Horror

Horror

The genre of horror has been around for century’s form Dracula to Annabelle it entices audiences from far and wide.  A convention of this is to scare your audience. This is usually brought about by shocks and tragedy’s. The antagonist is usually a ghostly figure of the creature everyone is afraid of. The protagonists usually include someone who has experienced a trauma previous to this.

Other protagonists can include the gang of teenagers, these usually include an alpha male and a typically feminine character. These are used as an audience can generally find someone whom they can relate to or sympathise with.

Lighting used in horrors is usually low key, or chiaroscuro. Both of these methods are used to make the audience wonder what is behind the shadows. This is a good convention to use as a general human fear is the dark as we don’t know what is there. This is also great territory if you are a villain seeking vengeance. 

Paled colours are also keenly used such as pale blues and whites, theses colours suggest innocence which opposes the overall theme. In several horror films children are used to create an opposing sense of innocence which frightens the audience more. This also provokes instincts with in the female audience who could feel a motherly responsibility for the children and provoke emotions within them.

The target audiences of horror are typically 14-40 year old males.

Several times the antagonist is an unrealistic being such as a werewolf, vampire or doll. This unrealistic sense make the audience wonder what type of superhuman powers they could possess to beat the protagonist.

Like most other genres horror has the typical hero and villain, donor and helper and princess.

However rather than being a person the princess is usually getting away from the villain or defeating them.