Sometimes turning to the net for a film is great idea. If you are looking for horror movies online, you’re going to be in for a thrilling surprise. No matter what your scary desire is, you are bound to find a movie to suit your taste. The internet is slowly but surely becoming the premier destination to watch movies, the reason being the limitless selection. This is definitely the case with regard to to the horror genre.
There is something about being scared that we really enjoy. Not always of course in reality though, but there is something thrilling about being on the edge of your seat throughout a story. People tell scary stories around campfires or when the power goes out and the house is dark, these stories work best when we seem vulnerable. A classic book like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein even has its roots in this type of story telling. It was during terrible storms in Switzerland that she was cooped up inside with her husband and Lord Byron. They would sit around the fire reading German ghost stories, which gave Byron the idea that they should each write their own supernatural tale.
The history of the horror movie is almost as old as cinema itself, George Melies directed the short silent film La Manoir du Diable in 1896. This vampire movie was only two minutes long, but it was loved by audiences. For the next thirty or so years it would mainly be German filmmakers who dabbled in horror, with 1922’s Nosferatu by F. W. Murnau, the first feature-length vampire movie and Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr Cagliari the most memorable.
By the time the 1930’s started, Hollywood had joined the scaring game, and so began the era of Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy. Actors like Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi became household names in these films and their many sequels. By the 1950’s the horror genre added aliens into the mix and the genre continued to evolve. There were film studios that were making horror movies exclusively and we began to a see a slew of low budget shock cinema.
What is significant is that many of the movies from this generation are actually available to watch online. Whether it be Invasion of the Body Snatchers, or Christopher Lee as Dracula, a number of online movie sites offer a huge range of these classic films. For the film buff the net is a treasure chest, with the ability to movies that are almost impossible to rent in video stores.
The modern generation of horrors began to evolve in the 1960’s and 70’s with classics like Hitchock’s The Birds and Psycho and Rosemary’s Baby and in 1973 The Exorcist became the highest grossing horror movie ever. And then in 1975 Jaws made by the young Spielberg became the highest grossing film of all time. On the the other side of the scale, independent movies like Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead began a sub-culture of horror films that would lead to movie franchises today like Saw and Hostel.
Of course the seventies and eighties also saw the introduction of Horror legends like Wes Craven and John Carpenter and film adaptations of the works of Stephen King. The work of Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street), Carpenter (Halloween) and Sean Cunningham (Friday the thirteenth) introduced the teens in jeopardy plot lines that would dominate horrors for the next two decades. More lately they have been influenced by the emergence of the Asian horror movies, with many even being remade in Hollywood. Movies like The Ring and The Grudge are both actually re-makes of excellent Japanese films.
But the best thing about finding horror movies online is that you are capable of finding that sub-culture that has existed since the 1950’s. Horror fans make movies and the internet has given them a medium to show them to the world. There are hundreds of spoof movies, slasher flicks, “gore-nography”, zombie films, and so much more out there. So if you want to get scared tonight, turn on the computer and start the search. Wait, didn’t a horror movie start like that?
