History of Horror

The horror genre in movies began with a more traditional, Gothic tone. This focused on vampires, ghosts and other unexplainable supernatural elements, most notably in Nosferatu, considered as the first vampire movie. The Gothic continued into the 1940's with many adaptations of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Hunchback of Notre-Dame being consistantly popular with audiences.
However, as cinema technology advanced and the Cold War incited fears of world destruction, more contemporary issues were tackled by the genre, like armageddon and horror-of-demonic (often used as propaganda by US and Soviet filmmakers). Zombies also made notable appearances during the 60's and other nuclear-mutated beings like Godzilla became big hits, even with small budgets. Roman Polanski and several other directors broke onto the horror scene with gore, demons (Rosemary's Baby - Polanski) and so-called 'splatter' horrors. This involved dismebered body parts, blood and orrgans being used to incite fear in the audience.
The theme of possession, especially in children, was a popular one and spawned the likes of The Omen & The Exorcist. These films often had Catholic undertones running through them which is a featture of the more traditional Gothic horrors.
In the late 70's and early 80's, horror combined with science-fiction and created the Alien franchise, a slasher-science hybrid that echoed fears at the time of hostile contact from outer space.
After a quiet period in the early 90's, the filmmakers of the horrors had to reach out to a new audience.To do this the films parodied themselves, becoming overly gruesome and blatantly ironic in the stereotypical characters and foreshadowing of their deaths.
More recently, a mixture of horrors have been released to an increasingly unshockable teen audience.