Horror Genre
Facts, Figures and Statistics
The Sixth Sense released 8/6/99 is the highest Grossing Horror film of all time it has a lifetime gross of $293,506,292 and was shown in 2821 cinemas worldwide.
Out of the top ten the film with the highest cinema showings was ‘The Grudge’ which was shown in 3348 cinemas.
The highest opening weekend gross in the top ten was from 3rd place ‘What Lies Beneath’ which surpassed The Sixth Sense by $3 million reaching $29,702,959 on the opening weekend.
The Earliest highest grossing film from the top ten is ‘The Exorcist’ which was released on 12/26/73 which has currently made just over $230,000,000.
History of Horror
· The first horror film or depictions of supernatural events appear in the late 1896. ‘Le Manoir Du Diable’ created by Georges Melies is known and credited as the first horror film.
· The first American horror movie star was Lon Chaney who appeared in both ‘The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1923) and The Monster (1925).
· The 1930’s-40 saw the revolution of talking pictures; this was when Universal studios began creating a series of Gothic horror films. Dracula was its first and was released in 1931 closely followed by Frankenstein. These films were designed to thrill the audience but also incorporate serious elements.
· The 1950’s-60 bought with it new advancing technology which had a big impact on the horror genre. The first horror sub genres were created:
The horror of Armageddon which was a
sub-genre of science fiction that depicted the end of human civilization
because of for example an extra-terrestrial attack or nuclear warfare. One notable and successful example would be
Godzilla (1954).
The horror of the
demonic depicted that
the world was horrible because of evil forces and that these evil forces could
remain as spiritual presences or they could take the appearance of witches,
devils and demons.
·
The
1970’s-80 saw the growth of low budget gore horror films. The exorcist (1973)
is one of the most famous and was a huge commercial success. This was followed
by horrors portraying the devil representing supernatural evil.· In 1975 Steven Spielberg began his rise to fame with well-known horror Jaws. Jaws created a wave of killer animal stories. Jaws is often credited as being the first B movie to include elements such as mild gore in a big Hollywood film.
· The 1980’s saw a wave of gory B class horrors which were not favoured by critics at the time however many became classics and opinions and views were changed in the future years. These include classics such as Fright Night (1985).
· The 1990’s carried on from the Slasher sub-genre of the 80’s. Many films saw sequels in the 90’s such as ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’, ‘Friday The 13th ‘and ‘Halloween’.
· The start of the 2000’s saw a quite phase for the horror genre; The Exorcist released again but extended and was very successful. Final Destination marked a successful rebirth of teen centred horror and has gone on to create four sequels.
Splatter Film- Deliberately focus on the
portrayal of gore and graphic violence.
Sub Genres of horror
Action Horror- includes gun fights and supernatural personage of horrors.
Body Horror- Principally derived from the graphic destruction of a characters body.
Comedy Horror- Combines elements of comedy with horror fiction.
Gothic Horror- Contains elements of Goth and horror.
Natural Horror- Features nature running amok in the form of beasts and normal animals turned into killers includes aspects of science fiction.
Psychological Horror- Relies on characters fears, guilt’s and beliefs, often includes ghosts.
Science-Fiction Horror- Killer aliens experiments gone wrong, madmen.
Slasher Film- Often revolves around a psychopathic killer killing a sequence of victims.
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