How we have changed: the evolution of horror films

Diego Carrera, a Brazilian film critic that also works as an independent film editor and video essayist, has done a compilation to show how this film genre has changed over the years, in a video called A History of Horror.

For us viewers of the 21st century, the video goes from funny to terrifying in just a few minutes. It’s incredible how important special effects and atmosphere have become in the making of this kind of movies. For us, it’s difficult to take some of the old ones seriously because of the rudimentary SFX, but for the public back in the old days these must have been terrifying.

Although special effects are our specialty, in the past filmmakers had to rely in good plot and lighting strategies to produce good horror movies. Maybe this is why some of the most popular horror films in the last years are going back to the basics, building tension with music and a good storyline instead of resorting to blood and monsters.

The video features clips from influential and aesthetically beautiful movies released between 1895 and 2016, one movie for each year. Careful with the 1920s, things begin to get real at that point!

Follow Carrera’s work and watch the complete video on his Vimeo account.