Timeline History of the Movie Genre of Horror

1896 - Le Manoir Du Diable (The Devil's Castle) : First Horror Film to be made.

1919 - The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (Directed by Robert Weine) : Introduced standard Horror conventions; German Expressionism, exagerated black around eyes, scared face expressions, damsel in distress.

1922 - Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror. Directed By F.W.Murnau): Vampire Monster based narrative.

1930's - Dracula and Frankenstein Era still using German Expressionism. Storylines based on Mad scientists, aristocrats, invisible men and gruesome monsters and creatures.

1940's - The Mummy, The Invinsible Man, The Wolf Man. Storylines start to concentrate on supernatural and gothic literature.

Early 1950's - Cinema became less popular as tv was invented. Famous actors only wanted to act in "serious" films. Horror films wern't taken as "serious" films. Teenagers became the main audience for horror because they would be the only audience to visit cinemas to get away from "family tv time". This lead to low budget for horror films and cheap actors. The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini is one of the teenage horror films made in the early 1950s.

Late 1950's - Advance in Cinema technology attracts other audiences as well as teenagers. For example: CinemaScope, Cinerama, Stereophonic Sound, 3D and Smell-O-Vision. An example of advanced technology being used in the cinemas was in the film, The Tingler 1959. Audience's seats vibrated to scare audiences at scary parts in the film. Mutant Horror slowly became popular; Sci fi, UFO's and Space. Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 is an exaple of a film based on Mutant Horror.

1960 - The Village of the Damned used the innocence of children as the enemy of the village. Played with the stereotypical image of children being innocent. Many people in society argued against this film as they thought using children as evil enemies was immoral and wrong. Psycho was also made in the 1960.

1963 - The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock based on evil birds that attacked people. Played on fear of birds that some people may have.

1968 - Rosemary's Baby is about a young girl who has the devil's baby.

1970 - More sexual nudity in more films. The Vampire Lovers is about lesbian vampires seducing others.

1973 - The Exorcist directed by William Friekin is about a child possessed by a demon. Rumours of supernatural happenings on set and bad luck on cast and crew members was heard from the production of The Exorcist.

1974 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released by Tobe Hooper. Graphic violence and gore was used in the film. The film is then banned in a number of countries because of it being "too graphic" in violence. Following the pattern of many ‘slasher’ movies of the seventies, the film will make a number of sequels. Last House on the Left was credited with bringing a new sense of realism to screen violence; playing with reality.

1978 - Hitchcocks’s Psycho's (1960) John Carpenter releases Halloween. Day of the Woman (more famously known by it’s later title I Spit on Your Grave) is the latest rape revenge movie to be released. It is banned in many countries for the violence and rape. George Romero releases Dawn of The Dead.

1980 - Paramount releases Friday the 13th. Sean S. Cunnigham, who also made Last House on the Left.  Stanley Kubrick releases the terrifying The Shining starring Jack Nicholson. Italian film Cannibal Holocaust is banned in many countries around the world due to it’s scenes of sexual violence and real animal torture.

1983 - Universal bring back Norman Bates from Hitchcock’s Psycho and release Psycho 2. The film is a success and two further sequels are made. Deborah Harry stars in a film that explores the effects of exposure to violence, torture and pornography via the video medium on human society.

1987 - Horror films slowly become slightly comedic. Sam Raimi releases a slapstick remake of his own earlier film under the title Evil Dead 2. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears in the action sci-fi/horror movie The Predator.

1996 - Wes Craven launches his new slasher with Scream. The film has many well known references to horror movie history and has laughs mixed in with the scares.

1997 - Producers rush out a film of I Know What You Did Last Summer to cash in on the success of Scream. This slasher movie will produce two less successful sequels.

1999 - After a decade of new ideas in the horror genre business, a low budget movie shot on a handheld camera becomes a worldwide phenomenon. Costing an initial $35,000 dollars, The Blair Witch Project grosses $248 million dollars worldwide. The improvised scenes and documentary feel of the film generate an atmosphere of terrifying realism and the film goes on to become the most successful independent film of all time.

2004 - Another Japanese horror is re-made by the Americans when The Grudge is released. Dawn of the Dead is re-made by Zak Schneider, following the lead by 28 Days Later, "the slow shuffling zombies of the original are now sprinting, screaming horrors." British comedy Shaun of the Dead teases the zombie genre. Saw, an ultraviolent movie series is launched. It is to be the first in a series rumoured to be stretching to six films and a videogame. It also is the making of a new sub-genre of extremely violent splatter movies called ‘torture porn’.

2006 - The Hills Have Eyes is remade.

 2008 - Trend of remakes begins and carrys on. Films currently in production or pre-production include new versions of I Spit on Your Grave, Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scanners, Friday the 13th, Child’s Play, The Birds and Hellraiser.

2010 - 13 Hours by Jonathon Glendening, Deadtime by Tony Jopia, Devil's Playground by Mark McQueen are in post production to be released.