History of Horror

History of Horror

Before I describe the history of horror it is important to understand what is horror.

"Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's primal fears."

definition from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film

The very first British horror film was The haunted castle in 1897 by George Albert Smith. Since that time the horror film industry has developed significantly from the early loud bangs and sudden moments of seeing a monster. Horror is a lot more sophisticated today and uses the methods available to them better, this is due to the audience not finding original horror movies scary as they are used to them. Anticipation, background music, Mise-en-Scene, and acting/directing has all improved drastically.

An image from Le Manoir du Diable, which was released in 1896.



An image from the ring (2002).

We are able to see the difference between the images. 100 years of advanced technology has allowed for better editing and camera shots such as the close up (above), giving us a better visual effect. Notice how the lighting from the ring is so much better than that from Le Manoir, allowing the audience to see clearly what is happening and furthermore, allowing the audience to be more involved in the film. Also the make up on characters have improved significantly to give more of a 'horror' effect as dirt, cuts, bruises and blood can be seen more clearly giving the audience a better understanding of the character and what they have been through. Also, 100 years of development has allowed directors to understand the audiences' psychology when watching horror. This has resulted in horror films now playing on peoples' primal fears, the ring is a good example. Most people care for children and have a soft spot in their hearts for young children especially if they were or are parents. The Ring used this to their advantage by making the antagonist a young girl, therefore playing on the audience as although they are fond of young children, they may want this girl to die. This involves them in the film and as a result they will enjoy the film more as they can feel as if they are part of it. Another development has come from the audiences themselves. A further development of psychology has been the understanding of colours and how people relate and react to them. Red results in the audience thinking of blood and thereby danger, leading them to instinctively and subconsciously expect the character to be in danger. As you may have experienced, a scare or sudden movement is actually more scary if you are expecting it than if you aren't due to the tension building. As a result the use of red has increased the scare factor of films as it has created tension. Other colours used are black, which is linked to the night and darkness, subsequently resulting in the audience linking the object to death and evil. Many other colours are used and not all colours have a single definite meaning as different people can link colours to different objects. A good example is green. People subconsciously link green to money, nature and sci-fi aliens, all of which are green. However there is no specific or majority link with the colour. The production of horror movies since Le Manoir has resulted in the audience expecting more as they got used to the initial horror movies. This led to directors having to discover new techniques to make their films more scary and as a result, better. This has ultimately led to the drastic change which can be seen by the two images from horror films. A final improvement has been improved cameras which has resulted in better focus of characters allowing facial expressions and body languages to become a more effective method of creating a scare factor. Body language such as panting and facial expressions such as scared looks on children are now used to create a vital factor when portraying a character or a scene as it permits the audience to link to the characters and emphasise with them more and become more involved with the film.

A brilliant example of the use of colours can be seen from the famous image of the Exorcist (below).

In this image, a dark figure is seen approaching a house. White mist is seen coming from a window, to be specific, a girl's window. The mis-en-scene used is extraordinary when you delve underneath the first sight of the image. The mist is white, and people link white to purity, angelic and thus it is shown that the girl, who lives in the room of the window is innocence. It shows further that her innocence is perhaps leaving her with the mist and is falling on the figure. This results in the audience subconsciously believing that he is going to take away her innocence. This is further shown by how his dark figure, which the audience can link to darkness and then evil, stands out in the white mist. This shows that his evil is too strong for the girl's innocence and the evil is able to stand out from the innocence. In the film, the character walks towards the house which shows how the evil is slowly taking over the girl's innocence leaving very little remaining. This subconscious effect has a great impact. The advancement of horror over time to result in such a big impact on the audience just by being able to show mist and make a character dark is a remarkable improvement. It also shows how much movies can now play with our minds considering the amount of objects available in a frame to create a certain audience perception.



From the first horror movie, le Manoir du Diable in 1896, there was only one camera shot and no sound. As a result, tension cannot be built using sound and due to the poor camera quality, the audience are unable to view the character's facial expression and observe what the character feels. This limited the ability to create suspense and anticipation as the audience were unable to emphasise with the characters and were not as involved with the film as they are now. Less than 100 years later, sound and different camera shots were used, increasing the scare factor of a scene. In Jaws, colour shots allows for Mise en Scene to be used as well as differing camera angles, improving the quality of the film. This is evident in Jaws by the numerous camera angles and transitions, which build suspense and displays the characters' feelings allowing the audience to emphasise with the characters more. Almost 40 years later, in 2013, we see the movie, Mama. In the scene shown, the horror is more subtle and there is more tension and anticipation. This gives a more dramatic effect on the audience. It is important to remember that as time progresses, horror audiences develop and require new methods to be scared. This is shown by the age rating drop of Jaws from 18 to 12. Arguably the greatest change in horror is the use of mis-en-scene and its increased subtlety.