Horror film

File:Max Schreck as Count Orlok in Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922).jpg

Max Schreck as Count Orlok in the 1922 film Nosferatu. Critic and historian Kim Newman declared it as a film that set the template for the horror film.Template:Sfn

Template:Use dmy dates Template:Speculative fiction sidebar Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers.<ref name="Kuhn-2012">Template:Cite book</ref> Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apocalyptic events, and religious or folk beliefs.

Horror films have existed for more than a century. Early inspirations from before the development of film include folklore, religious beliefs and superstitions of different cultures, and the Gothic and horror literature of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley. From origins in silent films and German Expressionism, horror only became a codified genre after the release of Dracula (1931). Many sub-genres emerged in subsequent decades, including body horror, comedy horror, erotic horror, slasher films, splatter films, supernatural horror, and psychological horror. The genre has been produced worldwide, varying in content and style between regions. Horror is particularly prominent in the cinema of Japan, Korea, and Thailand, among other countries.

Despite being the subject of social and legal controversy due to their subject matter, some horror films and franchises have seen major commercial success, influenced society and spawned several popular culture icons. Template:TOCLIMIT

Characteristics

Template:See alsoThe Film Experience: An Introduction (2021) defines the horror film as a genre with origins in Gothic literature that seeks to frighten the viewer. They highlight the fundamental elements of the horror film as "characters with physical, psychological, or spiritual deformities"; "narratives built on suspense, surprise, and shock"; and "visual compositions that move between the dread of not seeing and the horror of seeing".<ref name="Kuhn-2012" />

Alternatively, The Dictionary of Film Studies (2012) defines the horror film as representing “disturbing and dark subject matter, seeking to elicit responses of fear, terror, disgust, shock, suspense, and, of course, horror from their viewers.”<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In his chapter "The American Nightmare: Horror in the 70s" from Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan (2002), film critic Robin Wood declared that the commonality between horror films is that “normality is threatened by the monster.”Template:Sfn This was further expanded upon by Noël Carroll in The Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart (1990) who added that “repulsion must be pleasurable, as evidenced by the genre's popularity.”Template:Sfn

Prior to the release of Dracula (1931), historian Gary D. Rhodes explained that the ideas and terminology of horror films did not exist yet as a codified genre, although critics used the term “horror” to describe films in reviews prior to DraculaTemplate:'s release.Template:Sfn “Horror” was a term used to describe a variety of meanings. In 1913, Moving Picture World defined “horrors” as showcasing “striped convicts, murderous Indians, grinning 'black-handers', homicidal drunkards”Template:Sfn Some titles suggested horror such as The Hand of Horror (1914), a melodrama about a thief who steals from his own sister.Template:Sfn During the silent era, the term horror was used to describe everything from “battle scenes” in war films to tales of drug addiction.Template:Sfn Rhodes concluded that the term “horror film” or “horror movie” was not used in early cinema.Template:Sfn

The mystery film genre was in vogue and early information on Dracula being promoted as a mystery film was common, despite the novel, play and the film's story relying on the supernatural.Template:Sfn Newman discussed the genre in British Film Institute's Companion to Horror where he noted that Horror films in the 1930s were easy to identify, but following that decade, “the more blurred distinctions become, and horror becomes less like a discrete genre than an effect which can be deployed within any number of narrative settings or narrative patterns”.Template:Sfn In the 1940s, the horror film was viewed in different terms. Critic Siegfried Kracauer included The Lost Weekend among films described as “terror films” along with Shadow of a Doubt, The Dark Corner (1946), Gaslight (1944), Shock (1946), The Spiral Staircase (1946), The Stranger (1946) Spellbound (1945) while two years earlier, the New York Times described a new cycle of “horror” productions included Gaslight, The Woman in the Window (1944), Dark Waters (1944), Laura and Phantom Lady (1944).Template:Sfn Mark Jancovich wrote in The Shifting Definitions of Genre: Essays on Labeling Films, Television Shows and Media (2008) that the term was virtually synonymous with mystery as a generic term, not being limited to films concerned with the strange, eerie and uncanny.Template:Sfn

Various writings on genre from Altman, Lawrence Alloway (Violent America: The Movies 1946-1964 (1971)) and Peter Hutchings (Approaches to Popular Film (1995)) implied it is easier to view films as cycles opposed to genres, suggesting the slasher film viewed as a cycle would place it in terms of how the film industry was economically and production wise, the personnel involved in their respective eras, and how the films were marketed exhibited and distributed.Template:Sfn Mark Jancovich in an essay, declared that “there is no simple 'collective belief' as to what constitutes the horror genre” between both fans and critics of the genre.Template:Sfn Jancovich found that disagreements existed from audiences who wanted to distinguish themselves. This ranged from fans of different genres who may view a film like Alien (1979) as belonging to science fiction, and horror fan bases dismissing it as being inauthentic to either genre.Template:Sfn Further debates exist among fans of the genre with personal definitions of “true” horror films, such as fans who embrace cult figures like Freddy Kruger of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, while others disassociate themselves from characters and series and focusing on genre auteur directors like Dario Argento, while others fans would deem Argento's films as too mainstream, having preferences more underground films.Template:Sfn Andrew Tudor wrote in Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie that “Genre is what we collectively believe it to be.”Template:Sfn

In addition to these perspectives, Rhodes emphasizes the evolution of the horror genre through various cultural and historical contexts. He discusses the impact of socio-political factors on the genre, such as the influence of World War I and II, the Great Depression, and the Cold War, which shaped the themes and narratives of horror films. For instance, the anxieties of the post-war era manifested in horror films as fears of invasion, contamination, and the unknown, reflecting the collective psyche of the time. Rhodes also highlights the significance of technological advancements, such as the advent of sound in cinema, which revolutionized the horror genre by enhancing its ability to evoke fear and suspense through auditory effects.Template:Sfn

Moreover, the horror genre's flexibility and adaptability are crucial to its enduring popularity. As Rhodes and others note, the genre continuously evolves,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> incorporating elements from other genres and responding to contemporary societal fears and anxieties. This adaptability is evident in the various sub-genres that have emerged over the years, such as psychological horror, body horror, and found footage horror, each addressing different aspects of human fear and the unknown.Template:Sfn

Rhodes also explores the role of censorship and regulation in shaping the horror genre. The enforcement of the Hays Code in the United States during the 1930s and subsequent rating systems influenced the depiction of violence and sexuality in horror films. Regulation which limited what a filmmaker could express, and how, has led to the existence of many sub-textual themes that would later become prevalent within the genre, such as homosexuality.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The relaxation of censorship in the late 20th century allowed for more graphic and explicit horror, contributing to the emergence of sub-genres like splatter films and torture porn.Template:Sfn

Cinematic techniques

Template:One source In a study by Jacob Shelton, the many ways that audience members are manipulated through horror films was investigated in detail.<ref name="Ranker">Template:Cite web</ref> Negative space is one such method that can play a part in inducing a reaction, causing one's eyes to remotely rest on anything in the frame – a wall, or the empty black void in the shadows.<ref name="Ranker" />

The jump scare is a horror film trope, where an abrupt change in image accompanied with a loud sound intends to surprise the viewer.<ref name="Ranker" /> This can also be subverted to create tension, where an audience may feel more unease and discomfort by anticipating a jump scare.<ref name="Ranker" />

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Mirrors are often used to create a sense of tension in horror films.

Mirrors are often used in horror films to create visual depth and build tension. Shelton argues mirrors have been used so frequently in horror films that audiences have been conditioned to fear them, and subverting audience expectations of a jump scare in a mirror can further build tension.<ref name="Ranker" /> Tight framing and close-ups are also commonly used; these can build tension and induce anxiety by not allowing the viewer to see beyond what is around the protagonist.<ref name="Ranker" />

The interaction between horror films and their audiences is another significant aspect discussed by Rhodes. He notes that horror films often serve as a safe space for viewers to confront and process their fears. This cathartic experience can provide psychological relief and a sense of empowerment as viewers face and overcome their anxieties in a controlled environment. The communal experience of watching horror films in theaters or discussing them in fan communities also plays a crucial role in the genre's impact and popularity.[6]

Music

File:John Carpenter Live 2016.jpg

Filmmaker and composer John Carpenter, who has directed and scored numerous horror films, performing in 2016

Music is a key component of horror films. In Music in the Horror Film (2010), Lerner writes "music in horror film frequently makes us feel threatened and uncomfortable" and intends to intensify the atmosphere created in imagery and themes. It helps to set the overall tense or chilling mood that horror movies often aim to achieve and can even cause physiological effects effects that override learned reactions and behaviors.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Dissonance, atonality and experiments with timbre are typical characteristics used by composers in horror film music.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Themes

In the book Dark Dreams, author Charles Derry conceived horror films as focusing on three broad themes: the horror of personality, horror of Armageddon and the horror of the demonic.Template:Sfn The horror of personality derives from monsters being at the centre of the plot, such Frankenstein's monster whose psychology makes them perform unspeakable horrific acts ranging from rapes, mutilations and sadistic killings.Template:Sfn Other key works of this form are Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which feature psychotic murderers without the make-up of a monster.Template:Sfn The second 'Armageddon' group delves on the fear of large-scale destruction, which ranges from science fiction works but also of natural events, such as Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).Template:Sfn The last group of the “Fear of the Demonic” features graphic accounts of satanic rites, witchcraft, exorcisms outside traditional forms of worship, as seen in films like The Exorcist (1973) or The Omen (1976).Template:Sfn

Some critics have suggested horror films can be a vessel for exploring contemporary cultural, political and social trends. Jeanne Hall, a film theorist, agrees with the use of horror films in easing the process of understanding issues by making use of their optical elements.<ref name="Lizardi">Template:Cite journal</ref> The use of horror films can help audiences understand international prior historical events occurs, for example, to depict the horrors of the Vietnam War, the Holocaust, the worldwide AIDS epidemic<ref name="History Horror">Template:Cite book</ref> or post-9/11 pessimism.Template:Sfn

Anxieties surrounding race and racism have historically and continuously informed the horror genre.<ref name="Kuhn-2012" /> This is exemplified by the history of the zombie apocalypse sub-genre. The first zombie horror films, such as White Zombie (1932), were inspired by stories brought back to Europe by colonizers and explicitly presented Afro-Haitian religious and spiritual practices as evil and perverse.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The film which then revived the sub-genre, Night of the Living Dead (1968), incidentally presented themes surrounding race in America by casting Duane Jones, a black actor, as the lead.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Whether accidentally or actively, horror films demonstrate societal issues by who or what is chosen to incite fear and how it is represented, both visually and narratively.

History

Template:ExcerptIn discussing narrative trends in horror, scholar Isabel Pinedo draws on Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie (1989), to map the development of the Anglo-American horror genre. She points out that early synchronized sound as well as post-war period films present threats to social order as external, while human agency (largely male) is what prevails. The focus is on the monster's acts of violence and character's failed attempts at resisting it, ending with male experts using violence or knowledge to defeat the monster and restore social order.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn

Pinedo presents the category of postmodern horror. She summarizes their narrative structure as indicating the prevalence of internal threats to social order through a combination of monstrous violence and ineffectual human resistance with open endings. These open endings may be that the monster triumphs like in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990); the monster is defeated but only temporarily like in Halloween (1978), or have an ambiguous outcome like in Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), The Thing (1982), and Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).<ref name=":0" />Template:Horrorfilmlist

Sub-genres of horror films

Horror is a malleable genre and often can be altered to accommodate other genre types such as science fiction, making some films difficult to categorize.Template:Sfn

Lovecraftian horror

Template:Main Named after American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937), this sub-genre of horror films include themes of cosmic dread, forbidden and dangerous knowledge, madness, non-human influences on humanity, religion and superstition, fate and inevitability, and the risks associated with scientific discoveries.

Body horror

Template:Main A genre that emerged in the 1970s, body horror films focus on the process of a bodily transformation. In these films, the body is either engulfed by some larger process or heading towards fragmentation and collapse.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The focus can be on apocalyptic implication of an entire society being overtaken, but the focus is generally upon an individual and their sense of identity, primarily them watching their own body change.Template:Sfn The earliest appearance of the sub-genre was the work of director David Cronenberg, specifically with early films like Shivers (1975).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Mark Jancovich of the University of Manchester declared that the transformation scenes in the genre provoke fear and repulsion, but also pleasure and excitement such as in The Thing (1982) and The Fly (1986).Template:Sfn

Christmas horror

Template:Main Christmas horror is a film subgenre that emerged in the 1970s with films such as Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971) and Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972),Template:Sfn which were soon followed by the influential Black Christmas (1974).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Defining the Christmas horror genre has been described as challenging,Template:Sfn as it has generally been regarded as a sub-genre of the slasher film.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Adam Rockoff, in Rue Morgue, noted that the sub-genre sits within a trend of holiday-themed slasher films, alongside films such as My Bloody Valentine (1981) and April Fool's Day (1986).Template:Sfn Others take a broader view that Christmas horror is not limited to the slasher genre,Template:Sfn noting how it evolved from the English Christmas tradition of telling ghost stories.Template:Sfn Christmas in literature has historically included elements of "darkness"—fright, misery, death and decay—tracing its literary antecedents as far back as the biblical account of the Massacre of the Innocents and more recently in works such as E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (1816) and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Although ghosts have largely been replaced by serial killers, Christmas horror creates an outlet through which to explore "a modern reinvention of the Christmas ghost story".Template:Sfn

Erotic horror

Template:Main Erotic horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that blends sensual and sexual imagery with horrific themes for the sake of sexual arousal. Erotic horror has had influences on French<ref name="www.kinoeye.org">Template:Cite web</ref> and American horror cinema. The works of Jean Rollin, such as Le Viol du Vampire and Fascination, are considered quintessential erotic horror films, blending deeply sexual imagery with gore.<ref name="www.kinoeye.org" /> American cinema has also featured notable erotic horror film franchises, such as Candyman.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> An example of a British erotic horror film series is Hellraiser.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Alien features heavy erotic imagery, with the design of the Xenomorph by H. R. Giger featuring both phallic and vaginal imagery, intended to symbolize patriarchal guilt<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as sex, rape, and pregnancy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Folk horror

Template:Main Folk horror uses elements of folklore or other religious and cultural beliefs to instil fear in audiences. Folk horror films have featured rural settings and themes of isolation, religion and nature.<ref name="Hurley-2019">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Murphy">Template:Cite news</ref> Frequently cited examples are Witchfinder General (1968), The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), The Wicker Man (1973), The Witch (2015), and Midsommar (2019).<ref name="Hurley-2019" /><ref name="Murphy" /> Local folklore and beliefs have been noted as being prevalent in horror films from the Southeast Asia region, including Thailand and Indonesia.<ref name="Ferrarese">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Found footage horror

The found footage horror film "technique" gives the audience a first person view of the events on screen, and presents the footage as being discovered after. Horror films which are framed as being made up of "found-footage" merge the experiences of the audience and characters, which may induce suspense, shock, and bafflement.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Alexandra Heller-Nicholas noted that the popularity of sites like YouTube in 2006 sparked a taste for amateur media, leading to the production of further films in the found footage horror genre later in the 2000s including the particularly financially successful Paranormal Activity (2007).Template:Sfn

Gothic horror

Template:Main In their book Gothic film, Richard J. McRoy and Richard J. Hand stated that "Gothic" can be argued as a very loose subgenre of horror, but argued that "Gothic" as a whole was a style like film noir and not bound to certain cinematic elements like the Western or science fiction film.Template:Sfn The term "gothic" is frequently used to describe a stylized approach to showcasing location, desire, and action in film. Contemporary views of the genre associate it with imagery of castles at hilltops and labyrinth like ancestral mansions that are in various states of disrepair.Template:Sfn Narratives in these films often focus on an audience's fear and attraction to social change and rebellion.Template:Sfn The genre can be applied to films as early as The Haunted Castle (1896), Frankenstein (1910) as well as to more complex iterations such as Park Chan-wook's Stoker (2013) and Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017).Template:Sfn

The gothic style is applied to several films throughout the history of the horror film. This includes Universal Pictures' horror films of the 1930s, the revival of gothic horror in the 1950s and 1960s with films from Hammer, Roger Corman's Poe-cycle, and several Italian productions.Template:Sfn By the 1970s American and British productions often had vampire films set in a contemporary setting, such as Hammer Films had their Dracula stories set in a modern setting and made other horror material which pushed the erotic content of their vampire films that was initiated by Black Sunday.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In the 1980s, the older horror characters of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster rarely appeared, with vampire themed films continued often in the tradition of authors like Anne Rice where vampirism becomes a lifestyle choice rather than plague or curse.Template:Sfn Following the release of Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), a small wave of high-budgeted gothic horror romance films were released in the 1990s.Template:Sfn

Natural horror

Template:See also Also described as "eco-horror", the natural horror film is a subgenre "featuring nature running amok in the form of mutated beasts, carnivorous insects, and normally harmless animals or plants turned into cold-blooded killers."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn In 1963, Alfred Hitchcock defined a new genre nature taking revenge on humanity with The Birds (1963) that was expanded into a trend into the 1970s. Following the success of Willard (1971), a film about killer rats, 1972 had similar films with Stanley (1972) and an official sequel Ben (1972).Template:Sfn Other films followed in suit such as Night of the Lepus (1972), Frogs (1972), Bug (1975), Squirm (1976) and what Muir described as the "turning point" in the genre with Jaws (1975), which became the highest-grossing film at that point and moved the animal attacks genres "towards a less-fantastic route" with less giant animals and more real-life creatures such as Grizzly (1976) and Night Creature (1977), Orca (1977), and Jaws 2 (1978).Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn The film is linked with the environmental movements that became more mainstream in the 1970s and early 1980s such vegetarianism, animal rights movements, and organizations such as Greenpeace.Template:Sfn Following Jaws, sharks became the most popular animal of the genre, ranging from similar such as Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976) and Great White (1981) to the Sharknado film series.Template:Sfn James Marriott found that the genre had "lost momentum" since the 1970s while the films would still be made towards the turn of the millennium.Template:Sfn

Psychological horror

Bill Gibron of PopMatters declared a mixed definition of the psychological horror film, ranging from definitions of anything that created a sense of disquiet or apprehension to a film where an audience's mind makes up what was not directly displayed visually. Gibron concluded it as a "clouded gray area between all out splatter and a trip through a cinematic dark ride."Template:Sfn

Religious horror

Template:Main Religious horror is a subgenre of horror film whose common themes are based on religion and focus heavily on supernatural beings, often with demons as the main antagonists that bring a sense of threat.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Such films commonly use religious elements, including the crucifix or cross, holy water, the Bible, the rosary, the sign of the cross, the church, and prayer, which are forms of religious symbols and rituals used to depict the use of faith to defeat evil.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Slasher film

Template:Main The slasher film is a horror subgenre which involves a killer murdering a group of people (often teenagers), usually by use of bladed tools.<ref name=":0p">Template:Cite book</ref> In his book on the genre, author Adam Rockoff wrote that these villains represented a "rogue genre" of films that are "tough, problematic, and fiercely individualistic."Template:Sfn Following the financial success of Friday the 13th (1980), at least 20 other slasher films appeared in 1980 alone.Template:Sfn These films usually revolved around three properties: unique social settings (campgrounds, schools, holidays) and a crime from the past committed (an accidental drowning, infidelity, a scorned lover) and a ready made group of victims (camp counselors, students, wedding parties).Template:Sfn The genre was derided by several contemporary film critics of the era such as Ebert, and often were highly profitable in the box office.Template:Sfn The release of Scream (1996), led to a brief revival of the slasher films for the 1990s.Template:Sfn Other countries imitated the American slasher film revival, such as South Korea's early 2000s cycle with Bloody Beach (2000), Nightmare (2000) and The Record (2000).Template:Sfn

Splatter film

Template:Main Splatter is a subgenre that depends on violence and gore to display and accentuate a fascination with the theatricality of mutilation and the vulnerability of the human body.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Supernatural horror

Template:Main Supernatural horror films, sometimes referred to as paranormal horror films, integrate supernatural elements, such as the afterlife, spirit possession and religion into the horror genre.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Since they often focus on undead or non-physical beings, they may create unease in viewers without a visible presence on screen. This may include characters feeling a touch or chill in the air, furniture moving on its own, mysterious sounds, or lights flickering with no apparent cause. Prominent supernatural horror films include Paranormal Activity and The Conjuring.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Suburban gothic

Template:Main Suburban gothic is a subgenre of Gothic fiction, art, film and television, focused on anxieties associated with the creation of suburban communities, particularly in the United States and the Western world, from the 1950s and 1960s onwards.

This genre often explores themes of paranoia, conformity, and hidden dangers. Classic suburban horror films include Halloween (1978), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and The Stepford Wives (1975), all of which use the suburban setting to heighten the tension and fear.<ref>Subgenre deep dive: Suburban Horror – The British Fantasy Society</ref><ref>10 Best Suburban Horror Movies, Ranked</ref><ref>The First Big Thriller of 2024 Reveals the Power of an Overlooked Genre</ref>

Teen horror

Teen horror is a horror subgenre that victimizes teenagers while usually promoting strong, anti-conformity teenage leads, appealing to young generations. This subgenre often depicts themes of sex, under-aged drinking, and gore.<ref>Miller C, Van Riper A. Marketing, Monsters, and Music: Teensploitation Horror Films. Journal of American Culture [serial online]. June 2015;38(2):130–141. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Retrieved 21 March 2017.</ref> Horror films aimed a young audience featuring teenage monsters grew popular in the 1950s with several productions from American International Pictures (AIP) and productions of Herman Cohen with I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957).Template:Sfn This led to later productions like Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957) and Frankenstein's Daughter (1958).Template:Sfn Teen horror cycle in the 1980s often showcased explicit gore and nudity, with John Kenneth Muir described as cautionary conservative tales where most of the films stated if you partook in such vices such as drugs or sex, your punishment of death would be handed out.Template:Sfn Prior to Scream, there were no popular teen horror films in the early 1990s.Template:Sfn After the financial success of Scream, teen horror films became increasingly reflexive and self-aware until the end of the 1990s with films like I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and non-slasher The Faculty (1998).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The genre lost prominence as teen films dealt with threats with more realism in films like Donnie Darko (2001) and Crazy/Beautiful (2001).Template:Sfn In her book on the 1990s teen horror cycle, Alexandra West described the general trend of these films is often looked down upon by critics, journals, and fans as being too glossy, trendy, and sleek to be considered worthwhile horror films.Template:Sfn

Regional horror films

Asian horror films

Template:Main Horror films in Asia have been noted as being inspired by national, cultural or religious folklore, particularly beliefs in ghosts or spirits.<ref name="Ferrarese" /><ref name="Richards-2010">Template:Cite book</ref> In Asian Horror, Andy Richards writes that there is a "widespread and engrained acceptance of supernatural forces" in many Asian cultures, and suggests this is related to animist, pantheist and karmic religious traditions, as in Buddhism and Shintoism.<ref name="Richards-2010" /> Although Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Korean horror has arguably received the most international attention,<ref name="Richards-2010" /> horror also makes up a considerable proportion of Cambodian<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Malaysian cinema.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

European horror films

Template:Main Ian Olney described the horror films of Europe were often more erotic and "just plain stranger" than their British and American counter-parts.Template:Sfn European horror films (generally referred to as Euro Horror)Template:Sfn draw from distinctly European cultural sources, including surrealism, romanticism, decadent tradition, early 20th century pulp-literature, film serials, and erotic comics.Template:Sfn In comparison to the narrative logic in American genre films, these films focused on imagery, excessiveness, and the irrational.Template:Sfn

Between the mid-1950s and the mid-1980s, European horror films emerged from countries like Italy, Spain and France, and were shown in the United States predominantly at drive-in theatre and grindhouse theaters.Template:Sfn As producers and distributors all over the world were interested in horror films, regardless of their origin, changes started occurring in European low-budget filmmaking that allowed for productions in the 1960s and 1970s for horror films from Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain, as well as co-productions between these countries.Template:Sfn Several productions, such as those in Italy, were co-productions due to the lack of international stars within the country.Template:Sfn European horror films began developing strong cult following since the late 1990s.Template:Sfn

Oceania

Australia

It is unknown when Australia's cinema first horror title may have been, with thoughts ranging from The Strangler's Grip (1912) to The Face at the Window (1919) while stories featuring ghosts would appear in Guyra Ghost Mystery (1921).Template:Sfn By 1913, the more prolific era of Australian cinema ended with production not returning with heavy input of government finance in the 1970s.Template:Sfn It took until the 1970s for Australia to develop sound film with television films that eventually received theatrical release with Dead Easy (1970) and Night of Fear (1973). The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) was the first Australian horror production made for theatrical release.Template:Sfn 1970s Australian art cinema was funded by state film corporations, who considered them more culturally acceptable than local exploitation films (Ozploitation), which was part of the Australian phenomenon called the cultural cringe.Template:Sfn The greater success of genre films like Mad Max (1979), The Last Wave (1977) and Patrick (1978) led to the Australian Film Commission to change its focus to being a more commercial operation. This closed in 1980 as its funding was abused by investors using them as tax avoiding measures. A new development known as the 10BA tax shelter scheme was developed ushering a slew of productions, leading to what Peter Shelley, author of Australian Horror Films, suggested meant "making a profit was more important than making a good film."Template:Sfn Shelley called these films derivative of "American films and presenting generic American material".Template:Sfn These films included the horror film productions of Antony I. Ginnane.Template:Sfn While Australia would have success with international films between the mid-1980s and the 2000s, less than five horror films were produced in the country between 1993 and 2000.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn It was only after the success of Wolf Creek (2005) that a new generation of filmmakers would continuously make horror genre films in Australia that continued into the 2010s.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

New Zealand

By 2005, New Zealand has produced around 190 feature films, with about 88% of them being made after 1976.Template:Sfn New Zealand horror film history was described by Philip Matthews of Stuff as making "po-faced gothic and now we do horror for laughs."Template:Sfn Among the earliest known New Zealand horror films productions are Strange Behavior (1981), a co-production with Australia and Death Warmed Up (1984) a single production.Template:Sfn Early features such as Melanie Read's Trial Run (1984) where a mother is sent to remote cottage to photograph penguins and finds it habitat to haunted spirits, and Gaylene Preston's Mr. Wrong (1984) purchases a car that is haunted by its previous owner.Template:Sfn Other films imitate American slasher and splatter films with Bridge to Nowhere (1986), and the early films of Peter Jackson who combined splatter films with comedy with Bad Taste (1988) and Braindead (1992) which has the largest following of the mentioned films.Template:Sfn Film producer Ant Timpson had an influence curating New Zealand horror films, creating the Incredibly Strange Film Festival in the 1990s and producing his own horror films over the 2010s including The ABCs of Death (2012), Deathgasm (2015), and Housebound (2014).Template:Sfn Timpson noted the latter horror entries from New Zealand are all humorous films like What We Do in the Shadows (2014) with Jonathan King, director of Black Sheep (2006) and The Tattooist (2007) stating "I'd love to see a genuinely scary New Zealand film but I don't know if New Zealand audiences – or the funding bodies – are keen."Template:Sfn

North America

Mexico

Template:Main After the 1931 release of an American-produced Spanish-language version of Dracula by George Melford for the Latin-American market employing Mexican actors, Mexican horror films were produced throughout the 1930s and 1940s, often reflecting on the overarching theme of science vs. religion conflict.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Ushered by the release of El vampiro, the Mexploitation horror film era started in 1957, with films characterised by their low production values and camp appeal, often featuring vampires, wrestlers, and Aztec mummies.Template:Sfn A key figure in the Mexican horror scene (particularly in Germán Robles-starred vampire films) was producer Abel Salazar.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The late 1960s saw the advent of the prominence of Carlos Enrique Taboada as an standout Mexican horror filmmaker, with films such as Hasta el viento tiene miedo (1967), El libro de piedra (1968), Más negro que la noche (1975) or Veneno para las hadas (1984).Template:Sfn Mexican horror cinema has been noted for the mashup of classic gothic and romantic themes and characters with autochthonous features of the Mexican culture such as the Ranchería setting, the colonial past or the myth of La Llorona (shared with other Hispanic-American nations).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Horror has proven to be a dependable genre at the Mexican box office in the 21st-century, with Mexico ranking as having the world's largest relative popularity of the genre among viewers (ahead of South Korea), according to a 2016 research.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Effects on audiences

Psychological effects

Template:Unreferenced section In a study done by Uri Hasson et al., brain waves were observed via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This study used the inter-subject correlation analysis (ISC) method of determining results. It was shown that audience members tend to focus on certain facets in a particular scene simultaneously and tend to sit as still as possible while watching horror films.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In another study done by John Greene & Glenn Sparks, it was found that the audience tends to experience the excitation transfer process (ETP) which causes a physiological arousal in audience members. The ETP refers to the feelings experienced immediately after an emotion-arousing experience, such as watching a horror film. In this case, audience members' heart rate, blood pressure and respiration all increased while watching films with violence. Audience members with positive feedback regarding the horror film have feelings similar to happiness or joy felt with friends, but intensified. Alternatively, audience members with negative feedback regarding the film would typically feel emotions they would normally associate with negative experiences in their life.Template:Citation needed

Only about 10% of the American population enjoy the physiological rush felt immediately after watching horror films.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The population that does not enjoy horror films could experience emotional fallout similar to that of PTSD if the environment reminds them of particular scenes.Template:Citation needed

A 2021 study suggested horror films that explore grief can provide psychological benefits to the bereaved, with the genre well suited to representing grief through its genre conventions.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Physical effects

In a study by Medes et al., prolonged exposure to infrasound and low-frequency noise (<500 Hz) in long durations has an effect on vocal range (i.e. longer exposure tends to form a lower phonation frequency range).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Another study by Baliatsas et al. observed that there is a correlation between exposure to infrasound and low-frequency noises and sleep-related problems.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Though most horror films keep the audio around 20–30 Hz, the noise can still be unsettling in long durations.<ref name="Ranker"/>

Another technique used in horror films to provoke a response from the audience is cognitive dissonance, which is when someone experiences tension in themselves and is urged to relieve that tension.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Dissonance is the clashing of unpleasant or harsh sounds.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> A study by Prete et al. identified that the ability to recognize dissonance relied on the left hemisphere of the brain, while consonance relied on the right half.<ref name="Prete-2015">Template:Cite journal</ref> There is a stronger preference for consonance; this difference is noticeable even in early stages of life.<ref name="Prete-2015" /> Previous musical experience also can influence a dislike for dissonance.<ref name="Prete-2015" />

Skin conductance responses (SCRs), heart rate (HR), and electromyographic (EMG) responses vary in response to emotional stimuli, showing higher for negative emotions in what is known as the "negative bias."<ref name="Dellacherie-2011">Template:Cite journal</ref> When applied to dissonant music, HR decreases (as a bodily form of adaptation to harsh stimulation), SCR increases, and EMG responses in the face are higher.<ref name="Dellacherie-2011" /> The typical reactions go through a two-step process of first orienting to the problem (the slowing of HR), then a defensive process (a stronger increase in SCR and an increase in HR).<ref name="Dellacherie-2011" /> This initial response can sometimes result in a fight-or-flight response, which is the characteristic of dissonance that horror films rely on to frighten and unsettle viewers.<ref name="Ranker" />

Reception

In film criticism

Template:See also Critic Robin Wood was not the first film critic to take the horror film seriously, but his article Return of the Repressed in 1978 helped inaugurate the horror film into academic study as a genre.Template:Sfn Wood later stated that he was surprised that his work, as well as the writing of Richard Lippe and Andrew Britton would receive "historic importance" intellectual views of the film genre.Template:Sfn William Paul in his book Laughing Screaming comments that "the negative definition of the lower works would have it that they are less subtle than higher genres. More positively, it could be said that they are more direct. Where lower forms are explicit, higher forms tend to operate more by indirection. Because of this indirection the higher forms are often regarded as being more metaphorical, and consequently more resonant, more open to the exegetical analyses of the academic industry."Template:Sfn

Steffen Hantke noted that academic criticism about horror cinema had "always operated under duress" noting that challenges in legitimizing its subject, finding "career-minded academics might have always suspected that they were studying something that was ultimately too frivolous, garish, and sensationalistic to warrant serious critical attention".Template:Sfn

Some commentary has suggested that horror films have been underrepresented or underappreciated as serious works worthy of film criticism and major films awards.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of 2025, only seven horror films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, with The Silence of the Lambs being the sole winner.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, horror films have still won major awards.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Critics have also commented on the representation of women<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Spines">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Nowell">Template:Cite journal</ref> and disability<ref>Template:Citation</ref> in horror films, as well as the prevalence of racial stereotypes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Censorship

Template:Expand section Many horror films have been the subject of moral panic, censorship and legal controversy.

In the United Kingdom, film censorship has frequently been applied to horror films.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A moral panic over several slasher films in the 1980s led to many of them being banned but released on videotape; the phenomenon became popularly termed "video nasties".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Constraints on permitted subject matter in Indonesian films has also influenced Indonesian horror films.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In March 2008, China banned all horror films from its market.<ref>China Bans Horror Movies – Shanghai Daily, March 2008.</ref>

In the U.S., the Motion Picture Production Code which was implemented in 1930, set moral guidelines for film content, restraining movies containing controversial themes, graphic violence, explicit sexuality and/or nudity. The gradual abandonment of the Code, and its eventual formal repeal in 1968 (when it was replaced by the MPAA film rating system)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> offered more freedom to the movie industry.

References

Bibliography

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• Corrigan, Timothy; White, Patricia (2021). The Film Experience : An Introduction (Sixth edition.). Bedford/St. Martin’s. Template:ISBN.
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Further reading

• Dixon, Wheeler Winston. A History of Horror. (Rutgers University Press; 2010), Template:ISBN.
• Steffen Hantke, ed. American Horror Film: The Genre at the Turn of the Millennium (University Press of Mississippi; 2010), 253 pages.
• Petridis, Sotiris (2014). "A Historical Approach to the Slasher Film". Film International 12 (1): 76–84.
• Gooch, Joshua. Capitalism Hates You: Marxism and the New Horror Film. (Minnesota University Press, 2025), Template:ISBN

External links

• Horror genre on IMDb