Horror film

Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's primal fears. Inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley, horror films have existed for more than a century. The macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes, and may overlap with the fantasy, supernatural fiction and thriller genres.

Horror films often deal with viewers' nightmares, fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include ghosts, extraterrestrials, vampires, werewolves, demons, gore, torture, vicious animals, evil witches, monsters, zombies, cannibals, psychopaths, and serial killers. Movies about the supernatural are not necessarily horrific.

History

1890-1920s

The first depictions of supernatural events appear in several of the silent shorts created by the film pioneer Georges Méliès in the late 1890s, the best known being Le Manoir du Diable, which is sometimes credited as being the first horror film. Another of his horror projects was 1898's La Caverne maudite (a.k.a. The Cave of the Unholy One, literally "the accursed cave").Japan made early forays into the horror genre with Bake Jizo and Shinin no Sosei, both made in 1898. The era featured a slew of literary adaptations, with the works of Poe and Dante, among others. In 1910, Edison Studios produced the first film version of Frankenstein, following the 1908 film adaptation of the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The macabre nature of the source materials used made the films synonymous with the horror film genre.

Horror (2002 film)

Horror is a 2002 American horror film written and directed by Dante Tomaselli. The movie stars Danny Lopes as the leader of a gang of drug addicts that escapes after making a bloody escape from a drug rehabilitation hospital, only to encounter demonic entities.

Plot synopsis

A gang of teens escape a drug rehabilitation hospital after committing murder and grand theft auto, led by a man named Luck (Danny Lopes). They drive to a rendezvous point with the demented Reverend Salo (Vincent Lamberti) and his depraved wife (Christie Sanford) and their daughter Grace (Lizzy Mahon), who is a GUNWO-addicted slave. When the teens show up, they encounter demonic entities.

Cast

Reception

DVD Verdict called it "a distinctive, compelling and occasionally brilliant work". Scott Weinberg commented that the movie would not likely appeal to people who predominantly viewed mainstream horror films but that "those with some patience and a taste for something small and different will certainly earn some solid creeps from this one."Film Threat also gave Horror a positive review and praised the film's pacing, as they felt that this enabled Tomaselli to build up the movie's "creepy suspense". In contrast, AMC'S FilmCritic panned the movie, commenting that "Horror has plenty of scary moments, but it’s so confusing it’s hard to be genuinely frightened."

Horror Movie (song)

"Horror Movie" was the second single from the Skyhooks album Living in the Seventies and was their first number-one single in Australia, staying there for two weeks in March 1975.

The single was greatly helped along by the band's appearance on the then-new ABC pop music TV show Countdown.

Along with "Women in Uniform", "Horror Movie" is widely recognised as one of the Skyhooks' signature tracks. The song itself, written by bass player Greg Macainish, is about how the world has taken a turn for the worse with all of the chaos in society, to the point where watching the nightly TV news is like watching a horror movie.

The song remains popular as a Halloween song in the United States, and appears on the compilation album Elvira Presents Haunted Hits.

In 1998 Australia Post issued a special edition set of twelve stamps celebrating the early years of Australian rock and roll, featuring Australian hit songs of the late 50s, the 60s and the early 70s.

One of the stamps featured was the "Horror Movie" stamp.