Horror and Terror - Horror and Terror in Film

Horror and Terror in Film

Horror and terror stem mainly from movies and literature. Horror is the feeling you get after seeing something violent and disturbing, while terror is the apprehension before something bad happens. To increase horrific feelings in the audience, plots often involve the supernatural, serial murderers, disease/virus outbreak, and surrealism. Themes involved to induce horror and terror include gore, werewolves, villains, torture, ghosts, curses, satanism, demons, vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, and zombies. The definition of what was once called a horror movie has changed over the years. Examples are The Silence of the Lambs and Seven. Horror is considered horror when there is an over the top amount of bloodshed and gore whereas thriller/terror is considered to be more along the route of mindgames, exemplified by the feeling of nervousness as a character is walking down a dark alley.

In the United States, the horror genre in film became popular in the early 1930s, and was especially identified with Universal Pictures. Most notable are Frankenstein and Dracula. Some of these early movies blended science themed with Gothic and horror, such as James Whale's The Invisible Man. Big names in the horror genre include actors Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and makeup artist Jack Pierce. In the 1950s and 1960s, new sub-genres began to appear. Two most popular were the horror-of-armageddon and the horror-of-demonic film. The horror of armageddon consisted of end of civilization, while the horror of demonic dealt with demons controlling people's souls and further used the supernatural element to a slightly bigger extreme. Japanese films, in particular, had the majority of armageddon films with their first hand experience with radiation in the 1950s. The horror of demonic started out as ghosts and monsters, but by the mid to late 1960s, more film makers decided to deal with satan and the devil entering one's flesh, such as Rosemary's Baby from director Roman Polanski. Armageddon films did not have as much notice until 1963, when Alfred Hitchcock directed The Birds. Rosemary's Baby brought horror film into a whole other realm. More occult films were accepted. The Exorcist remains one of the most influential horror movies dealing with an evil spirit invading one's soul. The 1970s brought with them the zombie movie, which is still relevant in today's society. Many of the same came the next twenty years, with a revival of The Exorcist in early 2000. The Saw and Final Destination franchises define what kind of mode we have entered into. Disaster films have become almost necessary, with remakes of foreign horror movies up there in equal importance. The influence of Swedish and French horror films is obvious over the past two to three years.