Properties of Hollywood Horror Movies: Evolution and Impact Analysis

This essay delves into the evolution and properties of Hollywood horror movies, tracing their development from early fiction films to modern thrillers. It examines essential film components such as sound, visuals, script, and direction, highlighting milestones like 'Nosferatu' and 'The Exorcist.' The analysis covers the shift towards body horror and psychological thrillers, noting the impact of these films on audience preferences and the industry's profitability. The essay also discusses how horror movies reflect and satisfy primal human fears, contributing to the genre's enduring popularity and influence on visual effects and storytelling, making it a significant part of the Hollywood film industry. Desklib provides access to this essay and a variety of other study resources for students.

Properties of Hollywood Horror Moves
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Horror movies is a widely popular film genre in any film industry, especially in
Hollywood motion picture. Films like Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday 12th, Saw, Hallowing,
The exorcist are some of the well known successful movies in the history of Hollywood
motion picture (Weaver and Tamborini). The feeling of watching scary movies with creepy
ambience is one of the largest sources of revenue generation in the Hollywood film industry.
In the following paper the history of the horror movies will be discussed along with the
present trends and future scope of development. In order to examine all these aspect the core
components of a film including sound, visual effect, script, screen play, presentation,
direction and other essential factors will be taken into consideration. The aim of this paper is
to examine the evolution of the horror movies and the impact on audience in terms of
business profitability and altering social aspects.
In the early phase of motion picture the Hollywood films were segregated in 2 core
sections namely the fiction films and the socialistic film. Both of these genre of Hollywood
movie have found they own way of development and expansion. In that golden era of
development of diversification the scary or horror thriller genre was born from the root of the
fiction films. Though at that era of motion pictures there was no after effect of animation
based implementation in the film, the core base of this kind of films was the storyline,
ambience, presentation and screenplay. Nosferatu of 1922, The old Dart House of 1932,
House on the Haunted Hill of 1959, Psycho of 1960 are some of the mile stones of the classic
age of horror movies (Stone 2016). However, there was a consistent debate about the crucial
factors of the horror films concerning the psychological thriller and the fictional horror
features.
After the revolution of body horror movies like Fly of 1986, Re-Animator of 1985,
Possession of 1981 is some good example of this subgenre named body-horror film.
Similarly, films like The Exorcist of 1973 were making the main stream horror movies more

profitable and favorable. The Exorcist of 1973 by William Friedkin made a revolution of
horror film that still creepy enough to shiver the modern audience (Konow). It was the film
that is still considered as the king of this genre. Many film directors who have directed plenty
of box-office hit horror films like Conjuring of 2013, Saw of 2004, The Ring 2002, The
others of 2001 admire the direction, the cinematography, script, screenplay, ambience, visual
effect of The Exorcist (Clover).
From the early 50’s to till now people have been loving the tension, fear, anxiety,
agitation, darkness, cruelty and demonic representations of horror films. On the other hand,
the development of horror films has made the thrive to innovate new way of realistic
presentation in terms of makeup, visual effect and sound effects that have help to flourish the
art of visual effect and realistic after effects.
Ever since the introduction and advent of the celluloid films in the Hollywood
industry, the watching of the horror films have held a wide fascination for the viewers of the
current generation. According to the famous quote by Stephen King, movies are generally
recognized as the dreams of the mass culture while the horror movies are the nightmares.
With the growing number of universal movie culture, horror movies are influenced a large
part of the young generation towards the frightening culture (Beavis). People in this
generation ends to offer themselves towards sadistic storytellers and enjoy themselves being
terrified. These have become a trend since the fear causes the generation to feel excited while
the adrenaline is busted in their body. Acting just like a drug, the secretion of adrenaline
cause the youngsters of this generation to want more of the fear. People also love to watch
horror movies since they sometimes likes to challenge their wits. An average rated
Hollywood movie these days tends to have a typical conventional story line of a group of
people forgetting their location and ending up to a isolated place of house away from the
connection of the civilization. The movie these days illustrates the same plot of people

meeting strange inhabitants and revealing the past story of the places (Ryan). Furthermore
there are horror films that are characterized with the showcase of extreme brutality in some
instances. One of the best examples of this instance is the Saw. The movie highlights some of
the insane moves related to the unpredictable and sudden actions with brutal murders and
tortures.
Horror films are very popular genre in the field of cinematography. The generation of
the current era enjoys movies about paranormal activity, exorcism, spirits and demons and
the actions associated with atmosphere of stress and expectations. Raid motions, loud and
spooky sounds, twilights and mist are some of the factors that constitute each of the horror
movies of this generation (Winter). One of the best advertisements of the new horror movies
of Hollywood is the negative reputation of the black PR. People are eager to watch the brutal
and the violent scenes of the movies these days which are previously banned. They tend to
identify the reason for the ban and like the universal rule, each and every individual always
strive to access the prohibited things.
Every year dozens of new horror movies appear on the screen, human as the spectator
feels comfortable to visit the movie hall and screem for enjoyment. The generation these days
expects to enjoy the good dramatization with a well narrated fiction story and some of the
spontaneous scary noises that increases their excitements and their adrenaline for a horrifying
experience. Apart from the value of the excitement and the entertainment, the horror movies
these days tend to satisfy the primordial requirements of the human being. These include
grasp with the personal demon, fear from death and other irrational phobias. The horror
industry has thus been virtually dominating the entire Asian cinema overshadowing the genre
in the production consistency and in the box office for decade.

Reference:
Beavis, Mary Ann. "" Angels Carrying Savage Weapons:" Uses of the Bible in Contemporary
Horror Films." Journal of Religion & Film 7.2 (2016): 2.
Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film-Updated
Edition. Vol. 15. Princeton University Press, 2015.
Konow, David. Reel terror: The scary, bloody, gory, hundred-year history of classic horror
films. St. Martin's Griffin, 2012.
Ryan, Mark David. "“Creep-out” versus “gross-out”: horror movies at the Australian Box
Office." Metro Magazine 180 (2014): 30-33.
Stone, Bryan. "The sanctification of fear: Images of the religious in horror films." Journal of
Religion & Film 5.2 (2016): 7.
Weaver, James B., and Ron Tamborini. Horror films: Current research on audience
preferences and reactions. Routledge, 2013.
Winter, Bodo. "Horror movies and the cognitive ecology of primary metaphors." Metaphor
and Symbol 29.3 (2014): 151-170.