Horror Genre Research:
Characters:
Female Victim• in horror movies female victims are often portrayed as being vulnerable and in need of protection. Usually young, blonde women are used which are often portrayed as being stupid and annoying and are usually killed off but aren’t the first to be killed. This character helps build up suspense to the audience, as her screams and behaviour often make the audience jump.
Hero• Mostly always a male character who is usually strong or well built. The hero is mainly brave and goes after the murderer, often never returning. This character shows little emotion to show that they are brave and to support the rest of group.
Evil character• Can take many forms such as a serial killer, ghost or monster. If human they will often wear a mask to disguise their identity. Wearing a mask can also play on the fear of the unknown. Ghosts and monster do not exist which play on the audiences more primal fears and the thought that they could actually be around. An example of films we see with this sort of convention is in Scream where the serial killer has a mask also in Saw and Chucky.
Location:
Haunted House This is a common horror film location, normally Examples of films using featured at night time. It is haunted houses: usually an old, derelict or abandoned house. Conventional haunted houses mostly involve a tragic accident or brutal fatality to occur within the location, which causes it to be haunted.
Grave Yard This is a common location to set parts of a conventional horror film. This location type works well because it has connotations of death, ghosts and loneliness.
Suburban House An example of this This is more location is featured in: conventional in modern horror films. This is a good location for a horror film, as it is realistic to a modern audience and it makes the audience relate to the film more.
Many horror films are often set at night. This fits with Levi Strauss’ theory of binary opposition. This links to the idea of things going bump in the night or that monsters can hide in the darkness. This concept is derived from peoples’ childhood fears of monsters under the bed or in the cupboard. There are many examples of horror films that are set at night for example Paranormal Activity, Saw and The Grudge 3
Narrative:
Most commercial films have a conventional narrative of a beginning, middle and end. This is known as the three act structure.
The set-up, this is normally the first 5 – 10 minutes of the film. It is here that all vital information is provided (main characters, basis of the storyline, location, and genre). This is the most important part of the film. During the set-up the following will occur: catalyst: the catalyst is what gets the story going. Usually an event. Central question: this is a problem, situation or issue that needs to be resolved by the end of the film.
After the set-up, key elements have been introduced it is important that the narrative moves quickly so that the audience’s interest is maintained. Turning points: are used to do this. These change the direction of the story and raise the stakes. There will be a turning point at the end of act one and act two. The moment the audience most want to see is the climax. This is the big finish of the film – where the good and bad guy meet. The resolution is the final part of the film where all loose ends are tied up.
Sub Genres Within Horror:
Action horror is a sub-genre that combines the intrusion of evil, an event or the supernatural in horror films with the gun fights and frantic chases that are performed in action-genre themes and elements that are often prevalent in action-horror include most commonly zombies, along with demons, gore, vicious animals and vampires. Examples include, dawn of the dead, from dusk till dawn and blade this category also fuses the fantasy horror genre, for example resident evil, Ghost rider and planet terror.
Comedy horror combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. The horror genre almost always inevitably crosses over with black comedy. The film “the legend of the sleepy hollow” is cited to be the first and greatest comedy-horror genre. Examples include scary movie, slither, Shaun of the dead and gremlins.
Zombie films portray viral reliving corpses/ mindless humans that feed off of the living. Examples include, night of the living dead, dawn of the dead and I am legend.
Why do people like horror movies?:
People like to watch horror movies because they like the thrill and excitement that rushes through them when they get scared. Although people despise fear, they like it in a horror film due to the fact that it gives them an adrenalin rush which they enjoy yet they know nothing is going to happen to them as they know that majority of horror films are very farfetched so they know they are safe.
Typical fears Explored:
I think that the most typical fear in a horror film is the element of surprise. The fact that the audience are always on the edge of their seats because they don’t know what’s going to happen next is the biggest fear in most horror movies. In Scream there is an scene where scream jumps out of nowhere, this is the element of surprise and scares people because they were not ready for what was about to happen.
Conventions:
The conventions found in horrors are used to scare, thrill and entertain the audience. Horror films center around the dark side of life; the strange, forbidden and alarming events. Some of the typical conventions of horrors include:
• Revenge
• Haunting
• Demons and exorcisms
• Gore
• Serial Killers
• Zombies
Paranormal Activity 4:
The possession:
Grave Encounters:
The Devil Inside:
As we can see from the trailer this straight away fulfills the convention of a horror film. We can see the conventions ‘haunting’ be portrayed throughout this trailer. It is clear when we see the girl talk to herself and almost connecting with spirits that we as the audience can’t see, making the audience get that sense of sacredness and making it a successful horror film.
From this trailer we can also see another horror convention fulfilled. This convention is demons that possess little children. We can see that in the trailer the little girl starts off normal and just like any girl however as she discovers the box we can tell that this box has had an effect on her and has possessed her in some way to start attacking the people she loves.
In this trailer we can see lots of conventions fulfilled to make this a very successful horror movie. We see lots of gore, possessed characters and haunting conventions going on. We see that on one of the ghost hunting team members, they have been cut and with the cuts a word has been made. Also we see a mysterious spirit and wondering around in the hospital that the team catch on camera and finally we see at the end the girl who is almost demon like and screams and attacks the ghost hunter.
The devil inside is a film based on the convention of demonic possessions taking over peoples life’s. As we can see from the trailer the women’s mother was possessed by demons and made her act in a psychotic way and these possessions then spread to the doctors analysing her. This fulfills the typical horror convention making it a good example of a horror film.
Some differences that we see in these films is that they don’t always include all the conventions. For example in all of the films I looked at they didn’t include the conventions such as serial killers or revenge. This shows that as time has gone on people prefer possessive spirits haunting people rather than serial killers slashing people to death.