Horror film
A film designed to frighten, unsettle, or horrify audiences through frightening subjects, suspense, or disturbing imagery.
Suspense: A state of anxious anticipation about what may happen next in a story. Delayed revelation and uncertain outcomes keep audiences tense before a threat strikes.
Psycho (1960 film): Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 thriller about Marion Crane and the Bates Motel. Its shower scene and narrative shock reshaped screen horror.
Le Manoir du diable: Georges Méliès's 1896 short film featuring a devil, supernatural transformations, and comic scares. It is often cited as one of cinema's earliest horror films.
Thriller: A genre that sustains excitement and tension through danger, uncertainty, and urgent conflict. Thrillers emphasize suspense, while horror centers fear, revulsion, or dread.
Moral panic: A public reaction that portrays a person, group, or cultural practice as a threat to social values. Horror films have repeatedly been blamed for corrupting audiences or normalizing violence.
Jump scare: A sudden image or sound designed to startle an audience. A sharp sensory shock produces an immediate fear response.
Night of the Living Dead: George A. Romero's 1968 film about people trapped during a zombie outbreak. Its bleak, low-budget approach helped establish modern zombie horror.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Robert Wiene's 1920 German silent film about a hypnotist and a somnambulist linked to murders. Its distorted sets and unreliable perspective shaped cinematic expressionism and horror.
Science fiction film: A film that explores imagined technologies, scientific change, or speculative worlds. Science fiction becomes horror when its inventions or creatures chiefly provoke terror.
Video nasties: A British press label for video releases accused of obscenity and prosecuted or restricted in the early 1980s. The controversy exposed conflicts over horror, censorship, and home video.