History of Horror Cinema

As has become very obvious in American culture in the past twenty years or so, horror is having a moment. This is particularly true in American cinema, where horror tends to cost less and earn more for film producers than almost any other subgenre. The rise of horror has also, of course, been affected by the rise of perceived and real threats to public and individual safety—pandemics, government malfeasance, ecological catastrophe, etc. But the recent surge of popularity in horror doesn’t mean it’s a “new” genre; far from it, the horror genre extends as far back in American film history as film itself as a medium. This course will look at the entire history of horror cinema, focusing on American film. We will start before the era of the “talkie” movie, and will move forward, taking exemplary films from each decade, until we reach about 2020. The course will think about genre, subgenre, and formal elements of filmic analysis, and will also consider elements of American history and culture that inform and inflect the more concrete, material elements of film.