the impact various genres have had around the world.
ok, so I have to have 5 paragraphs in the essay. I need to have it done by 9 pm 10/26/20. You cannot use I or you. And make sure that it sounds like an 8th grader did it please and thank you! here is the articles you need for this essay. How Horror Movies Have Changed Since Their Beginning
Posted on October 21, 2015 by New York Film Academy https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/how-horror-movies-have-changed-since-their-beginning/
Terrifying people through stories? Its been a pastime of we humans since antiquity, with a large swathe of folklore centered around things that go bump in the night (particularly supernatural goings-on, or anything related toand exploitingour innate fear of death.)With such a strong precedent in literature and oral history, its no surprise that the horror genre was very quick to get its feet under the table soon after the advent of cinema. Over the course of a century, film horror as it appears in film has gone through many peaks and troughs, leading us into the somewhat contentious period we find ourselves in today. Where the genre will go over the next hundred years is anyones guess, but sometimes its good to look back on the long road weve traveled to get to this point.
The First Ever Horror Movie?
The origins of horror as a film genre begin withas with many things in cinema historythe works of George Mellies. Just a few years after the first filmmakers emerged in the mid-1890s, Mellies created what is widely believed to be the first ever horror movie in 1898, complete with cauldrons, animated skeletons, ghosts, transforming bats and, ultimately, an incarnation of the Devil. While not intended to be scarymore wondrous, as was Mellies MOit was the first example of a film (only just rediscovered in 1977) to include the supernatural and set a precedent for what was to come.
The Literary Years
Between 1900 and 1920, an influx of supernatural-themed films followed with many filmmakersmost of whom still trying to find their feet with the new genreturned to literature classics as source material. The first adaptation of Frankenstein was released by Edison Studios in these early days, as well as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Werewolf (now both lost to the fog of time.) Things were starting to roll at this point as we move into
The Golden Age of Horror
Widely considered to be the finest era of the genre, the two decades between the 1920s and 30s saw many classics being produced, and can be neatly divided down the middle to create a separation between the silent classics and the talkies. One the silent side of the line, youve got monumental titles such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922), the first movies to really make an attempt to unsettle their audience (with the latter title being Rotten Tomatoes second best-reviewed movie in the horror genre of all time and cementing just about every surviving vampire clich in the book.) Once the silent era had given way to technological process, we had a glut of incredible movies that paved the way for generations to come, particularly in the field of monster movies think the second iteration of Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932) and the first color adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931).
The 30s also marked the first time in the industry that the word horror was used to describe the genrepreviously, it was really just romance melodrama with a dark elementand it also saw the first horror stars being born. Bella Lugosi (of Dracula fame) was arguably the first to specialize solely in the genre. And as well as unnerving its viewers, the genre was starting to worry the general public at this point with heavy censoring and public outcry becoming common with each release. Freaks (1932) is a good example of a movie that was so shocking at the time it got cut extensively, with the original version now nowhere to be found. Director Tod Browningwho had previously created the aforementioned and wildly successful Draculasaw his career flounder at the hands of the controversy. The shock value of Freaks is one of the few that has aged well up until present day, and is still a highly disturbing watch.
The Atomic Years
Somewhat ironically, Freaks was banned for thirty years in the country that really came into its own during this period: Great Britain. The Hammer horror company, while founded in 1934, only started to turn prolific during the fifties but when it did, it was near global dominance (thanks to a lucrative distribution deal with Warner and a few other U.S. studios). Once again, it was adaptations like Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Mummy that put the company squarely on the map, followed up with a slew of psychological thrillers and TV shows. And, of course, you cant mention British horror without paying respects to Alfred Hitchcock, singlehandedly responsible for establishing the slasher genre, which well see a lot of as we travel further forward in time.
Another hallmark of the 40s-50s era of horror came as a product of the times. With war ravaging Europe and fears of nuclear fallout running rampant, its of little surprise that horror began to feature antagonists that were less supernatural in natureradioactive mutation became a common theme (The Incredible Shrinking Man, Godzilla), as did the fear of invasion with The War of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide, both big hits in 1953. The latter marked the earliest rumblings of the disaster movie genre, but it would be a couple more decades before that would get into full swing.
The Gimmicky Years
3D glasses? Electric buzzers installed into theatre seats? Paid stooges in the audience screaming and pretending to faint? Everything and anything was tried during the 50s and 60s in an attempt to further scare cinema audiences. This penchant for interactivity spilled over into other genres during the period, but quickly died down in part due to the massive amounts of expense involved. For horror in particular, this gave way to the opposite end of the spectrum: incredibly low budget productions.
From the late 60s onwards, so insatiable was the American appetite for gore that slasher films produced for well under $1 million took hold and were churned out by volume. Thats not to say that there werent some masterpieces produced during this time, though; George A. Romero emerged triumphant and kickstarted zombie movies in this period, having produced Night of the Living Dead in 1968 with just over $100k. It went on to gross $30 million, and the living dead rose in its wake.
All Heck Breaks Loose
Literally. Occult was the flavor of the day beween the 70s and 80s, particularly when it came to houses and kids being possessed by the Devil. The reason for this cultural obsession with religious evil during this period could fill an entire article on its own, but bringing it back into the cinema realm we can boil the trend down to two horror milestones: The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976).
Supernatural horror was now very much back in vogue, and harking back to its cinematic origins, literature once again became the source material. This time, however, it wasnt a Victorian author whose work had fallen out of copyright, but a gentleman named Stephen King. Carrie (1976) stormed the gates, and The Shining (1980) finished the siege (with 1982s supernatural frightfest Poltergeist following soon afterward). With these hallmarks of horror now firmly established, the foundations were laid for
The Slasher Years
If theres one trope that typifies the 80s, its the slasher format a relentless antagonist hunting down and killing a bunch of kids in ever-increasing inventive ways, one by one. Arguably kicked off by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1974, the output became prolific over the next decade. For every ten generic slashers, however, there was one flick that would end up becoming a cult classic even if critical success was mixed at the timeHalloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street are the most prominent examples, which became so successful that they spawned their own long-running franchises (the first time in the history of the genre that multiple sequels became commonplace.) Plenty of imitators and rip-offs followed too, particularly in the Holiday-themed department. Some were a lot better than others as the genre descended to its most kitschy.
The Doldrums
Suffering from exhaustion in the wake of a thousand formulaic slasher movies and their sequels, the genre lost steam as it moved into the 90s. The advent of computer generated special effects brought with it a number of lackluster CGI monster titles that did little to revive the genre such as Anaconda (1997) and Deep Rising (1998). But it was comedy that ended up saving the day. Peter Jacksons early foray into filmmaking saw him taking the splatter subgenre to ridiculous extremes with Braindead (1992), and Wes Cravens slasher parody Scream (1996) was met globally with overwhelming success.
The genre as a whole limped on without much fanfare into the 2000s save for a few box office successes. The zombie subgenre, however, sprang back into un-life during this decade, arguably spurred on by the unprescedented success of Max Brooks novel World War Z (later becoming a film in its own right.) The video game adaptaion of Resident Evil (2002) was among the first of the new wave, followed swiftly by 28 Days Later a few months later, Dawn of the Dead (2004), Land of the Dead (2005), I Am Legend (2007) and Zombieland (2009.)
The Present Day
The state of the horror industry is hotly contested. With the genre seemingly relying on churning out remakes, reboots and endless sequels, many argue that its languishing in the doldrums once again with little originality to offer a modern audience.
On the other hand, glimmers of hope shine through with examples of extreme originality and artistry. Cabin in the Woods (2012) has been heralded as this decades Scream, and the recent releases of The Babadook and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (both 2014) have breathed new life into the genre.
The Future
With perhaps more subgenres than any other branch of fictional filmmaking, its difficult to see how anyone can expand or advance on anything that has come before in cinematic horror
but no doubt somebody will, and its highly likely that the film school students of today will become the Alfred Hitchcocks of tomorrow.
A History of Horror Novels in America: from the 1800s to Today
by Brandon Cornett | January 27, 2020
https://www.cornettfiction.com/brief-history-of-horror-novels/
A Brief History of Horror Novels in America
The origins of horror in written form go back a long, long way. Horrific scenes can be found in some of the earliest religious texts. Ancient cultures were fascinated with ideas relating to the afterlife, good versus evil, demons and the like.
But the emergence of horror as a genre came much later. According to many literary historians, this emergence began during the Gothic period. Gothic books combined horror with Romanticism (with a capital R). Gothic fiction can be traced back to 1764, when the English author Horace Walpole published the novel The Castle of Otranto.
Most of the early writers of Gothic horror were English. That was where the sub-genre originated. Gothic writers didnt spring up across the pond, in America, until the 1800s. Those writers would lay the groundwork for horror novels in the United States.
Heres a look at some of the most influential horror writers in America, from the 1800s through today.
Edgar Allen Poe: 1800 1849
Edgar Allen Poe (1800 1849) was an early American horror writer. Like many writers of his day, he worked across multiple genres. Some say Poe invented the detective story that has become so popular in our time. But today, we mostly remember him for his dark tales of suspense and macabre. The legendary American writer H.P. Lovecraft (below) credited Poe as being the most important pioneer of weird fiction and supernatural terror in America. In his 1920s essay entitled Supernatural Horror in Literature, H.P. Lovecraft wrote:
Poes spectres thus acquired a convincing malignity possessed by none of their predecessors, and established a new standard of realism in the annals of literary horror.
Technically speaking, Poe was not a horror novelist. He mostly wrote poetry and short fiction. His only complete novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, was more of an adventure story than horror though it did feature cannibalism at one point. Still, Edgar Allen Poe had a strong influence on the writers who followed him. And thus he played a role in the history of American horror novels.
H.P. Lovecraft: 1890 1937
Any discussion on the history of horror fiction in American would be incomplete without a mention of H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft specialized in writing weird tales (a term he often used to describe his own work), as well as cosmic horror. Supernatural themes and elements were common threads in his work. Lovecraft wrote dozens of short stories, a few novellas, and one complete novel (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, pictured here).
He created the Cthulhu Mythos, a kind of shared universe that connected many of his stories. A unifying theme in his work is that humans are small and largely irrelevant in the cosmic scheme of things. In a letter to the editor of Weird Tales magazine, Lovecraft once wrote: Now all my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large.
H.P. Lovecraft was largely unknown during his lifetime. Today, his work has achieved a near-legendary status. Many of todays well-known writers, including Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, have cited Lovecraft as one of their early influences.
Shirley Jackson: 1916 1965
Shirley Jackson was another instrumental figure in the history of horror stories and novels in America. Even today, in 2020, she has a lasting impact. Shirley Jackson wrote six novels and more than 200 short stories. While she wrote across multiple genres, she is best known for her work within the horror genre in particular.
In 1959, Jackson published The Haunting of Hill House, cementing her position as one of the greatest gothic horror writers of her time. Hill House was one of the first and, some would say, one of the best haunted house novels in America or anywhere else. It has certainly been influential. Jacksons novel was adapted for film twice under the shortened title The Haunting, once in 1963 and again in 1999. (Watch the first one; dont bother with the second.)
In 2018, Hill House was resurrected yet again for a Netflix original series directed by Mike Flanagan. Just know that the Netflix series is loosely based on the original novel.
Stephen King: 1970s to Present
What can I say about Stephen King that hasnt been said before and you dont already know? Well, maybe a few things. But lets start with the obvious. Stephen King has influenced the horror genre in general and American horror in particular more than any other writer living or dead. He authored such seminal works as Carrie, Salems Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Pet Cemetery and It (to name but a few).
In my view, hes also part of the reason why we are now seeing renewed interest and commercial popularity within the horror genre, as we move into 2020. This past Halloween, in 2019, a total of three kids visited my house wearing Pennywise the Clown costumes. Three. Keep in mind this is 33 years after that novel was written. That is some serious staying power.
Decades of Dark Fiction
Horror fiction in America has had its ups and downs. It began in relative obscurity, rose to a popular peak, and then faded. But it has never completely vanished and never will. The thrill we get from reading horror novels or watching scary movies are part of human nature. And human nature has no shelf life. Here are some dark fiction highlights from the past 50 years or so.
1970s: The Golden Age of Horror Novels in America
The 1970s ushered in a kind of Golden Age for horror novels in America, and it stretched into the 80s as well. During the 1970s, horror novels began to enjoy greater commercial success and more widespread readership. Prior to that, they were largely the stuff of fringe readers and weirdos. They werent mainstream. But in the 1970s, that began to change. Horror novels started popping up on bestseller lists. They became household names. Many literary critics and historians consider the 70s to be the start of the contemporary horror period in America, though that term is a slippery one.
The 1970s gave us a panoply of great American horror novels, including the following:
The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty (1971)
Hell House, by Richard Matheson (1971)
Carrie, by Stephen King (1974)
Jaws, by Peter Benchley (1974)
Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice (1976)
The Omen, by David Seltzer (1976)
The Amityville Horror, by Jay Anson (1977)
Ghost Story, by Peter Straub (1979)
During the 1970s, horror novels emerged from the shadows and entered the mainstream. They sold well, for the most part. (The paperback version of Stephen Kings Carrie sold over a million copies in its first year alone.) These books were also being adapted onto the big screen, where they often earned blockbuster status.
In his wonderful and well-researched book, Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of 70s and 80s Horror Fiction, Grady Hendrix described the 1970s as the devils decade. During the 70s, he claimed, horror novels became a lot more frightening and intense. Many of them began to feature the devil and/or demonic possession. And readers couldnt get enough of it.
As Grady explained:
Descended from the pulps, occult horror novels at the dawn of the 70s still felt like places where The Guardians would feel at home. But after The Exorcist hit movie screens in 1974, horror fiction scraped its pulp influences off its shoe like a piece of old gum Satan wasnt a threat that you met in remote mansions or on Jamaican plantations. Now the devil was within. Satan was no longer your next-door neighbor he was you.
Grady Hendrix, Paperbacks from Hell (2017)
Going forward, we would encounter a new kind of horror novel in America. One that was less pulpy and more frightening.
1980s: The Boom Continues
The heyday of horror novels in America, which began in the 1970s, would carry over into the 1980s as well. But it faded during the second half of that decade. In terms of bestsellers and breakthroughs within the genre, the 80s pale next to the 70s. Still, the decade gave us some notable works of dark fiction. Noteworthy horror novels published during the 1980s include:
The Elementals, by Michael McDowell (1981)
Legion, by William Peter Blatty (1983)
The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill (1983)
It, by Stephen King (1986)
Swan Song, by Robert McCammon (1987)
The Queen of the Damned, by Anne Rice (1988)
The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris (1988)
1990s: A Downtime for the Genre
The 1990s marked a relative low period for horror novels in America. Its not that they werent being produced. They were. They just werent getting the same attention or earnings they enjoyed during the 1970s and 80s. Breakout horror writers of the 1990s included Poppy Z. Brite (Lost Souls) and Kathe Koja (The Cipher, Bad Brains), among others.
Traditional horror novels fell out of vogue during the late 1990s and into the 2000s. Publishers often labeled them as supernatural suspense or dark fiction, or any number of other euphemisms. Once a commercial force to be reckoned with, the American horror novel faded into the shadows during the 90s.
2000 2020: A Renewed Interest in Horror Fiction?
Over the past few years, weve seen increased interest and output within the horror genre. There are several reasons for this, as mentioned below. Some notable trends within the past decade:
Stephen Kings It was adapted for the big screen, twice, with both movies enjoying commercial success.
Josh Malermans 2014 horror novel Birdbox become a hit and was later adapted for a Netflix movie.
We saw yet another adaption of Shirley Jacksons The Haunting of Hill House, this one a miniseries on Netflix.
On the movie side of things, films like The Conjuring and A Quiet Place enjoyed huge success at the box office.
And AMCs The Walking Dead continues to shuffle along, having spawned a series of novels set in that fictional world.
As of yet, the horror genre hasnt regained the commercial popularity it enjoyed during the 1970s and 80s. Thats partly because it has evolved since then, branching out in new directions and forms. The very definition of a horror novel has become more ambiguous than in the past. But if the bullet-point trends above are any indication, readers and viewers still have quite an appetite for horror or dark fiction, or whatever you want to call it. And why wouldnt they? We, as humans, will always have fears. And some of us will always enjoy probing those fears, within the relative safety of fiction.
As Sara Roncero-Menendez wrote in an article for Simon & Schusters Get Literary Blog: I think the most important thing that I take away from reading horror is that everything is surmountable and survivable. The genre taps into universal themes that we can all relate to, things like fear and loss, hope and survival.
Kate McHale from the book retailer Waterstones believes nostalgia is playing a role in the current resurgence of horror fiction. She points to the TV series Stranger Things and the movie version of It (both set in the 1980s) as key drivers of consumer demand.
In 2018, McHale told The Telegraph:
I would say that one of the huge things last year was the film IT, which had a really brilliant impact on the sales of the book That, combined with Stranger Things, really drove sales in the genre.
Its a kind of cycle. Horror novels often pave the way for TV and film adaptations, which increase sales for the books that spawned them. People see the movie or watch the show, and then they go back and buy the original source material. This, in turn, encourages new and innovative writers to get into the genre and push it forward. The popularity of horror novels in America has ebbed and flowed over the years, and it will continue to do so. But it will never die. After all, it uses human fear to achieve the desired effect. And fear is eternal.
Lets celebrate horror and all its sub genres
BY: DEVON MARTINEZ ON: OCTOBER 14, 2020 IN: CULTURE, MOVIES & TV
Devon Martinez https://scribe.uccs.edu/lets-celebrate-horror-and-all-its-sub-genres/
Publisher: UCCS
Welcome to October spooky season is officially here.
Some people look forward to pumpkin spice, while others look forward to watching their favorite horror movies and exploring new ones to expand their palate. I like pumpkin, but I love horror more.
The first horror film was released in 1896; a three-minute French short film called Le Manoir du diable (The House of the Devil in English). It was released before the invention of sound in film, and its haunting setting will still spook audiences today if you dare to watch it.
This new genres purpose was to elicit fear in its audience, inspired by literature from authors like Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe and Bram Stoker.
What started out as one film, inspired by Gothic novels and short stories, has evolved into a giant genre with many sub-genres. So, here are several of my favorite horror sub-genres and the classic movies within them that you should watch.
Horror Comedy
Comedy is subjective, right? Well, for some, it can intersect with horror. Horror comedy attempts to synthesize laughter with terror.
The first horror comedy film was released in 1922; One Exciting Night was written, directed and produced by D.W. Griffith. Since its release, this concept has connected with audiences with new films being released every day.
This genre has a lot of classics. Young Frankenstein, released in 1974, is one of them, directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder. This movie combines the horror aesthetics with irreverent comedy to entertain audiences everywhere.
Theses cult classics have morphed into pop culture events that culminated in some of the genres most recent additions, like Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead. And this genre is here to stay.
Cosmic Horror
Cosmic horror, also known as Lovecraftian horror (named after American author H.P. Lovecraft), explores phenomena beyond our comprehension. The horror is in the unknown, and sometimes the discovery of this truth leads to more fear. To some, this type of horror is unsettling because we cannot understand it.
Currently, HBO has an entire show dedicated to this style of horror called Lovecraft Country, based on Matt Ruffs novel of the same name. The story is about a Black man travelling with a friend and his uncle as they cross segregated 1950s America in search of his missing father. This is where cosmic horror finds its strength. Backwards human laws, interests and emotions pale in comparison to the cosmic reality thats beyond us.
Although I dont have a favorite, here are some popular recommendations if you want to test the limits of your mind.
2018s Annihilation will have you confused from the beginning, and by the end, youll understand nothing. Check every cosmic horror movie list recommendation, and youll find this movie; its peak cosmic horror featuring a mysterious phenomenon that is mutating the Western coast.
Stephen Kings novel The Mist was translated into film in 2007, which turns a simple trip to a supermarket into something more terrifying than its meant to be. This is another cosmic horror film thats on every list and has its place in pop culture, with a plot involving strange circumstances and monsters attacking a small town through a mist.
Psychological Horror
This is my favorite horror sub-genre, because the mind is a terrifying place. Its not ghosts, demons or Cthulhu. Its your mind. The people around you are in danger or are you in danger? The fear takes hold, and there is no going back.
These movies test your mind as you watch them. Some of whats happening is usually made up in the imagination of the movies poor protagonist.
My personal favorite is The Shining, directed by the great Stanley Kubrick and based on Stephen Kings novel of the same title. I am not the only one that feels this way, since its listed in the top 100 movie lists, constantly. The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, is a worldwide tourist attraction because of the cultural impact of this movie.
Surreal Horror
Have you ever woken up from a nightmare? Well, surreal horror is that nightmare, but its real-life reality is the nightmare. Everything is disjointed, dreamlike and filled with striking imagery.
You can find at least a couple of surreal films being released every year, and the bizarre, psychedelic style is a staple of pop culture. Movies like Donnie Darko and American Psycho are a couple of well-known examples of this genre.
If this sub-genre sounds interesting to you, then I would recommend checking out the full catalog of writer/director David Lynch. His debut film, Eraserhead, is about a couple that ends up giving birth to a bizarre lizard-like creature; the film revolves around the fears of fatherhood but showcases it in a dreamlike way.
And he continued to explore more in this genre throughout his career with films like Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet and Lost Highway. Basically, if you want to learn about this genre, Lynch is the man you need to check out.
While this list of horror sub-genres is not complete, it can at least be an introduction into the many colors and flavors of horror that you can check out before spooky season is over.
