The earliest horrors were very dark and involved scenes of mutilation.

This was largely because the audience were weary of mystical

monsters who may have been mentioned in literature. The use of

costume and stock location were dark to add to the scary effect due

to the lack of technology.

Nosferatu- 1922A gothic, vampiric horror.

In the 30’s horrors were mainly set in far off mythical lands in order to

carry out the gothic style. They, much like the 20’s featured

monsters, but were found inspiration from 19th century novels.

The 1st to feature a female monster.

In the 40’s horrors were banned in

Britain because of World War 2.

Leading America to take this particular

genre over. Americans then decided to

play it safe by staying with the same

guidelines of the 30’s by featuring

monsters but however put their own

unique spin on it by creating characters

that turned into animals or in fact

involve characters that were half man

half such as ‘The Wolf Man’. These

were again very popular with the target

audience.

World War 2 had now ended and 40 million live had been lost

leaving the generation devastated. The horrors portrayed through

previous films (Dracula, Cat People etc) no longer seemed to scare

the audience as they had faced real life horrors. However audience’s

did fear the effects of radiation, nuclear war and technological

change as well as scientific experimentation.

Teenagers became the main audience for horror films.

The Fly- 1958Typical of the era as people feared what effects scientific experiments may lead to.

Meaning that before the 60’s the ‘monster’ was

destroyed but after it was not always definitely

destroyed.

The fears that had kept the

nation on edge in the 50’s

were gone as there had been

no nuclear explosions or

destruction caused by

radiation.

An extreme social change

occurred as drugs, sex, new

fashions and freedom had now

become popular.

Most monsters of the 60’s

were in human form which now

intrigued and scared

audiences as they became

aware of the darkness of the

human mind.Psycho-1960

An end to the 60’s optimism came, however the quality of horrors

had grown tackling the fears of society once again. ‘The Pill’ was

introduced and women were made aware of potential birth defects

caused by Thalidomide had led to the fear of childbirth and children.

The idyllic image of family that was present in the 50’s had gone

away, as an idea that the enemy or evil can be found within your own

family was reflected in 1970’s horror.

The Shining-featured a violent father, controlled by a supernatural presence.

The exorcist-featured a child possessed by evil, due to societies fear if disturbed children.

Otherwise known as the technological age, due to use of SFX

increasing.

Society became materialistic with the belief being the bigger and

showier the better. Leading to horrors within the 80’s being full of

colour, SFX, killers in full view, graphic violence and murder and

enhanced editing skills.

Monsters remained human as this fear of the evil being within your

own family was still there. VCR’s were in the household, meaning you

could watch horrors within the comfort of your own house increasing the

fear.A Nightmare On Elm street-1984 Included gore, and created a convention of victims being killed because of committing a sexual act.

Now in the 90’s audiences were sick of the graphic gore and guts

imagery, and craved more intelligent horrors such as The Silence Of

The Lambs.

Audience now became familiar with the codes and conventions of

horrors and found them too predictable.

The tragedy of 9/11 had occurred, leaving audience to change their

views of what is classified as scary. They then feared the evil that

lurks in the world, especially terrorists. Modern horrors feature a

game, race against time or a killing force that cannot be seen.

Remakes of films and spoofs became popular, in addition to the

enjoyment of different types of horrors such as

supernatural, psychological and zombie.

The Saw franchise –murdering became a dark twisted game where victims where forced to take part.

All of the horrors displayed were current and

addressed the fears of the time, I intend to continue

addressing the fears of my target audience whilst

making it relevant to today’s society.

for example by playing on the idea of the ‘unknown’

and someone becoming possessed which seems to

be a common fear.