History of horror

History of horror

The roots of the horror genre was an extension of a genre of literature that started in the late 1700s called Gothic Horror. Developed by writers in both Great Britain and the United States the Gothic part of the name refers to pseudo medieval buildings. In 1896 Georges Melies would go on to create what is considered to be the first horror film ever made. Silent films in the teens and 20s were still exploring the possibilities of this new filmmaking medium. Several experiments were conducted including the first Frankenstein adapted by Thomas Edison's studios in 1910 and Dante's inferno by Giuseppe de Liguoro in Italy in 1911. But the heart of horror in silent films would start to beat only after conclusion of the first world war and in ashes of the tattered country of Germany.

Tightly controlled Hollywood studio system of the 1930s, there was one studio that would be responsible for the first cycle of horror films- Universal Pictures. During the silent era, Universal was responsible for the few achievements in american horror. In the 30s, Universal created the Universal Gothic horror cycle: Their first hit was Dracula, directed Tod Browning and lensed by UFA cinematographer Karl Freund starring the Hungarian Bela Lugosi in 1931.

The genre of horror has ancient origins with roots in folklore and religious traditions, focusing on death, the afterlife, evil, the demon and the principle of the thing embodied in the person. These were manifested in stories of beings such as witched, vampires, werewolves and ghosts. In the 8th century, gothic horror drew on these sources with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole. This marked the first time a modern novel incorporated elements of the supernatural instead of pure realism. In fact, the first edition was published disguised as an actual medieval romance. Once revealed as contemporary, many found it anachronistic, reactionary, or simply in poor taste - but it proved to be immediately popular.


That first novel of Gothic horror inspired such works as Vathek (1786) by William Beckford, A Silican Romance (1790) and The Mysterious of Udolpho (1794).

Influential horror writers of the early 20th century made inroads in these mediums. Particularly, the venerated horror author H.P. Lovecraft pioneered the genre of cosmic horror, and M.R. James id credited with redefining the ghost story in that era. Up until the graphic depictions of violence and gore on the screen commonly associated with the 1960s and 1970s slasher films and splatter films, comic books such as those published  by EC Comics in the 1950s satisfied readers' quests for horror imagery.