Man, Godzilla, The war of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide which were both big hits in 1953.

While this marks the earliest rumblings of the “disaster” genre, it would take a while before it would get into full swing, be comprehensively developed and stable its feet in the market. Tapping on the advancement in technology, the direction of horror films changes to contemporary interest.

2 new subgenres surfaced; the Demonic film as well as the Doomsday film. Studios tap on these sub genres and produces low-budget productions with plots featuring human being conquering and overcoming threats from alien invasions and deadly mutations conducted on human beings and the living organisms. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan has lead to studios adopting the idea and produced the well-known film – Godzilla in 1954 and its sequels which features mutation that results from the effects of nuclear radiation.

Gimmicks such as 3D glasses, stooges that were paid to act like one of the audience and scream during the movie screening as well as electric seat buzzers that was built onto the seats in the movie theatre were put into good use by the filmmakers as it was something new which created opportunities to further exploit the audience’s fear.

House of Wax in 1953 make use of the advent of 3D films to attract audiences while The Tingler in 1959 make use of the electric seat buzzers and incorporate it into the film to play with the audience’s fear which bring the horror factor to a whole new level.

The craze for this element of interactivity was also used in other movie genres in the 1950s- 1960s, but it died down not long after due to the high cost that was associated with it.

In France, it continue to venture towards producing the Science-Fiction theme movies, while films from the italian studios became famous and known internationally. In order to portray the horror factor of the demonic subgenre, films uses the assumptions of the supernatural to bring out the scare elements. One such example would be The Innocents in 1961 which plot was based on the novel  The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. In Japan, the leading theme in the horror film industry was ghosts and example of such films would be:

  • Kwaidan – 1964
  • Onibaba – 1964
  • Kuroneko – 1968
In America, a prominent horror film that has emerged triumphant and started the zombie genre at that time was Night of the Living Dead by George A. Romero in 1968 whereby he over exceeded his initial budget of $114,000. A mixture of gore and zombie apocalypse began to rise in the late 60s. The trends is pretty distinct as we could see that plot of the films are moving away from the gothic trends towards the day-to-day life.

 

The Slasher Years When All Hell Breaks Loose: 1970 – 1980s

Between 1970 – 1980s, demonic possession was the pick whereby apartment, infrastructures and children are being possessed by the Evil Spirit.

What lead to this exclusive pick of flavour at that time? The trend of this religious evil and cultural obsession was kickstarted by 2 films that made history: The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976). Although supernatural horror was pretty much in trend at the time, filmmakers soon went back to the initial source material -literature, for inspirations.

Stephen King emerged with triumph with his work of Carrie in 1976 and The Shining in 1980 which was influential at that time. This film included multiple themes such as insanity and “evil children”. With it making such a great impact, it influence the evolution of Hollywood’s definition of horror. One production that is similar to The Shining would be Poltergeist by Tobe Hoopers. This film made it to the top 20 list of the scariest movie ever made by Chicago Film Critics Association. These 2 films played with the locations of where the apartment was built and that’s where all the supernatural events come from.

Initially, The Shining was not very well-received by various critics and audiences. However as time goes by, the table has turned and it gradually gained its popularity and work its way through to be known as one of the Hollywood’s classic horror films.

Amidst the occult flavour in this era, there was also a mix of Slasher genre – a merciless antagonist chased down a group of people and kill them one after another in various methods that was mind-blowing to the audience. So one may wonder, why the sudden rise of Slasher genre?

The film which kickstarted it would be the production of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1974. Following this film would be a few more others – Halloween by John Carpenter in 1978, Friday the 13th by Sean Cunningham in 1980 and A Nightmare on Elm Street by Wes Craven in 1984, which are pretty influential that are so successful to the point that several sequels were made. The sudden hype in slasher films served as a source material for the production of movie parodies such as Saturday the 14th in 1981 and National Lampoon’s Class Reunion in 1983.

In 1975, Steven Spielberg’s work, Jaws, spearheaded a new genre of killer animals. It was one of the first few films to apply B-movie elements into a huge-budget film.  In 1980s, there was a sudden spawn of B-movie elements horror films which filled with gore. Many productions manage to find a place in the “cult classics” category in later years. A good example would be Evil Dead by Sam Raimi.

The Doldrums: 1990s

Various themes adopted in the 1980s were brought over to the first half of 1990s such as the sequels of slasher films mentioned earlier: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Friday the 13th. Apart from being just sequels of the original films, we also observe great success at the box office with high viewership. That being said, they were still being criticised strongly, except New Nightmare by Wes Craven as well as Silence of the Lambs in 1991.

There were also presence of metafictional horror film such as The Dark Half and Candyman whereby these film included the relationship between the invented horror and the actuality horror.

Despite the evolution of the horror film industry with emerging filmmakers and influential films till the 1990s, it was faced with 2 issues;

  1. There were a over-supply of slasher and gore film in the 80s which worn out the horror film genre.
  2. Preferences and Age: After all these years, there is an audience shift whereby the young audiences who grew up watching the bloody and morbidity in the past has grown up and the current audiences seems to be attracted and more interested in Science-Fiction and Fantasy film due to technological breakthrough in Computer-Generated Imagery(CGI) which significantly improve the special effects embedded into the film. Some of these films are –  Species (1995), Anaconda (1997), Sleepy Hollow (1999), and The Haunting (1999).

Faced with several issues, the horror film genre loses its competitiveness due to overly exhaustion as mentioned previously. Despite the technological breakthrough in CGI, it was not effective in the horror genre.

Subsequently in the next half of the 1990s, the horror film industry venture into spoof and parodies to attract and reconnect with the replacement audience and revive the horror genre. Some well-known films are Braindead by Peter Jackson and Scream movies by Wes Craven which begin in 1996. It featured teenagers who knows and frequently made reference to the horror film’s history, and incorporate ironic humour with shock. These 2 film was attained a huge success worldwide.

Hence, in the 1990s, there was not much significant developments or events that were brought over to the 2000s. One notable event would be the comeback of the zombie genre, driven by the success of the World War Z novel by Max Brook. Subsequently, there was several films that was based on the zombie genre. Some examples are Resident Evil (2002), Dawn of the Dead (2004) as well as Zombieland (2009).

The Present: 2000 – 2010s

There was not much significant progress in the industry at the beginning of 2000s although there were a few successful box office – Valentine in 2001 that starred David Boreanaz and franchise film such as Freddy vs. Jason in 2003. The horror film genre was made a comeback thanks to the film Final Destination in 2o00 which manage to attract the replacement audiences and subsequently produced 4 sequels. Several film productions as listed below “supported” the genre back to the Restricted ratings category in the cinema:

  • Hollow Man
  • Orphan
  • Cabin Fever
  • House of 1000 Corpses

Subsequent movie productions that top the box office were adaptations from the comics series such as Hellboy in 2004.

Some of the trends we could derived from would be – the pronounced trends and the genre moving towards psychological subgenre rather than gore.

  • Pronounced Trends

A significant film would be Brotherhood of the Wolf  in 2001, a french horror film which has a high viewership in the past 20 years. Other films following that would be Swedish films Marianne  and  Let the Right One In. In 2010, there was a adaptation from Let the Right One In which is Let Me In.

  • Moving towards psychological subgenre rather than gore

One successful example would be The Others in 2001. Following that, an attempt on applying Val Lewton’s “Less is More” theory has been noticeable from the film The Blair Witch Project in 1999. 

In this era, we notice a emerging prominent trend of Hollywood remaking Asian horror film from countries such as Japan and Thailand which produced influential horror films such as The Ring, Shutter and Dark Water. However, these movies were banned in the China’s horror film market.

Another evident trend that we could pick up from genre would be the re-entry of the extreme graphically violence genre that are low budget films which seeks to exploit fear from the post-vietnam years. Some example would be Audition (1999), Wrong Turn (2003), and the Australian film Wolf Creek (2005), which the precedent film is The Last House on the Left in 1972. An extension of this trend would be “torture porn” that depicts death resulted from harsh torture, suffering and violence. Examples are Ghost Ship, Saw and Hostel which subsequently have their series of sequels. The level of gore in the saw series was untouchable as it was awarded the Guinness World Record of the “highest-grossing horror franchise in history”. Well, if you haven’t watch it, you could well imagine the extent of gore that is awaiting you?

Another film that reaffirms the minimalistic approach is Paranormal Activity in 2009 which was successful in both box office as well as critics. These low-budget productions are expected to continue in the future as it was well-received by the crowd.

Remaking and adaptation from the past film has became a common scene in the Studios of the horror film genre. Some well-known works would be Thirteen Ghosts (2001), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Friday the 13th (2009),  A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). These trends led to various nasty comments and arguments on the genre as it has nothing new and original to offer to the modern audience.

However, some said that there are films in the 2010s such as Cabin in the Woods as well as The Babadook has injected some originality into the genre which provided the modern audience with some anticipation in light of the future films.

We also observed an evolution of horror films in which some sub genres and horror films have been adapted to be made into television series – The Walking Dead and The American Horror Story. In recent years, filmmakers adapted storyline from true stories that has occurred. These set of films has been successful in evoking fear from the audiences and plays with the mind as the audiences would feel “sensitive” to the surrounding after watching the films. Often, these films are usually situated at a isolated house, and that several murder cases has occurred previously in that house before a new family moved in. A good example would be the Conjuring Series which was adapted from true stories. Of course, the credibility and the similarities of the remaked film and the true story must not differ too much. The film has earned multiple reviews and it really scare the shit out of the audience due to the fact that the real-life character is still alive, and the original items that was seen in the movie are currently at the Warren’s museum. This trend is bound to continue for several years as it has yield great responses from the audience.

All in all, there has been a revolution from the very first silent short film to the present talkie, coloured film that embed special effects by tapping on the advancement of technology. Although the scale of the genre may not be as large as compared to Comedy or Romance, it does play a huge role and create an impact in the movie industry.