The Two Types Of Gothic Horror Films

Horror films were created to make the audience feel emotions of fear and terror into their lives as well as making it entertaining for people to watch . Horror in general effectively centres on the negativity of reality, the thought of monsters, death, pain and blood makes a regular sane human being squeamish. Even though they are made to play on our worse fears, our worst nightmares yet somehow people always wish to watch these types of films, making it one of the most successful genre of films within the medium. The first ever horror movie, was created 121 years ago in 1896 and was called ‘Le Manoir Du Diable’, also called ‘The Devils Castle’ Created by Georges Melies who was a French filmmaker. The length of the film is two minutes. Features
conventions similar to the horror films we see in many of the most popular horror films: a crucifix to destroy the horror, flying bat, ghosts, demon, cauldron, skeletons, witches, and a medieval castle. The concept and idea of horror was invented by folktales, fables and myths which were narratives that had been passed down verbally from generation to generation. Used to be heroic tales made for adults however also had their dark themes within them such as death, monsters and torture.
Gothic horror films was a style the earliest films had adopted.
It is a very old genre of horror and had typical conventions that ran along with many of the films such as old castles/mansions the villain lives in, bland hero, damsel in distress and the gloomy weather (most of the time). The villain of these films are supernatural monsters which back within those times were horrifying because they were superstitious. The monsters ranged from ghosts vampires, zombies, demons and werewolves. When the audience first watched the film in theatres they were horrified by what was on the screen because of how sensitive they were to violence and gore. However, over the years up until present day we have been desensitized by blood and gore because of how majority of all films feature blood and
guts.
A film within the gothic horror genre is Nosferatu which is an illegal adaptation to the novel of Dracula which was not authorised by the creator of the book.
The film was made in 1922 however it included the actor Max Schreck as the character of Count Orlok, a suspicious upper class aristocrat living in Transylvania. The vampire was renamed Nosferatu instead of Dracula because of copyright restrictions. The undead vampire’s monstrous appearance is iconic throughout the horror film genre history, looking so horrifying to look at with his vermin like appearance. The narrative is the villain of count Orlok who is a vampire that expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent wife. The ending to the film showed the revolting Nosferatu being outsmarted by Hutter’s wife, Nina into standing in sunlight, killing Orlok as he disintegrated into smoke in the sunlight. The villain of the film is a supernatural monster that hunts and preys on humans, draining them of their blood which takes from the gothic horror genre. The setting of the film is major within count Orloks castle which is isolated away from civilization which is used to create a sense of loneliness and isolation. The costumes of the characters fit the time period of the Victorian era as it is set in the 19th century, even so. A lot of low key lighting within many of the scenes throughout the movie which made the scene dark with many shadows, creating a tense and frightening
atmosphere.