From Boris & Vincent to NotLD & Rosemary's Baby - The Transition of Horror

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By the late 1960s, classic horror movies pioneered by Vincent Price and Boris Karloff had run out of steam. What took their place in the period after that was something different, edgier and altogether more terrifying.

"To some extent you could say that modern horror started with the Universal classics, but I do think there is this significant turning point starting in 1968," says Jason Zinoman, author of the new book Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror.

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"I think it was a huge transition from the old horror – (Boris) Karloff, Vincent Price and the old monster movies – to the kind of new brand of scares that you saw in Rosemary's Baby, Alien and Halloween," Zinoman says.

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Roman Polanski's film Rosemary's Baby was a huge step forward for modern horror films. It became an icon in part because a major studio was producing a film about the devil, but also because the film was one of first to bring that element of realism to the horror genre, Zinoman says.

"[Polanski] took this supernatural story and shot it on location in New York, and he made it about things people could relate to," he says.

For more, check this article on the book - http://www.npr.org/2011/10/08/141045...m-of-the-1970s