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The horror genre has been featured on the "big screen" for over one hundred and ten years, and has come along way from the first movie titled The Devil's Castle, made back in in 1896, to the most recent production of Halloween. The vampire genre began back in 1916, with the release of Night of Terror. This silent film seemed to kick off a vampire frenzy, for after its release it was followed by vampire movies being produced all over the world.

The low budget silent films soon faded out as technology advanced, and cinematography became enhanced. What separates the movies of the past from those of today is all of the special effects.
It seems through the evolution some movies have lost the true horror pizazz. Early films relied on music and sheer horror to sell their films, not flying aliens and headless horsemen riding on motorcycles.
Even movies in the late seventies and early eighties had a genuine horror film to them. Halloween, a John Carpenter masterpiece, didn't need to have excess gore and special effects in order to become one of the greatest horror movies of all time(ranked 5th by boxofficeprophets.com). The suspense was set in this movie through dynamic piano melodies composed by John Carpenter.
Gore and special effects are necessary in some movies, such as the Evil Dead series. The second film of this series also has been ranked among the top horror movies of all time; though it doesn't possess nearly the suspense Halloween or Psycho do. Evil Dead 2 uses humor intertwined with the horror to evolve the plot. Many movies intertwine the two genres to appeal to various markets, selling the movie as a comedy/horror film.
The evolution of horror movies has given us some of the most well thought out movies of our time, some with the glamor of Hollywood's special effects, while others relied solely on sheer terror. Nowadays it appears creativity is at an all time low when it comes to horror movies. Originality seems to be a thing of the past; remakes and movies spawned off previous films of the same genre have taken precedence over new ideas. I believe as time and movies continue to evolve, it may not be long before we are introduced to a new genre of horror movies, something we've never seen or thought of before!

Learn more about this author, Christopher Cella.
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