Research Of Horror Films

Horror Films - Colin Odell & Michelle Le Blanc 1999

Long history of horror film making as follows naturally from a heritage of imaginative literature that runs the gamut of quality from the heights of Shelley to the weekly Penny dreadfuls that so outraged the middle class Victorian society even as they were eagerly devoured by the newly literature working classes.

Early British horror films tended to appear on the bottom half of double bills or as shorts or serials.

Universal films from America that really kick started the horror industry in the UK; a common language meant that Hollywood films were accessible and popular with British audiences in the early days of the talkies.

Horror in Europe - Europe has always been in turmoil, a collection of tribes and civilisations rising, falling, fighting, absorbing for thousands of years.
Writers of horror have invested in Europes bloodshed lit by light with human torches, genocide, pandemics, religious persecution, the inquisition, torture and slavery.

The Encyclopedia Of Horror. Edited by Richard Davis. Foreword by Peter Cushing

From the earliest times we have sought to explain strange things by ascribing them to the supernatural. We have a fascination and enjoy the sensation of being frightened, particular if we are secure in our own homes or hidden behind a large audience e.g in a cinema.

AQA media studies
Horror genre is often associated with low budgets but major studios and well-respected directors have made films in the genre. The horror genre is almost as old as cinema itself and contains a number of sub-genres and repeated themes: slasher themes, vampire themes, zombie themes, demonic possession, alien mind control etc. Horror is a feeling of dread and anticipation that occurs before something frightening is seen or otherwise experienced, a feeling of fear, revulsion and helplessness. Its motivated by the darkness of the cinema.