The horror genre itself has role to provoke a response; emotional, psychological or physical of an individual to react with fear. Horror films often deal with the viewer’s nightmares, fears, terror of the unknown and insecurities. In order to make a horror film successful in scaring their audience, they usually follow a set of guidelines known as the codes and conventions which are explained below.
CHARACTERS
Characters which often feature in horror films can be fantasy characters such as aliens, ghosts, spiritual figures, werewolves, vampires and many more.
Other characters include:
Hero/villain: most horrors include a hero whom has to defeat an evil character, the villain. The narrative develops with these two characters as they both fight for or against eachother for something. The majority of films often end with good beating evil however some films choose to subvert this and make the evil character unbeatable to surprise the audience.
Helper: most commonly known as a sidekick. Both the good and evil sides are likely to have one or more or even a community of sidekicks who help them defeat the opposition.
Princess: many horror films feature a female character of some sort. She is usually attractive and a figure whom the audience aspire or are appealed to. They can sometimes play the hero (or the villain) or even be the victim whom the hero and villain are fighting over.
NARRATIVE
Hero Vs Villain, mission or quest, deaths, curses, young children, possessive characters, good defeats evil, side-kicks and police officers involved, set in an isolated place, involves intrusion of an evil force, event or person into everyday life (disruption of the equilibrium).
THEMES
Good Vs Evil, revenge/grude, nightmares, hallucinations, visions, insanity, possessed, religion/belief, supernatural, gore, deaths, torture, violence, suicide and spiritual horror.
SHOT TYPES
High angle: this is used to make the subject look inferior and insignificant (e.g. a parent shouting at their child)
Low angle: this is used to make the surroundings look distorted in size and make the audience feel like they are small.
Close-up: this is used to convey emotions such as anger in a horror film
Point Of View: a very commonly used shot to make the audience feel as though they are taking part in the action. They feel involved and as a result, scared.
Hand held Camera: to create jerky action shots to make the audience feel uneasy,
Jump Cuts: these transitions are used to make the tempo of the action appear faster and make the audience feel scared.
PROPS
Weaponry: knives, guns, axes, chainsaws, firearms, sharp/heavy/blunt objects. Weapons can be stereotypical to a character too to make the audience remember them in sequels.
Make- up: dramatic, blood stained, cuts, bruises and open wounds.
Costumes: every day natural clothing for the goodies and dishevelled, ripped, blood stained clothing for the evil.
SETTING
Derelict or abandoned buildings, graveyards, churches, forests, hospitals, cellars, basements, roofs, castles, historical and isolated areas.
LIGHTING AND COLOURS
Low key lighting: allows dark shadows to form and spook the viewer and also create a dark, gloomy atmosphere to compy with the horror genre
Back lighting: to form a silhouette of a person or object which scares both the on-screen characters and the audience. It makes the figure look evil, superior and sinister as their identity is masked and hidden.
The lighting is often expressive and unrealistic.
Colours: reds are often used as they represent blood, evil and danger and black is often used as it represents death, evil and darkness.
SOUND
Non-diegetic: sounds such as a narrator explaining the story or music playing whilst the hero is walking down the street.
Diegetic: natural sounds in the shot such as footsteps, dialogue and background noise
Sound effects: horror films use many sound effects as they are necessary to create a scary atmosphere such as heartbeat sounds, violence, stabbings, gunshots, wind, screams and creaks. They are effective in making the audience feel uneasy as it makes the scene feel more realistic.
Crescendo: this effect is often used in horror films to build a climax in a scene which creates tension.
SUBGENRE'S
Supernatural, sci-fi, psychological, slashers, fantasy, gore, comedy, true stories, animal, zombies, werewolves
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