Horror and terror  

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[[Image:The Raven.jpg|thumb|right|200px|In 1963, [[Roger Corman]] directed ''[[The Raven (1963 film)|The Raven]]'', a [[horror-comedy]] written by [[Richard Matheson]] very loosely based on the poem, "[[The Raven]]" by [[Edgar Allan Poe]]. It stars [[Vincent Price]], [[Peter Lorre]], and [[Boris Karloff]] as a trio of rival [[Magic (paranormal)|sorcerers]].]] [[Image:The Raven.jpg|thumb|right|200px|In 1963, [[Roger Corman]] directed ''[[The Raven (1963 film)|The Raven]]'', a [[horror-comedy]] written by [[Richard Matheson]] very loosely based on the poem, "[[The Raven]]" by [[Edgar Allan Poe]]. It stars [[Vincent Price]], [[Peter Lorre]], and [[Boris Karloff]] as a trio of rival [[Magic (paranormal)|sorcerers]].]]
{{Template}} {{Template}}
-:"[[Fear]] is the most powerful [[emotion]] in the [[human race]] and fear of the [[unknown]] is probably the most [[ancient]]. You're dealing with stuff that everybody has felt; from being little babies we're frightened of the [[dark]], we're frightened of the unknown. If you're making a [[horror]] [[film]] you get to play with the [[audience]]s [[feeling]]s" -- [[John Carpenter]]+The distinction between '''horror''' and '''terror''' is a standard literary and psychological concept applied especially to [[Gothic literature]] and film (Radcliffe 1826; Varma 1966; Crawford 1986: 101-3; Bruhm 1994: 37; Wright 2007: 35-56). '''Horror''' is the feeling of [[revulsion]] that usually occurs ''after'' something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets after coming to an awful realization or experiencing a deeply [[unpleasant]] occurrence. By contrast, '''terror''' is usually described as the feeling of [dread] and [[anticipation]] that ''precedes'' the horrifying experience. In other words, horror is more related to being shocked or scared (being horrified), while terror is more related to being anxious or fearful, being terrified (Varma 1966).
 +Horror has also been defined as a combination of terror and revulsion.
-'''Horror films''' are [[film|movies]] that strive to elicit the emotions of [[fear]], [[horror and terror]] from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of [[death]], the [[supernatural]] or [[mental illness]]. Many horror movies also include a central [[villain]].+The distinction between terror and horror was first characterised by the [[Gothic horror]] writer [[Ann Radcliffe]] (1764–1823). Terror is characterised by "obscurity" or indeterminacy in its treatment of potentially horrible events; it is this indeterminacy which leads to the [[Sublime (philosophy)|sublime]]. She says in the essay that it "expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life". Horror, in contrast, "freezes and nearly annihilates them" with its unambiguous displays of atrocity. She goes on: "I apprehend that neither Shakespeare nor Milton by their fictions, nor [[Edmund Burke|Mr Burke]] by his reasoning, anywhere looked to positive horror as a source of the sublime, though they all agree that terror is a very high one; and where lies the great difference between horror and terror, but in uncertainty and obscurity, that accompany the first, respecting the dreader evil" (Radcliffe: 1826).
-In horror film plots, [[evil]] forces, events, or characters, sometimes of [[supernatural]] origin, intrude into the [[everyday world]]. Horror film characters include [[vampire]]s, [[zombie]]s, [[monster]]s, serial killers, and a range of other fear-inspiring characters. [[Early horror films]] often drew inspiration from characters and stories from [[classic literature]], such as [[Dracula]], [[Frankenstein]], [[The Mummy]], [[The Wolf Man]], [[The Phantom of the Opera]] and [[Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]. Later horror films, in contrast, often drew inspiration from the insecurities of life since World War Two, giving rise to the three distinct, but related, subgenres of the [[horror-of-personality]] film, the [[horror-of-Armageddon]] film, and the [[horror-of-demonic|horror-of-the-demonic]] film. The last subgenre may be seen as a modernized transition from the earlier horror films, expanding on the earlier emphasis on supernatural agents that bring horror to the world.+According to Devendra Varma in ''The Gothic Flame'' (1966):
-Horror films have been criticized for their graphic violence and dismissed as low budget [[B-movies]] and [[exploitation film|exploitation]] films. Nonetheless, some major studios and respected [[film director|director]]s have made forays into the genre, and more serious critics have analyzed horror films through the prisms of genre theory and the auteur theory. Some horror films incorporate elements of other genres such as [[science fiction films|science fiction]], [[fantasy film|fantasy]], [[black comedy]], and [[thriller film|thriller]]s. +<blockquote>The difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realization: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse.</blockquote>
-==History and milestones==+[[Horror film|Horror]] is also a genre of film and [[Horror fiction|fiction]] that relies on horrifying images or situations to tell stories and prompt reactions in their audiences. In these films the moment of horrifying revelation is usually preceded by a terrifying build up, often using the medium of scary music (Wisker 2005).
-The horror genre is nearly as old as film itself. The first "monster movies" were silent shorts created by film pioneer [[Georges Melies]] in the late [[1890s]]. The earliest horror-themed feature films were created by German filmmakers in the early [[1900s]]; the most enduring of these is probably [[F. W. Murnau]]'s ''[[Nosferatu]]'' [[1922]], the first vampire-themed feature. Early [[Hollywood]] dramas dabbled in horror themes including versions of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' ([[1923]]) and ''[[The Monster]]'' ([[1925]]) (both starring [[Lon Chaney]], the first [[United States|American]] horror-film [[movie star]]). +== Etymology ==
 +The Latin ''horrere'' is the root of words such as "horrific" or "horror"; it means "to stand on end" and refers to the standing hairs of [[goose bumps]], otherwise known as 'horripilation' (see etymologies in ''Collins English Dictionary'' [1986])
-=== 1930s: The gothic subgenre === 
-It was in the early [[1930s]] that [[United States|American]] movie studios, particularly [[Universal Studios]], created the modern horror film genre, bringing to the screen a series of successful gothic-steeped features including ''[[Dracula]]'', ''[[Frankenstein]]'' (both [[1931]]), and ''[[The Mummy (1932 movie)|The Mummy]]'' ([[1932]]) (all of which spawned numerous sequels). These films, while designed to thrill, also incorporated more serious elements, and were influenced by the [[Freudian]] concepts that were gaining currency at the time. Actors, notably [[Boris Karloff]], began to build careers around the genre. +== Horror and terror in film ==
 +[[horror film|Horror]] and [[terror]] stem mainly from movies and literature. Horror is the feeling you get after seeing something violent and disturbing, while terror is the apprehension before something bad happens. To increase horrific feelings in the audience, plots often involve the supernatural, serial murderers, disease/virus outbreak, and [[surrealism]]. Themes involved to induce horror and terror include gore, werewolves, [[villain|villains]], [[torture]], [[ghosts]], [[curses]], [[satanism]], [[demons]], vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, and zombies. The definition of what was once called a horror movie has changed over the years. Examples are ''[[The Silence of the Lambs (film)|The Silence of the Lambs]]'' and ''Seven''. Horror is considered horror when there is an over the top amount of bloodshed and gore whereas thriller/terror is considered to be more along the route of mindgames, exemplified by the feeling of nervousness as a character is walking down a dark alley.
-=== 1950s: Cold War terror and the pull of science fiction ===+In the United States, the horror genre in film became popular in the early 1930s, and was especially identified with [[Universal Pictures]]. Most notable are ''[[Frankenstein (1931 film)|Frankenstein]]'' and ''[[Dracula (1931 film)|Dracula]]''. Some of these early movies blended science themed with Gothic and horror, such as James Whale's ''The Invisible Man''. Big names in the horror genre include actors [[Boris Karloff]] and [[Bela Lugosi]], and makeup artist [[Jack Pierce (makeup artist)|Jack Pierce]]. In the 1950s and 1960s, new sub-genres began to appear. Two most popular were the horror-of-armageddon and the [[horror-of-demonic]] film. The horror of armageddon consisted of end of civilization, while the horror of demonic dealt with demons controlling people's souls and further used the supernatural element to a slightly bigger extreme. Japanese films, in particular, had the majority of armageddon films with their first hand experience with radiation in the 1950s. The horror of demonic started out as ghosts and monsters, but by the mid to late 1960s, more film makers decided to deal with satan and the devil entering one's flesh, such as ''Rosemary's Baby'' from director [[Roman Polanski]]. Armageddon films did not have as much notice until 1963, when [[Alfred Hitchcock]] directed ''[[The Birds (film)|The Birds]]''.
 +''[[Rosemary's Baby]]'' brought horror film into a whole other realm. More occult films were accepted. ''[[The Exorcist]]'' remains one of the most influential horror movies dealing with an evil spirit invading one's soul. The 1970s brought with them the zombie movie, which is still relevant in today's society. Many of the same came the next twenty years, with a revival of ''The Exorcist'' in early 2000. The ''Saw'' and ''Final Destination'' franchises define what kind of mode we have entered into. Disaster films have become almost necessary, with remakes of foreign horror movies up there in equal importance. The influence of Swedish and French horror films is obvious over the past two to three years.
-In the nuclear-charged atmosphere of the [[1950s]] the tone of horror films shifted away from the gothic and towards the modern. A seemingly endless parade of low-budget productions featured humanity overcoming threats from Outside: alien invasions, and deadly mutations to people, plants, and insects. During this time the horror and [[sci-fi]] genres were often interchangeable. These films provided ample opportunity for audience exploitation, with gimmicks such as [[3-D film|3-D]] and "Percepto" (producer [[William Castle]]'s electric-shock technique used for [[1959]]'s ''[[The Tingler]]'') drawing audiences in week after week for bigger and better scares. The better horror films of this period, including ''[[The Thing From Another World]]'' ([[1951]]; attributed on screen to [[Christian Nyby]] but widely considered to be the work of [[Howard Hawks]]) and [[Don Siegel]]'s ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]'' ([[1956]]) managed to channel the paranoia of the [[Cold War]] into atmospheric creepiness without resorting to exploitation. Filmmakers would continue to merge elements of science fiction and horror, notably in [[Ridley Scott]]'s ''[[Alien (movie)|Alien]]'' ([[1979]]). +== See also ==
 +* [[Nightmare]]
 +* [[Horror fiction]]
 +* [[Horror film]]
 +* [[Fear]]
 +* [[Monster literature]]
 +* [[Fantastic art]]
 +* [[Suspense]]
-The late 1950s and early [[1960s]] saw the rise of studios centered specifically around horror. Notable were [[United Kingdom|British]] production company [[Hammer Horror|Hammer Films]], which specialized in bloody remakes of classic horror stories often starring [[Peter Cushing]] and [[Christopher Lee]], and [[American International Pictures]] ([[AIP]]), which made a series of [[Edgar Allan Poe]] themed films starring [[Vincent Price]]. These sometimes-controversial productions paved the way for more explicit violence in both horror and mainstream films.+== References ==
- +*[[Steven Bruhm]] (1994) ''[[Gothic Bodies: The Politics of Pain in Romantic Fiction]]''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
-=== 1960s: Psychological horror and the Hitchcock legacy ===+*[[Gary Crawford]] (1986) "Criticism" in J. Sullivan (ed) ''[[The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural]]''.
- +*[[Anne Radcliffe]] (1826) "[[On the Supernatural in Poetry]]" in ''The New Monthly Magazine'' 7, 1826, pp 145-52.
-Later in the 1960s the genre moved towards non-supernatural ''psychological horror'', with thrillers such as [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[Psycho]]'' ([[1960]]) using all-too-human monsters rather than supernatural ones to scare the audience. [[Michael Latham Powell|Michael Powell]]'s ''[[Peeping Tom (film)|Peeping Tom]]'' was a notable example of this genre. Psychological horror films would continue to appear sporadically with [[1991]]'s ''[[The Silence of the Lambs]]'' a later highlight of the subgenre. +*[[Devendra Varma]] (1966) ''[[The Gothic Flame]]''. New York: Russell and Russell.
- +*[[Gina Wisker]] (2005) ''[[Horror Fiction: An Introduction]]''. New York: Continuum.
-=== 1970s-80s: Disasters, the occult and the walking dead===+*[[Angela Wright]] (2007) ''[[Gothic Fiction]]''. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
- +
-In the late 1960s and 1970s a public fascination with the [[occult]] fed and was fed by a series of serious, supernatural-themed, often explicitly gory horror movies. [[Roman Polanski]]'s ''[[Rosemary's Baby]]'' ([[1968]]) was a critical and popular success and laid the groundwork for the seminal horror film ''[[The Exorcist]]'' ([[1973]]) (directed by [[William Friedkin]] and written by [[William Peter Blatty]], who also wrote the novel). Far from exploitation, these films incorporated subtext and symbolism, and had production values equal to any serious film of the time. ''The Exorcist'' spawned sequels and imitators, notably ''[[The Omen]]'' ([[1976]]) and its sequels.+
- +
-The genre fractured somewhat in the late 1970s, with mainstream Hollywood focusing on [[disaster movies]] such as ''[[The Towering Inferno]]'' and blockbuster thrillers such as ''[[Jaws]]'' while independent filmmakers upped the ante with disturbing and explicit gore-fests such as [[Wes Craven]]'s ''[[Last House on the Left]]'' ([[1972]]) and [[Tobe Hooper]]'s ''[[The Texas Chainsaw Massacre]]'' ([[1974]]). +
- +
-It was during the seventies that horror author [[Stephen King]] first came on the film scene. Adaptations of virtually all of his books have made the screen, beginning with [[Brian DePalma]]'s adaptation of King's first published novel, ''[[Carrie]]'' 1976). The 1980s got off with a bang when [[Stanley Kubrick]], one of the most highly-regarded film directors of all time, released ''[[The Shining]]'', another Stephen King adaptation combining elements of art film, psychological thriller, and splatter movie.+
- +
-Reincarnation was also a subject of horror films, such as [[Robert Wise]]'s [[1977 in film|1977]] [[United Artists]] film ''[[Audrey Rose]]'', which dealt with a man who claims his daughter is the reincarnation of another dead person. +
- +
-In [[1978]], the prototypical [[slasher film|slasher]] movie, [[John Carpenter]]'s ''[[Halloween (movie)|Halloween]]'', debuted to great popular success. An effective and atmospheric shocker, ''Halloween'' introduced the teens-threatened-by-superhuman-evil theme that would be copied in dozens of lesser, increasingly violent movies throughout the [[1980s]] including the long-running ''[[Friday the 13th (movie)|Friday the 13th]]'' and ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'' series, as well as ''[[Fatal Attraction]]'', and several, often far-flung, sequels to ''[[Halloween]]'' itself. +
- +
-[[George Romero]]'s groundbreaking zombie series spawned three decades: Romero introduced the modern zombie drama in 1968 with the low-budget shocker ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]''; he later took advantage of the '70s horror-film boom to create a sequel, ''[[Dawn of the Dead (1978)|Dawn of the Dead]]'' (1978) and revisited the formula in 1985 with ''[[Day of the Dead (movie)|Day of the Dead]]''. The themes of mass [[conformity]] and [[racism]] were staples of each film.+
- +
-A key example of the supernatural in 1980s movies is [[1982 in film|1982]]'s ''[[Poltergeist movies|Poltergeist]]'' (directed by Tobe Hooper, who previously directed ''Texas Chainsaw Massacre''), dealing with a family who live in a house that unknown to them is on the site of a former cemetery, thereby causing evil forces to kidnap youngest daughter Carol Anne. Many sequels and a television series followed.+
- +
-=== 1990s: Was the genre dead, or just sleeping? ===+
- +
-With seemingly nowhere left to go in the realm of explicit violence, English language horror movies turned to self-mocking irony and outright parody in the [[1990s]]. [[Wes Craven]]'s ''[[Scream (movie)|Scream]]'' movies featured teenagers who were fully aware of and often made reference the history of horror movies, and mixed ironic humor with the shocks. [[Sam Raimi]]'s ''[[Evil Dead]]'' films both parodied and advanced the zombie genre. The form of comedy that uses gruesome horror elements has been dubbed by some as "[[splatterstick]]".+
- +
-Of popular recent horror films, only [[1999]]'s surprise independent hit ''[[The Blair Witch Project]]'' attempted straight-ahead scares, and then in the ironic context of a [[mockumentary]], or mock-documentary. +
- +
-However, the international success of [[Hideo Nakata]]'s ''[[Ringu]]'' in [[1997]] launched a revival of serious horror filmmaking in Japan leading to such films as [[Kiyoshi Kurosawa]]'s ''[[Pulse (film)|Pulse]]'' and [[Shimizu_Takashi|Takashi Shimizu's]] ''[[Ju-on]]''. Other advances in horror have been made through [[anime|Japanese animation]] (for example gruesome '[[hentai]]' animation).+
- +
-=== Millennial horror ===+
- +
-Early horror entries in the [[2000s]] have been a mixed bag of teen exploitation (such as the ''[[Final Destination]]'' movies) and more serious attempts at mainstream horror, notably the horror-suspense films of [[M. Night Shyamalan]] and [[Gore Verbinski]]'s remake of ''[[Ringu]]'', ''[[The Ring]]''. Also, there was a revival of classic horror characters from previous decades. Some notable box office revivals, include the main villains of [[Freddy vs. Jason]], Chucky from the "Child's Play" series in "Seed of Chucky", the monsters in [[Van Helsing]], Michael Myers from the "Halloween" series in "Halloween: Resurrection", and the prequel to the "The Exorcist", called [[Exorcist: The Beginning]]. In addition, there were some remakes of previous successes such as [[Dawn of the Dead (2004)|Dawn of the Dead]] and [[The Texas Chainsaw Massacre]].+
- +
-==Lists== +
- +
-Notable horror film directors include:+
- +
-*[[Dario Argento]]+
-*[[Mario Bava]]+
-*[[John Carpenter]]+
-*[[Roger Corman]]+
-*[[Wes Craven]]+
-*[[David Cronenberg]]+
-*[[Terence Fisher]] (directed for [[Hammer Films]])+
-*[[Lucio Fulci]]+
-*[[Alfred Hitchcock]]+
-*[[Tobe Hooper]]+
-*[[F. W. Murnau]]+
-*[[Hideo Nakata]]+
-*[[George A. Romero]]+
-*[[Leslie Stevens]]+
-*[[James Whale]]+
- +
-Notable horror film actors include:+
- +
-*[[Lon Chaney, Jr.]]+
-*[[Jamie Lee Curtis]]+
-*[[Peter Cushing]]+
-*[[Robert Englund]]+
-*[[Boris Karloff]]+
-*[[Christopher Lee]]+
-*[[Peter Lorre]]+
-*[[Bela Lugosi]]+
-*[[Donald Pleasance]]+
-*[[Vincent Price]]+
-*[[Barbara Steele]]+
- +
-Notable horror films include:+
- +
-*''[[Angel Heart]]''+
-*''[[The Blair Witch Project]]''+
-*''[[Bride of Frankenstein]]''+
-*''[[Carrie]]''+
-*''[[The Creature from the Black Lagoon]]''+
-*''[[Dawn of the Dead]]''+
-*''[[Day of the Dead]]''+
-*''[[Dracula]]''+
-*''[[Evil Dead]]''+
-*''[[The Exorcist]]''+
-*''[[Fatal Attraction]]''+
-*''[[The Fly]]''+
-*''[[Frankenstein]]''+
-*''[[Friday the 13th (movie)|Friday the 13th]]''+
-*''[[Halloween (movie)|Halloween]]''+
-*''[[The Haunting]]''+
-*''[[Incubus (movie)|Incubus]]''+
-*''[[Last House on the Left]]'' +
-*''[[The Mummy (1932 movie)|The Mummy]]''+
-*''[[Night of the Living Dead]]''+
-*''[[A Nightmare On Elm Street]]''+
-*''[[Nosferatu]]''+
-*''[[The Omen]]''+
-*''[[Phantasm]]''+
-*''[[Poltergeist_movies|Poltergeist]]''+
-*''[[Psycho]]''+
-*''[[The Ring]]''/''[[Ringu]]''+
-*''[[Scream (movie)|Scream]]''+
-*''[[The Silence of the Lambs]]''+
-*''[[The Snake Pit]]''+
-*''[[Suspiria]]''+
-*''[[The Thing]]'' (1951 & 1982)+
-*''[[The Texas Chainsaw Massacre]]''+
-*''[[Vampires (movie)|Vampires]]''+
-*''[[The Wolf Man]]''+
-*''[[Fear Dot Com]]''+
- +
-== See also ==+
-*[[List of horror films]] 
{{GFDL}} {{GFDL}}

Revision as of 11:05, 9 December 2012

In 1963, Roger Corman directed The Raven, a horror-comedy written by Richard Matheson very loosely based on the poem, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. It stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff as a trio of rival sorcerers.
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In 1963, Roger Corman directed The Raven, a horror-comedy written by Richard Matheson very loosely based on the poem, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. It stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff as a trio of rival sorcerers.

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The distinction between horror and terror is a standard literary and psychological concept applied especially to Gothic literature and film (Radcliffe 1826; Varma 1966; Crawford 1986: 101-3; Bruhm 1994: 37; Wright 2007: 35-56). Horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets after coming to an awful realization or experiencing a deeply unpleasant occurrence. By contrast, terror is usually described as the feeling of [dread] and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience. In other words, horror is more related to being shocked or scared (being horrified), while terror is more related to being anxious or fearful, being terrified (Varma 1966). Horror has also been defined as a combination of terror and revulsion.

The distinction between terror and horror was first characterised by the Gothic horror writer Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823). Terror is characterised by "obscurity" or indeterminacy in its treatment of potentially horrible events; it is this indeterminacy which leads to the sublime. She says in the essay that it "expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life". Horror, in contrast, "freezes and nearly annihilates them" with its unambiguous displays of atrocity. She goes on: "I apprehend that neither Shakespeare nor Milton by their fictions, nor Mr Burke by his reasoning, anywhere looked to positive horror as a source of the sublime, though they all agree that terror is a very high one; and where lies the great difference between horror and terror, but in uncertainty and obscurity, that accompany the first, respecting the dreader evil" (Radcliffe: 1826).

According to Devendra Varma in The Gothic Flame (1966):

The difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realization: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse.

Horror is also a genre of film and fiction that relies on horrifying images or situations to tell stories and prompt reactions in their audiences. In these films the moment of horrifying revelation is usually preceded by a terrifying build up, often using the medium of scary music (Wisker 2005).

Contents

Etymology

The Latin horrere is the root of words such as "horrific" or "horror"; it means "to stand on end" and refers to the standing hairs of goose bumps, otherwise known as 'horripilation' (see etymologies in Collins English Dictionary [1986])


Horror and terror in film

Horror and terror stem mainly from movies and literature. Horror is the feeling you get after seeing something violent and disturbing, while terror is the apprehension before something bad happens. To increase horrific feelings in the audience, plots often involve the supernatural, serial murderers, disease/virus outbreak, and surrealism. Themes involved to induce horror and terror include gore, werewolves, villains, torture, ghosts, curses, satanism, demons, vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, and zombies. The definition of what was once called a horror movie has changed over the years. Examples are The Silence of the Lambs and Seven. Horror is considered horror when there is an over the top amount of bloodshed and gore whereas thriller/terror is considered to be more along the route of mindgames, exemplified by the feeling of nervousness as a character is walking down a dark alley.

In the United States, the horror genre in film became popular in the early 1930s, and was especially identified with Universal Pictures. Most notable are Frankenstein and Dracula. Some of these early movies blended science themed with Gothic and horror, such as James Whale's The Invisible Man. Big names in the horror genre include actors Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and makeup artist Jack Pierce. In the 1950s and 1960s, new sub-genres began to appear. Two most popular were the horror-of-armageddon and the horror-of-demonic film. The horror of armageddon consisted of end of civilization, while the horror of demonic dealt with demons controlling people's souls and further used the supernatural element to a slightly bigger extreme. Japanese films, in particular, had the majority of armageddon films with their first hand experience with radiation in the 1950s. The horror of demonic started out as ghosts and monsters, but by the mid to late 1960s, more film makers decided to deal with satan and the devil entering one's flesh, such as Rosemary's Baby from director Roman Polanski. Armageddon films did not have as much notice until 1963, when Alfred Hitchcock directed The Birds. Rosemary's Baby brought horror film into a whole other realm. More occult films were accepted. The Exorcist remains one of the most influential horror movies dealing with an evil spirit invading one's soul. The 1970s brought with them the zombie movie, which is still relevant in today's society. Many of the same came the next twenty years, with a revival of The Exorcist in early 2000. The Saw and Final Destination franchises define what kind of mode we have entered into. Disaster films have become almost necessary, with remakes of foreign horror movies up there in equal importance. The influence of Swedish and French horror films is obvious over the past two to three years.

See also

References




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