The History of Horror Films in the 1900's - Term Paper Example

The movie presented the devils and skeletons for the audiences. In 1913, the German filmmakers made a first horror based film named Der Golem. This was directed by Paul Wegener. This was the adaptation of an Old Jewish folk tale. This film made a great success and even its remake in 1920. This film told a story about a clay joint which was made alive by an antiquarian and then fights with its rebels. Another German movie named Nosferatu was made in 1922 which was directed by F.W.Murnau. It was the first feature-length Dracula movie.

Another movie named The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari made the way for the making of serious horror movies. This movie depicted about a show performer which started killing the people. The first horror drama in the Hollywood was The Hunchback of Notre Dame filmed in 1923 starring Lon Chaney being the first actor of horror movies. The modern genre of horror films was started in early 1930’s when two gothic-steeped movies featured named Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932). These were launched by the universal studios and their sequels also rocked the cinemas.

As the time passed, the concept of horror movies kept on changing. During 1950’s in the nuclear charged atmosphere, horror movies completely shifted to the modern one. These started including Aliens, Mutants, Insects, Plants and their deadly existence. The famous films included The things From another World (1951) and Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1956). In the era of 1960 two major movies featured which included the human monsters and supernatural phenomenon. These included Peeping Tom and Psycho.

In 1973, The Exocrist released that broke all the records of the previous horror movies and started a new dimension of the horror. Jaws (1975) directed by the famous Steven Spielberg became the highest grossing film ever in the horror cinema. Late 70’s movies included the very disturbing and violent The Texas Chainsaw Massacre whose sequels are still practiced till now. In 1980’s and 1990’s the teen violence came to the cinemas included the movies Friday The 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Till now I described the general and some famous flicks of the 1900’s but I have to go deep in the history of the horror. Let’s start from the beginning. The early horror movies of the era 1900-1930 majorly included the flicks that were based on the classic horror novels. As there were only the novels at that time which were to be the source of adaptation for the movies so horror cinema also started from the same path. In 1910, the first adaptation of Frankenstein appeared which was only 16 minutes long and produced by the famous inventor of light bulb “Thomas Edison”.

Another adaptation Dr Jekyll and My Hyde also featured in that year. The first ever warewolf picture was depicted by the “Henry MacRae” in his film The Warewolf. Another adaptation of novel Dr Jekyll and My Hyde rocked the screens in 1920 and it was a great success. Famous actor Lon Chaney found his fame from the movies The Hunchback of Notre Damme in 1923, The Phantom of the Opera in 1925 and a vampire movie London after Midnight in 1927. The films that were released in the decade of 1930-1940 included the Vampires, Mummies, Monsters specially Frankenstein and Werewolves.

That was the classic horror. 1930’s feature film Dracula not only gave a new turn to horror