By the 1970s, horror films were modified again, this time to reflect the decade’s spirit. Compared to the industry development in the decade after, 1970s horror films seemed to be depressive. This produced films like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, “Carrie”, “The Exorcist” and “Halloween”, among others. By the 1980s, as technology improved, the quality of films, especially the horror ones, improved too. Now, filmmakers were able to use better special effects, better costumes, better makeup and better graphics. All this made possible to produce films like “Hellraiser”, “Nightmare on Elmer Street”, “The Fly”, “The Thing” or “The Shining”.
For the 1990s monsters were no more entertaining for the audience, so vampires, zombies, and similar topics, were left in the past. In this decade, horror films begun to be more realistic, and, for this purpose, psychopaths came to be the main characters. Films of normal persons which murdered other people are perfectly represented in movies like “Se7en”, “Silence of The Lambs”, “Misery”, “Candyman”, and “Sixth Sense”.
Finally, the XXI arrives, bringing with it a new kind of horror: teen horror. On these films, adolescents were taken, one by one, by monsters, murderers or, simply, destiny. Some examples of this are “Final Destination Saga”, “The Ring”, “The Grudge” and “The Descent”. Also, by the 2010s, some films had been made based on real stories, like “The Conjuration” saga.
Horror films, and, in general, cinematographic industry is changing. Improving technology forces everything to evolve, including cinematography. The way horror films are made is changing, and the way people watches movies too. We are walking forward in this aspect, so, taking into account the variety of changes horror films have passed through, what will come up next?
BY: JUAN PABLO ALVAREZ SÁNCHEZ