When horror was fist introduced it received a not so shockingly negative impact by society. Majority of the population immediately saw it as evil and something that should be avoided. While the minority embraced it as the new and creative art that it was.
In a time where movies were just growing and not many were released, each movie had a much greater chance to leave an impression. Also, at this time people were not very open minded to thing that were outside of their norm. So when a movie came to their local theatre that featured screaming women, unknown creatures, and things that they have never seen before, it was no wonder they reacted in the way that they did. I can only imagine how much shock was placed upon those very first horror movies goers. When they saw these movies for the first time, I believe that they thought that the films were "evil" and "sinful" because of the strong presence of religion during this time. They were unsure of what they were seeing on the screen and attributed it to being a negative thing for their religious community. On one hand, I can see how this is what people of this time period would turn to, but on the other hand, I think they should have seen the pure talent, and energy that had gone into making these films happen.
The horror genre was brand new, and that alone took a lot of ingenuity to create. When was the last time you created something brand new that had never been seen by the world? For this fact alone, I think that the horror genre should have gotten the benefit of the doubt. Due to the under recognition of these films, many actors ended up poor after their credits had passed. The horror genre almost went down the drain because of the criticism. This situation should not have resolved to this. Society should have seen this as a brand new art form, and should have anticipated the next release date, instead of judging it based off of their lack of imagination, or knowledge.
There were very few people out there that saw the movies and automatically recognized the value of these films, and these people greatly aided the progress of the horror genre. Just by adding some positive feedback into the pool.
In the very beginning of horror movie history, it was drastically swayed by the judgment of society. Without their perseverance horror movies may not be at the point that they are today. However, they overcame the negative critics and created some of the greatest movies to date.
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