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Evolution of the Horror Movie

 

            
            
            
            
            
             Horror movies have always unsettled audiences by bringing people's unimaginable fears to life and by having one specific goal in mind, to frighten and arouse anxieties within the audience. Since their inception, horror films have "tapped into broader cultural anxieties and [have] served as a kind of allegorical projection of our very real fears onto the generally safer space of the silver screen" (Phillips, Kendall) . The horror genre provides a gateway to both the collective fears shared by almost all people, such as the fear of the dark or the unknown, and the individualistic fears specific to every person in the audience. Often times, the unknown, dormant fears that people posses are conceptualized through the visualization of certain images in a film. Like any other genre, horror is generally defined by its recurring elements, including gore and death, among others. While certain elements of horror have more or less remained unchanged, the way in which those elements are conveyed have evolved with the natural progression of the genre and with film as a whole. For example, George A. Romero's The Night Of the Living Dead uses a modernist take on the horror film in order to portray the cultural anxieties of the time. The time in which the film was made was a time of unrest and a time in which the population was divided both politically and culturally. Romero uses his film as a way to voice his opinion of the current social values and norms. In the postmodern period, as seen through 28 Days Later (Boyle, 2002), the progression of the horror genre and the zombie sub-genre are intensified. The classic concept of good vs. evil breaks down as the line between friend and foe fades into black. Also, unlike The Night Of the Living Dead, Boyle uses a mastery of literary and visual techniques in order to propel his story and induce fear into the audience while still using his film as his own form of social commentary.


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