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The Black Death Plague (1346-1353) One of the deadliest pandemics known to mankind. 

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Coming from Asia, the disease known as The Black Death came to Europe. This disease was so deadly, given the name, that it wiped out nearly 50% of Europe population from start to end.

Back then the medical field and technology was not nearly as advanced as it is today. Professionals back then has theories of the spread of the disease but no strong evidence to back up the claims. It was believed that the air quality is what caused it, or even it spread from rats, as well as fleas.

Years later after technology advanced there was no evidence that the air quality had anything to do with its spread. Rats were the primary suspect during the time, but newest evidence shows the spread was primarily from fleas.

The Plague Doctors wore a bird like mask, and well as had their whole body covered, and a long cane so there was no physical contact with the patients. Herbs were commonly place inside of the mask as well. This was to filter the "bad air quality" that they believed was the cause.

There was never an end to the plague, it still exists today however because of an advance in science, medicine and research the cases slowly died off.

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Advancement in Technology and ways of thinking 1500-1600's

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Advancement in Technology and ways of thinking 1500-1600's

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The Scientific Revolution is often regarded as this time period that had opened many doors for humanity, where people had "started" to using critical thinking skills to improve upon society. However, science had existed prior throughout the ages, sometimes being referred to as "alchemy", where the 16th and 17th century marked an especially pivotal time.

It was around the time of the Scientific revolution that people stopped believing that science was explained away through magic or spiritualism. This is an important note for the time. Many scholars believe that the phrase 'Scientific Revolution' should essentially be done away with as again, science existed prior to 1543, however, a revolutionary concept was discovered at the time that highlighted the whole era.

The scientific revolution had started around when Nicolaus Copernicus had created his heliocentric theory in 1543. That being that the sun is at the center of the Universe and the planets revolve around this.. It wasn't correct, but it was a start, and this theory helped us discover the truth later.

Great astronomers such as Galileo Galilei (1564 to 1642) and Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 to 1543) helped pave the way for the understanding of our solar system. Galileo was the one that had discovered that our moon is in fact not a planet, but was an entirely different entity. This idea also helped build the concept that the moon could be a planetary chunk from Earth.

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Frankenstein (1818) Mary Shelley and Frankenstein (1931) James whale

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The Start of the Science Horror Genre (1818)

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The Start of the Science Horror Genre (1818)

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Mary Shelly’s Novel Frankenstein (1818) is seen as one of the first in the science horror genres.

based off Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, James Whale did a film adaptation of the book in 1931.

While being in the science horror genre, Frankenstein is a mad scientist movie/novel. This typically is seen by having a mad scientist life’s consumed by one specific project and their creation becoming violent. Frankenstein is the most known film with these themes.

Both the novel and film are very influential to the mad scientist part of the genre and influences movies such as The Vampire Bat (1933), The Mummy (1932), Frankenweenie (2012) and so much more.

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Dracula and the History Behind it Late 1800's

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Dracula and the History Behind it Late 1800's

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Much of the inspiration for Bram Stoker's novel 'Dracula' came from history and folklore. Terrifying stories of people being secretly alive after death and or cursing the living even in death inspired one of the most highly regarded vampire medias we know today.

Historically, anything that is not understood is often feared. When people began burying their dead and noticing changes, it made them very afraid. For example, Mercy Brown is regarded as the first American vampire, because of the incident she had faced after death.

Brown's family had fallen ill from tuberculosis and was slowly being picked off. With the TB treatment not coming out for another 4 to 5 decades, the Brown family never stood a chance at survival. However, they saw themselves being picked off one by one as a curse. It was believed that someone in the family who had died of TB was a vampire and was cursing them. With this, several of the dead family member's bodies were taken from their graves to be examined. However, there was one body of note that showed very odd signs; that was Mercy Brown. Mercy had barely decomposed and was shown to have trace amounts of blood still in her. This was later explained to be because she was buried in the winter in an above ground crypt, where the decomposition process slowed down immensely.

Lucy Westenra from Dracula is a noticeably similar character to the real life Mercy Brown. It would also make sense for Stoker to have learned about the store of Mercy Brown, as it had blown into a popular one across the world, most likely fueling the inspiration for Dracula.

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NASA Moon Landing (1969) and The Green Slime (1968)

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July of 1969 marked a critical point in history; mankind had landed on the moon. With this great achievement, many questions regarding the mysteries of the moon’s surface were answered. The public was able to clearly see what the moon looks like. Both mystery and discovery inspired a interest in space horror media.

Theories of the moon being a planetary chunk of the Earth arise from the past. These theories increased after the first moon landing, Apollo 11. With the popularity of Apollo 11, and more theories being formed, media began to boom with fantastical concepts regarding space (both prior, during, and after the achievement of landing on the moon).

The movie, ‘The Green Slime’ was one of these horror fantasy concepts directed by Kinji Fukasaku, a small but prolific director  from Mito Japan. The movie takes place on a space station, where a slime-like extraterrestrial wreaks havoc on an American space crew. The monster had originally found its way onto the ship as a harmless goo after the crew had destroyed an asteroid, Flora that was threatening to head to Earth. However, when the astronauts had gotten back to Gamma 3 and went through decontamination, the green slime that had been stuck to them had chemically mutated into a monster. The monster ends up mutating even more and multiplying. Eventually, the multiplied green slime take over the station, and the rest of the crew is left to abandon it. They leave in an escape shuttle, burning up Gamma 3 and the Green Slime aliens inside.

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Alien (1979) Ridley Scott, and the films afterwards that it influenced

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Influence Of Popular Science Horror Franchise Such as Alien (1979)

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Influence Of Popular Science Horror Franchise Such as Alien (1979)

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Alien came out 10 years after the moon landing which definitely helped inspire the idea of this movie. The plot of the film is that Ripley's group lands on a moon like planetoid to finish their mission. The mission gets paused when an alien attaches itself to one of the astronaut's causing chaos to unleash in the ship.

Alien has drawn inspiration onto other films such as The Thing (1982) and the A Quiet Place (2018-2024) franchise.

Overall, Alien is a popular franchise in the science horror genre. There are seven main Alien movies, including the most recent one Alien: Romulus (2024). The franchise became so popular that video games adaptions of the films have also been released to grow the popularity to the video game world as well.

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The Last Of Us Video Game (2013) and Film Series (2023). A franchise that blends the genres Science Horror, and Apocalypse together. 

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Cinematic Video Games: How They've Become an Important Part of Modern-day Media

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Cinematic Video Games: How They've Become an Important Part of Modern-day Media

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In modern day, a large form of consumed media is video games, especially cinematic video games. The Last of Us is a great example of this. Not only has this game created its own franchise with a recent (2023) television show that's come out, but it's also been remastered and optimized for different consoles so that even more people could enjoy it.

The story is apocalyptic; however, it is a blended genre of being apocalypse and science horror. The last of us branches off into the world of science issuing that the world has been taken over by a mold. This mold can bend people's minds and change them, forming them into deranged zombie-like creatures. There are other forms of media that expand upon these themes, such as Rot and Ruin (books), the Walking Dead (comics and TV shows), yet The Last Of Us is different, in the sense that the viewer follows the characters in a very different way. The story ending will always be the same for this game, but when happens along the way, is partially up to the person playing the game, creating an entirely different experience.

This is not the only game/show that has done that too, this is also seen in the Resident Evil franchise where people's bodies are taken over by mold and especially in the 7th and 8th game in the franchise players are given the scientific reasoning to everything, with lab results and data while still maintaining a horror aspect and blended with the apocalypse genre.

When reading or watching something scary, the viewer might be on the edge of their seat wondering what's going to happen next, however, it's ultimately not up to them. In TLOU, there are moments when the player would need to be extremely careful getting navigating around blind zombies (or clickers as they're called). This creates an entirely new type of fear and anxiety when playing, and therefore, and entirely different experience. It's the same, but different; it elicits more.

Although there is no pandemic in the real world that turns human into zombies, The Last of Us can be compared to any pandemic the world has ever come across, one being the Black Death

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Davies, O. (2023). Chapter 1: Magic in the Ancient World. In The Oxford History of Witchcraft and Magic (New, pp. 18–46). essay, Oxford University Press. Retrieved September 29, 2024, from https://ebooks.ohiolink.edu/viewer/bf958ee4-f57c-4d83-bede-7f08e4dfea05.

Open Book Publishers. (2015). Chapter 5: The Scientific Revolution: The Big Picture . In The Scientific Revolution Revisited (pp. 83–100). essay. Retrieved September 29, 2024, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15m7n9k.

“Plague Doctors: Dark History.” YouTube, 8 Feb. 2017, youtu.be/ShGKkDuCgAs. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Stoker, B. (2022). Dracula. Fingerprint! Classics, an imprint of Prakash Books India Pvt. Ltd.

“The History of Science Fiction Horror.” YouTube, 29 Oct. 2023, youtu.be/FnsRAbPviPU. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Tudor, Andrew. Monsters and Mad Scientists : A Cultural History of the Horror Movie. Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1989.

“What Made the Black Death (the Plague) so Deadly?” YouTube, 2 May 2019, youtu.be/m5q-PIN3KSE.

‌Weaver, James B, and Ron Tamborini. Horror Films. Routledge, 5 Nov. 2013.