Timeline of Horror

1890s-1920s

Lon Chaney, Sr. in The Phantom of the Opera

1831 - The first monster appeared in a horror film, Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre-Dame who had appeared in Victor Hugo's novel, Notre-Dame de Paris

The first depictions of supernatural events appear in several of the silent shorts created by the film pioneer Georges Méliès in the late 1890s.

1906 - Alice Guy's Esmeralda

The Hunchback (1909),

1910 - The Love of a Hunchback

1911 - Notre-Dame de Paris

1930s-1940s

During the early period of talking pictures, the American Movie studio Universal Pictures began a successful Gothic.

1931 - Tod Browning's Dracula

1932 - The Mummy

1933 - The Invisible Man

1935 - Bride of Frankenstein, again directed by Whale, and 1939 - Son of Frankenstein.

1941 - The Wolf Man

1950s-1960s

With advances in technology, the tone of horror films shifted from the Gothic towards contemporary concerns. Two sub-genres began to emerge: the horror-of-armageddon film and the horror-of-the-demonic film.

A stream of usually low-budget productions featured humanity overcoming threats from "outside": alien invasions and deadly mutations The Hollywood directors and producers sometimes found ample opportunity for audience exploitation, with

1951 - The Thing from Another World, Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers

In 1956 they managed to channel the paranoia of the Cold War into atmospheric creepiness.

Filmmakers continued to merge elements of science fiction and horror over the following decades. This was considered a "pulp masterpiece" of the era.

1959 - The Incredible Shrinking Man

1970s-1980s

The end of the Production Code of America in 1964

success of Rosemary's Baby, led to the release of more films with occult themes in the 1970s.

1973 - The Exorcist

Scores of horror films in which the Devil represented the supernatural evil, often by impregnating women or possessing children.

"Evil children" and reincarnation became popular subjects.

1977 - Audrey Rose

1990s

In the first half of the 1990s, the genre continued many of the themes from the 1980s.

The slasher films A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween and Child's Play

1991 - Silence of the Lambs

1992 - Candyman

1993 - The Dark Half

1994 - New Nightmare

1995 - In the Mouth of Madness

2000s

The start of the 2000s saw a quiet period for the genre.

The release of an extended version of The Exorcist in September 2000 was successful despite the film having been available on home video for years.

Franchise films such as Freddy vs. Jason also made a stand in theaters.

2000 - Final Destination

The Jeepers Creepers series was also successful.

Films such as Orphan, Wrong Turn, Cabin Fever, House of 1000 Corpses,