Essays on Horror

The film “Psycho” was produced in the 1960’s by Alfred Hitchcock. It was called the “mother of the modern horror movie”. Hitchcock wanted to manipulate his audience into fear and loathing, this was achieved by choosing to make the film in black and white rather...

The Reflection of Society’s Fears in Horror Movies All throughout history, there have been tales of horror around to frighten people. With each passing time period the stories changed to mirror what society was afraid of at that time. This continued all the way from...

Horror has always been a fascinating genre. One of the many reasons people are fascinated with horror films is because it leaves them with feelings of excitement, terror and thrilled. Audience of horror films are often John Carpenter is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, musician, and...

By now it’s well known that Tim Burton got his start as an animator, working as a concept artist for little or no credit. While toiling away at Disney, he created the stop-motion short Vincent, based on his own poem about Vincent Price. More shorts...

Horror movies and stories have been very popular in American culture. Many people do not realize that their favorite scary characters would not have been thought of if it had not been for a certain writer; Stephen King. King has put in much of his...

The Art of Macabre In reading Stephen King’s work on our craving for horror movies as a deep seeded desire for seeing violence, hate, and the menacing of others, an alarming number of agreeable points were made. Each paragraph and every sentence is well condensed...

Vampires have been around for generations that there are a variety of forms of these immortal creatures with each culture having their own version. In the past, vampires have reflected the fear and things perceived as taboo in those cultures. Originally, vampires were first known...

Only so many things have the privilege of being consider masterpieces, but Tim Burton’s filmography including Beetlejuice (1988), A Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), and Batman (1989) are a collection of masterpieces. 1990’s Edward Scissorhands is no exception. This movie is a riveting cinematic and artistic...

Mark Twain, living through the horrors spanning from the civil war to racial and religious unrest that was known as the late 1800’s; this somewhat horrendous time drives Twain to write his satirized philosophical essay ‘The Lowest Animal’ by simultaneously using macabre imagery while exaggerating...

Abstract Does the horror genre reflect the fears of the current culture? If so, what characters and themes are used to represent that fear of the current cultural climate of that era? Looking at the genre through the theoretical lenses of semiotics, queer theory and...

My research topic is on the movie “Coraline”. “Coraline” is a 2009 American 3D stop-motion horror film that was written and directed by Henry Selick from Laika and released by Focus Features. According to Selick, this classic film took 20 months to shoot, excluding the...

Sitting in a dark theatre with a big screen and great sound may not be always fun. How do you feel watching tongues slashed with surgical knives, the human stomach spilled wide open as if someone is demonstrating the human anatomy and eyeballs rolling out...

Tears of the Sun, a movie released in 2003, tells the story of a team of Navy SEALs and their lieutenant as they venture on a mission to extract a US doctor, a mission priest and nuns. The movie is based on true events that...

“Well, Clarice – have the lambs stopped screaming?” “The Silence of the Lambs” is by far one of the best films that were ever made in the horror/thriller genre and is also a monumental in the cinematic scene due to the perfect camera angles and...

Discrimination of all types is an issue. Before the movie Hotel Rwanda, Terry George’s film, was released, many acted as if genocide was taboo. This movie helped raise awareness to the Rwandan Genocide, which many refer to as a “Modern-day Holocaust.” Hotel Rwanda was very...

Trey Edward Shults’ transcendent It Comes at Night opens with a startlingly brutal death. Bud, Sarah’s father and Paul’s father-in-law, has fallen ill and died from a mysterious disease ravaging the Earth. In fear of succumbing to the illness, Paul, his wife, and teenage son...

Expressionism is a term which refers specifically to an artist tendency that became popular in the early 20th century. Expressionism itself was not founded by a solo artist; instead it formed from the influence of other artistic movements, paired with the political and social status...

That moment when report for “Get Out” Horror movies are “narratives built on suspense, surprise and shock” (Corrigan & White 332). Director Jordan Peele made “Get Out” a psychological horror film which is demonstrated in many scenes such as the chat between and Chris and...

Sharon Backovic dies tragically at her friend’s wedding, but she climbs out of her casket before burial, finding out that she is a newly risen vegan zombie. Cryptoparapsychocriminologist V. X. Morgoni investigates cryptids and paranormal creatures; she is searching for the newest zombie in Toronto....

There is a thrill to be had in frightening experiences; this explains the popularity of horror films, roller coasters, and haunted house tours. So many people embrace their fears in order to achieve their desired thrill. In the novel Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison...

Genre theory, the attributes, and conventions of the horror genre Introduction According to Neale the film and the genre it belongs to is determined by two primary features: the genres conformity to its attributes and conventions (Stephen, 2000).And that a film should match the genres...

Pumpkinhead When you hear the name Pumpkinhead, you probably imagine a funny cartoon character, but this is not the case. Pumpkinhead is an evil demon of vengeance, which the father of a murdered boy, who was eager for retribution, summoned from the underworld. You only...

It is noted that horror films is foresee the most poised genre of all genres due to its “long dynamic history”, creating a sine curve in the history of successful horror films. The idea of fear changes throughout as certain films discover its popularity in...