Horror film

Max Schreck as Count Orlok in the 1922 film Nosferatu. Critic and historian Kim Newman declared it as a film that set the template for the horror film.
Depiction of the usage of mirrors in horror films.
Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931), a film noted as inspiring a wave of subsequent American horror films in the 1930s.
George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) led to what Newman described as a "slow burning influence" in independent and thoughtful horror films in the 1970s.
Some cast and crew members of The Blair Witch Project (1999), one of the highest grossing horror films of the 1990s.
Park Chan-wook, the director of Thirst (2009), one of the many varied Korean horror films from the early 21st century.
French director Julia Ducournau (centre) won the Palme d'Or for horror film Titane. She is pictured with actors Agathe Rousselle and Vincent Lindon, who star in the film, at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
Jörg Buttgereit in 2015. Buttgereit was described by Kai-Uwe Werbeck as "arguably the most visible German horror director of the 1980s and early 1990s"
Still from Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977). Curti described the film as developing an "artistic rebirth" and "irrational dimension" to the Italian gothic from its "set pieces to the color and the music."
Filmmaker and composer John Carpenter, who has directed and scored numerous horror films, performing in 2016.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980) uses a found footage style.
Still of Madhubala in Mahal (1949), considered one of the first Indian horror films.

Film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.

- Horror film
Max Schreck as Count Orlok in the 1922 film Nosferatu. Critic and historian Kim Newman declared it as a film that set the template for the horror film.

500 related topics

Relevance
Western films are those "set in the American West that embod[y] the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier." Pictured: Clint Eastwood in the Spaghetti Western film A Fistful of Dollars (1964).

Film genre

Stylistic or thematic category for motion pictures based on similarities either in the narrative elements, aesthetic approach, or the emotional response to the film.

Stylistic or thematic category for motion pictures based on similarities either in the narrative elements, aesthetic approach, or the emotional response to the film.

Western films are those "set in the American West that embod[y] the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier." Pictured: Clint Eastwood in the Spaghetti Western film A Fistful of Dollars (1964).
War film or anti-war movie: Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front, 1930

A film's genre will influence the use of filmmaking styles and techniques, such as the use of flashbacks and low-key lighting in film noir; tight framing in horror films; or fonts that look like rough-hewn logs for the titles of Western films.

A scene from the Grand Guignol, a format some critics have cited as an influence on the slasher film

Slasher film

A scene from the Grand Guignol, a format some critics have cited as an influence on the slasher film
Dorothy McGuire in The Spiral Staircase (1946)
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) was a huge success on release, and a critical influence on the slasher genre
The masked killer in Mario Bava's giallo film, Blood and Black Lace (1964)

A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed tools.

Western films are those "set in the American West that embod[y] the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier." Pictured: Clint Eastwood in the Spaghetti Western film A Fistful of Dollars (1964).

Supernatural horror film

Western films are those "set in the American West that embod[y] the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier." Pictured: Clint Eastwood in the Spaghetti Western film A Fistful of Dollars (1964).

Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of horror film and supernatural film.

"Allegories of literary genre" by Constant Montald

Comedy horror

Literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction.

Literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction.

"Allegories of literary genre" by Constant Montald

While comedy horror films provide scares for audiences, they also provide something that dramatic horror films do not: "the permission to laugh at your fears, to whistle past the cinematic graveyard and feel secure in the knowledge that the monsters can't get you".

Zombie

Body horror

Zombie

Body horror or biological horror is a subgenre of horror that intentionally showcases grotesque or psychologically disturbing violations of the human body.

Conrad Veidt from director Robert Wiene's 1920 silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

German Expressionism (cinema)

German Expressionism (Deutscher Expressionismus) consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s.

German Expressionism (Deutscher Expressionismus) consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s.

Conrad Veidt from director Robert Wiene's 1920 silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
American newspaper ad for the German film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) from the Goldwyn Pictures press book.

Two genres that were especially influenced by Expressionism are horror film and film noir.

Theatrical release poster by Philip Gips

Alien (film)

Theatrical release poster by Philip Gips
The principal cast members of Alien (left to right: Holm, Stanton, Weaver, Kotto, Skerritt, Cartwright, and Hurt)
Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon
Director Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott filmed model shots of the Nostromo and its attached ore refinery. He made slow passes filming at 21⁄2 frames per second to give the models the appearance of motion.
Jerry Goldsmith composed the music for Alien.
Sigourney Weaver became the star of the Alien films, reprising her role as Ripley in three sequels between 1986 and 1997. She did not appear in either of the Alien vs. Predator crossovers of the 2000s, but has expressed interest in doing a fifth Alien film.

Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon.

Argento in 2017

Dario Argento

Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and critic.

Italian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and critic.

Argento in 2017
Argento interviewed by Martin Sauvageau during the Festival International du Cinéma Fantastique de Montréal in 1994
Argento discusses his film Pelts at the Torino Film Festival in 2006
Argento in 1993 with his daughter Asia

His influential work in the horror genre during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, has led him to being referred to as the "Master of the Thrill" and the "Master of Horror".

The ruined Saint James Church in Bix Bottom, Oxfordshire was a setting for scenes in The Blood on Satan's Claw.

Folk horror

The ruined Saint James Church in Bix Bottom, Oxfordshire was a setting for scenes in The Blood on Satan's Claw.
A shrine to Mae Nak Phra Khanong in Bangkok, a ghost in Thai folklore that has inspired several Thai horror films.

Folk horror is a subgenre of horror film for cinema or television that uses elements of folklore to invoke fear in its audience.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)

A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American supernatural slasher-horror media franchise consisting of nine films, a television series, novels, comic books, and various other media.