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By Nadia Kounang, CNN
5 minute read
Updated 3:19 PM EDT, Thu October 29, 2015
Though the horror-film genre has often had narrow, if enthusiastic, audiences, through the years, a number of horror films have broken through and become some of the biggest box office hits of their era. "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925) was a huge hit in the silent era, making the equivalent of more than $100 million in today's dollars. The film starred Lon Chaney, the "Man of a Thousand Faces," and Mary Philbin.
Universal Pictures built its success on horror films in the '30s and '40s. One of the biggest hits of 1931 was a now-classic version of "Frankenstein." The film stars Boris Karloff, left, as the monster.
Another of Universal's big 1931 hits was "Dracula," which stars Bela Lugosi as the vampire in the role that made him famous -- and stereotyped him for the rest of his life.
"House of Wax," from 1953, was the first color 3-D film from a major studio. It became one of the highest-grossing films of the year. Vincent Price stars as a sculptor who populates his wax museum with corpses.
The gripping "Psycho" (1960) may have been the closest director Alfred Hitchco*ck came to pure horror. The film's shower scene, starring Janet Leigh, still has the power to shock, and motel manager Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) remains one of cinema's creepiest villains.
Director Roman Polanski's 1968 film version of "Rosemary's Baby" stars Mia Farrow as an upscale New Yorker impregnated by Satan.
George Romero's 1968 film "Night of the Living Dead" was made for just over $100,000 and grossed more than $30 million worldwide. It also invented the modern zombie movie, with brain-eating undead ghouls threatening the human population.
The best-selling novel "The Exorcist," about a possessed child, became the hugely successful 1973 film "The Exorcist," starring Linda Blair. The film, directed by the William Friedkin and starring such notable actors as Ellen Burstyn and Max von Sydow, earned 10 Oscar nominations -- acclaim rare for a horror film.
"Halloween" (1978), a low-budget film from director John Carpenter, became a big hit, boosting the career of the director and his star, Jamie Lee Curtis. It also led to a number of similar slasher films in which a masked villain pursues a series of victims.
"A Nightmare on Elm Street," from 1984, introduced the character of Freddie Krueger, who haunts the dreams of teenagers in a fictional town, and launched a franchise that eventually included nine films, a TV series and countless people wearing a stained hat and a bladed glove for Halloween. The success of the first film helped make the name of its studio, New Line Films. Years later, New Line financed the "Lord of the Rings" films.
"The Silence of the Lambs" won a slew of Oscars, including best actor (for Anthony Hopkins, pictured), best actress (Jodie Foster) and best picture. The 1991 film stars Foster as an FBI agent on the trail of a serial killer and Hopkins -- who has just 16 minutes of screen time -- as Hannibal Lecter, a jailed killer who assists her.
"Scream" (1996) was both horror film and horror film parody, directed by one of the genre's masters, Wes Craven, who also did "Elm Street." Its success (and wit) helped energize the genre. Drew Barrymore, seen here, was one of the film's performers.
Director/writer M. Night Shyamalan is fond of twists and probably put them to best use in his first major film, 1999's "The Sixth Sense." Psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) hears Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) say he can see dead people. Shyamalan's film balances psychological horror with a moving story.
The "found footage" idea of "The Blair Witch Project" (1999) gave rise to countless copycats. In the film, a trio of students are making a documentary about the Blair Witch, only to find themselves victimized by unseen terrors. Made for just $60,000, it grossed more than $250 million.
"Saw" brought mass-market horror films a new level of graphic intensity. In the 2004 film, two men are chained in a bathroom, with each directed to kill the other. Its success led to six sequels and other films determined to out-gross the last -- in more ways than one.
Top horror movies
Story highlights
Humans are born with two fears, the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises
Most fears are learned fears
Fear can increase dopamine in thrill seekers
CNN —
“I’ll huff, and I’ll puff and blow your house down,” calls out the deranged writer Jack Torrance, hunting down his wife and son, in Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1980 horror movie, “The Shining.” And as he takes a breath, he brings an axe down on the bathroom door and starts to hack away. At the same time you hear Shelly Duvall, who plays his wife, scream from the other side. Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, splits enough of a hole in the door to push his head through. “Here’s Johnny!”
It is one of the most heart pounding moments in cinema, and while some find watching the movie stressful, others will relish it watching it over and over again.
Fear is an adaptive behavior that we have to help identify threats. It is an ability that has allowed us as humans to survive predators and natural disasters.
Innate fears
We are born with only two innate fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud sounds.
A 1960 study evaluated depth perception among 6- to14-month-old infants, as well as young animals. Researchers placed the subjects on a platform that had plexiglass just beyond its edge to it to see how many of the subjects would actually step over the “visual cliff.” Most of the subjects – both children and animals – didn’t go “over” and step out on to the plexiglass. The fear of falling is an instinct necessary for the survival of many species.
When you hear loud sounds, you most likely will react with a fight or flight type response. It’s called “your acoustic startle reflex,” said Seth Norrholm, a translational neuroscientist at Emory University. Norrholm explained that if a sound is loud enough “you’re going to duck down your head. Loud noises typically means startling. That circuitry is innate.” It’s a response we have, that signals something dangerous may be around the corner.
Learned fears
Most fear is learned. Spiders, snakes, the dark – these are called natural fears, developed at a young age, influenced by our environment and culture. So a young child isn’t automatically scared of spiders, but builds on cues from his parents. “You get evidence from your parents and your environment that you need to be scared of these things,” said Norrholm.
While the fear itself is learned, though, humans seem to be predisposed to fear certain things like spiders and snakes because of evolution. “Back in our ancestral age … young children learned not to pick up snakes and spiders because they’re venomous,” said Norrholm.
In fact, studies have found that when asked to pick out spiders and snakes from a collection of pictures, both preschoolers and adults react more quickly than when asked to pick out non-threatening items – like flowers – from the same collection. That’s believed to happen because of the bias we have carried toward them throughout time.
As we get older, fears are developed because of association. Norrholm compares it to a combat veteran who survives an encounter with an IED that was hidden in a shopping bag. If that vet is redeployed and sees another shopping bag, “he has a fight or flight response. Here, an association has been made between the cue and the fear outcome.”
It’s the same exact response a child has to scary Halloween decorations. “It’s about context,” said Norrholm. A young child may not know that a skeleton is a scary, until his parents say over and over how skeleton decorations are spooky.
How does the brain process fear?
When presented with something that scares you, your brain reacts with its fight or flight response. For example, if you see a snake while hiking, there are two roadways for your brain, said Norrholm.
First is the low road that represents your brains sensory systems in the brain’s amygdala. It’s “what you see, smell, hear,” and signals to the brain that this is something to fear. It’s the adrenaline response that tells your heart to beat faster and your body to sweat.
Almost simultaneously, there’s a high road reaction. “That goes through your higher cortical center in you brain. The high road says ‘I’ve seen this kind of snake before, and I don’t have to worry’,” said Norrholm. Think of it as the reasoning response that overrides the low road.
“There is some evidence to suggest that thrill-seeking is like anything pleasurable – gambling, eating, – it releases dopamine,” said Norrholm. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control our brain’s reward and pleasure centers. “We know that the more you reward something, the more that they do it,” said Norrholm.
And the more that thrill-seekers seek out the dangerous behavior, the better they are able to engage the cortical high road, and provide the rational context that the thrill-seeking behavior isn’t dangerous. Extreme sports athletes are a great example of this: They continue their dangerous behavior because each time they do it, they survive, Norrholm said.
There are some people who genuinely seem to enjoy being scared. “We know there are some basic individual differences in how people are wired,” said Glenn Sparks, a communications professor at Purdue University. Sparks specializes in the cognitive and emotional impact of the media, particularly horror movies.
“Some people are wired to seek out highly sensational experiences.” When they are exposed to that kind of experience “they get the adrenaline rush,” said Sparks. He likens those who enjoy watching horror movies to people who like riding roller coasters.
And Sparks says thrill seeking seems to have a gender bias. “Men have been socialized not to show signs of distress, but to conquer it. For females it is much more acceptable to show signs of distress.”
Studies show we can overcome some of our fears by continued exposure to them. By constantly exposing ourselves to our fears, whether it extreme sports, horror movies, or snake and spiders, our tolerance for them will grow, said Sparks.
But, remember, that being frightened isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, it’s been a survival mechanism for humans for millions of years.
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