The subjects and settings for horror movies are as limitless as one's nightmares. Some films use the classic horror settings of ruined castles, graveyards, and haunted houses. Others find terror in quiet suburban streets. Sometimes innocent children can be as frightening as zombies, and everyday objects can be possessed by evil spirits. To scare people, horror films can use graphic violence, screaming, and bucketloads of blood and gore, or they can hint at what lurks in the shadows. From the early days of cinema, horror movies have terrified, shocked, and entertained. Their changing styles have matched the worries and fears of successive generations of moviegoers.

Horror movies began by adapting popular novels by writers such as Mary Shelley (1797–1851), Bram Stoker (1847–1912), and others. It was only natural for the new film industry to cash in on the success of novels like Frankenstein (1819) and Dracula (1897; see entries on...