This project is intended to provide a broad introduction to the horror film. Overall, it is designed to be helpful to anyone who is interested in horror film and would like to know more about it. It is particularly designed, however, to serve as a useful resource for college-level classes devoted to the topic of horror films. It is designed with a modular structure, based on subgenres. It is currently envisioned that the full project will contain sections on ten different subgenres, designed to allow maximum flexibility both for individual readers and for teachers of college courses.
Of course, many schemes for the division of horror film into subgenres are possible. Whatever scheme one develops, some films will fit nicely in more than one category, while others won’t fit comfortably within any of them. I do, however, think that the scheme I have developed works as well as any one might develop. The focus will be on American horror films, though consideration will be given to international horror film as well. The project begins with a brief general introduction to horror film (essentially the same for each volume). It will also include a historical introduction to each subgenre of horror covered by the project, followed by an accessible, but detailed critical discussion of at least six individual films within that subgenre, chosen primarily on the basis of the quality of the films, but with some weight given to their historical importance and to providing coverage of a number of different kinds of films within the subgenre. Currently, the sections on the first four subgenres are live. The ten subgenres (and the six films in each subgenre) eventually to be covered in the this project are as follows:
The Vampire Film
Dracula (1931)
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Near Dark (1987)
Let the Right One In (2008)
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
The Supernatural Horror Film
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Shining (1980)
Evil Dead II (1987)
The Witch (2015)
Hereditary (2018)
The Slasher Film
Psycho (1960)
Halloween (1978)
Friday the 13th, Parts 1–3 (1980–1982)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
You’re Next (2011)
Revenge (2017)
The Postmodern Horror Film
The Lost Boys (1987)
Scream (1996)
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
It Follows (2014)
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
The Zombie Film
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
28 Days Later (2002)
[REC] (2007)
Planet Terror (2007)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
The Frankenstein/Mad Scientist Story
Frankenstein (1931)/Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Island of Lost Souls (1932)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Re-Animator (1985)
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Psychological Horror
Cat People (1942)
Night of the Hunter (1955)
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Carrie (1976)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Mother! (2017)
Freaks and Body Horror
Freaks (1932)
It’s Alive (1974)
The Fly (1986)
Cabin Fever (2002)
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)
American Mary (2012)
Hillbilly Horror
Deliverance (1972)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Motel Hell (1980)
Wrong Turn (2003)
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)
Science Fiction Horror
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Alien (1979)
The Thing (1982)
Terminator (1984)
They Live (1988)
Get Out (2017)
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