A History of Horror Podcast

What next for horror and cinema in general? The last episode tries to see what the future is.

Films are more freely available than they ever have been. Horror films can stream on Youtube and Netflix but people are still heading towards the cinema

Nigeria and South Africa dominate a brief discussion on film from this part of the world

A brief look at films from Egypt, Turkey and a Tobe Hooper film from the UAE

After the twin tower attacks horror changed. The birth of torture porn and the return to retro shocks. America realised that the reason the killer might be the house was that they might not just like them.

In the 1990s what was, in Japan, a return to retro-styles of horror felt fresh for Western audiences. Vicious violence and sex fell away to be replaced by scary ghosts coming to get you

From serial killers, to a new breed of slasher movie and to seeing dead people. The USA 90s horror landscape had plenty going for it.  

A trip to China shows the split between Hong Kong and the mainland, India is a Bollywood treat and Pakistan only had their first gore film in 2007

At Christmas time there’s plenty of reasons to be afraid. Here we look at the traditions of telling ghost stories this time of year.  

A real mixed bag of crazy, wild and weird films. All with only one thing in common

VHS brought democracy and freedom for film. It brought a new asthetic to horror too. Along with a flood of new nostalgia and, of course, the video nasties.

We head to Spain. See Jess Franco, spot some werewolves and get attacked by some Blind Dead. Greece briefly figures too.

Down in Mexico there is some great horror and across that entire part of the world is a quiet horror boom

Taking a look at a very particular element of exploitation culture has changed how we see low budget horror. Christopher makes a case that the concept of Grindhouse has altered our view of 70s cinema.

Looking at the obsession of American ghost stories and supernatural elements in people’s homes

The French love a bit of gore, from the theatre through to Eurocine, Cinema Bis and The New French Extremism. These films are all designed to make you think and shudder.

Italian cinema can get a bit of a bad reputation. Here we look at the scene and see if that’s a tad unfair. There are, after all, plenty of classics too.

Between 1968 and 1984 there was a boom in horror in America. This podcast starts at Night Of The Living Dead and the explosion of adult horror

Looking at films from Scandinavia, you can see the influences of myth and folklore  

There isn’t much of it, but Russian horror is an interesting little subgenre, dancing between the surreal and brutal honesty  

The 50s was a time of Cold War, nuclear bombs and paranoia. Gothic horror just wouldn’t cut it, so sci-fi horror began to grow

From the grand gothic of Hammer we know slip over to a very English fear. There is old magic in the countryside, religious extremism and bloody murder as we take a look at the unique genre of folk horror

We go from the start of horror through to the boom of Hammer in this first half look at British horror films Part two will look at Folk Horror through to modern fights and will be released on April 19th  

We’re back in America for the moment Hollywood realises that there is money to be made from horror movies. Universal introduce their iconic monsters to the world and the classic film versions of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and more are born.

We continue our journey by going to Germany and examining the impact of expressionism on the country at the time, and art right up to the modern day. We look at films such as The Student Of Prague, Nosferatu and Vampyr

We begin our History of Horror journey right at the birth of cinema. From the beginning exploitation was present with horror films and we can see this with Edison’s productions among others.  There was also the rise of the cinema special effect and the work of master film-maker George Melies

A quick introduction to A History Of Horror Podcast before we start. Christopher Brown sets the scene and explains what the plan is for the next year.