What are the Cats up to and The Importance of Horror Movies

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since we at the Novacats have written our last blog post! But I’m letting you know that that changes now! We are happy to announce that we will be having Bi-Monthly blog posts! Starting with this one…the importance of Horror Movies! 

Horror Movies are an interesting concept, make something so scary that it scares the viewer in the theaters, or at home. But Horror Movies have an even largers and more important role in society, and filmmaking as a whole. 

The first horror movie was made in 1896, and was called “Le Manoir du Diable” or “The House of the Devil”. This 3 minute horror film is widely regarded as the first horror movie ever, and while not scary, it set the tone for what the horror movie genre would have in the future.

After “le Manoir du Diable” many other horror movies started to come out, and were based on horror books, such as the first version of Frankenstien, Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Werewolf. These films are lost to the sands of time, but would inspire filmmakers, who in turn would inspire the current filmmakers of today. 

After this first era of Horror came the “Golden Age” of Horror. Movies like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922) came out, and are regarded as some of the most impactful horror movies of all time. These of course led to the movies of the 30s, which introduced film to one of the best directors and filmmakers of all time…Alfred Hitchcock. 

This buildup to Hitchcock is important, because Hitchcock, and his movies, has his creation of the subgenre of horror films, slasher films, all due to the 3 minute horror film “le Manoir Du Diable” and its creation of the horror genre. Hitchcock put movies, and horror movies on the map. This led to a massive rise in all movie making, and the creation of low budget horror films in the 50s and 60s. The most famous of this being Night of the Living Dead which created Zombie movies and Zombies as we know it. 

All of this build up brings up to the age of movies that inspired the filmmakers that inspired us at Novacats. The 70s and 80s brought movies like The Exorcist, Poltergeist, Halloween, Nightmare of Elm Street, and Friday the 13th. This era would also see the start of directors like Sam Raimi, who would go on to do the Spiderman Trilogy, and Peter Jackson, who would go on to create Lord of the Rings. 

This leads us to today, Horror movies have a long history, and throughout the years of filmmaking, have led to some of the most prominent names in Hollywood. They have either inspired directors and writers, like how Hitchcock inspired directors like Tarentino and Speilberg, or they were able to get the start of filmmakers, like how it started the careers of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, who would both go to make trilogies that are some of the most influential trilogies of all time.  

Horror movies, good and bad, are important to society and filmmaking. Some of the best filmmakers get their start on some random low budget horror movie. The first thing people wanna do when deciding where to go on a date, is see what horror movies are playing. Horror movies might very well be the most important genre in filmmaking.