Horror film

Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.

Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apocalyptic events, and religious or folk beliefs.

Horror films have existed for more than a century. Early inspirations from before the development of film include folklore, religious beliefs and superstitions of different cultures, and the Gothic and horror literature of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley. From origins in silent films and German Expressionism, horror only became a codified genre after the release of ''Dracula'' (1931). Many sub-genres emerged in subsequent decades, including body horror, comedy horror, slasher films, splatter films, supernatural horror and psychological horror. The genre has been produced worldwide, varying in content and style between regions. Horror is particularly prominent in the cinema of Japan, Korea, Italy and Thailand, among other countries.

Despite being the subject of social and legal controversy due to their subject matter, some horror films and franchises have seen major commercial success, influenced society and spawned several popular culture icons.

Characteristics

''The Dictionary of Film Studies'' defines the horror film as representing "disturbing and dark subject matter, seeking to elicit responses of fear, terror, disgust, shock, suspense, and, of course, horror from their viewers." In the chapter "The American Nightmare: Horror in the 70s" from ''Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan'' (2002), film critic Robin Wood declared that commonality between horror films are that "normality is threatened by the monster." This was further expanded upon by ''The Philosophy of Horror, or Parodoxes of the Heart'' by Noël Carroll who added that "repulsion must be pleasurable, as evidenced by the genre's popularity."

Prior to the release of ''Dracula'' (1931), historian Gary Don Rhodes explained that the idea and terminology of horror film did not exist yet as a codified genre, although critics used the term "horror" to describe films in reviews prior to ''Dracula''s release. "Horror" was a term used to describe a variety of meanings. In 1913, ''Moving Picture World'' defined "horrors" as showcasing "striped convicts, murderous Indians, grinning 'black-handers', homicidal drunkards" Some titles that suggest horror such as ''The Hand of Horror'' (1914) was a melodrama about a thief who steals from his own sister. During the silent era, the term horror was used to describe everything from "battle scenes" in war films to tales of drug addiction. Rhodes concluded that the term "horror film" or "horror movie" was not used in early cinema.

The mystery film genre was in vogue and early information on ''Dracula'' being promoted as mystery film was common, despite the novel, play and film's story relying on the supernatural. Newman discussed the genre in British Film Institute's ''Companion to Horror'' where he noted that Horror films in the 1930s were easy to identify, but following that decade "the more blurred distinctions become, and horror becomes less like a discrete genre than an effect which can be deployed within any number of narrative settings or narratives patterns".

Various writings on genre from Altman, Lawrence Alloway (''Violent America: The Movies 1946-1964'' (1971)) and Peter Hutchings (''Approaches to Popular Film'' (1995)) implied it easier to view films as cycles opposed to genres, suggesting the slasher film viewed as a cycle would place it in terms of how the film industry was economically and production wise, the personnel involved in their respective eras, and how the films were marketed exhibited and distributed.
Mark Jancovich in an essay declared that "there is no simple 'collective belief' as to what constitutes the horror genre" between both fans and critics of the genre. Jancovich found that disagreements existed from audiences who wanted to distinguish themselves. This ranged from fans of different genres who may view a film like ''Alien'' (1979) as belonging to science fiction, and horror fan bases dismissing it as being inauthentic to either genre. Further debates exist among fans of the genre with personal definitions of "true" horror films, such as fans who embrace cult figures like Freddy Kruger of the '' A Nightmare on Elm Street'' series, while others disassociate themselves from characters and series and focusing on genre '' auteur'' directors like Dario Argento, while others fans would deem Argento's films as too mainstream, having preferences more underground films. Andrew Tudor wrote in ''Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie'' suggested that "Genre is what we collectively believe it to be"

Cinematic techniques

In a study by Jacob Shelton, the many ways that audience members are manipulated through horror films was investigated in detail. Negative space is one such method that can play a part in inducing a reaction, causing one's eyes to remotely rest on anything in the frame – a wall, or the empty black void in the shadows.

The jump scare is a horror film trope, where an abrupt change in image accompanied with a loud sound intends to surprise the viewer. This can also be subverted to create tension, where an audience may feel more unease and discomfort by anticipating a jump scare.

Mirrors are often used in horror films is to create visual depth and build tension. Shelton argues mirrors have been used so frequently in horror films that audiences have been conditioned to fear them, and subverting audience expectations of a jump scare in a mirror can further build tension. Tight framing and close-ups are also commonly used; these can build tension and induce anxiety by not allowing the viewer to see beyond what is around the protagonist.

Music

Music is a key component of horror films. In ''Music in the Horror Film'' (2010), Lerner writes "music in horror film frequently makes us feel threatened and uncomfortable" and intends to intensify the atmosphere created in imagery and themes. Dissonance, atonality and experiments with timbre are typical characteristics used by composers in horror film music.

Themes

In the book ''Dark Dreams'', author Charles Derry conceived horror films as focusing on three broad themes: the horror of personality, horror of Armageddon and the horror of the demonic. The horror of personality derives from monsters being at the centre of the plot, such Frankenstein's monster whose psychology makes them perform unspeakable horrific acts ranging from rapes, mutilations and sadistic killings. Other key works of this form are Alfred Hitchcock's '' Psycho,'' which feature psychotic murderers without the make-up of a monster. The second 'Armageddon' group delves on the fear of large-scale destruction, which ranges from science fiction works but also of natural events, such as Hitchcock's '' The Birds'' (1963). The last group of the "Fear of the Demonic" features graphic accounts of satanic rites, witchcraft, exorcisms outside traditional forms of worship, as seen in films like '' The Exorcist'' (1973) or '' The Omen'' (1976).

Some critics have suggested horror films can be a vessel for exploring contemporary cultural, political and social trends. Jeanne Hall, a film theorist, agrees with the use of horror films in easing the process of understanding issues by making use of their optical elements. The use of horror films can help audiences understand international prior historical events occurs, for example, to depict the horrors of the Vietnam War, the Holocaust, the worldwide AIDS epidemic or post-9/11 pessimism. In many occurrences, the manipulation of horror presents cultural definitions that are not accurate, yet set an example to which a person relates to that specific cultural from then on in their life.

History

Sub-genres of horror films

Horror is a malleable genre and often can be altered to accommodate other genre types such as science fiction, making some films difficult to categorize.

Body horror

A genre that emerged in the 1970s, body horror films focus on the process of a bodily transformation. In these films, the body is either engulfed by some larger process or heading towards fragmentation and collapse. In these films, the focus can be on apocalyptic implication of an entire society being overtaken, but the focus is generally upon an individual and their sense of identity, primarily them watching their own body change. The earliest appearance of the sub-genre was the work of director David Cronenberg, specifically with early films like '' Shivers'' (1975). Mark Jancovich of the University of Manchester declared that the transformation scenes in the genre provoke fear and repulsion, but also pleasure and excitement such as in '' The Thing'' (1982) and '' The Fly'' (1986).

Christmas horror

Christmas horror is a film genre that emerged in the 1970s with films such as '' Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?'' (1971) and ''Silent Night, Bloody Night'' (1972), which were soon followed by the influential '' Black Christmas'' (1974). Defining the Christmas horror genre has been described as challenging, as it has generally been regarded as a sub-genre of the slasher film. Adam Rockoff, in '' Rue Morgue'', noted that the sub-genre sits within a trend of holiday-themed slasher films, alongside films such as '' My Bloody Valentine'' (1981) and '' April Fool's Day'' (1986). Others take a broader view that Christmas horror is not limited to the slasher genre, noting how it evolved from the English Christmas tradition of telling ghost stories. Christmas in literature has historically included elements of "darkness"—fright, misery, death and decay—tracing its literary antecedents as far back as the biblical account of the Massacre of the Innocents and more recently in works such as E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (1816) and Charles Dickens' ''A Christmas Carol'' (1843). Although ghosts have largely been replaced by serial killers, Christmas horror creates an outlet through which to explore "a modern reinvention of the Christmas ghost story".

Erotic horror

Erotic horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that blends sensual and sexual imagery with horrific themes for the sake of sexual arousal. Erotic horror has had influences on French and American horror cinema. The works of Jean Rollin, such as ''Le Viol du Vampire'' and ''Fascination'', are considered quintessential erotic horror films, blending deeply sexual imagery with gore. American cinema has also featured notable erotic horror film franchises, such as '' Candyman.'' An example of a British erotic horror film series is '' Hellraiser''. ''Alien'' features heavy erotic imagery, with the design of the Xenomorph by H. R. Giger featuring both phallic and vaginal imagery, intended to symbolize patriarchal guilt as well as sex, rape, and pregnancy.

Folk horror

Folk horror uses elements of folklore or other religious and cultural beliefs to instil fear in audiences. Folk horror films have featured rural settings and themes of isolation, religion and nature. Frequently cited examples are '' Witchfinder General'' (1968), ''The Blood on Satan's Claw'' (1971), '' The Wicker Man'' (1973), ''The Witch'' (2015), and '' Midsommar'' (2019). Local folklore and beliefs have been noted as being prevalent in horror films from the Southeast Asia region, including Thailand and Indonesia.

Found footage horror

The found footage horror film "technique" gives the audience a first person view of the events on screen, and presents the footage as being discovered after. Horror films which are framed as being made up of "found-footage" merge the experiences of the audience and characters, which may induce suspense, shock, and bafflement. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas noted that the popularity of sites like YouTube in 2006 sparked a taste for amateur media, leading to the production of further films in the found footage horror genre later in the 2000s including the particularly financially successful '' Paranormal Activity'' (2007).

Gothic horror

In their book ''Gothic film'', Richard J. McRoy and Richard J. Hand stated that "Gothic" can be argued as a very loose subgenre of horror, but argued that "Gothic" as a whole was a style like ''film noir'' and not bound to certain cinematic elements like the Western or science fiction film. The term "gothic" is frequently used to describe a stylized approach to showcasing location, desire, and action in film. Contemporary views of the genre associate it with imagery of castles at hilltops and labyrinth like ancestral mansions that are in various states of disrepair. Narratives in these films often focus on an audiences fear and attraction to social change and rebellion. The genre can be applied to films as early as ''The Haunted Castle'' (1896), ''Frankenstein'' (1910) as well as to more complex iterations such as Park Chan-wook's '' Stoker'' (2013) and Jordan Peele's '' Get Out'' (2017).

The gothic style is applied to several films throughout the history of the horror film. This includes Universal Pictures' horror films of the 1930s, the revival of gothic horror in the 1950s and 1960s with films from Hammer, Roger Corman's Poe-cycle, and several Italian productions. By the 1970s American and British productions often had vampire films set in a contemporary setting, such as Hammer Films had their ''Dracula'' stories set in a modern setting and made other horror material which pushed the erotic content of their vampire films that was initiated by ''Black Sunday''. In the 1980s, the older horror characters of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster rarely appeared, with vampire themed films continued often in the tradition of authors like Anne Rice where vampirism becomes a lifestyle choice rather than plague or curse. Following the release of Francis Ford Coppola's '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'' (1992), a small wave of high-budgeted gothic horror romance films were released in the 1990s.

Natural horror

Also described as "eco-horror", the natural horror film is a subgenre "featuring nature running amok in the form of mutated beasts, carnivorous insects, and normally harmless animals or plants turned into cold-blooded killers." In 1963, Hitchcock defined a new genre nature taking revenge on humanity with '' The Birds'' (1963) that was expanded into a trend into the 1970s. Following the success of '' Willard'' (1971), a film about killer rats, 1972 had similar films with '' Stanley'' (1972) and an official sequel ''Ben'' (1972). Other films followed in suit such as ''Night of the Lepus'' (1972), '' Frogs'' (1972), '' Bug'' (1975), ''Squirm'' (1976) and what Muir described as the "turning point" in the genre with ''Jaws'' (1975), which became the highest-grossing film at that point and moved the animal attacks genres "towards a less-fantastic route" with less giant animals and more real-life creatures such as '' Grizzly'' (1976) and ''Night Creature'' (1977), '' Orca'' (1977), and '' Jaws 2'' (1978). The film is linked with the environmental movements that became more mainstream in the 1970s and early 1980s such vegetarianism, animal rights movements, and organizations such as Greenpeace. Following ''Jaws'', sharks became the most popular animal of the genre, ranging from similar such as '' Mako: The Jaws of Death'' (1976) and ''Great White'' (1981) to the '' Sharknado'' film series. James Marriott found that the genre had "lost momentum" since the 1970s while the films would still be made towards the turn of the millennium.

Religious horror

Religious horror is a subgenre of horror film whose common themes are based on religion and focus heavily on supernatural beings, often with demons as the main antagonists that bring a sense of threat. Such films commonly use religious elements, including the crucifix or cross, holy water, the Bible, the rosary, the sign of the cross, the church, and prayer, which are forms of religious symbols and rituals used to depict the use of faith to defeat evil.

Slasher film

The slasher film is a horror subgenre which involves a killer murdering a group of people (often teenagers), usually by use of bladed tools. In his book on the genre, author Adam Rockoff wrote that these villains represented a "rogue genre" of films that are "tough, problematic, and fiercely individualistic." Following the financial success of ''Friday the 13th'' (1980), at least 20 other slasher films appeared in 1980 alone. These films usually revolved around three properties: unique social settings (campgrounds, schools, holidays) and a crime from the past committed (an accidental drowning, infidelity, a scorned lover) and a ready made group of victims (camp counselors, students, wedding parties). The genre was derided by several contemporary film critics of the era such as Ebert, and often were highly profitable in the box office. The release of '' Scream'' (1996), led to a brief revival of the slasher films for the 1990s. Other countries imitated the American slasher film revival, such as South Korea's early 2000s cycle with ''Bloody Beach'' (2000), ''Nightmare'' (2000) and ''The Record'' (2000).

Supernatural horror

Supernatural horror films integrate supernatural elements, such as the afterlife, spirit possession and religion into the horror genre.

Teen horror

Teen horror is a horror subgenre that victimizes teenagers while usually promoting strong, anti-conformity teenage leads, appealing to young generations. This subgenre often depicts themes of sex, under-aged drinking, and gore. Horror films aimed a young audience featuring teenage monsters grew popular in the 1950s with several productions from American International Pictures (AIP) and productions of Herman Cohen with '' I Was a Teenage Werewolf'' (1957) and ''I Was a Teenage Frankenstein'' (1957). This led to later productions like ''Daughter of Dr. Jekyll'' (1957) and ''Frankenstein's Daughter'' (1958). Teen horror cycle in the 1980s often showcased explicit gore and nudity, with John Kenneth Muir described as cautionary conservative tales where most of the films stated if you partook in such vices such as drugs or sex, your punishment of death would be handed out.
Prior to ''Scream'', there were no popular teen horror films in the early 1990s. After the financial success of ''Scream'', teen horror films became increasingly reflexive and self-aware until the end of the 1990s with films like ''I Know What You Did Last Summer'' (1997) and non-slasher '' The Faculty'' (1998). The genre lost prominence as teen films dealt with threats with more realism in films like '' Donnie Darko'' (2001) and ''Crazy/Beautiful'' (2001). In her book on the 1990s teen horror cycle, Alexandra West described the general trend of these films is often looked down upon by critics, journals, and fans as being too glossy, trendy, and sleek to be considered worthwhile horror films.

Psychological horror

Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequently overlaps with the related subgenre of psychological thriller, and often uses mystery elements and characters with unstable, unreliable, or disturbed psychological states to enhance the suspense, drama, action, and paranoia of the setting and plot and to provide an overall unpleasant, unsettling, or distressing atmosphere.

Regional horror films

Asian horror films

Horror films in Asia have been noted as being inspired by national, cultural or religious folklore, particularly beliefs in ghosts or spirits. In ''Asian Horror'', Andy Richards writes that there is a "widespread and engrained acceptance of supernatural forces" in many Asian cultures, and suggests this is related to animist, pantheist and karmic religious traditions, as in Buddhism and Shintoism. Although Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Korean horror has arguably received the most international attention, horror also makes up a considerable proportion of Cambodian and Malaysian cinema.

Hong Kong

The Hong Kong film industry has long been associated with genre cinema, specifically for action films. The Hong Kong horror films are generally broad and often feature demons, wraiths and reanimated corpses and have been described by authors Gary Bettinson and Daniel Martin as "generically diffuse and resistant to Western definitions." This was due to Hong Kong cinema often creating various hybrid films which mesh traditional horror films with elements of other genres such as '' A Chinese Ghost Story'' (1987), which led to Hong Kong critic Chen Yu to suggest that this form was "one more indication of the Hong Kong cinema's inability to establish a proper horror genre."

Various interpretations of the Hong Kong horror film have included Bettinson and Martin stating that Hong Kong films frequently prioritize comedy and romance over fear. Author Felicia Chan described Hong Kong cinema as being noted for its extensive use of parody and pastiche and the horror and ghost films of Hong Kong often turn to comedy and generally follow forms of ghost erotica and '' jiangshi'' (). Early horror-related cinema in Mandarin and Cantonese featured ghost stories that occasionally had rational explanations. The literary source of Hong Kong horror films is Pu Songling's ''Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio'', a series of short stories with supernatural themes written in the 17th century. Unlike Western stories, Pu focuses on the value of the human form which is essential for reincarnation, leading to stories about ghosts such as Fox spirit trying to seal a mortal man's life essence, usually through sex. This led to a relatively large degree of Hong Kong horror films, even more than their Korean and Japanese counterparts, featuring chimeric creatures exhibiting bodily features of various animals. According to author Stephen Teo, corporeal 'trans-substantiation', such as in the form of a human to werewolf or vampire to bat, is "unthinkable in Chinese culture since the rule of pragmatism requires that one's physical, human shape be kept intact for reincarnation and for the wheel of life to keep revolving"

Early Hong Kong horror films of the 1950s were often described by terms such as ''shenguai'' (gods/spirits and the strange/bizarre), ''qi guai'' (strange) and ''shen hua'' (godly story). Most of these films involved a man meeting a ''neoi gwei'' (female ghost), followed by a flashback illustrating how the woman had died and usually concluded with a happy ending involving reincarnation and romance. Examples include the ghost story ''Beauty Raised from the Dead'' (1956) and ''The Nightly Cry of the Ghost'' (1957) which suggests the supernatural but concludes with a rational explanation for the proceedings. Other trends included humorous variations such as ''The Dunce Bumps into a Ghost'' (1957) as well as films about snake demons that were imitating films from the Philippines and made co-productions with the country with ''Sanda Wong'' (1955) and ''The Serpent's Girls' Worldy Fancies'' (1958).

Other Early works include ''The Enchanting Shadow'' (1960) based on Pu's work, which did not create a cycle of ghost films. In the 1970s films such as the Shaw Brothers and Hammer Film Productions co-production '' Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires'' would not take off worldwide and not produce cycles of similar horror films. King Hu's films such as '' Touch of Zen'' would touch upon Pu's work, including plot points of fox spirits, while his other work such as ''Legend of the Mountain'' would be full on ghost stories.

Veteran stuntman, actor and director Sammo Hung decided to blend horror with more humour, leading to '' Encounters of the Spooky Kind'' (1980). The film was popular at the box office leading to several kung-fu-oriented ghost comedies. Directors ranging from Ann Hui to Tsui Hark would all dabble with the genre, with Sammo Hung producing ''Mr. Vampire'' and Tsui Hark producing '' A Chinese Ghost Story'', which would be stories from Pu Songling's work.

According to Gary Bettinson and Daniel Martin, the critical attitude towards Hong Kong horror was that it reached its commercial and artistic peaks in the 1980s, partially in response to the audience's decline in the dominance of kung fu films. The rise of Asian horror films in the 2000s has been described by Laikwan Pang in ''Screen'' as setting Hong Kong horror films back, stating that "once famous for churning out hundreds of formulaic horror films have almost completely died out - precisely because of the industry's fraught efforts to adapt to a Chinese market and its policy environment." In 2003, author Daniel O'Brien stated that the Hong Kong film industry still turned out horror films. Still, the number of them turned out much lower, with the genre rarely attracting major filmmakers and operating on the low-budget side of the industry with films like the ''Troublesome Night'' series, which had 18 entries. In 2018, Bettinson and Martin found that the Hong Kong horror film had become nostalgic and contemporary, noting films like '' Rigor Mortis'' (2013) as referencing the older ''Mr. Vampire'' film while also as adapting to the shifting global market for Asian cinema.

=Exploitation and Category III

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In the 1970s a shift in style and type of Hong Kong horror films began being produced, depicting more explicit depictions of sex. Actor Kam Kwok-leung who appeared in some of these films such as the Shaw Brothers produced '' The Killer Snakes'' (1974) stated that the studio's "attitude was rather shameless; they threw in nude scenes or sex scenes regardless of the genre ..As long as they could insert these scenes, they didn't mind throwing logic out the window. ''The Killer Snakes'' was no exception" The film was directed by Kuei Chih-Hung, it was his first horror film and led to him being one of the few Hong Kong directors to specialize in horror. These films were sometimes described as exploitation, characterized by their gratuitous or excessive nudity, extreme violence, and gore are generally regarded by critics as "bad" rather than quality or serious cinema. Keui would return to horror in various films after such as ''Ghost Eyes'' (1974), ''Hex'' (1980), ''Hex vs Witcraft'' (1980), ''Hex After Hex'' (1982) ''Curse of Evil'' (1982) and ''The Boxer's Omen'' (1984). These films were swept aside by the late 1980s when an even more raw form of exploitation cinema arose with the Category III film creation in 1988. Category III films from the era such as '' Dr. Lamb'' (1992) and '' The Untold Story'' (1993) were linked to horror from their excessive violence and blood-letting of their serial killer central characters.

Other horror films borrowing from Western trends were made such as Dennis Yu's two films ''The Beasts'' (1980) resembling ''Last House on the Left'' and '' The Imp'' (1981), Patrick Tam's ''Love Massacre'' (1981) resembling the American slasher film trend. Later cases of the genre often exclude the ghost story style, such as '' The Untold Story'' (1993) and ''Dream Home'' (2010) which have lead characters within scientific explanation.

India

The Cinema of India produces the largest amount of films in the world, ranging from Bollywood (Hindi cinema based in Mumbai) to other regions such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Unlike Hollywood and most Western cinematic traditions, horror films produced in India incorporate romance, song-and-dance, and other elements in the "masala" format, where as many genres as possible are bundled into a single film. Odell and Le Blanc described the Indian horror film as "a popular, but minor part of the country's film output" and that "has not found a true niche in mainstream Indian cinema." These films are made outside of Mumbai, and are generally seen as disreputable to their more respectable popular cinema. As of 2007, the Central Board of Film Certification, India's censorship board has stated films "pointless or unavoidable scenes of violence, cruelty and horror, scenes of violence intended to provide entertainment and such scene that may have the effect of desensitising or dehumanizing people are not shown."

The earliest Indian horror films were films about ghosts and reincarnation or rebirth such as '' Mahal'' (1949). These early films tended to be spiritual pieces or tragic dramas opposed to having visceral content. While prestige films from Hollywood productions had been shown in Indian theatres, the late 1960s had seen a parallel market for minor American and European co-productions to films like the James Bond film series and the films of Mario Bava. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Ramsay Brothers created a career in the lower reaches of the Bombay film industry making low-budget horror films, primarily influenced by Hammer's horror film productions, with little known about their production or distribution history. The Ramsay Brothers were a family of seven brothers who made horror films that were featured monsters and evil spirits that mix in song and dance sections as well as comic interludes. Most of their films played at smaller cinema in India, with Tulsi Ramsay, one of the brothers, later stating "Places where even the trains don't stop, that's where our business was." Their horror films are generally dominated by low-budget productions, such as those by the Ramsay Brothers. Their most successful film was '' Purana Mandir'' (1984), which was the second highest-grossing film in India that year. The influence of American productions would have an effect on later Indian productions such as ''The Exorcist'' which would lead to films involving demonic possession such as ''Gehrayee'' (1980). India has also made films featuring zombies and vampires that drew from American horror films opposed to indigenous myths and stories. Other directors, such as Mohan Bhakri made low budget highly exploitive films such as ''Cheekh'' (1985) and his biggest hit, the monster movie ''Khooni Mahal'' (1987).

Horror films are not self-evident categories in Tamil and Telugu films and it was only until the late 1980s that straight horror cinema was regularly produced with films like ''Uruvam'' (1991), ''Sivi'' (2007), and '' Eeram'' (2009) were released. The first decade of the twenty-first century saw a flurry of commercially successful Telugu horror films like ''A Film by Aravind'' (2005), '' Mantra'' (2007), and '' Arundhati'' (2009) were released. Ram Gopal Varma made films that generally defied the conventions of popular Indian cinema, making horror films like '' Raat'' (1992) and '' Bhoot'' (2003), with the latter film not containing and comic scenes or musical numbers. In 2018, the horror film '' Tumbbad'' premiered in the critics' week section of the 75th Venice International Film Festival—the first ever Indian film to open the festival.

Indonesia

Japan

The Japanese film industry began in the late 1800s with its most films from the 1920s to the 1970s being made through its studio system. Following World War II, Donald Richie noted that directors and screenwriters were no longer as interested in subjects that promoted a rosy future. This led to development of ghost story and monster movies being made in Japan during the 1950s. The term "horror" as a genre, only began circulating in Japan in the 1960s in press and everyday language. Prior to this, horror fiction as it may be known was referred to with terms like "mystery", "terror", and "dread". According to manga author and critic Yoshihiro Yonezawa, the first boom of horror manga with the success of the ''Kaiki shōsetsu zenshū and the success of the British horror films from Hammer Films which began circulating in Japan and gaining popularity. Due to the circulation of these magazines, a growing interest in the supernatural developed, inspired by traditional Japanese ghost stories ('' kaidan'') such as ''Yotsuya Kaidan'' as well as classical Japanese woodcut prints with themes of Japanese ghosts.

Colette Balmain in her book ''Introduction to Japanese Horror Film'' stated the two most important films that would influence the growth of the horror genre were '' Ugetsu'' (1953), exploring fears around modernization, and '' Godzilla'' (1954), with its monster and its atomic breath reminding about the devastation caused by nuclear weapons. ''Ugetsu'' would also lay the groundwork for several forms of Japanese horror films. This included gothic ghost stories which accounted for most of Japanese horror films of the 1950s and 1960s, the erotic-themed ghost story films of the as well as later Japanese ghost story films like ''Ring'' (1998) and '' Ju-On: The Grudge''. ''Ugetsu'' would borrow from traditional Japanese theatre forms such as '' Kabuki'' and '' Noh'' . ''Noh'' was marked for estrained understatement and abstraction with more focus on emotion than narrative of dialogue which would be reflected in later Japanese films like '' Onibaba'' (1964) and '' Kuroneko'' (1968).

In 1964, Shochiku released '' Daydream'', the first Japanese New Wave to have a blatantly erotic story. These films later became known as pink films, a term of American origin applied to low-budget and low-profile films. These softcore films helped struggling studios with the first wave of them being between 1964 and 1972. One sub-genre of these films was the erotic ghost story, which were less explicit than the usual pink cinema. These films often featured wronged women, such as the vengeful ghostly cat woman in '' Kuroneko'' (1968). Stories of ghost cats and similar creatures were part of the sub-genre known as ''bakeneko mono'', or monster-cat tales starting with ''The Ghost Cat of Otama Pond'' (1960).

In 1985, the Japanese film producer Ogura Satoru developed the series and directed the first installment: ''Guinea Pig: Devil's Experiment''. The series was controversial in Japan, due in part to the public scrutiny the videos faced after the capture of Tsutomu Miyazaki, a child murderer who had the films in his collection. The series circulated enough within horror film fan circles that in a March 1994 issue of ''Fangoria'', a fan wrote in to ask the magazine to shift its toward underground films such as "the notorious gorefests from Japan ..the infamous ''Guinea Pig'' series." The magazine responded that the independent film market was fading away and that major studios had taken over the b-film industry and "that is where the power - and commercial success - lies. ''Guinea Pig'' is not the future of horror." Jay McRoy, author of ''Nightmare Japan: Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema'' declared that films like Toshiharu Ikeda's '' Evil Dead Trap'' (1988) and '' Tetsuo: The Iron Man'' (1989) "spurred the emergence of an increasingly visceral and graphically violent wave of Japanese horror films" with the latter film being "one of the most influential Japanese horror films ever produced.

Author and critic Kim Newman described the release of Hideo Nakata's ''Ring'' (1998) as one of the major "cultural phenomenons" in the horror film in the late 1990s. Along with the South Korean film '' Whispering Corridors'' (1998), it was a major hit across Asia leading to sequels and similar ghost stories from Asian countries. With more than 24 million sales worldwide, the '' Resident Evil'' video game franchise began in 1996. Several Japanese productions involving zombies followed the games success, such as ''Wild Zero'' (1999) and ''Versus'' (2000), and '' Junk'' (2000). These films zombies resembled the monsters from the 1970s such '' Dawn of the Dead'' (1978) and '' Zombi 2'' (1979). In 2003, independent films had overtaken studio-produced films with 234 of the 287 total films released in 2003 were independent. The independent Japanese zombie film ''One Cut of the Dead'' (2017) became a sleeper hit in Japan, receiving general acclaim worldwide and making Japanese box office history by earning over a thousand times its budget.

South Korea

The Korean horror film originated in the 1960s and became a more prominent part of the countries film production in the early 2000s. While ghosts have appeared as early as 1924 in Korean film, attempting to chart the history of the genre from this period was described by Alison Peirse and Daniel Martin, the authors of "Korean Horror Cinema" as "problematic", due to the control of the Japanese colonial government blocking artistic or politically independent films. Regardless of settings or time period, many Korean horror films such as ''Song of the Dead'' (1980) have their stories focused on female relationships, rooted in Korean Confucianism tradition with an emphasis on biological families. Despite the influence of folklore in some films, there is no key single canon to define the Korean horror film. Korean horror cinema is also defined by melodrama, as it does in most of Korean cinema.

'' The Housemaid'' (1960) is widely credited as initiating the first horror cycle in Korean cinema, which involved films of the 1960s about supernatural revenge tales, focused on cruelly murdered women who sought out revenge. Several of these films are in dept to Korean folklore and ghost stories, with stories of animal transformation. Traces of international cinema are found in early Korean horror cinema. such as Shin Sang-ok's ''Madame White Snake'' (1960) from the traditional Chinese folktale Legend of the White Snake. Despite bans of Japanese cultural products that lasted from 1945 to 1998, the influence of Japanese culture are still found in '' Kaibyō eiga'' (ghost cats) themed films, such as '' A Devilish Homicide'' (1965) and ''Ghosts of Chosun'' (1970). Other 1960s films featured narratives involving ''kumiho'' such as ''The Thousand Year Old Fox'' (''Cheonnyeonho'') (1969). These tales based on folklore and ghosts continued into the 1970s. Korea also produced giant monster films that received release in the United States such as '' Yongary, Monster from the Deep'' (1967) and '' Ape'' (1976).

By the end of the 1970s, the Korean horror film entered a period known commonly as the "dark time" for South Korean cinema with audience attracted to Hong Kong and American imports. The biggest influence on this was the "3S" policy adopted by the Chun Doo-hwan government which promoted the production of "sports, screen and sex" for the film industry leading to more relaxed censorship leading to a boom in Erotic Korean films. Horror films followed this trend with ''Suddenly at Midnight'' (1981), a reimagining of ''The Housemaid'' (1960). As of 2013, many pre-1990 Korean horror films are only available through the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) in Seoul. It was not until the 1998 release of '' Whispering Corridors'' was the Korean horror film reinvigorated, with its style containing traces of traditional Korean cinema (culturally specific themes and melodrama) but also the American pattern of making a franchise of horror films, as the film received four sequels. Since the film's release, Korean horror films had had strong diversity with gothic tales like '' A Tale of Two Sisters'' (2003), gory horror films like '' Bloody Reunion'' (2006), horror comedy (''To Catch a Virgin Ghost'' (2004)), vampire films ('' Thirst'' (2009)), and independent productions (''Teenage Hooker Became a Killing Machine'' (2000)). These films varied in popularity with Ahn Byeong-ki's ''Phone'' (2002) reaching the top ten in the domestic box office sales in 2002 while in 2007, no locally produced Korean horror films were financially successful with local audiences. In 2020, Anton Bitel declared in '' Sight & Sound'' that South Korea was one of the international hot spots for horror film production in the last decade, citing the international and popular releases of films like ''Train to Busan'' (2016), '' The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale'' (2019) ''Peninsula'' (2020) and '' The Wailing'' (2016).

Thailand

Oceania

Australia

It is unknown when Australia's cinema first horror title may have been, with thoughts ranging from ''The Strangler's Grip'' (1912) to '' The Face at the Window'' (1919) while stories featuring ghosts would appear in '' Guyra Ghost Mystery'' (1921). By 1913, the more prolific era of Australian cinema ended with production not returning with heavy input of government finance in the 1970s. It took until the 1970s for Australia to develop sound film with television films that eventually received theatrical release with '' Dead Easy'' (1970) and '' Night of Fear'' (1973). '' The Cars That Ate Paris'' (1974) was the first Australian horror production made for theatrical release. 1970s Australian art cinema was funded by state film corporations, who considered them more culturally acceptable than local exploitation films ( Ozploitation), which was part of the Australian phenomenon called the cultural cringe. The greater success of genre films like '' Mad Max'' (1979), ''The Last Wave'' (1977) and ''Patrick'' (1978) led to the Australian Film Commission to change its focus to being a more commercial operation. This closed in 1980 as its funding was abused by investors using them as tax avoiding measures. A new development known as the 10BA tax shelter scheme was developed ushering a slew of productions, leading to what Peter Shelley, author of ''Australian Horror Films'', suggested meant "making a profit was more important than making a good film." Shelley called these films derivative of "American films and presenting generic American material". These films included the horror film productions of Antony I. Ginnane. While Australia would have success with international films between the mid-1980s and the 2000s, less than five horror films were produced in the country between 1993 and 2000. It was only after the success of ''Wolf Creek'' (2005) that a new generation of filmmakers would continuously make horror genre films in Australia that continued into the 2010s.

New Zealand

By 2005, New Zealand has produced around 190 feature films, with about 88% of them being made after 1976. New Zealand horror film history was described by Philip Matthews of Stuff as making "po-faced gothic and now we do horror for laughs." Among the earliest known New Zealand horror films productions are ''Strange Behavior'' (1981), a co-production with Australia and ''Death Warmed Up'' (1984) a single production. Early features such as Melanie Read

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