Research Source: "The History of Horror"
From the documentary on the history of horror (above) many points were raised which we had not considered before. These were mainly based around popularity and box office success of horror, and although that will not affect our coursework, there are still points and ideas we can get from this to contribute to our project.
The first cycle of horror:
The horror genre has gone through cycles of popularity over the years, since it's 'creation' in the 1700's. The start of the first cycle began with gothic horror. This was not necessarily films that you see in the cinema, but stories in the forms of books and theatre. the gothic horror genre was signified by the old historical buildings, such as castles. As horror was a whole new concept of novel at the time, it was hugely popular among audiences. Eventually though, the cycle of gothic horror ended, as new technologies gave access to different forms of entertainment.
German Expression:
German expression was the term used to describe the style of horror that film-makers in Germany used. It was described as the expression of realistic depictions of the real world. As there was no Hollywood in Germany, there was little competition in the film business, so the genre grew quickly through the productions of independent companies. This form of entertainment was considered valuable by the German government, and so they set up the UfA. The UfA's original purpose was to serve as an entertainment service to the German population. However, the rise of the UfA was paired with the fall of Germany in the First World War. This lead to the collapse of the German government (financially), and thus a severe lack of funding for the UfA. The company was forced to become a commercial seller in order to maintain profits. Although the UfA may have survived, nearly all independent film companies in Germany collapsed, starting the end to the German style of horror. Finally, the UfA was bought in a shared agreement by Paramount, and MGM.
American Horror:
With the collapse of the UfA, there was a gap in the market of film. American film companies took advantage of this, and the formation of Hollywood enabled higher-budget horror movies to be made (although they were not adopted by the top companies until later on). Universal restarted the gothic horror cycle in 1931, with productions of Dracula (Browning 1031) and Frankenstein (Whale 1931). However, by 1940, the cycle started to collapse. This collapse was slowed by independent horror companies, which started the trend of low-budget horror movies (around $150,000 per film). Although the film genre was no longer relevant, and had been standardized as B-Grade for Hollywood, the cycle of horror did not completely finish, only the genre that represented it.
Changing Horror:
In the 1950's, experimentation with horror genres began, with pulp-science-fiction horror. However, the cycle ended quickly, finishing by the mid 1950's. Producers tried multiple tactics to engage audiences in the horror genre, including cheap gimmicks such as life insurance coverage if the viewer 'dies of fright' whilst watching the screening of the film. By 1964, the production code for horror had been completely abandoned, seeing the formation of multiple sub-genres. This was overlooked by Edgar Allan Poe.
Landmark Films:
Psycho (Hitchcock 1960)
The Exorcist (Friedkin 1973)
Jaws (Spielberg 1975)
Alien (Scott 1979)
Poltergeist (Hooper 1982)
The Shining (Kubrick 1980)
Friday the 13th (Cunningham 1980)
Summary:
It would be a good idea to base our intro around a genre that we are familiar with, as we understand what makes a good film in that genre. Also, as audience members ourselves, we can implement ideas that we think would make a film in said genre unique.
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