Dracula (1931 English-language film) in the context of "Horror films"

Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include monsters, apocalyptic events, and religious or folk beliefs.

Horror films have existed since the early 20th century. Early inspirations predating film include folklore; the religious beliefs and superstitions of different cultures; and the Gothic and horror literature of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley. From its origins in silent films and German Expressionism, horror became a codified genre only after the release of Dracula (1931). Many sub-genres emerged in subsequent decades, including body horror, comedy horror, erotic horror, slasher films, splatter films, supernatural horror, and psychological horror. The genre has been produced worldwide, varying in content and style between regions. Horror is particularly prominent in the cinema of Japan, Korea, and Thailand, among other countries.

Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length ... which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing". Horror intends to create an eerie and frightening atmosphere for the reader. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for larger fears of a society.

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (Hungarian: [ˈblɒʃkoː ˈbeːlɒ ˈfɛrɛnt͡s ˈdɛʒøː]; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), better known by the stage name Bela Lugosi (/ləˈɡoʊsi/ lə-GOH-see; Hungarian: [ˈluɡoʃi]), was a Hungarian–American actor. He was best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the horror film classic Dracula (1931), Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956.

Lugosi began acting on the Hungarian stage in 1902, appearing in more than 170 productions. Beginning in 1917, he performed in Hungarian silent films. During World War I, he served as an infantry officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1914 to 1916. After the failed Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919, Lugosi was forced to emigrate to Germany due to his Socialist party activities. He acted in several films in Weimar Germany, before arriving in New Orleans as a seaman on a merchant ship, then making his way north to New York City and Ellis Island.

Edward Van Sloan (born Edward Paul Van Sloun; November 1, 1882 – March 6, 1964) was an American character actor best remembered for his roles in the Universal Studios horror films such as Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and The Mummy (1932).

Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. He is interested in film history and horror fiction – both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven – and alternative history. He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the BSFA award.

The history of horror films was described by author Siegbert Solomon Prawer as difficult to read as a linear path, with the genre changing through the decades, based on the state of cinema, audience tastes and contemporary world events.

Films before the 1930s, such as early German expressionist cinema and trick films, have been retrospectively described as horror films, since the genre did not become codified until the release of Dracula (1931). Dracula was a box office success, leading Universal and several other American film studios to develop and popularise horror films well into the 1940s. By the 1950s, horror was often made with science fiction themes, and towards the end of the decade horror was a more common genre of international productions.

Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of supernatural film and horror film. Supernatural occurrences in such films often include ghosts and demons, and many supernatural horror films have elements of religion. Common themes in the genre are the afterlife, the devil, and demonic possession. Not all supernatural horror films focus on religion, and they can have "more vivid and gruesome violence".