Mid and Late 20th Century Horror

In the 1950’s there were advances in technology so there was a turn of traditional gothic horror and it shifted to become more relevant to the more current audience. The horror film fell into the two main sub- genres; the horror-of- armageddon. This sub-genre depicts the menace stemming from either nature gone mad or God gone wrathful. Though apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic themes are prevalent in many film genres, when portrayed through the horror medium, the apocalyptic force is typically less religious and more supernatural. A notable example of this sub-genre is George Romero's ‘Night of the Living Dead’. The horror-of-the demonic sub genre was perceived through evil forces undermining the quality of human existence. These evil forces can be portrayed through witches, devils or even demons. The Exorcist is a key example.

Around this century Hollywood co-opted the popularity of the horror film and so the producers and directors found new opportunities for audience exploitation with gimmicks such 3-D glasses.
Some directors of horror films of this period managed to channel the paranoia of the Cold War into atmospheric creepiness without resorting to direct exploitation of the events of the day.
Filmmakers continued to merge elements of science fiction and horror over the following decades. One of the most notable films of the era was 1957's “The Incredible Shrinking Man” During the late 1950s and early 1960s; production companies focused on producing horror films, including the British company Hammer Film Productions. Hammer enjoyed huge international success from full-blooded technicolor films involving classic horror characters.

An influential horror film of the late 1960s was George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. It was produced and directed on a budget of $114,000, it grossed $12 million domestically and $30 million internationally. This horror-of-Armageddon film about zombies was later deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". It blended psychological insights with gore; it moved the genre even further away from the gothic horror trends of earlier eras and brought horror into everyday life In the 1970’s ‘Evil children’ and reincarnation became mostly popular within horror films. Plus Satanic horror were also popular Invincible to human intervention, Satan became the villain in many horror films with a postmodern style and a dystopian world view.

In the first half of the 1990s, the genre continued many of the themes from the previous decades. Two main problems pushed horror backward during this period: firstly, the horror genre wore itself out with the proliferation of nonstop slasher and gore films in the eighties. Secondly, the adolescent audience which feasted on the blood and morbidity of the previous decade grew up, they expect what is of horror films and are not as easily surprised as before. This is called audience sophistication. Also the replacement audience for films of an imaginative nature was being captured instead by the explosion of science-fiction and fantasy, courtesy of the special effects possibilities with computer-generated imagery.

So Horror became more of a self-mockingly ironic especially in the latter half of the 1990s.
For example ‘Scream’(1996), featured teenagers who were fully aware of horror movies and often made reference to the history of it and previous horror movies. It was also mixed with ironic humor and shocks.