The horror genre

What is horror?

The horror genre seeks to evoke a sense of foreboding and dread, and most likely some kind of visceral (physical) reaction from the audience/viewers. The storyline is therefore usually in disequilibrium, and tends to not get resolved/bought back to equilibrium by the end of the film. Although, horror films usually start at a point of equilibrium.

What does it involve?
There are often scenes that startle the viewers, with frequent themes that are grim/ghastly and the supernatural, and the narrative usually deals with nightmares and fears of the viewers. Plots often involve elements of an evil force, ghosts, aliens, vampires, curses, demons, torture, killers and many more, but this depends on the type/theme of the horror film.

History & society:
The first depictions of supernatural events appear in several of the silent short films created by the film pioneer Georges Méliès in the1890s, the best known being The Haunted Castle, which is believed to be the first horror film created. The first monster to appear in a horror film was Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in the early 20^th century, and now there are many types of horror films, not just ones that feature monsters.

Over time the style of horror films has changed, but in 1996 after Scream was released, many film makers started to make ‘copy’ this, which lead to a new variety of teenage horror films.  

The horror genre has changed how women see themselves and the role of their in the film industry. In the early days of horror films, the films were targeted at mainly male audiences, and women were show as fearful and as monsters. Nowadays, more and more horror films feature women, and show women as evolving into stronger people to overcome their fears or obstacles/situations. Women related topics such as pregnancy or babysitting are now also common themes of modern day horror films.

These are some key types/themes of modern horror films:

·         Body horror – horror created from the destruction of a body

·         Action horror –  combines elements of evil forces/event/supernatural with the gunfights/chases of the action genre

·         Psychological - Relies on characters' fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music, emotional instability

·         Slasher - Often revolves around a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner

·         Zombie - feature creatures who are usually dead or mindless human beings

·         Comedy horror - Combines the elements of comedy and horror fiction