Horror exploded as a commercial literary genre in the late 1960s

Horror grossed more than $1B at the box office for the first time in 2017

It was the first time the genre broke the barrier for domestic box offices, powered by hits like “Get Out,” “IT” and “Split.” Since then, horror movies have remained commercial juggernauts: In 2025, the genre surpassed the $1B mark by September.

‘Horror hosts’ helped build the genre’s cult following

Horror is now considered high art, but much of its cult popularity is due to the B-movies that defined the genre. Starting in the 1950s, many of these low-grade films were licensed on the cheap by television networks to fill airtime, introduced by “horror hosts”—MCs with campy, over-the-top personas.

The ‘Universal Monsters’ series solidified horror as a film genre

Before 1931, most scary movies were billed as “mystery” or “suspense” with grounded explanations for anything "supernatural." That changed with “Dracula,” which presented the character as a real vampire who drank victims' blood. Universal continued adapting similar titles, including HG Wells’ “The Invisible Man” and Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories.

Horror evolved from Gothic literature

Although creepy tales can be found in nearly every folk tradition, the roots of modern horror can be traced back to Gothic literature, which focused on the battle between humans and unnatural, evil forces.

‘Halloween’ is one of the most profitable indie films of all time

The 1978 John Carpenter movie grossed $70M in its initial run despite a modest budget. It helped pioneer the “slasher flick” subgenre, though it wasn’t filled with cheap thrills. As Roger Ebert pointed out in his review of the movie, Carpenter’s filmmaking techniques—alongside his original score—were a work of art.

British censors turned 1981's 'The Evil Dead' into a notorious cult classic

Sam Raimi's debut feature film is considered a classic horror movie—one that was as ridiculous as it was scary. Despite protests from politicians and parent groups, the film became a surprise hit abroad with audiences who understood it as campy satire—something that was lost on its would-be censors.

Body horror is a subgenre that uses anxieties about appearance

Made popular in the 1980s through films like “The Fly,” the body horror subgenre focuses on physical transformation and violence. It gained significant attention in 2024, thanks to the critical attention “The Substance” received, including an Academy Award nomination for best picture.

'Carrie' kick-started a wildly successful career

King has published more than 60 novels—along with dozens of novellas, hundreds of short stories, and several collections of nonfiction—and has sold over 400 million books. This 2024 interview finds him reflecting on his debut novel, and breakthrough hit, "Carrie," and the wild success that followed.

Early English fantasy writers built on horror and Gothic texts

After the success of 19th-century books like Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” readers were eager for more stories that deviated from realism. Early 20th-century texts like George MacDonald’s “Phantastes” and Lord Dunsany’s “The King of Elfland’s Daughter” met the moment, laying the groundwork for the fantasy genre.

Ten of the most horrifying moments in film

Many films in the genre lean into gratuitous horror, putting off the average viewer. This list of ten moments highlights particularly terrifying scenes from films that otherwise met with mainstream acclaim, from "Mulholland Drive" to "The Lord of the Rings."

Hitchcock's 'Psycho' broke many established rules in film

Hitchcock flouted convention for “Psycho,” which many consider his masterwork. Hitchcock broke new ground with the 1960 film, with risqué imagery and shocking twists. The film was the most commercially successful in his long and illustrious career.

Horror video games rely on terrifying sound design

Horror has become a popular gaming genre, which designers say is due, in large part, to the games' soundtracks. Don Veca, the audio director for the game Dead Space, said, “Sound and music prepare the player to be scared – it’s all about the buildup, the tension, and then the release when something jumps out at you.”

A comparative analysis of the romance and horror genres' overlap

Both genres aim to make their readers' hearts pound, albeit in different ways. Romance novelist Trilina Pucci argues that the gap between the two aims is much slimmer than it may seem, with some horror tropes (like a man enraged by the abuse of his wife) and romance tropes (like the subgenre of dark romance) blurring the line.

'Friday the 13th' kicked off a summer camp-themed trend

When it was released in 1980, “Friday the 13th” was panned by critics, but it established a lasting horror trope: the unsafe summer camp. The setting made for a natural fit: vulnerable children exiled from normal society, isolated in the dark woods.

Stephen King once shelved his own book

Stephen King's "Rage" follows a high school student who kills a teacher and holds classmates hostage. Originally published in 1977, the book was later linked to several school shootings. In the late '90s, King asked his publisher to pull it from print.

How 'Star Wars' changed science fiction

The popularity of "Star Wars" shifted the market away from the more literary, and sometimes cynical, science fiction of the 1960s and '70s. In the wake of George Lucas' space opera, publishers and studios wanted similarly optimistic adventure stories. In time, though, writers like William Gibson would react against that and, in turn, create the "cyber punk" subgenre.

Consumers are buying more books now than they were 20 years ago

Interest in reading spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued building since then. The romance and fantasy genres in particular have been especially popular, with titles celebrated on BookTok, a wing of TikTok dedicated to reading, spurring the craze.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

How Harlequin became the most famous name in romance fiction

The publisher, which began as a modest family operation in 1949 in Winnipeg, took off when it noticed its bestselling titles were romance novels. That success intensified as it began selling its titles in grocery stores during the 1970s. This deep dive explores its meteoric rise and how that would set the stage for the genre for years to come.

Although not known for horror, a young Tennessee Williams wrote a gothic radio play

The "Streetcar Named Desire" author wrote "The Strangers," a short script, while a student at the University of Iowa in the 1930s. Andrew Gulli, managing editor for the literary magazine that published the unearthed piece, said that it blends classic '30s radio horror with themes Williams would revisit in later, more famous work.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

The oft-cited roots of the true crime genre

The 1966 book "In Cold Blood" by American author Truman Capote is often considered the beginning of true crime as it's known today. The story details the real-life murders of a family of four in Holcomb, Kansas, using techniques that, at the time, were relegated to fictional tales. Before it was a book, the narrative was published by The New Yorker in 1965 as a four-part series. 

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

The Beats also influenced the imagery of the 1960s

First editions of Burroughs’s "The Naked Lunch," Kerouac’s "The Dharma Bums," and Ferlinghetti’s "A Coney Island of the Mind" were just as notable for their text as they were for their design, which anticipated the psychedelic imagery of 1960s countercultural touchstones like Ken Kesey, Andy Warhol, and R. Crumb.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, readers returned to Camus' 'The Plague'

The 1947 novel, about a city in Algeria that enacts a city-wide quarantine to battle a deadly outbreak, captured readers' attention in the early months of 2020. In the UK, over 2,000 copies of the book were sold in March of that year, over six times what it had sold the month before.

Theater of the Absurd brought existentialist ideas to the stage

In the 1950s, playwrights horrified by the events of World War II and inspired by existentialism’s response to it began staging plays that brought many of the philosophy's ideas to center stage. Critic Martin Esslin coined the term “Theater of the Absurd” in 1960, citing the plays of Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, and Eugene Ionesco as indicative of a new theatrical style that rejected realism and standard plot.

'Harry Potter’ book launches became midnight cultural events with strict rules

As anticipation grew, bookstores worldwide hosted midnight release parties for new Harry Potter titles—drawing crowds in costume, complete with games and countdowns, transforming book launches into global celebrations of reading. Libraries and stores were required to adhere to strict regulations over who could handle the books before the official debut.

The Ouija board originated in 19th-century America

The bizarre board game that helps people communicate with the dead at sleepovers first emerged in the 19th century as a business-minded response to the growing fascination with spiritualism. The Ouija Board has since generated an abundance of sales, as well as scientific research.

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Fireworks make a loud booming sound after exploding due to air expanding faster than the speed of sound.