Conventions of Horror

Setting

A variety of locations can be used for a horror film, however the most stereotypical settings used are:

• Woods
• Abandoned Houses
• Old, grand houses (usually with a dark history)

These places are most often used for their sense of isolation and the consequential difficulty to get help.

Camera Work

The hand held shot has become increasingly popular in contemporary horror movies with the accessibility of cameras in today's society. For example, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield are shot almost if not entirely by seemingly amateur characters. This is meant to add to the viewer experience as the audience are put in the same unknowing place as the characters and must unravel the events as they happen.

Abstract angles are also frequently used. This is often done to disorientate the viewer in a particularly climactic part of the movie. It can also partially obscure certain elements of mise-en-scene, for example the antagonist may be seen for a fraction of a second before clearly appearing to build up the tension.

Editing

The pace of editing varies to increase or decrease tension in the film. The pace may slow in a horror, but only to deceive the viewer by lulling them into a false sense of security. When suddenly juxtaposed with a fast paced scene, the sense of fear and terror are intensified.

Sound

Music is a key element in horror movies. A notable example is the shower scene in the 1968 movie Psycho. Loud, sharp, high pitched music is played in time with the stabbing, emulating the knife's movement in sound. It is also highly intrusive, a sound that cannot be escaped when it is being played and is difficult to forget. This heightens the fear in the audience.

Characters

• Main Protagonist
• Villain/Protagonist Element
• Victims

Style

Since films like Scream, horror films have become self-reflexive - they reference or ironically mock the genre. While this adds a form of social commentary it also allows the film to be more innovative as it, quite subtly, does not take itself seriously. An example of this is exaggerated gore  where a minor injury can seriously or fatally wound a character. Combined with an increased fragility in the human body, violently bloody images have become a staple in today's horror movies.

Audience expectations for horror genre

Horror Audience

Horror is more aimed at people who want an adrenaline rush from being fearful of something/someone. The target audience age from around 16/18- to 30 year old, it is more likely for males are to watch horror films. Teenagers are usually aimed at as well due to them be curious and daring to watch it, this is because most horror films involve unknowing, naive teenagers as the main protagonists, which are the target of serial killers or psychopaths!

The audience do expect to be scared or even horrified, they will sit down knowing something will happen on there screens to scare them. The audience know as well that there may be blood, screaming, tension building music. So they do expect the horror to scare them.

The aim is quite hard sometimes due to there being age restrictions on films. They have to be either 15, 18 or even older, so this can be quite restricting. Horror films can involve different types of subjects, such as one could be more bloody, one could be very discreet with the blood, injuries etc.

9 frame analysis

The screen shots used in this were taken from the film Drag me to Hell. It displays usual conventions of the horror genre. It shows it characters background and information though simple techniques. The top left screenshot shows a poor man helping a woman off a truck. It suggests that they are poor and have travelled a long way for help. Another character is shown as a spiritual woman with supernatural powers. The supernatural factor is used a lot in this opening scene, for example the male character in the shot in the middle gets hit and flung by an invisible force. The child is also dragged down by a hand coming from a fiery place which is presumed to be hell. This appears to be due to a necklace shown in the bottom left shot which possess super natural forces. They use editing, lighting and cinematography to create fear and tension. They use a shot panning up of the shadow of the boy being dragged down. This creates a feeling of fear for the audience. This is similar to our film as we are using the idea of fire and death as well. We are not using the supernatural convention as much and are using the violence more. This is were these films differ however, the film techniques, character status and others are similar as we have followed these conventions of a horror.

Iconography of Horror/Thriller genre

 Horror/Thriller film genres follow specific conventions. Firstly, the genre of film has a certain type of enemy. For example, this photo shows a hidden, unknown character which often has violence linked with it. Characters generally have a defining feature for example in this photo it's the mask and the machete that makes the character memorable.

The genre of film often has weird, unusual, twisted aspects about it. One example of this is the film, Cabin in the woods which has supernatural aspects about it to add a fear factor with the mystery. Horror/Thriller films use ideas similar to human behavior, but skew them slightly so the audience understands, but is worried about it.

 The cinematography in this genre are odd and unusual camera shots and framing. They use close up camera shots to show detail and so you can learn more about the characters. The editing is also sharp and fast paced to create tension and fear.

 This is an example of how the genre uses lighting, cinematography and mystery to create fear. They use shadows and low lighting in order to create tension with approaching enemies and unusual situations.



 Horror/Thriller films use violence, blood etc in order to create fear and tension. There have been many different weapons used and each weapon shows a different type of person. This idea is used well to imply what kind of people are in the movie. I can suggest madness though knives, nooses etc.

Iconic sounds connected with the genre.

Horror has many different type of iconic sounds to use when once the film is produced. Horror has different ways of sound coming across, by having an empathetic sound to match the sound with the characters mood. For example in horror if a character is scared you may hear a sound effect or song to match with the characters emotion which was scared.

Non- diegetic sound is used alot in horror films, this is too build tension and to show that something may happen. But to also over exaggerate the sounds for example, a drip from the tap may be louder than usual. This is to create more tension as the genre is 'horror'.

In the start of the opening sequence we use screaming/shouting in the background of the scenes, this is to add tension to the start and to make people aware of the fact he has stuff going through his mind. This is known as non-diagetic sounding. We also added in a song to build the tension.

In our opening sequence we are using a piece of piano music on top of the murdering scene, this is to show we can use terminology correct and also show different ways of sound. This is known as non-diegetic sound which means the character cant hear this, but the audience can. This will be very effective as you will still see the characters reaction and see her facial expression that she's screaming.

Font of title analysis

We have picked horror as our genre, this means the font needs to fit in with movie. I have researched into two different horror movies and there title fonts, styles and how it also fits in with the movie.

Halloween

Halloween is a horror based film which there title fits in with the film. They have made the font bold and has a twist by the letters being arrowed or straightened. The opening title is very stereotypical as they have involved a 'jack 'o' latern' placed on a black background. This makes the Halloween title and John Carpenter's also stand out as its orange which makes the title very bold.


                        The Last House on the Left.



This title is very different, but yet another stereotypical title. They've used a white font on top of blood splattered onto the picture. Which suggests that the film is bloody and gory, this also suggests that something is going to happen by there being a picture of a girl's mouth being covered up! But also they've kept the very simple idea of showing a house in the picture. The font size is different this is to make the words 'House' and 'Left' stand out this is to make the audience aware that its not any house but its on the left.

For our opening sequence we made the 'Animus' font very edgy, so it looked out of place and this is to clarify that there is something wrong, suggesting its a horror movie. This would hopefully stick out to our audience and they would recognise that we tried to make it seem odd with the title 'Animus' the audience members would already be confused as not many would understand what it means.