History of horror.

HORROR Noun 1) an intense feeling of fear, shock or disgust. 2) a thing causing

such a feeling. 3) Intense dismay. 4) Informal a bad or mischievous person, especially a child. -ORIGIN Latin, from horrere ‘shudder, (of hair) stand on end’.

SUPERNATURALAs long as there have been stories, there have been stories about the other the make believe creatures that we see as horror have been around since the early creation myths in all cultures which are filled with demons and other creatures of darkness, early Egyptian mythology is filled with tales of a world beyond the physical, a realm of spirits to be feared. Classical mythological monsters include medusa, the Minotaur, Cyclops, that the heroes have to defeat which often involves the hero journeying into the realm of the spirits on frequent occasions.

The modern genre of horror that we know is only around 200 years because it began to have form and conventions towards the end of the 18th century. Every culture has a set of stories dealing with the supernatural these stories keep the listener wondering what life would be like if these creatures existed in the real world instead of the world of fiction. Horror films are the present day version of the myths that our ancestors told.

We can distinguish between the supernatural horror and the gothic horror in the modern day but back in the 19th century of course they both meshed into one, and so there is a relationship between them, all horrors attempt to provoke a response from audiences, whether it is an emotional response or a physical response sometimes a mental response is also intended different techniques are used to elicit fear phantoms and the living dead are often used or if a more real life situation is desired serial killers can evoke the response just as well.

The main characteristic of horror is that the viewer can relate to the narrative somehow because the whole genre of horror is based on peoples fears of the unknown and anxiety supernatural horror’s deal with the viewers nightmares, hidden fears and if the character in the films are in the same situation or have the same fears the audience would empathies with the character making a more tense movie because the audience will not want anything bad to happen to the character.

Key films of supernatural horror:Nosferatu (1922)The exorcist (1973)The Omen (1976)The shining (1980)The sixth sense (1999)The Grudge (2004)The skeleton key (2005)

PSYCHOLOGICAL

Edgar Allan Poe is the first writer to explore psychoanalysis within a literary format. The funeral landscapes and grotesque characters he wove into his stories have became stable aspects of the horror genre if we were to read him now it would be difficult to imagine how innovative and creative his work was in the 1830’s and 1840’s he is a valuable assetTo the horror genre.

At the same time that psychologist Sigmund Freud was beginning his explorations into the realm of the human consciousness, literature took on a more psychological approach, with many writers trading freely in madness (building on the work of Poe),and the horror that lies beyond the boundary of sanity.

These stories dwell on how the mind unravels the reader is left to decide whether the causes are supernatural or psychological. Henry James played with the mind of a nanny in The Turn Of The screw in 1898 while charlotte Perkins Gilman wove a diatribe against patriarchy into The yellow Wallpaper(1899) and Bram Stokers Dracula(1897) added to the psychological aspect creating an anti-hero in the count whose appeal shows no sign of diminishing over a century later. H.G wells developed the concept of horror even further with his science themed novels The island of dr Moreau, the invisible man, The time Machine and war of the worlds, all of which utilize elements of horror as well as fantasy.

Roman Polanski directed two films which are considered quintessential psychological horror: Repulsion (1965) and Rosemary's Baby.Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining is another particularly well-known example of the genre.[7]The Changeling (1980) directed by Peter Medak is another good example of a psychological haunting story.

Other early psychological horror films include the back cat ( directed by Edgar G. Ulmer in 1934) and cat peole which was directed by Jacques Tourneur who also directed other low budget horror movies such as I walked with a zombie and the leopard man