Horror Research

Horror

Generic conventions

The generic conventions of Horror seems to center around the ways to scare the audience and question their fears. This can be done multiple ways such as a sudden movement, sudden change in volume of music, a loud bang, jump scares and things appearing on the screen out of nowhere -often a horrific face.

Iconography/Images

The type of things that you can recognise in our genre depends on the sub-genre. For example, if it is a Apocalyptic Horror (28 Days Later, Alien) this could be show through the deselect areas and very few people except the few survives, protective suits, gas masks etc. In a Slasher Horror (Halloween, Scream) there tends to be a weapon wielding killer and a lot of blood and gore, knifes etc. In Comedy Horror (Shaun Of The Dead, Black Sheep) there would be some aspect of horror along with things that would not usually go along with a generic horror and could be found in a typical comedy. For example, in Shaun Of The Dead vinyl records are used to kill zombies were as in most Zombie horrors a gun or other form of weapon would be used.

Characters

In Horror there can be multiple characters, most of who have died by some means by the end of the film. In most horrors now there tends to be a heroine that survives and kills the villain. Also in many horrors there are characters such as the lovers, the fool and the "jock" most of whom, as I said would die in the film. Obviously there is also the villain or the thing that causes the horror for the other characters, this does not necessarily have to be human but can be a creature or supernatural (ghost, entity).

Storylines

The story line would usually consist of someone or something terrorising the main Character/s and most of the time multiple of the characters would end up dead as is with horror.

A Nightmare On Elm Street:

Teenagers begin to get murdered on Elm Street and without any witnesses a young male is taken in as suspect. before long more teens are murdered. Only the teens realise what is happening as when you go to sleep is when you get murdered. The murderer in question is Freddie Krueger who has claimed the dreamworld as his domain and kills any teens from Elm Street that sleep as revenge for what their parents did to him long ago.

Settings

Depending on the sub-genre the setting can change to fit with it. In some cases horrors can be set at Proms (Carrie, Prom Night) which would usually be aimed more at teens therefore would be Teen Horror. Some could be set in a large eerie house that is supposedly haunted (Amityville Horror, Paranormal Activity). Other could be set in woods or a cabin in the woods (Blair Witch Project, Evil Dead) to back the idea of fearing the unknown.

Themes

There are many themes for Horror such as the Serial Killer (Silence Of The Lambs, Wolf Creek) which is based around or inspired by serial killers. The
fear of the Unknown (The Mist, The Thing) which brings to light that not knowing can be very scary. Also psychological (Secret Window, Pontypool) which brings your mind into the horror and question what simple things can terrify you.