Mar '19 *
We do threads now and then ranking decades of horror films. I don't want to rank anything here, bu I was just wondering, if you had to break down the last century of horror movies into distinct (not necessarily totally distinct, they could overlap) periods or eras of horror.... how would you do it? They don't necessarily have to correspond perfectly to decades, of course. Like, movies about the Devil infiltrating homey, domestic settings probably peaked between the late 60's and mid 70's.
So, how would you do it? How would you classify the eras, the periods, the chief defining trends of horror, over the years? Just post an idea or two, even if you don't have time to give a comprehensive, highly detailed breakdown of the entire last century.
Like, the golden age of MONSTER movies, featuring various kinds of monsters, was probably the 30s and part of the 40's.
After that, there was the period of scifi/horror movies about mutants produced by radiation.
Coming back to edit: how about a Vincent Price heyday era, in the early 60s? His Edgar Allan Poe movies were one of the biggest things going on in horror for awhile there.
In the late 60's and into the 70's, there were many movies about the Devil and Satanism. Often they were set in a home, but not always.
The 80's of course, had a lot going on. Among the trends going on that could be said to typify that era were 1.) slashers, 2.) movies set on various holidays, or days of the year, 3.) sequels... there started to be really prolonged series of sequels, and entire franchises, 4.) maybe movies just featuring demons, regular, run of the mill, average albeit still badass demons, but not necessarily The Devil?? Like, the Poltergiest movies, Night of the Demons, Demons 1 and 2, and others. I feel like Satan was less of a presence in horror movies than he had been a little earlier.... any thoughts on that???
After the 80s, there was just a total, pathetic train wreck of nothingness. No, not true, but there was kind of a lull. How wouild you describe the era just after the 80's?? Maybe the Blockbuster era? People would rent a lot of 70's and 80's horror movies from Blockbuster. Some of the great 80's franchises continued through the 90's and beyond. Anyway, yeah, maybe the bockbuster era??? Any discussion on that??
After that... it is hard to classify this period perfectly, but you could say it was 1.) the found footage era, 2.) the fashionable vampire era, and eventually 3.) the zombie apocalypse era. How would you define this period? Like, basically the 2000's, but perhaps including the late 90s and early 20-teens.
Since then... hmmmmm... how would you describe the current era of horror? The era of domestic demons? Like, the Insidious movies, Paranormal Activity movies, etc....??? There are many other things going on, of course. Anyone? Anyone?
So, how would you do it? How would you classify the eras, the periods, the chief defining trends of horror, over the years? Just post an idea or two, even if you don't have time to give a comprehensive, highly detailed breakdown of the entire last century.
Like, the golden age of MONSTER movies, featuring various kinds of monsters, was probably the 30s and part of the 40's.
After that, there was the period of scifi/horror movies about mutants produced by radiation.
Coming back to edit: how about a Vincent Price heyday era, in the early 60s? His Edgar Allan Poe movies were one of the biggest things going on in horror for awhile there.
In the late 60's and into the 70's, there were many movies about the Devil and Satanism. Often they were set in a home, but not always.
The 80's of course, had a lot going on. Among the trends going on that could be said to typify that era were 1.) slashers, 2.) movies set on various holidays, or days of the year, 3.) sequels... there started to be really prolonged series of sequels, and entire franchises, 4.) maybe movies just featuring demons, regular, run of the mill, average albeit still badass demons, but not necessarily The Devil?? Like, the Poltergiest movies, Night of the Demons, Demons 1 and 2, and others. I feel like Satan was less of a presence in horror movies than he had been a little earlier.... any thoughts on that???
After the 80s, there was just a total, pathetic train wreck of nothingness. No, not true, but there was kind of a lull. How wouild you describe the era just after the 80's?? Maybe the Blockbuster era? People would rent a lot of 70's and 80's horror movies from Blockbuster. Some of the great 80's franchises continued through the 90's and beyond. Anyway, yeah, maybe the bockbuster era??? Any discussion on that??
After that... it is hard to classify this period perfectly, but you could say it was 1.) the found footage era, 2.) the fashionable vampire era, and eventually 3.) the zombie apocalypse era. How would you define this period? Like, basically the 2000's, but perhaps including the late 90s and early 20-teens.
Since then... hmmmmm... how would you describe the current era of horror? The era of domestic demons? Like, the Insidious movies, Paranormal Activity movies, etc....??? There are many other things going on, of course. Anyone? Anyone?
1931 to 1945 was Universal's primary era, even though they added a handful of titles to this collection after the fact, like A&C Meet Frankenstein and the Gill-Man movies, which kind of share themselves with the 50s sci-fi era.
1957 to 1974 was a big era for Hammer horror.
Italian horror started off in the 60s and went on until about the 90s, but the best years for them were the 70s and 80s.
New Line started dominating 1981 to 1994 ish by (originally) distributing Evil Dead and then running amok with Freddy, while Paramount horror was mostly recognizable from 1980 to 1989 with F13.
Troma got big from the mid-80s to the mid-2000s. Full Moon is kind of in the same boat.
To expand on one of sfpx's eras, the mid 80s to 90s was when we saw a lot of our guerilla filmmakers take a decline into mainstream and/or simply lesser movies. They made have had a hit or two, but they didn't have nearly the same impact as they had before.
The late 80s and onward had a lot of shitty SOV titles, and an oversaturation of the market that bled into the mid-90s, but that's when people were sick of shitty movies and needed something fresh, which led to stuff like Dimension films. They started off strong with titles like Scream, Faculty, H20, and that kinda phased out around 2010-ish with Dimension extreme titles.
The current trend seems to be Blumhouse movies. These guys are pretty much the horror company these days, having mostly kicked off in the late-2000s to present.
The mid-90s to around 2010 gave us a LOT of remakes. Then, they finally started realizing that nobody liked these remakes, and lately, it's been going back to treating original films with the respect they deserve, while shitting on sequels by ignoring them.
There's probably more, but I can't think of anymore right now.