Histroy of horror trailers

The horror genre has gone through many changes over the years, in similar ways as action and adventure films have due to to advancement in technology. On the other hand horror has mainly changed in the actual content and what is considered as 'scary'.

Horror has been around for many years and first comes to the screens/movies as early as the 1920's. Movies within this time period all the way up till the 1960's are all fairly similar with the fixation on supernatural beings. This includes the usual horror monsters like zombies, ghosts, frankenstein, vampires, mummies and skeletons etc. 

Films like this include:

• Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920)
• Nosferatu (1922)
• The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
• Dracula (1931)
• Night of Terror (1933)
• Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
• The Walking Dead (1936)

The only differentiation in the typical supernatural horror films within this time period occurred in the 1950's where their was more signs of wars (the cold war) and various communist themes being portrayed. Films like this include:

• The Thing from Another World (1951)
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

In 1960 the Hammer Film Productions became notoriously more known and created the term and string of 'Hammer Horror Films' due to them dominating the genre at the time. The production utilised the actor Christopher Lee a lot and he was present in many of the films, stealing the lead role too. He played the Creature/Frankenstein in the Curse of Frankenstein (1957) The Mummy and even Count Dracular. This shows how  well known actors were re-used to possibly sell the film which follows the same ideas that modern films do with action and adventure films, not necessarily a horror film though. 

Furthermore there was a popular sub-genre which differed to the typical supernatural views on horror which was a psychological take on the horror aspect. Well known films like this include:

• Psycho (1960)
• Hour of the Wolf (1968)
• Night Gallery (1969)

This was taken all the way through 1960 and gained popularity in the 70s too with A Clockwork orange and the Halloween franchise. 

The next horror outlet to gain popularity was the adaptions of Stephen Kings horror books, films like this include:

• The Shining (1980)
• Misery (1990)
• It (1990)
• Pet Sematary (1989)
• Carrie (1976)
• Cujo (1983)

Dawn of the Dead came out in 1978 as George A Romeros second film in his living dead series. It introduced a lot more violence and gore to the horror industry which made films such as My Bloody Valentine (1981) and many more. Furthermore it is now much more popular and frequent in modern films such as the whole Saw and Final Destination franchise which gets it sales due to the mass amount of gore. Moreover classic films have been remade such as Evil Dead (2013) which ridiculously increases the amount of gore shown compare to the original. 

Modern day horror films now steer away from the traditional supernatural beings such as Frankenstein and Vampires and fixate more on the paranormal beings such as ghosts, demons, poltergeists and possession which somehow prove to scary many individuals even in cases where an actual bring isn't present (Paranormal Activity, invisible demons etc) This can be interpreted to follow the old psychological format in which the invisible being plays tricks on the viewers mind and scares them not knowing where the actual demon is. 

The above is by Archie McCarthy