Research: The History Of Horror Films

History in Horror

Horror is a form of art. They are make to terrify each other with tales that trigger the less logical parts of our imaginations for as long as we've told Stories. Horror films often deal with viewers' nightmares, fears and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include Ghosts, Werewolves, Demons, Gore, Torture, Vicious Animals, Evil Witches, Monsters, Zombies, Cannibals, and serial killers. Movies about the supernatural are not necessarily horrific.

there are loads of different types of horror movies for example Frankenstein goes to Hollywood, Home counties horror and The America scream. Horror films way back as far as a 100 years ago, even from our earliest days films used imaginations to see ghosts in shadow shapes and they can also be emotionally connect to the unknown and to fear things. 

1950 - 1960	Sci-fi, B-Movies and Hammer Horror.
1960 - 1970	Psycho's and Zombies.
1970 - 1980	The Birth of the Slasher.
1980 - 1990	Modern Horror Begins.
1990 - 2000	Scream until you like it.

The 1950's had seen the birth of the horror comedy, but it was the 1950's that saw the introduction of science fiction horror pictures. The rising demand for science fiction resulted in very few dedicated horror movies being released at first, although many film makers still tailored their Sci-Fi pic's towards the horror market to appeal to the drive-in movie couples.

This is an example of a film from the 1950’s

1960’s

Psycho presented  the monster so close to normal it was only in the final section of a film that they revealed how monstrous a man could be. 1960 Psycho, which marks a turning point. Norman Bates goes in the list with Frankenstein’s monster and Nosferatu, but this time the monster had a perfectly normal, even likeable, face and voice, and an innocent charm. Many horror and crime movies since have been about characters with multiple personalities, but I struggle to think of any such movies made prior to this. Suddenly the danger had shifted from an external monster into the interior of someone’s mind, which made it less tangible and predictable.

This is an example of a film from the 1960’s

1970’s

Psycho presented us with Norman Bates, the monster so close to normal it was only in the final section of the film that he revealed how monstrous a man could be. Based on the real- life. this reinforces that kids can be spooky and unwanted, and do bad things to their parents. This theme continued into the 1970s where it came to dominate. The crumbling family unit becomes the source of much fear and mistrust. This time around 'the enemy within' is not a shape shifting alien from another planet altogether. This time the enemy is to be found in your own home.

This is an example of a film from the 1970’s















1980’s

Horror movies of the 1980s (which probably begin in 1979 with alien) exist at the glorious watershed when special visual effects finally caught up with the gory imaginings of horror fans and movie makers. Technical advances in the field of animatronics, and liquid and foam latex meant that the human frame could be distorted to an entirely new dimension, onscreen, in realistic close up. 

1990’s

In the 1990s for the most part, cinema attendance was up - mostly at multi-screen cineplex complexes throughout the country. Although the average film budget was almost $53 million by 1998, many films cost over $100 million to produce, and some of the most expensive blockbusters were even more. In the early 1990s, box-office revenues had dipped considerably, due in part to the American economic recession of 1991, but then picked up again by 1993 and continued to increase. The average ticket price for a film varied from about $4.25 at the start of the decade to around $5 by the close of the decade. As indoor multiplexes multiplied from almost 23,000 in 1990 to 35,600 in the year 2000, the number of drive-ins continued to decline.

2000
Horror movies in the late 1990s predicted dire things for the turn of the century. Whilst January 1st, 2000 came and went without much mishap,many commentators have identified the true beginning of the 21st century asSeptember 11th, 2001. The events of that day changed global perceptions of what is frightening, and set the cultural agenda for the following years. Final Destination is a 2000 American supernatural horror-thriller film. Sawa portrays a teenager who "cheats death" after having a premonition of 28 Days Later (2002) himself and others A british zombie horror. perishing in a plane The plot depicts the explosion and uses breakdown of society it by saving himself following the accidental and a handful of release of a highly other passengers, contagious "rage" virus and but is continued to focuses upon the struggle of be stalked by death four survivors to cope with by claiming back the destruction of the life their lives which they once knew. should have been lost in the plane.   

Introduction To The Main Task

Preliminary Task Evaluation

  We were asked to create a short clip of 2 people and they have to come into a room and to have dialogue between the 2 characters, we had to use certain camera angles such as match on actions, 180 degree full and shot/reverse shot.

In my group we made a story board which explained every shot we did, we were set to do this in under 12 shots, so 12 shots meant 12 story boards. we also had to find the locations where we were planning to films and and take pictures of them and apply them to our blogs. We had to post pictures of our Characters and what their names were and a little bit about their characteristic. 

Me and my group had to plan a time on when we were all free to film as we were doing the filming in our free lessons. We got a computer up when we were filming so we could check our story bored and see what shots we were doing, this was so we could never forget the shots and get it correct first time. The filming what quite good but the room we planned to used we being used so we couldn’t use it so we had to change rooms. The filming didn’t take long, it took us around 50minutes.

Everybody in our group had to edit their own clip but use the same clips. This was so no one would take credit for someone else’s editing. We had to import the clips from our photos to Premier pro and go through and select the clips we wanted to use.

Our Preliminary task went alright, a few issues occurred such as we had to change rooms to films in as there was a lessons going on in the room we wanted to film in and the sound quality from the filming wasn’t the greatest, we needed to speak louder and clearer. what went well was that we used all the camera angles such as match on action, shot/reverse shot and 180 degree rule. The weaknesses from this was that the match on action wasn’t as good as we thought, we thought it was timed correct but looking back at the filming we were out of time a little so the character was opening the door and the next shot the door was shut and he wasn’t where he was meant to be. To improve we need to focus on the timings for the match on action and speak louder and more clearer so the quality is better.

Learning To Edit Using Premiere Pro

In the last two lessons of Media Studies i have learned how the following:

• I have learned how to create a new project on Premier Pro
• I have learned how to import clips and audio in the Premier Pro and not to move the files after adding them to it
• I have learned how to play the video in full screen to see any errors clearly, or for video viewing purposes
• I have learned how to add video transitions and effects to my project
• I have learned how render a video so it is ready for exporting
• I have learned how to export my project to my desktop

Planning-Mise-En-Scene: location planning

Shot one of our story board is an establishing shot showing the exterior of the school building. When we were scouting for a location we thought that this was a suitable location for the opening shot.




We thought that this corridor was suitable for our shot because it shows where billy is going to ask James about his coursework.

We thought that a classroom was a suitable place to for Billy to ask James about his piece of Btec PE Coursework.