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Research for my chosen genre - horror

Carys Fletcher

❧ The definition of genre is ‘A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content.’

❧My chosen genre was horror, I can use horror to depict an audiences fears mixed with terror and the unknown. Horror film is a genre that aims to create a sense of fear, panic, alarm, and dread for the audience. These films are often unsettling and rely on scaring the audience through a portrayal of their worst fears and nightmares. ‘Horror films usually center on the arrival of an evil force, person, or event. Many Horror films include mythical creatures such as ghosts, vampires, and zombies. Traditionally, Horror films incorporate a large amount of violence and gore into the plot. Though it has its own style, Horror film often overlaps into Fantasy, Thriller, and Science-Fiction genres.’ - quoted from http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/horror#

Genre information

The Conjuring ❧ http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-conjuring/❧ The Conjuring is a prime example of using certain fears to inflict terror

into people, using props such as the Annabelle doll, and psychological impacts. The dark setting and scenes show us that it is a horror, with this it uses slow and tense background music and sound effects to build up dramatic effect. The film came out quite recently so it is up to date with certain effects that can again inflict fear into viewers. The old photos also give us a quite vintage and unsaturated giving off an uneasy feeling to them. The fonts are in black to express a dark sense of viewing, they also show newspaper documents which gives evidence that horror occurrences happen.

❧ http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-shining/❧ The Shining is again another example of horror movie, the title

sequence is quite different to the usual dark and mysterious colour and mood you would usually get. It still has some of the basic effects that still allow us to clearly know what genre it is, for example the music is still very slow and low keyed, this builds tension throughout title sequence. Throughout the title sequence we see dramatic effects such as the danger of being on the open roads near cliffs or heading straight out into the wilderness where you can be vulnerable to a number of things.

The Shining

❧ http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/seconds/❧ Seconds shows the fact that it is a horror from start to finish of the

opening titles, to start off the colourless of the images, this is an unnerving effect by showing no saturation amongst the photos or people involved, the black and white also suggests little emotion. It also suggest darkness and going into the unknown. The use of facial features suggest that the senses play a large part in the movie, or that they will be needed. The music choice was also to create dramatic effect.

Seconds

❧ My summary for the research I have done is that there are a number of features that must be included, including a certain atmosphere to the titles, which could be gloomy/dark/blurred/misty to add dramatic effect. Another major effect is the background music or sound effects, I would have to make sure the music fits the scene and has build ups when needed. I should also try to think of common fears/phobias and include these in my title sequence whether it be physiological or prop work. I should also find clear ways of interpreting a link so that the so called film could carry on, the title sequence doesn’t have to tell the story but just to introduce it.

Summery