As one of the largest genres of cinema today, "horror films" can be traced back to the 1980s of the last century, the Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895).
The official shot of the original film is only a dozen seconds, and the content is relatively single and boring, and the picture only presents the scene when the Queen of Scotland was beheaded.
But later it was still defined as the world's first horror film, and there was also an ancient technology of "stopping and reshooting".
The reason why horror films are called horror films is to some extent derived from the fact that "fear" is the most primitive and ancient emotion of human beings, with a strong sense of impact, and the emotions generated are also negative, which will make the audience disgusted, scared, and creepy.
Stills of Mary's execution, Queen of Scots
Throughout the development of horror films, there is also a history of more than a hundred years, and there is no shortage of highly representative horror films.
The style of horror films in various countries and regions is even more different, and Europe and the United States, East Asia, Southeast Asia, etc. are full of corresponding expressions of their own land culture.
With the development of various directors in the field of horror films, there have also been many alternative branches, where they have shown their hands and feet, blossomed, and made more or less contributions to horror films.
Under the main body of horror films, they are divided into five major types, and the emergence, development and masterpieces, social background and historical significance of this genre are analyzed one by one.
Of course, it is also possible that a horror film contains two or even more types of situations.
1. Plasma movies
"Blood plasma movies", as the name suggests, can be guessed just by looking at the name, the tone of this kind of movie is bloody, creepy, mixed with viscous liquid and sewer woman's hair, can intuitively and directly scare you, a lot of jump scare and a very scary atmosphere of the soundtrack immediately bring you into it, deep into the scene.
Neon Demon Stills
Early Italian lead-yellow films and the United States vividly interpreted this sense of horror.
Fear, blood, dirty, disgusting these four elements make up this label, dirty and disgusting is only the flavor of terror, unclean things often cause people to dislike, so as to achieve fear, terror of the feeling.
Stills of the invasion of darkness
In "Invasion of Darkness" (2005), the heroine falls into a lake of blood filled with human blood during the pursuit of the fleeing monster, the viscous mixture of human bone blood juice, coupled with the dim narrow space, immediately makes the audience feel a kind of nausea and fear.
In 1992, when The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson filmed the final scene of "The Corpses Play Across the Line", he added a large number of amputations and slashing shots, the actor's internal organs fell on the floor, and blood and flesh were splashed, but because of the age and the film itself was full of the dramatic elements of the nonsense Oedipus complex, it was a bit "extremely counterproductive", and finally had a comedic effect.
"Red" can basically represent this type of film, symbolizing blood, death, danger, sexuality... A large amount of red as a base color, rendering a disturbing mood.
In order to highlight the extreme discomfort, but also the use of red complementary color green to form a contrast between light and shadow, the picture is more jumpy discordant, a large area of high saturation picture can attract the audience's naked eye, this color and real life have a world of difference, modern movies will also use neon lights and complementary color light to increase the sense of mystery.
Such as Nicholas. Wending. Rayvern's 2016 film "Neon Demon" brings this aesthetic vision to full advantage.
Stills from the Cult of Evil
Others: "Death is Coming", "Guillotine Valley", "Crazy Fat Treasure Variety Show", "Horror Wax Museum", "Eight Immortals Hotel's Human Flesh Char Siu Bao", "Live Jumping Corpse", "Ghost Playman", "Execution Room", "Cold Tropical Fish", "Real Devil Game"
1. Monster movie
Zombies, vampires, mutated unknown creatures can all be called "monsters", and Professor Noel Carroll of the United States defines the sense of horror as "a mixture of fear caused by the harmfulness of monsters and disgust caused by dirtyness".
But later some people refuted his views, accused of being too one-sided, and later Carroll once again perfected his theory, believing that the "monster" was a product of science.
It is illusory from scientific imagination or supernatural knowledge, that is, the product of man-made, and the birth of this product is mostly the destruction of nature by human beings, which is countered by nature.
Stills from the Ninth District
Representative works include the 1954 Japanese Toho film "Godzilla", godzilla appeared because of Japan's fear of the impact of nuclear war, only to have this film, it can be said that the film itself was produced under fear.
In 2006, South Korean director Bong Joon-ho filmed "The Monster of the Han River", a film in which humans dump wastewater into the Han River, and the mutant creatures in the river return to the shore and devour humans.
The focus of this kind of horror movie is often not the monster, but behind the monster, there is a dehumanized organization that violates the laws of nature, the monster is innocent, and the guilt is the unquenchable greed of human beings.
Stills of the Monster of the Han River
Secular culture and religious doctrines are also a major source of inspiration for monster movies, and the monster images in Hollywood movies mostly take religious themes directly or imply Christian elements.
In the film The Mummy (1999), mummification is an important ritual for clergy and those who are considered sacred, mentioned, venerable, and saintly.
In order to protect the corpse from corrosion, which is one of the wishes of Christians who are usually mummified after death, and finally the protagonist takes out the Book of the Sun and reads the incantation against the mummified army, which means that the light overcomes the darkness.
Constantine (2005) also features a large number of religious symbols, hallows, and allusions.
In the Bible, Lucifer, who was punished by God and sent to hell, made a deal with Constantine in retaliation for God, and both hell and heaven inside were products of Western theology.
The Gun of Longinus, the Hallows of Constantine
Monsters can also be divided into two categories: murderous monsters and non-murderous monsters. The difference between the two is whether the monster activates a self-protection mechanism or not.
If the monster doesn't kill for its own needs (seeking flesh and blood to feed itself), then this situation is considered a murderous monster.
The other kind of mass murder to solve the problem of survival and fertility is regarded as a non-murderous monster, in short, some monsters seeking the pleasure of slaughter for greed and pleasure will be classified as murderous monsters.
Such as "Fierce Ghost Street" and "Raising Ghosts and Eating People".
Others: Zombie Paradise, I Am Legendary, Zombie, Dawn of the Living Dead, Ghost Baby, Shaun the Zombie, American Werewolf in London, Northferatu, Clover Archives, Pacific Rim, Ninth Ward, Pan's Labyrinth
3. Supernatural movies
At this point, the supernatural is more extensive, and here the supernatural can be defined as a human interpretation of the unknown, a bizarre event that cannot be explained by science at this stage, which is what people call metaphysics.
Stills from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Among them, the most representative of the spirit belongs to the image of the female ghost in East Asia, and the image of the female ghost is different in various countries in East Asia.
For example, the female ghosts in Thai supernatural movies usually have grievances and grievances, and the target is usually the abuser, murderer, and bad person who was bullied before they died, and after death, they become unjust ghosts to avenge, and they will not really hurt the innocent.
The 2004 Thai film released in "Ghost Shadow" tells the story of a series of supernatural events that occur when the heroine and her boyfriend kill a young girl on the road of drunk driving, and this film also allows Thailand to occupy a certain position in the supernatural film market in the future.
The Japanese female ghost is indiscriminately attacked, and as long as it is wrapped up, it is difficult to get rid of the curse of the female ghost.
Hideo Nakata's Midnight Bell (1998) can be said to be a model among female ghost models, and the image of "Sadako" is too deeply rooted in people's hearts.
Maybe you haven't seen the movie, but you shudder at the mention of the woman crawling out of the TV, a phenomenal supernatural movie that brings a lot of color to horror movies.
Loop stills
The female ghost images in Chinese movies are mostly from historical novels such as "The Legend of Search for God", "Liaozhai", and "Lieyi Biography", which are different from the female ghosts in Thailand and Japan.
Chinese female ghosts do not all appear in the image of bad people, compared to other Chinese female ghosts are more like "people", they do not have a terrible appearance, most of them are young women with good faces.
But the female ghosts of all three countries also have the same place, symbolizing the vulnerable groups of East Asian women who are harmed by powerful groups.
It has a certain characteristic of the times, so even if there is a male ghost, it is a little boy.
For example, "Curse" (2002) and "Silk" (2006), so the "ghost" here actually refers to the vulnerable groups in some eras, and the resentment generated after persecution cannot be driven away, forming a ghost in the human world to murder the world.
Sixth Sense Stills
Of course, in addition to the above, spiritual films often contain a large number of religions.
Roman. Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968), by William S. Polanski. Friedkin's "The Exorcist" (1973), which is more recent, such as "Genetic Doom" released in 2018, are all hidden religious stories.
These films were filmed in a more poetic way, and now there are also horror films that appear in the form of pseudo-documentaries, such as Death Video 1 (2007) and Medium (2021), which are also spiritual films with religious connotations.
It is precisely because of the unknown and unknowable fear that the spirit film brings more spiritual shock and a more lasting aftertaste.
Others: "The Sixth Sense", "Conjuring Spirits", "Silent Hill", "Loop", "Double Pupil", "Ghost Children's House", "Witch Blair", "Enchanted", "Eyes Without Faces", "Innocent People", "Late Night Blood Red", "Strange Talk"
4. Killer movies
In this type of movie, there is usually one or more "bad guys", and this bad guy is usually a damn human.
The usual narrative theme of killer movies is often some demons that appear against common sense, villains who use violent means to destroy the normal social order, or have a great threat to the life of the protagonist.
In the end, the world returns to the right track by eliminating the existence of the villains and the threat to normal order.
Death thesis stills
Most of the more traditional killer movies are black and white, and the characters' faces are also more serious.
Either the good guys are good to the end, or the bad guys are bad enough to die, why so bad, the reason is often to destroy the logic if they don't get it.
In the end, the bad guys were completely defeated to usher in a happy ending, the bad guys got the deserved end, the protagonist also became a hero, the movie is full of strong dogmatism, overemphasizing the consequences of social harm, thus losing the original intention of the movie "entertainment".
The killer films of the new century have gradually blurred this moral boundary, adding elements of suspense to the basis of horror.
Different from the previous way of playing straight ball to present a horror story to the audience, but in the structure of the play, flashbacks, flashbacks and other techniques are used to blur the audience's vision.
There are all kinds of clues left in time and space, like the audience throwing a smoke bomb, driving everyone's curiosity and the protagonist to find the murderer together.
In the late 20th and early 20th centuries, a considerable number of works of this genre emerged, such as Source Code (2011), David S. Thompson, and david. Seven Deadly Sins (1995) directed by Finch.
David. Finch has made horror films in this genre, from 1992's Alien 3 (monster class), 1997's "Mental Game" (psychological class)... We have been constantly pioneering this genre.
Stills of the Seven Deadly Sins
Up to now, it has completely subverted the ending of the villain must die, breaking the conventional concept of evil invincible.
For example, in "The First Commandment" (2008), the male protagonist is still not free from the killing of demons (this movie can also be counted as a supernatural class), and the "Chainsaw Horror" series.
Or just an open-ended ending, David. Finch's work "Zodiac" (2007) failed to catch the murderer in the end, but the horror atmosphere and interlocking clues created by the director are difficult to grasp the psychology of the murderer, and the fear brought about by the unknown is deeper.
Bong Joon-ho's 2003 film Memories of Killing (2003) has similarities with Zodiac.
They are all based on real events, and in the end the murderers are not caught, but precisely because the extrajudicial fanatics are still at large, justice has not come, and their own safety has not been guaranteed, the anxiety generated is a sense of fear.
Accidental stills
Other: "Lake Eden", "Enigmatic Eyes", "Screaming", "Very Suspect", "Blind Eyes", "Ten Days of Danger", "Texas Chainsaw Killer", "Death Paper", "Shudder Space", "Fun Game", "Killing Left or Right"
5. Psychological films
"Psychological" is different from "plasma" in terms of visual clarity, and the director uses psychological warfare to deepen the characteristics of the genre.
Psychological horror movies often portray one or more characters suffering from mental illness and are plagued by psychological problems, telling a horror story with one foreshadowing and hint after another, thus focusing on the spiritual world of genre characters.
"Spirit" and "heart" are good labels that summarize this type.
Lonely Castle thrilling stills
In 1960, the famous horror film master Hitchcock's "Horror Story" opened a precedent, no longer stuck to the visual impact, but more concerned about the audience's heart.
Kubrick's landmark thriller The Shining (1980) also uses its spatial depressing sense and isolation to depict the protagonist's psychological journey from the role of father and husband to a murderer.
It contains the real phenomenon of the mental state of people who feel anxious in a long-term enclosed space, and uses practical theory to further verify the authenticity of the film.
Because it can happen outside the play, it will be more terrifying.
Thrillers are also increasingly keen on depictions of psychotic syndromes.
Showing the protagonist's more or less unhealthy factors in psychology, through the revelation of social distress and life pressure, a specific type of horror that expresses psychology is formed.
Mental trauma as a child, or trauma from a major event, and antisocial personality, all involve mental activity.
And psychology is not voyeuristic, and you do not know what the other party is thinking, psychology has a certain degree of privacy, concealment.
Freud said: No longer stay on the expression of human conscious activities, but go deep into the unfathomable field of the unconscious, to explore the mysteries of the mind, to reveal the rich inner world of people, to reflect social problems, and to expose the complexity and multi-faceted nature of human nature.
Stills of nemesis
Released in 1999 by David M. In Finch's "Fight Club", the protagonist of this film gave birth to another personality under the long-term suppression of dissatisfaction with the status quo of life.
This personality contrasts sharply with the cowardly character of the original self, and the second personality is born out of a "protective" effect on the original self.
Finally, because of the second personality, the protagonist finally boldly returned, no longer living as a loser, breaking through the shackles to achieve self-
The same film is also "Detective" by Chinese director Du Qifeng.
The teenager in "Confession" (2010) wants to attract his mother's attention because of the lack of maternal love in his childhood, but he has not been paid attention to by his mother, which is a very big blow to him, leaving an indelible shadow in his heart.
The psychology of not being able to love causes him to transfer his resentment to innocent people.
Confession stills
The above-mentioned childhood shadows, fine points, and spatial use can also play a role in psychological terror.
Completely enclosed spaces such as Panic Square (1997), Mist (2007), and Buried Alive (2010) must work together to fight against foreign invasions and finally "get out of this space."
A small and wide-ranging space can intuitively make people feel depressed, anxious, and uneasy, all of which belong to physical space, while the other belongs to psychological space, which is to really trap themselves in the cage and suffer to the end.
McCann in Fatal ID (2003) has 11 different personalities as a result of childhood trauma, including doctors, policemen, drivers, prostitutes, and celebrities, 11 personalities that kill each other, leaving only one personality in the end.
And In Phantom Menace (2007), Mike travels to the legendary horror hotel to collect material for his own horror novels.
Supernatural events occur in the room, which actually hint at Mike's guilt for the family, witnessing his father die alone and his daughter die.
He wanted to escape from this room, to escape his bad life, but unfortunately he did not succeed in the end.
Both films use "hotel" and "room" as the appearance, figurativeizing the protagonist's inner world, watching the protagonist step by step to force himself to a dead end.
Similar films include the "Joker Is Myself" series, "Island Horror" (2001), "Hide and Seek" (2005), and "Confinement Island" (2010).
Others: Man-Wolf Game, Dark Side, The Invisible Guest, Escape from the Devil's Cave, Nightcrawler, Lone Fort Horror, Strange Lodger, Rose, Red Lotus, Devil's Spokespeople, Nightmare Dollhouse