100 Years of Horror Movies

In my Writing 101 class in college, I helped with a group term paper on why people watch horror movies. Other people covered the psychological side while I mapped out the historical development of the film genre. I saved the following list of notes from my research and added it to a folder with other movie lists that I keep in "the box" (see my 9/11/08 post). Next to each title is the concept that was introduced (horror movies are the worst for stealing and copying the same tired concepts ad nauseam).

1908 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - horror on film and man vs. self

1919 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - expressionist art and man vs. man

1925 The Phantom of the Opera - the classic madman and Lon Chaney Sr.

1931 Dracula - the classic vampire and Bela Lugosi
1931 Frankenstein - the classic mad scientist and Boris Karloff
1932 The Mummy - the classic curse/magic
1933 King Kong - the classic creature feature

1941 The Wolf Man - the classic were-creature and Lon Chaney Jr.
1942 Cat People - horror as sexual release
1948 Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein - derivative and B-movies

1951 The Thing (From Another World) - the classic alien invasion
1954 The Creature from the Black Lagoon - re-awakening a primitive creature
1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers - secret invasion
1956 Godzilla - nuclear powered creature feature
1957 The Curse of Frankenstein - British gore and Christopher Lee
1957 The Incredible Shrinking Man - metamorphosis
1958 House on Haunted Hill - gimmicks and Vincent Price
1959 The Blob - young vs. old and a not-quite-resolved ending

1960 Psycho - the modern madman and Alfred Hitchcock
1963 The Birds - man vs. nature; a single terrorized family
1963 The Haunting - classic ghosthunter plus homosexuality
1967 Rosemary's Baby - demonic possession
1968 Night of the Living Dead - the classic zombie and George Romero

1971 A Clockwork Orange - ultraviolence and Stanley Kubrick
1973 The Exorcist - American gore and critical praise for the genre
1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - family of madmen and Tobe Hooper
1975 The Rocky Horror Picture Show - horror musical farce
1975 Shivers - body horror and David Cronenberg
1976 Carrie - psycho-kinetic powers and Stephen King
1978 Halloween - suburban slashers and John Carpenter
1979 Alien - a strong female protaganist

1981 An American Werewolf in London - makeup and special effects
1982 Evil Dead - splatterpunk
1985 A Nightmare on Elm Street - dreams vs. reality and Wes Craven
1986 Fatal Attraction - a realistic, strong, female antagonist
1987 Hellraiser - Sadomasochism and Clive Barker

1991 The Silence of the Lambs - multiple monsters and one is the expert/helper
1993 Jurassic Park - computer animation and genetics
1995 Outbreak - disease (after AIDS)
1996 Scream - reflexivity (movies about movies)
1999 The Blair Witch Project - "true story" and web-based marketing

2002 28 Days Later - fast zombies
2002 The Ring - Japanese/Korean remakes
2004 Saw - "torture porn"
2006 Pan's Labyrinth - adult fairy tale and Guillermo del Toro