What was the first ever horror movie?
Horror film
The first depictions of the supernatural on screen appear in several of the short silent films created by the French pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès in the late 1890s. The best known of these supernatural-based works is the 3-minute short film "Le Manoir du Diable" (1896), also known in English as "The Haunted Castle" or "The House of the Devil". The film is sometimes credited as being the first ever horror film. In "The Haunted Castle", a mischievous devil appears inside a medieval castle and harasses the visitors. Méliès' other popular horror film is "La Caverne maudite" (1898), which translates literally to "the accursed cave". The film, also known for its English title "The Cave of the Demons", tells the story of a woman stumbling over a cave that is populated by the spirits and skeletons of people who died there. Méliès would also make other short films that historians consider now as horror-comedies. "Une nuit terrible" (1896), which translates to "A Terrible Night", tells a story of a man who tries to get a good night's sleep but ends up wrestling a giant spider. His other film, "L'auberge ensorcelée" (1897), or "The Bewitched Inn", features a story of a hotel guest getting pranked and tormented by an unseen presence. 
In 1897, the accomplished American photographer-turned director George Albert Smith created "The X-Ray Fiend" (1897), a horror-comedy that came out a mere two years after x-rays were invented. The film shows a couple of skeletons courting each other. An audience full of people unaccustomed to the idea would have found it frightening and otherworldly. The next year, Smith created the short film "Photographing a Ghost" (1898), consisdered a precursor to the paranormal investigation subgenre. The film portrays three men attempting to photograph a ghost, only to fail time and again as the ghost eludes them and throws chairs.
Japan also made early forays into the horror genre. In 1898, Japanese film company Konishi Honten released two horror films both written by Ejiro Hatta; "Shinin No Sosei" (Resurrection of a Corpse), and "Bake Jizo" (Jizo the Spook) "Shinin No Sosei" told the story of a dead man who comes back to life after having fallen from a coffin that two men were carrying. (the writer Hatta played the dead man, while the coffin-bearers were played by Konishi employees.) Though there are no records of the cast, crew, or plot of "Bake Jizo", it was likely based on the Japanese legend of Jizo statues, believed to provide safety and protection to children. The presence of the word bake—which can be translated to "spook," "ghost," or "phantom"—may imply a haunted or possessed statue. (In Japan, Jizō, or respectfully as "Ojizō-sama", is a beloved divinity who is seen as the guardian of children, and in particular, children who died before their parents. He has been worshipped as the guardian of the souls of "mizuko", the souls of stillborn, miscarried, or aborted fetuses.)
Spanish filmmaker Segundo de Chomón is regarded as the most significant Spanish silent film director in an international context. He was popular for his frequent camera tricks and optical illusions, an innovation that contributed heavily to the popularity of trick films in the period. His famous works include "Satán se divierte" (1907), which translates to "Satan Having Fun", or "Satan at Play"; "La casa hechizada" (1908), or "The House of Ghosts", considered to be one of the earliest cinematic depictions of a haunted house premise; and "Le spectre rouge" (1907) or "The Red Spectre", a collaboration film with French director Ferdinand Zecca about a demonic magician who attempts to perform his act in a mysterious grotto.
The House of Frankenstein (film)
"Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" (1943) had been the first on-screen pairing of two Universal Studios monsters, but "House of Frankenstein" was the first multi-monster movie. Early drafts of the story reportedly involved more characters from the Universal stable, including the Mummy, the Ape Woman, the Mad Ghoul, and possibly the Invisible Man. Working titles—which included "Chamber of Horrors" (a reference to Lampini's travelling horror show) and "The Devil's Brood"—emphasized the multi-monster nature of the story.
Horror film
The trend of inserting an element of macabre into American pre-horror melodramas continued into the 1920s. Directors known for relying on macabre in their films during the 1920s were Maurice Tourneur, Rex Ingram, and Tod Browning. Ingram's "The Magician" (1926) contains one of the first examples of a "mad doctor" and is said to have had a large influence on James Whale's version of "Frankenstein". "The Unholy Three" (1925) is an example of Browning's use of macabre and unique style of morbidity; he remade the film in 1930 as a talkie, though "The Terror" (1928) was the first horror film with sound.
Horror film
Steven Spielberg's shark horror film, "Jaws" (1975), began a new wave of killer animal stories, such as "Orca" (1977) and "Up from the Depths" (1979). "Jaws" is often credited as being one of the first films to use traditionally B movie elements such as horror and mild gore in a big-budget Hollywood film. In 1979, Don Coscarelli's "Phantasm" was the first of the Phantasm franchise.
Boardinghouse (film)
Boardinghouse (also known as Boarding House and Housegeist) is a 1982 American supernatural horror film written, directed and starring John Wintergate. It was the first horror film to be shot on video.
The Mask (1961 film)
The Mask (re-released as Eyes of Hell) is a 1961 Canadian surrealist horror film produced in 3-D by Warner Bros. It was directed by Julian Roffman, and stars Paul Stevens, Claudette Nevins, and Bill Walker. It was shot in Toronto, Ontario and is the first Canadian horror film.
Hantu Jeruk Purut
"Hantu Jeruk Purut" was Joseph's first horror film. She later commented that it was extremely tiring.
General Cemetery
"General Cemetery" is the first full-length horror film in Peru. The film will include extensive found footage scenes, a new film style in the country.
Fear (1917 film)
Fear (German: Furcht) is a 1917 German silent horror film written and directed by Robert Wiene and starring Bruno Decarli, Conrad Veidt and Bernhard Goetzke. It is also the first known appearance of Conrad Veidt on screen, cast by producer Oskar Messter (famous for discovering actors who became big stars in the 1920s).
Urban Gothic
Urban Gothic novels were among the earliest and most influential works adapted for the cinema, helping to form the genre of horror film. These included "Nosferatu" (1922), "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925), "Dracula" (1931) and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1941). After World War II, emphasis shifted to films that more often drew inspiration from the insecurities of life, utilising new technology and dividing into three the subgenres of horror-of-personality, the horror-of-Armageddon and the horror-of-the-demonic. However, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, the British company Hammer Film Productions enjoyed huge international success from Technicolor films involving classic Gothic horror characters, often starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, particularly "Dracula" (1958), which resulted in many sequels into the 1970s. The 1983 vampire film "The Hunger" provided a highly influential modernised and urbanised version of Gothic culture. The same themes have been revisited periodically in films like "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992). From the late 1980s urban Gothic-influenced comics were the basis for a number of films that drew on dark city landscapes including: "Batman" (1989), "Batman Returns" (1992), "The Crow" (1994), "Vampire in Brooklyn" (1995), "Blade" (1998), "From Hell" (2001), "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (2003), "Sin City" (2005) and "Watchmen" (2009). Other films dealing with similar dark themes and urban landscapes include: "Seven" (1995), "Dark City" (1998), "Fight Club", "Hamlet" (2000), "American Psycho" (2000), "Underworld" (2003), "The Machinist" (2004) and "Darling" (2015).
List of Indian horror films
This period saw the popularity of horror films in India increasing, with a number of popular titles. "Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche" (released in 1972 and directed by the Ramsay brothers) proved successful, laying the foundation for horror films in the following years. 1976 saw Bollywood's first-ever combination of horror and fantasy in Rajkumar Kohli's "Nagin". The star-studded film proved a major box-office hit. Two years later, Kohli gave Bollywood one of its biggest hits in "Jaani Dushman". It is considered to be the biggest horror movies to have come out from Indian film industry to date by many experts. The film proved to be a cult one and gave inspiration to the upcoming horror movies. Other horror movies released at this time were "Darwaza" (1978), "Jadu Tona" (1977), "Aur Kaun?" (1979) "Saboot", "Gehrayee", "Red Rose", "Guest House", "Dahshat" and "Sannata" (all 1980). "Gehrayee" (inspired by "The Exorcist") saw Padmini Kolhapure playing a young girl (Linda Blair's character in "The Exorcist"), while Rajesh Khanna played a psychotic killer in "Red Rose".
Massacre (film series)
The "Slumber Party Massacre" series has the distinction of being the first series in horror film history whose films were exclusively directed by women.
The Devil Bat
PRC was a young studio when it planned to enter the horror film genre, which had been neglected by the major studios during 1937 and 1938. Lugosi was beginning a comeback when he signed a contract on October 19, 1940, with PRC's Sigmund Neufeld to star in the Poverty Row studio's first horror film.
Horror film
In 1910, Edison Studios produced the first filmed version of Mary Shelley's classic gothic 1818 novel "Frankenstein", the popular story of a scientist creating a hideous, sapient creature after a successful scientific experiment. Adapted to the screen for the first time by J. Searle Dawley for Edison, "Frankenstein" (1910) was deliberately designed to de-emphasize the horrific aspects of the story and focus on the story's mystical and psychological elements. Yet, the macabre nature of its source material made the film synonymous with the horror film genre.
Halloween (1978 film)
"Halloween" was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in 1979, but lost to "The Wicker Man" (1973). In 2001, "Halloween" ranked #68 on the American Film Institute TV program "100 Years ... 100 Thrills". The film was #14 on Bravo's "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments" (2004). Similarly, the Chicago Film Critics Association named it the 3rd scariest film ever made. In 2006, "Halloween" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In 2008, the film was selected by "Empire" magazine as one of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". In 2010, "Total Film" selected the film as one of "The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time".
Horror film
The decade started with "American Psycho" (2000) directed by Mary Harron starring Christian Bale as a charismatic serial killer and Manhattan business mogul. The movie was highly controversial when released and remains a cult classic today. "Scary Movie" (2000), a comedy horror directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans parodied of the horror, slasher, and mystery genres. The film received mixed reviews from critics. By contrast, "Valentine" (2001) was a conventional horror film. It had some success at the box office, but was derided by critics for being formulaic and relying on foregone horror film conventions. "The Others" (2001) was hugely successful, winning and being further nominated for many awards. It is a 2001 Spanish-American supernatural gothic horror film with elements of psychological horror. It was written, directed, and scored by Alejandro Amenábar. It stars Nicole Kidman and Fionnula Flanagan.
List of Indian horror films
The first real horror movie made by the Indian film industry was Kamal Amrohi's "Mahal" in 1949. The film (which starred Ashok Kumar and Madhubala in leading roles) proved a major box office hit, leading Madhubala and Lata Mangeshkar into stardom. Hemant Kumar's "Bees Saal Baad" (released in 1962) was another film which proved to be a box-office success. This film ignited the huge increase in popularity of horror-genre movies in the following years. "Gumnaam" (1965) and "Bhoot Bungla" (also 1965) were some of the other major horror movies which were seen in theaters at this time.
The Vault of Horror (comics)
Horror comics emerged as a distinct comic book genre after World War II when young adult males lost interest in caped crimebusters and returning GIs wanted more potent themes in their reading. One-shot "Eerie" (1947) is generally considered the first true horror comic with its cover depicting a dagger-wielding, red-eyed ghoul threatening a rope-bound, scantily clad, voluptuous young woman beneath a full moon. In 1948, "Adventures Into the Unknown" became the first regularly published horror title, enjoying a nearly two decade lifespan. 
In 1950, William Gaines and his editor Al Feldstein discovered they shared similar tastes in horror and began experimenting with such stories in EC's crime comic "War Against Crime" and its companion title, "Crime Patrol". With issue #12 the "War Against Crime" title was replaced with "The Vault of Horror". The Vault-Keeper became the title's sardonic host and commentator, occasionally sharing duties with the Old Witch and the Crypt-Keeper. Due to an attempt to save money on second-class postage permits, characteristic of comics publishing of the era, the numbering did not change with the title; the first issue of "The Vault of Horror" was thus labelled "No. 12". There is, however, evidence of an intention to reset the series' numbering with the fourth issue (#15), as was done with "The Haunt of Fear" (the numbering of which was reset, yet also "continued" by "Two-Fisted Tales": a few copies survive of the first issue of "Crime SuspenStories" with a different indicia on the inside front cover. As the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide explains: ""#15 (formerly "The Vault of Horror")" printed and blackened out on inside front cover with "Vol.1, No.1" printed over it. Evidently, several of No.15 were printed before a decision was made not to drop the "Vault of Horror" and "Haunt of Fear" series. The print run was stopped on No.15 and continued on No.1. All of the No.15 issues were changed as described above.""
The Amityville Horror (1979 film)
The Amityville Horror is a 1979 American supernatural horror film based on Jay Anson's book of the same name (1977). Directed by Stuart Rosenberg, it features James Brolin and Margot Kidder as a young couple who purchase a home haunted by combative supernatural forces. The story is based on the alleged experiences of the Lutz family who bought a new home in Amityville, New York where a mass murder had been committed the year before. It is the first film based on the Amityville horror.
Horror film
In 1923, Universal Pictures started producing films with horror elements. This would become the first phase of the studio's Universal Classic Monsters series that would continue for three more decades. The first of these films was "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923) starring Lon Chaney as the hunchback Quasimodo. The film was adapted from the classic French gothic novel of the same name written by Victor Hugo in 1833, about a horribly deformed bell ringer in the cathedral of Notre-Dame. The film elevated Chaney, already a well-known character actor, to full star status in Hollywood, and also helped set a standard for many later horror films.
Horror film
In 1924, German filmmaker Paul Leni made another representative German Expressionist film with "Das Wachsfigurenkabinett", or "Waxworks" as it is commonly known. The horror film tells a story of a writer who accepts a job from a wax museum to write a series of stories about the exhibits on Harun al-Rashid, the Caliph of Baghdad, Ivan the Terrible, the Tsar of All Rus' and Jack the Ripper, the unknown serial killer of London in order to boost business. Although "Waxworks" is often credited as a horror film, it is an anthology film that goes through several genres including a fantasy adventure, a historical film, and a horror film through its various episodes. "Waxworks" contain many elements present in a German Expressionist movie. The film features deep shadows, moving shapes, and warped staircases. The director said of the film, "I have tried to create sets so stylized that they evidence no idea of reality." "Waxworks" was director Paul Leni’s last film in Germany before he heading to Hollywood to make some of the most important horror films of the late silent era.
Though the word "horror" to describe the film genre would not be used until the 1930s (when Universal Pictures began to release their initial monster films), earlier American productions often relied on horror themes. Many of these early films were considered dark melodramas because of their stock characters and emotion-heavy plots that focused on romance, violence, suspense, and sentimentality.
Magarditch Halvadjian
Next project of the Company was the movie “Havana Darkness” - shot in the USA and Cuba - that is the first in history horror movie shot in Cuba.
Natalya Varley
In October 1967 the first Soviet horror movie, "Viy" (after Nikolay Gogol's novella of the same name) was premiered. Here Varley provided another striking performance, now as Pannochka, a murdered witch, rising off her coffin to torment and finally kill a hapless seminary student (played by Leonid Kuravlyov), who had inadvertently brought about her death. Several other films of the late 1960s featured Natalya Varley, who has by now left the Moscow Circus to become a Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute student. Among them were "Seven Brides of Corporal Zbruyev" and "The Twelve Chairs", the latter again by Gaidai.
The Slumber Party Massacre
Two sequels, "Slumber Party Massacre II" and "III", followed in 1987 and 1990, respectively. It is the first horror franchise in history whose films were directed exclusively by women.
Andy Milligan
In 1968, Milligan began to make horror movies featuring gore effects with "The Ghastly Ones", a 19th-century period piece and his first color film which was produced by JER and titled by Sam Sherman. In 1969, he made his next horror movie, a medieval period piece titled "Torture Dungeon", after which he moved to London, England to make movies there after having made a deal with producer Leslie Elliot. After directing the exploitation drama "Nightbirds" in London, his partnership with Elliot collapsed as he was working on "The Body Beneath". Milligan then teamed up with William Mishkin again where Mishkin produced and Milligan directed three more 19th-century period piece British horror pictures which were "Bloodthirsty Butchers", "The Man With Two Heads", and "The Rats Are Coming. The Werewolves Are Here" (all shot in 1969) before Milligan's return to Staten Island in 1970.
James Bernard (composer)
Following his scores to "X the Unknown" and "Quatermass 2", Bernard scored Hammer's first horror film, "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1957). This included some music he had originally composed for "The Duchess of Malfi". Next came "Dracula" (1958), in which the title cue featured a motif based on the sound "Dra-cu-laaaaa", inspired by a suggestion Paul Dehn made to Bernard. Other Hammer horror scores include "The Kiss of the Vampire" (1962), "The Gorgon" (1964), "" (1966), "The Plague of the Zombies" (1966), "The Devil Rides Out" (1968), "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave" (1968), "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" (1969), "Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell" (1974) and "The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires" (1974). He also scored non-horror Hammer films such as "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1959), "The Stranglers of Bombay" (1959), "The Terror of the Tongs" (1961), "The Damned" (1963), "The Secret of Blood Island" (1964), and "She" (1965).
Horror icon
One of the earliest horror icons in film date back to 1913 with "The Werewolf", which is one of the earliest werewolf films. In the 1920s, Dracula and Frankenstein's monster had movies released. Their presence in literary history led to them becoming among the most famous horror film icons. These films have had numerous sequels and remakes made, each one varying in success.
Maila Nurmi
Nurmi made television history as the first horror movie hostess. In 1957, Screen Gems released a syndicated package of 52 horror movies, mostly from Universal Pictures, under the program title "Shock Theater". Independent stations in major cities all over the U.S. began showing these films, adding their own ghoulish host or hostess (including Vampira II and other lookalikes) to attract more viewers.
The Haunting (1963 film)
Upon release on 18 September 1963, the film performed moderately at the box office and was well received, although the plot was widely criticized for being incoherent. Today it has achieved cult status and is considered by many to be one of the best horror films in cinematic history, and one of the most unsettling. In 2010, "The Guardian" newspaper ranked it as the 13th-best horror film of all time. Director Martin Scorsese has placed "The Haunting" first on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time. "The Haunting" was released on DVD in its original screen format with commentary in 2003, and was released on Blu-ray on 15 October 2013. The film was remade in 1999 by director Jan de Bont, starring Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor, Catherine Zeta Jones and Owen Wilson, but this version was heavily panned by critics and audiences.
Night of the Living Dead
Due to the film's public domain status, several independent film companies have also done remakes of the film.Romero revolutionized the horror film genre with "Night of the Living Dead"; according to Almar Haflidason of the BBC, the film represented "a new dawn in horror film-making". The film has also effectively redefined the use of the term "zombie". While the word "zombie" itself is never used—the word used in the film is "ghoul"—Romero's film introduced the theme of zombies as reanimated, flesh-eating cannibals. Romero himself didn't initially consider the antagonists in the film zombies, later saying "I never thought of my guys as zombies, when I made the first film ... To me, zombies were still those boys in the Caribbean doing the wetwork for [Bela] Lugosi."
The film and its successors spawned countless imitators, in cinema, television and video gaming, which borrowed elements invented by Romero. "Night of the Living Dead" ushered in the splatter film subgenre. As one film historian points out, horror prior to Romero's film had mostly involved rubber masks and costumes, cardboard sets, or mysterious figures lurking in the shadows. They were set in locations far removed from rural and suburban America. Romero revealed the power behind exploitation and setting horror in ordinary, unexceptional locations and offered a template for making an "effective and lucrative" film on a "minuscule budget". Slasher films of the 1970s and 80s such as John Carpenter's "Halloween" (1978), Sean S. Cunningham's "Friday the 13th" (1980), and Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984) "owe much to the original "Night of the Living Dead"", according to author Barry Keith Grant.
Blacula
"Blacula" was released to mixed reviews in the United States, but was one of the top-grossing films of the year. It was the first film to receive an award for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards. "Blacula" was followed by the sequel "Scream Blacula Scream" in 1973 and inspired a wave of blaxploitation-themed horror films.
I Vampiri
"I Vampiri" was the first Italian horror film of the sound era, following the lone silent horror film "Il mostro di Frankenstein" (1920) The film did not start a new wave of Italian horror productions. The British Film Institute stated that it required the international success of Mario Bava's "Black Sunday" to initiate the start of horror film production in Italy. Italian screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi suggested that it was when Terence Fisher's film "Dracula" (1958) was released in Italy that a "hailstorm of vampire movies flooded the screens".
List of Malayalam horror films
"Bhargavi Nilayam", released in December 1964, is considered as the first true horror film in the language. The film was scripted by writer Vaikom Muhammed Basheer based on his own short story "Neelavelicham". It was produced by T. K. Pareekutty under the banner Chandrathara Films. The film, which is now considered as a classic in Malayalam cinema, celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2014.
Kankal
Kankal (The Skeleton) was a Bengali horror drama film directed by Naresh Mitra and produced by Shishir Mallik. This film was released on 14 April 1950 under the banner of Madhuchakra Limited. Kankal was the first horror film released in the Bengali language.
Muoi: The Legend of a Portrait
"Muoi" is considered the first horror film production to be made in Vietnam. Despite high public expectation, the picture also received bad reactions.
Plaga Zombie (film series)
Plaga Zombie, a landmark film in the Argentine independent film industry, as well as amateur filmmaking, was the first feature film about zombies made in Argentina. While made with a very low budget and limited resources, the film became a shining example as both a cult and fantasy film generating a horror film movement in the country that has continued to grow into the 21st century. The film has maintained its cult status, especially among fans of gore. UNC-Chapel Hill film scholar Jonathan Risner considers Plaga Zombie to mark the beginning of modern Argentine horror cinema. The success of the series inspired similar horror films in South America such as Uruguay's "Achuras" (2003), Chile's "Solos" (2008), and Brazil's "Mangue negro" (2008). Argentine director Germán Magariños, who played a zombie in the original film, went on to the country's second zombie horror "Zombie Apocalypse Now: A Zombie Hunter" (2008).
Vampire
Considered one of the preeminent figures of the classic horror film, the vampire has proven to be a rich subject for the film and gaming industries. Dracula is a major character in more films than any other but Sherlock Holmes, and many early films were either based on the novel "Dracula" or closely derived from it. These included the 1922 German silent film "Nosferatu", directed by F. W. Murnau and featuring the first film portrayal of Dracula—although names and characters were intended to mimic "Dracula"s, Murnau could not obtain permission to do so from Stoker's widow, and had to alter many aspects of the film. Universal's "Dracula" (1931), starring Béla Lugosi as the Count, was the first talking film to portray Dracula. The decade saw several more vampire films, most notably "Dracula's Daughter" in 1936.
The legend of the vampire continued through the film industry when Dracula was reincarnated in the pertinent Hammer Horror series of films, starring Christopher Lee as the Count. The successful 1958 "Dracula" starring Lee was followed by seven sequels. Lee returned as Dracula in all but two of these and became well known in the role. By the 1970s, vampires in films had diversified with works such as "Count Yorga, Vampire" (1970), an African Count in 1972's "Blacula", the BBC's "Count Dracula" featuring French actor Louis Jourdan as Dracula and Frank Finlay as Abraham Van Helsing, and a Nosferatu-like vampire in 1979's "Salem's Lot", and a remake of "Nosferatu" itself, titled Nosferatu the Vampyre with Klaus Kinski the same year. Several films featured the characterisation of a female, often lesbian, vampire such as Hammer Horror's "The Vampire Lovers" (1970), based on "Carmilla", though the plotlines still revolved around a central evil vampire character.
The Gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows", on American television from 1966 to 1971 and produced by Dan Curtis, featured the vampire character Barnabas Collins, portrayed by Canadian actor Jonathan Frid, which proved partly responsible for making the series one of the most popular of its type, amassing a total of 1,225 episodes in its nearly five-year run. The pilot for the later Dan Curtis 1972 television series "" revolved around reporter Carl Kolchak hunting a vampire on the Las Vegas Strip. Later films showed more diversity in plotline, with some focusing on the vampire-hunter, such as Blade in the Marvel Comics' "Blade" films and the film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". "Buffy", released in 1992, foreshadowed a vampiric presence on television, with adaptation to a long-running hit series of the same name and its spin-off "Angel". Still others showed the vampire as protagonist, such as 1983's "The Hunger", 1994's "Interview with the Vampire" and its indirect sequel of sorts "Queen of the Damned", and the 2007 series "Moonlight". The 1992 film "Bram Stoker's Dracula" became the then-highest grossing vampire film ever.
Viy (1909 film)
Viy () is a 1909 Russian short film directed and written by Vasili Goncharov. This is the first Russian film-horror.
Fright Night (TV series)
From there the screen would give way to an incredible array of weekly horror films unlike those offered on any other station of the time. The show ran at various times throughout its history, ranging from midnight to 1 and 1:30 am.
"Fright Night" had its premiere on Saturday night, October 6, 1973 at midnight. The first film shown was one of Hemisphere Pictures' television films called Decoy For Terror.
Mystery film
The earliest mystery films reach back to the silent era. The first detective film is often cited as "Sherlock Holmes Baffled", a very short Mutoscope reel created between 1900 and 1903 by Arthur Marvin. It is the earliest-known film to feature the character of detective Sherlock Holmes, albeit in a barely recognisable form.
The Toxic Avenger (film)
"The Toxic Avenger" was the film that "built the house of Troma", and was Troma's first horror film. Previously the production company focused on sex comedies such as "Cry Uncle!" and "Squeeze Play!". Subsequently, Troma focused almost exclusively on horror films.
Horror film
With advances in technology, the tone of horror films shifted from the Gothic towards contemporary concerns. A popular horror subgenre began to emerge: the Doomsday film. Low-budget productions featured humanity overcoming threats such as alien invasions and deadly mutations to people, plants, and insects. Popular films of this genre include "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954) and "The Blob" (1958).
Horror film
In the first half of the 1990s, the genre still contained many of the themes from the 1980s. The slasher films, "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "Friday the 13th", "Halloween", and "Child's Play", all saw sequels in the 1990s, most of which met with varied amounts of success at the box office but all were panned by critics, with the exception of Wes Craven's "New Nightmare" (1994) and the hugely successful film, "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991). The latter, which stars Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, is considered a major horror movie of all times. "Misery" (1990) also deals with a psychopath, and the film received critical acclaim for Kathy Bates's performance as the psychopathic Annie Wilkes.
Saturn Award for Best Horror Film
It was introduced in 1973 for the 1972 film year. For the 2010, 2011 and 2012 film years, it was renamed Best Horror or Thriller Film (with the Best Action, Adventure or Thriller Film category becoming Best Action or Adventure Film). In 2013 the award came back to its original form, with a new Best Thriller Film award being created.
Eliot Hyman
In 1954, he began syndicating films to television through a.a.p., acquiring the entire library of 750 feature films of Warner Bros. made before 1950, as well as 1,500 short subjects and 337 "Looney Tunes"/"Merrie Melodies" cartoon shorts also from Warner Bros. and the Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios "Popeye" cartoons from Paramount Pictures. He also began investing in films, including two major films of the director John Huston, "Moulin Rouge" (1953) and "Moby Dick" (1956). He helped fund and played an important role in the financing of the first horror film from Hammer Film Productions, "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1957).
Boardinghouse (film)
"Boardinghouse" is notable for being the first horror film to be shot on video.
List of films based on the Amityville haunting
"The Amityville Horror", released in the summer of 1979, was a major box office success, and went on to become one of the most commercially successful independent films of all time. A series of sequels would be released throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s through various distributors; some of the films received theatrical distribution, while others were direct-to-video releases. In 2005, a re-imagining of the first film was released.
List of horror films of the 1930s
A list of horror films released in the 1930s. The American horror film was properly created in the 1930s, most notably the Universal Horror film productions. "White Zombie" is considered to be the first feature length zombie film and has been described as the archetype and model of all zombie movies. A number of Hollywood actors made a name for themselves in horror films of this decade, in particular Bela Lugosi ("Dracula", 1931) and Boris Karloff ("Frankenstein", 1931). Fredric March won an Academy Award for Best Actor in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", 1931. Films of this era frequently took their inspiration from the literature of gothic horror and more often dealt with themes of science versus religion rather than supernatural themes.
Ghost story
During the late 1890s the depiction of ghost and supernatural events appear in films. With the advent of motion pictures and television, screen depictions of ghosts became common, and spanned a variety of genres. The works of Shakespeare, Dickens and Wilde have all been made into cinematic versions, as well as adaptations of other playwrights and novelists. One of the well known short films was "Haunted Castle" directed by Georges Méliès in 1896. It is also considered as the first silent short film depicting ghost and supernatural events.
Black Christmas (1974 film)
The film eventually gained a cult following and is notable for being one of the earliest slasher films. It went on to inspire other slasher films, the biggest being John Carpenter's "Halloween" (which was apparently inspired by Clark suggesting what a "Black Christmas" sequel would be like). The film ranked No. 87 on "Bravo"'s "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments". Olivia Hussey told Bravo during an interview about their 100 Scariest Movie Moments series, that when she met Steve Martin for the first time, he told her she starred in his favorite movie of all time. Hussey initially thought he was referring to "Romeo and Juliet" but was surprised when Martin said it was "Black Christmas" and that he had seen the film 27 times.
Horror films of Mexico
The United States producer K. Gordon Murray introduced Mexican horror films to an international audience. Murray acquired nearly seventy Mexican films, with many different genres among the mix and about thirty horror films, and distributed them in the United States. This was only the start of Mexican horror films becoming more popular among other countries.
The Mexican horror film proper came into its own with the release of "El fantasma del convento" (1934), "Dos monjes" (1934), and "El Misterio del rostro pálido" (1935), three films from the writer-director Juan Bustillo Oro. Oro is considered by many to be the true Father of the Mexican Horror Film. He directed more than sixty films over five decades, including, "El Hombre sin rostro" (1950), a film of significant importance in Mexican Cinema of the 1950s. Still, as potent and popular as Bustillo Oro's efforts were, Mexican movie houses were overwhelmingly dominated by melodramas and westerns up until the 1950s. On television, lucha libre--professional wrestling--captivated the country. The sport lent itself well to big-screen adaptations with its costumed heroes and villains, larger-than-life personalities, and impossible feats of strength played straight. Monsters and supernatural storylines complemented these mass-produced wrestling movies perfectly.
Horror comics
Historian Ron Goulart, making no mention of those earlier literary adaptations, identifies Avon Publications' "Eerie" #1, dated January 1947 and sold in late 1946, as "the first out-and-out horror comic book". Its cover featured a red-eyed, pointy-eared fiend threatening a rope-bound, beautiful young woman in a scanty red evening gown, set amid a moonlit ruin. The anthology offered six primarily occult stories involving the likes of a ghost and a zombie. While all but one writer are unknown — Edward Bellin, who teamed with young artist Joe Kubert on the nine-page "The Man-Eating Lizards" — the artists include George Roussos and Fred Kida. After this first issue, the title went dormant, but reappeared in 1951 as "Eerie", beginning with a new #1 and running 17 issues (1951 - September 1954).
Horror film
Meanwhile, from November 1915 to June 1916, French writer/director Louis Feuillade released a weekly serial entitled "Les Vampires" where the filmmaker exploited the power of horror imagery to great effect. Consisting of 10 parts or episodes and roughly 7 hours long if combined, "Les Vampires" is considered to be one of the longest films ever made. The series tells a story of a criminal gang called the Vampires, who play upon their supernatural name and style to instill fear in the public and the police who desperately want to put a stop to them. Marked as Feuillade's legendary opus, "Les Vampires" is considered a precursor to movie thrillers. The series is also a close cousin to the surrealist movement.
Paul Wegener followed up his success with "The Student of Prague" by adapting a story inspired by the ancient Jewish legend of the golem, an anthropomorphic being that is magically created entirely from clay or mud. Wegener teamed up with Henrik Galeen to make "Der Golem" (1915). The film, which is still partially lost, tells a story of an antiques dealer who finds a golem, a clay statue, brought to life centuries before. The dealer resurrects the golem as a servant, but the golem falls in love with the antiques dealer's wife. As she does not return his love, the golem commits a series of murders. Wegener then made a sequel, this time he teamed up with co-director Rochus Gliese, and made "Der Golem und die Tänzerin" (1917), or "The Golem and the Dancing Girl" as it is known in English. It is now considered a lost film. Wegener would make a third golem film three years later to round up his "Der Golem" trilogy.
The Cave of the Demons
The film was one of Méliès's early forays into themes that would later be linked to horror cinema (his "The Haunted Castle", made in 1896, is sometimes labeled the first horror film). "The Cave of the Demons" is also believed to be the first film in which Méliès used the cinematic technique of multiple exposure.
B movie
One of the most influential films of the era, on Bs and beyond, was Paramount's "Psycho". Its in earnings against a production cost of $800,000 made it the most profitable movie of 1960. Its mainstream distribution without the Production Code seal of approval helped weaken U.S. film censorship. And, as William Paul notes, this move into the horror genre by respected director Alfred Hitchcock was made, "significantly, with the lowest-budgeted film of his American career and the least glamorous stars. [Its] greatest initial impact ... was on schlock horror movies (notably those from second-tier director William Castle), each of which tried to bill itself as scarier than "Psycho"." Castle's first film in the "Psycho" vein was "Homicidal" (1961), an early step in the development of the slasher subgenre that would take off in the late 1970s. "Blood Feast" (1963), a movie about human dismemberment and culinary preparation made for approximately $24,000 by experienced nudie-maker Herschell Gordon Lewis, established a new, more immediately successful subgenre, the gore or splatter film. Lewis's business partner David F. Friedman drummed up publicity by distributing vomit bags to theatergoers—the sort of gimmick Castle had mastered—and arranging for an injunction against the film in Sarasota, Florida—the sort of problem exploitation films had long run up against, except Friedman had planned it. This new breed of gross-out movie typified the emerging sense of "exploitation"—the progressive adoption of traditional exploitation and nudie elements into horror, into other classic B genres, and into the low-budget film industry as a whole. Imports of Hammer Film's increasingly explicit horror movies and Italian gialli, highly stylized pictures mixing sexploitation and ultraviolence, would fuel this trend.
Terry Bourke
Bourke returned to Australia where he was a second unit director and associate director on eight episodes of "Spyforce". He also wrote and directed two episodes of the series. Back home at the start of the Australian New Wave of government sponsored feature film production, he made his Australian feature film debut with "Night of Fear" that was originally intended to be a pilot for an Australian Broadcasting Commission TV series called "Fright". When the series was not selected to go to air, Bourke submitted the film for cinema release, however Australian censors initially banned the film. The film was regarded as Australia's first horror film. The film's success led Bourke to be regarded as a horror director, when he followed the film with "Inn of the Damned". Bourke shot the film in 1973 with finance coming from the Australian Film Development Corporation. The film was another screenplay planned for the ill-fated ABC "Fright" series. Bourke described the film as "Hitchcock on Horseback" with the film featuring an international cast including Dame Judith Anderson in her first Australian feature film, John Meillon, Michael Craig and American Alex Cord.
Comedy horror
In the era of silent film, the source material for early comedy horror films came from stage performances instead of literature. One example, "The Ghost Breaker" (1914), was based on a 1909 play, though the film's horror elements were more interesting to the audience than the comedy elements. In the United States following the trauma of World War I, film audiences sought to see horror on screen but tempered with humor. The "pioneering" comedy horror film was "One Exciting Night" (1922), written, directed, and produced by D. W. Griffith, who noticed the stage success of the genre and foresaw a cinematic translation. While the film included blackface performances, Griffith also included footage of a hurricane for a climactic storm. As an early experiment, the various genres were not well-balanced with horror and comedy, and later films improved the balance and took more sophisticated approaches. Charles Bramesco of Vulture.com identifies "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" as the first commercially successful comedy horror film. Its success legitimized the genre and established it as commercially viable.
Film noir
The film now most commonly cited as the first "true" "film noir" is "Stranger on the Third Floor" (1940), directed by Latvian-born, Soviet-trained Boris Ingster. Hungarian émigré Peter Lorre—who had starred in Lang's "M"—was top-billed, although he did not play the primary lead. He later played secondary roles in several other formative American noirs. Although modestly budgeted, at the high end of the B movie scale, "Stranger on the Third Floor" still lost its studio, RKO, US$56,000 (), almost a third of its total cost. "Variety" magazine found Ingster's work: "...too studied and when original, lacks the flare to hold attention. It's a film too arty for average audiences, and too humdrum for others." "Stranger on the Third Floor" was not recognized as the beginning of a trend, let alone a new genre, for many decades.
Most film noirs of the classic period were similarly low- and modestly-budgeted features without major stars—B movies either literally or in spirit. In this production context, writers, directors, cinematographers, and other craftsmen were relatively free from typical big-picture constraints. There was more visual experimentation than in Hollywood filmmaking as a whole: the Expressionism now closely associated with noir and the semi-documentary style that later emerged represent two very different tendencies. Narrative structures sometimes involved convoluted flashbacks uncommon in non-noir commercial productions. In terms of content, enforcement of the Production Code ensured that no film character could literally get away with murder or be seen sharing a bed with anyone but a spouse; within those bounds, however, many films now identified as noir feature plot elements and dialogue that were very risqué for the time.
Thematically, film noirs were most exceptional for the relative frequency with which they centered on women of questionable virtue—a focus that had become rare in Hollywood films after the mid-1930s and the end of the pre-Code era. The signal film in this vein was "Double Indemnity", directed by Billy Wilder; setting the mold was Barbara Stanwyck's unforgettable femme fatale, Phyllis Dietrichson—an apparent nod to Marlene Dietrich, who had built her extraordinary career playing such characters for Sternberg. An A-level feature all the way, the film's commercial success and seven Oscar nominations made it probably the most influential of the early noirs. A slew of now-renowned noir "bad girls" followed, such as those played by Rita Hayworth in "Gilda" (1946), Lana Turner in "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946), Ava Gardner in "The Killers" (1946), and Jane Greer in "Out of the Past" (1947). The iconic noir counterpart to the femme fatale, the private eye, came to the fore in films such as "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), with Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, and "Murder, My Sweet" (1944), with Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe.
The Curse of Frankenstein
The Curse of Frankenstein is a 1957 British horror film by Hammer Film Productions, loosely based on the novel "Frankenstein" (1818) by Mary Shelley. It was Hammer's first colour horror film, and the first of their Frankenstein series. Its worldwide success led to several sequels, and the studio's new versions of "Dracula" (1958) and "The Mummy" (1959), and established "Hammer Horror" as a distinctive brand of Gothic cinema.
Vampires in popular culture
A vampire features in the landmark "Nosferatu" (1922 Germany, directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau), an unlicensed version of Bram Stoker's "Dracula." The Stoker estate sued the production and won, leading to the destruction of most copies of the film. It would be painstakingly restored in 1994 by a team of European scholars from the five surviving prints that had escaped destruction. Nosferatu is the first film to feature a Vampire's death by sunlight, which formerly only weakened vampires.
Thriller film
One of the earliest thriller films was Harold Lloyd's comedy "Safety Last!" (1923), with a character performing a daredevil stunt on the side of a skyscraper. Alfred Hitchcock's first thriller was his third silent film, "" (1926), a suspenseful Jack the Ripper story. His next thriller was "Blackmail" (1929), his and Britain's first sound film. His notable 1930s thrillers include "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934), "The 39 Steps" (1935) and "The Lady Vanishes" (1938), the latter two ranked among the greatest British films of the 20th century.
The Exorcist (film)
"The Exorcist" was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 1974, winning two. It is the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture. At the 46th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, the film won two statuettes (highlighted in bold).
Bodily mutilation in film
Although there was a boom of monster and alien flicks in the 50s and movie makers using make up more for realistic depictions of violence and gore in the 60s, the advent of realism in horror as we now know it arguably began with the 1973 film "The Exorcist". This was the first of its kind as far as special effects used realistically to portray gruesome scenes. This movie, created by director William Friedkin with make up master Dick Smith directing the effects set the stage for countless other such films to be made. After the release of The Exorcist and its subsequent popularity scary movies began to shift and the violent horror flick became a major genre. With effects greats Kevin Yagher, Dick Smith, and Tom Savini behind such classic horror films as "Friday the 13th" (1980), "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984), "Halloween" (1978), and "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) this genre gained immense popularity (Rickett 2000). This craze peaked during the 80’s went down a little in the 90’s but with the movie "Scream" (1996) horror movies were back in. As special effects continue to get better, so the horror films continue to grow even more violent, gruesome, and realistic in their portrayals of human mutilation as can be seen in the recent "Saw" films (2004,2005, 2006, 2007) as well as others such as "Hostel" (2005) and "" (2007). However horror films are not the only movies that have worked to realistically portray bodily mutilation.
Horror film
The British horror film "The Haunting" (1963) was directed and produced by Robert Wise. It is an adaptation of the 1959 horror novel "The Haunting of Hill House" by famed horror writer Shirley Jackson. Robert Wise's "The Haunting" is considered by a great many critics, aficionados, and casual fans of the horror genre to be one of the scariest films of all time. The film is best known for its brilliant use of canted frames, mirror reflections, fish-eye lenses and uncanny sound and image editing.
Horror fiction
Early cinema was inspired by many aspects of horror literature, and started a strong tradition of horror films and subgenres that continues to this day. Up until the graphic depictions of violence and gore on the screen commonly associated with 1960s and 1970s slasher films and splatter films, comic books such as those published by EC Comics (famous for series such as "Tales From The Crypt") in the 1950s satisfied readers' quests for horror imagery that the silver screen could not provide. This imagery made these comics controversial, and as a consequence they were frequently censored.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" was selected for the 1975 Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight and London Film Festival. In 1976, it won the Special Jury Prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival in France. "Entertainment Weekly" ranked the film sixth on its 2003 list of "The Top 50 Cult Films". In a 2005 "Total Film" poll, it was selected as the greatest horror film of all time. It was named among "Time"s top 25 horror films in 2007. In 2008 the film ranked number 199 on "Empire" magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". "Empire" also ranked it 46th in its list of the 50 greatest independent films. In a 2010 "Total Film" poll, it was again selected as the greatest horror film; the judging panel included veteran horror directors such as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and George A. Romero. In 2010, as well, "The Guardian" ranked it number 14 on its list of the top 25 horror films. It was also voted the greatest horror film of all time in "Slant Magazine" 2013 list of the greatest horror films of all time. It was also voted the scariest movie of all time in a 2017 list by "Complex" and voted the best horror movie of all time in a 2017 list by "Thrillist". It was also voted the scariest movie of all time in a 2018 list by "Consequence of Sound" and voted the best horror movie of all time in a 2018 list by "Esquire".
Horror film
This psychological horror film has a variety of themes; "evil children", alcoholism, telepathy, and insanity. This type of film is an example of how Hollywood's idea of horror started to evolve. Murder and violence were no longer the main themes of horror films. In the 1970s and 1980s, psychological and supernatural horror started to take over cinema. Another classic Hollywood horror film is Tobe Hooper's "Poltergeist" (1982). "Poltergeist" is ranked the 20th scariest movie ever made by the Chicago, Illinois Film Critics Association. Both "The Shining" and "Poltergeist" involve horror being based on real-estate values. The evil and horror throughout the films come from where the movies are taking place.
Slasher film
Splatter films focus on gratuitous gore. Herschell Gordon Lewis's "Blood Feast" (1963) was a hit at drive-in theaters and is often considered the first splatter film. Lewis followed with gory films "Two-Thousand Maniacs!" (1964), "Color Me Blood Red" (1965), "The Gruesome Twosome" (1967) and "The Wizard of Gore" (1971). This grotesque style translated to Andy Milligan's "The Ghastly Ones" (1969), "Twisted Nerve" (1968), "Night After Night After Night" (1969) as well as "The Haunted House of Horror" (1969).
Horror film
Also in the 1970s, the works of the horror author Stephen King began to be adapted for the screen, beginning with Brian De Palma's adaptation of "Carrie" (1976), King's first published novel, for which the two female leads (Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie) gained Oscar nominations. Next, was his third published novel, "The Shining" (1980), directed by Stanley Kubrick, which was a sleeper at the box office. At first, many critics and viewers had negative feedback toward "The Shining". However, the film is now known as one of Hollywood's most classic horror films.
The Miser's Doom
"The Miser's Doom" is one of the earliest films featuring a ghost, although previous examples had been produced by Georges Méliès and George Albert Smith the previous year.
Dracula (1931 English-language film)
Later in 1931, Universal would release "Frankenstein" to even greater acclaim. Universal in particular would become the forefront of early horror cinema, with a canon of films including "The Mummy" (1932), "The Invisible Man" (1933), "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935) and "The Wolf Man" (1941).
Horror host
The first television horror host is generally accepted to be Vampira. "The Vampira Show" featured mostly low budget suspense films, as few horror films had yet been released for television broadcast. Despite its short 1954-1955 run, "The Vampira Show" set the standard format for horror host shows to follow.
Blaxploitation horror films
Blaxploitation films, regardless of subgenre, spanned from race movies. These were films that started appearing in the 1930s–1940s. They were meant to segregate films featuring an all black class from mainstream Hollywood movies. Many of these films already had the element of horror integrated into them. Over time these films transcended into their own subgenre of film, blaxploitation horror films. In the 1950s to 1960s Hollywood started to integrate films produced and starring African Americans into mainstream media. There was backlash by several African American directors and actors that did not want to be integrated into mainstream media. They wanted to stay independent which caused them to create more of what were originally known as race movies. This happened during the 1960s–70s which was during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans were in fury at ongoing white oppression and wanted something that they could call their own. They began creating films that were directed, starring, and produced by African Americans. In an effort to maintain their cultural identity they made it a point to emphasize the stereotypes the white media was portraying them as. They called this genre blaxploitation. Many blaxploitation films has a mix of comedy and horror. However, director William Crain to the aspect of horror in these films one step further and created the first blaxploitation horror film, "Blacula". As a result, a new subgenre of blaxploitation was created, dedicated solely to horror.
Body horror
The terminology "body horror" was first used by Phillip Brophy in his 1989 article "Horrality: The Textuality of the Contemporary Horror Film." He coined this term to describe an emerging subgenre which occurred during a short golden period for contemporary horror film. Although Brophy coined the term to specifically describe a trend within cinema, film director Stuart Gordon notes that the body horror trope had existed prior to its adaptation to the screen, most notably within fictional writing.
Horror film
Robert Wiene's "Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari" ("The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari") (1920) became a worldwide success and had a lasting impact on the film world, particularly for horror. It was not so much the story but the style that made it distinguishable from other films, "Caligari's settings, some simply painted on canvas backdrops, are weirdly distorted, with caricatures of narrow streets, misshapen walls, odd rhomboid windows, and leaning doorframes. Effects of light and shadow were rendered by painting black lines and patterns directly on the floors and walls of sets." Critic Roger Ebert called it arguably "the first true horror film", and film reviewer Danny Peary called it cinema's first cult film and a precursor to arthouse films. Considered a classic, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" helped draw worldwide attention to the artistic merit of German cinema and had a major influence on American films, particularly in the genres of horror and film noir, introducing techniques such as the twist ending and the unreliable narrator to the language of narrative film.
Horror film
Other European countries also, contributed to the genre during this period. Victor Sjöström's "The Phantom Carriage" (Sweden, 1920) is a cautionary tale about a supernatural legend, Benjamin Christensen's "Häxan" (Denmark/Sweden, 1922) is a documentary-style, horror film, about witchcraft and superstition, and in 1928, Frenchman, Jean Epstein produced an influential film, "The Fall of the House of Usher", based on the Poe tale.
Horror film
Roman Polanski made his first film in English with "Repulsion" (1965), which is considered to be his scariest and most disturbing work. Polanski's "evocations of sexual panic and masterful use of sound puts the audiences' imagination to work in numerous ways". This psychological horror film tells the story of a young withdrawn woman who finds sexual advances repulsive and who, after she is left alone, becomes even more isolated and detached from reality.
The Ghost Breaker (1914 film)
"The Ghost Breaker" was possibly the first film in a long line of haunted-house horror films with the same story. A 1922 remake of the same name starred Wallace Reid and Lila Lee. The original film was also remade as "The Ghost Breakers" (1940) with Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, and as "Scared Stiff" (1953) with Martin and Lewis. The film is now considered lost.The film was released in Wellington, New Zealand, on December 19, 1915, where it followed a week-long run of "Fanchon the Cricket".
The Haunt of Fear
American horror comics emerged as a distinct comic book genre after World War II. At this time, US young adult males lost interest in caped crime fighters. Also, returning GIs demanded titillating sex and violence in their reading. One-shot "Eerie" (1947) is generally considered the first true American horror comic. Its cover depicted a dagger-wielding, red eyed ghoul who threatened a rope-bound, scantily clad, voluptuous young woman, beneath a full moon. In 1948, "Adventures Into the Unknown" became the first regularly published horror title. It enjoyed a nearly two decade life-span. Fiction House had a regular horror series with Werewolf Hunter starting in 1943 that appeared in its comic Rangers Comics.
Horror film
Some pronounced trends have marked horror films. Films from non-English language countries have become successful. The "Devil's Backbone" (2001) is such an example. It is a 2001 Spanish-Mexican gothic horror film directed by Guillermo del Toro, and written by del Toro, David Muñoz, and Antonio Trashorras. A French horror film "Brotherhood of the Wolf" (2001) became the second-highest-grossing French language film in the United States in the last two decades. The Swedish film "Let the Right One In" (2008) was also successful. "REC" is a 2007 Spanish zombie horror film, co-written and directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. "Martyrs" (2008), a French-Canadian horror film, was controversial upon its release, receiving polarizing reviews. Another notable film is "The Orphanage" (2007), a Spanish horror film and the debut feature of Spanish filmmaker J. A. Bayona. "A Tale of Two Sisters" is a 2003 South Korean psychological drama horror film written and directed by Kim Jee-woon. "Shutter" (2004) is a Thai horror film which focuses on mysterious images seen in developed pictures. "Cold Prey" is a 2006 Norwegian slasher film directed by Roar Uthaug.
Horror film
In October 1920, Paul Wegener teamed up with co-director Carl Boese to make the final Golem film entitled "", known in English as "The Golem: How He Came into the World". The final film in the Der Golem trilogy, "The Golem: How He Came into the World" (1920) is a prequel to "Der Golem" from 1915. In this film, Wegener stars as the golem who frightens a young lady with whom he is infatuated. The film is the best known of the series, as it is the only film that is completely preserved. It is also a leading example of early German Expressionism.
F. W. Murnau arguably made The first vampire-themed movie, "Nosferatu" (1922). It was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's gothic horror novel "Dracula". In "Nosferatu", Murnau created some of cinema's most lasting and haunting imagery which famously involve shadows of the creeping Count Orlok. This helped popularized the expressionism style in filmmaking. Many expressionist works of this era emphasize a distorted reality, stimulating the human psyche and have influenced the horror film genre.
After Dark Horrorfest
After Dark Horrorfest (also known as "8 Films to Die For") was an annual horror film festival featuring eight independent horror movies, sometimes with "secret" bonus films, all distributed by After Dark Films in the USA. The first HorrorFest was held in 2006.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is considered one of the greatest—and most controversial—of horror films, and a major influence on the genre. In 1999 Richard Zoglin of "Time" commented that it had "set a new standard for slasher films". "The Times" listed it as one of the 50 most controversial films of all time. Tony Magistrale believes the film paved the way for horror to be used as a vehicle for social commentary. Describing it as "cheap, grubby and out of control", Mark Olsen of the "Los Angeles Times" declared that it "both defines and entirely supersedes the very notion of the exploitation picture". In his book "Dark Romance: Sexuality in the Horror Film", David Hogan called it "the most affecting gore thriller of all and, in a broader view, among the most effective horror films ever made ... the driving force of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is something far more horrible than aberrant sexuality: total insanity." According to Bill Nichols, it "achieves the force of authentic art, profoundly disturbing, intensely personal, yet at the same time far more than personal". Leonard Wolf praised the film as "an exquisite work of art" and compared it to a Greek tragedy, noting the lack of onscreen violence.
Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb
Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb (, literally "Cleopatra") was an 1899 short silent film directed by Georges Méliès. One of the earliest horror films ever made, it is about resurrecting the mummy of Cleopatra. In it, a man chops the mummy of Cleopatra into pieces, and then "produces a woman from a smoking brazier."
Universal Classic Monsters
The end of Universal’s first run of horror films came in 1936. The monster movies were dropped from the production schedule altogether and would not re-emerge for another three years. In the meantime, a theatre owner revived "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" as a resoundingly successful double feature, prompting the studio to re-release the original movies. "Son of Frankenstein" (1939), starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, and Bela Lugosi, was filmed as a result of the unexpected resurgence.
Death Walks
On 16 January 2014 "Famous Monsters Of Filmland" acknowledged the film's completion as the first zero-budget horror film and posted that Hawken was already working on a sequel.
Pre-Code Hollywood
Comprising the nascent motion picture genres of horror and science fiction, the nightmare picture provoked individual psychological terror in its horror incarnations, while embodying group sociological terror in its science fiction manifestations. The two main types of pre-Code horror pictures were the single monster movie, and films where masses of hideous beasts rose up and attacked their putative betters. "Frankenstein" and "Freaks" exemplified both genres.
Ángel Negro
Ángel Negro ("Dark Angel") is a 2000 Chilean slasher film written and directed by Jorge Olguín. "Ángel Negro" is the first Chilean horror film. After a mysterious accident, a group of friends is hunted down by a masked killer.
List of highest-grossing horror films
The following page lists the highest-grossing horror films of all time, the highest-grossing horror film franchises at the box office and the biggest opening weekends for horror films. The figures have not been adjusted for inflation.
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
It was the first in a series of anthology films from Amicus and was followed by "Torture Garden" (1967), "The House That Dripped Blood" (1970), "Asylum" (1972), "Tales from the Crypt" (1972), "The Vault of Horror" (1973) and "From Beyond the Grave" (1974).
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
"Salò" has earned a reputation amongst some film scholars for being the "sickest film of all time," with some citing it as an early progenitor of the torture porn subgenre, alongside the American film "The Last House on the Left" (1972). Film scholar Mattias Frey notes that the cross-section between the film's thematic content and graphic visuals has resulted in it being considered both a horror film as well as an art film: "[Films like "Salò"], which are usually considered by critics as "works" by the "artists"...might be received in practice also by individuals who watch "Saw" or "Hostel" or any "popular" or cult horror film." In 2006, the Chicago Film Critics Association named it the 65th scariest film ever made and in 2010, the Toronto International Film Festival placed it at no. 47 on its list of "The Essential 100 films".
Son of Ingagi
Son of Ingagi is a 1940 American monster movie directed by Richard C. Kahn. It was the first science fiction horror film to feature an all-black cast. It was written by Spencer Williams based on his own short story, "House of Horror". Although the film's title appears to suggest that it is a sequel to the 1930 movie "Ingagi", it is not. (The latter is an exploitation film in the guise of an ethnographic film in which purported African women are given over to gorillas as sex slaves.)
List of Indian horror films
The 1980s saw many Indian filmmakers trying their hands in the horror-movie industry because of its high profitability. One name that became very successful at that time in the said genre was Javed Khan. He was considered every producers blue eyed boy when casting the lead hero of their horror films. His debut film in the same genre "Apradhi kaun" (1984) earned 100% at the box office in the first week. Some successful titles were the Ramsay brothers' "Purana Mandir" (1984), "Saamri" (1985), "Veerana" (1985) "Tahkhana" (1986), "Dak Bangla" (1987), "Purani Haveli" (1989), "Shaitani Ilaaka" and "Bandh Darwaza" (both 1990).
Most of the movies proved successful; the Ramsay brothers' horror factory continued churning out film after film. However, notable horror movies stars of the 1980s, Javed Khan, Rakesh Roshan, Navin Nischal, Dilip Dhawan, Aruna Irani, Deepak Parashar, and Sriprada.
Horror film
Monster horror was quite popular in the 1990s. "Tremors" (1990) is
the first installment of the "Tremors" franchise. "Lake Placid" (1999) is another monster horror film, written by David E. Kelley and directed by Steve Miner.
Splatter film
Splatter came into its own as a distinct subgenre of horror in the early 1960s with the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis in the United States. Eager to maintain a profitable niche, Lewis turned to something that mainstream cinema still rarely featured: scenes of visceral, explicit gore. In 1963, he directed "Blood Feast", widely considered the first splatter film. In the 15 years following its release, "Blood Feast" took in an estimated $7 million. It was made for an estimated $24,500. "Blood Feast" was followed by two more gore films by Herschell Gordon Lewis, "Two Thousand Maniacs!" (1964) and "Color Me Blood Red" (1965).
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
It has often been described as one of the scariest films of all time. Rex Reed called it the most terrifying film he had ever seen. "Empire" described it as "the most purely horrifying horror movie ever made" and called it "never less than totally committed to scaring you witless". Reminiscing about his first viewing of the film, horror director Wes Craven recalled wondering "what kind of Mansonite crazoid" could have created such a thing. It is a work of "cataclysmic terror", in the words of horror novelist Stephen King, who declared, "I would happily testify to its redeeming social merit in any court in the country." Critic Robin Wood found it one of the few horror films to possess "the authentic quality of nightmare". Based on 58 reviews published since 2000, the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88% of critics gave it a positive review, with an average score of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Thanks to a smart script and documentary-style camerawork, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre achieves start-to-finish suspense, making it a classic in low-budget exploitation cinema."
Horror film
In March 1911, the hour-long Italian silent film epic "L'Inferno" was screened in the Teatro Mercadante in Naples. The film, which was adapted from the first part of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" and based visually on Gustave Doré's haunting illustrations, became an international success and is arguably the first true blockbuster in all of cinema. It is also regarded by many scholars as the finest film adaptation of any of Dante's works to date. The film, which was directed by three artists; Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe de Liguoro, is worth noting and well-remembered for its stunning visualization of the nine circles of Hell. Its stunning special effects is also very well noted especially for its presentation of a massive Lucifer with wings that stretch out behind him in front of a black void. He is seen devouring the Roman figures Brutus and Gaius in a disgusting display of double exposure and scale manipulation. The film is also able to capture some of the manic, tortuous, and bizarre imagery and themes of Dante's complex masterwork.
The Haunted Castle (1896 film)
Le Manoir du diable or The House of the Devil, released in the United States as The Haunted Castle and in Britain as The Devil's Castle, is an 1896 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès. The film, a brief pantomimed sketch in the style of a theatrical comic fantasy, tells the story of an encounter with the Devil and various attendant phantoms. It is intended to evoke amusement and wonder from its audiences, rather than fear. However, because of its themes and characters, it can technically be considered the first horror film (and, because it includes a transformation involving a bat, it has even been called the first vampire film). The film is also innovative in length - its running time of over three minutes was ambitious for its era.
Hammer Film Productions
In a 2013 retrospective for "The Guardian", Michael Newton wrote:Shot in Eastmancolor, the first batch of Hammer Horror movies – Terence Fisher's "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1957), "Dracula" (1958) and "The Mummy" (1959) – are among the loveliest-looking British films of the decade... The early Hammer films offer a last gasp of British romanticism, the solid sets drenched in a soft brilliance of shadows, of greys, reds and blues; when these films stray into the far woods, it's always autumn there, never spring. The leaves fall, and the light shines golden and clear; compared with the well-lit contemporary look of the "angry young men" films, Hammer's mournful sumptuousness must have been even more striking. They play out a 1950s reverie of contagion, lust and post-Suez anxiety. Questions of guilt circulate in these films, where the virtuous can be transformed into vampires through one moment of sexual weakness...
Victor Halperin
Victor Halperin began his career as a filmmaker in 1922, working as a writer on "The Danger Point" (an original story). In two years, he was working as a writer-producer-director on the Agnes Ayres film, "When a Girl Loves". He is best known for his 1932 horror film "White Zombie", starring Madge Bellamy and Bela Lugosi. Once thought "lost", the film has grown in stature over the years, first gaining a cult status, and eventually becoming recognized as one of the leading classics of the genre. Years after the film's release, Victor Halperin expressed a distaste for his horror films: "I don't believe in fear, violence, and horror, so why traffic in them?"
Horror film
A horror film is a film that seeks to elicit fear. Initially inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley, horror has existed as a film genre for more than a century. The macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Horror may also overlap with the fantasy, supernatural fiction, and thriller genres.