What is the purpose of the horror genre?

• 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.

1896 - In this time period filmmakers began to experiment in the horror genre. The world’s first 'true' horror movie was creates, it was called The Devil's Castle. The film lasted 3 minutes and was created by an illusionist.

1898- An English man named George Albert Smith created his 'special photographic contrivance'. This device enabled home ti show ghosts on film. This introduced the paranormal aspect in horror films.

1910 - The first version of famous Frankestein was created by Mary Shelley.

1911 - The film Notre Dame de Paris was released, it was filmed by Pathe and it was known for the first full length movie with a monster in it.

1913 - Chaney 'The man of a thousand faces' created makeup for the horror genre, this stunned audiences as the makeup was used in a different way (making characters look scarier and to have emphasis on blood and wounds)

1928 - The first Horror movie with sound is introduced ' the man who laughs' it becomes popular as it’s not a silent movie.

1931 - Successful gothic horror film series (American Movie studio Universal Pictures): Dracula, Frankestein and The Old Dark House. These films were science fiction.

1933 - The invisible man featured a mad scientist. This type of film was designed to thrill but also incorporated serious elements.

1940's - horror movie become very successful – by actors; Boris Katloff and BelaLugos

1950's - 1960'swith advances of technology, the ton of horror films shifted from the Gothic towards contemporary concerns. Two sub-genres began to emerge: the horror-of-Armageddon film and the horror-of-the-demonic film

1960's - ghost and monsters still remained a frequent feature of horror, but many film used the supernatural premise to express the horror of the demonic.

Blood Feast (1963) and Two Thousand Maniacs (1964) both used ghosts in their films but inhabited supernatural premise.

During the 1970’s horror films began to involve the youth in the counterculture began exploring the medium. The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) recalled the Vietnam war. In late 1970‟s Canadian director David Cronenberg featured the „mad scientist‟ movie sub-genre by exploring contemporary fears about technology and society. A cycle of slasher films was made during the late 1970‟s. Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980) and A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

Subgenres/hybrids of HorrorHorror Subgenre/Hybrids Film Examples

Cannibalism Hannibal 2001

Costume Feature Creepshow 1982

Dark Fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth 2006

Demonic Possession The Last Exorcism 2010

Erotic Horror/Paranormal Romance Thirst 2009

Gore/Sadistic Saw

Gothic/Supernatural The Woman in Black 2012

Halloween Halloween Resurrection 2002

Comedy Shaun of the Dead 2004

Psychic Power The Sixth Sense 1999

Psychological The Shining 1980

Sadistic Eden Lake 2008

Satanic Stories The Devil’s Advocate 1997

Sci-fi The Thing 1982

Serial Killers/Slasher Behind the Mask 2006

Supernatural The Grudge 2004

Suspense/Thriller The Cabin in the Woods 2012

Teen Prom Night 1980

Vampires Bram Stockers Dracula 1992

Witchcraft The Wicked 2013

Wolves/Werewolves Bad Moon 1996

Zombies Frankenstein

Psychological Horror - driven by characters’ fears and focused more on psychological dread than on murder or mutilation. Could

be supernatural, e.g. The Others

Target audience: 18+

This horror is difficult to understand, so people under 18 could not get what’s going on

Slasher - Slasher film is a sub-genre of Horror film that revolves around a psychopathic killer. This killer stalks and murders his

victims in extremely violent and memorable ways, e.g. Sorority Row

Target audience: 16 – 25

In this horror the main roles are played by teenagers/young women, people above 25 could not be interested in this type of horrors (with teenagers)

Gore/Sadistic

This subgenre of horror is one of the most used types however most of these types of movies have similar concepts. The purpose of this sub-genre is to make the audience feel more disgusted than scared. You would expect to see some type of weapon used like a chainsaw e.g. in Texas chainsaw Massacre or some types of torture weapons as well. Another convention of gore/sadistic horror movies is there will be plenty of blood and body part being cut off and the killer will be hunting down his victims. These movies often tend to be disturbing which is why some can have niche audiences.

Demonic Possession

This is again one of the most popular subgenres in the horror genre. The purpose of this sub-genre is that it gives the ultimate thrill for ‘sensation seekers’. It is one of the most terrifying sub-genres of horror because it is spine chilling and it can make people believe that possessions can take place and they can start to fear the devil. These films tend to be based around religion and having an evil entity taking over someone. At the end there will most likely be an exorcism being performed and special effects added with the demonic voices. These movies are said to have an actual effect on the viewers as some of them have the feeling of being possessed themselves whilst viewing the film.

Target Audience

For these two subgenres, the target audience would be around 18-25 because in cinemas, most horror movies from these subgenres are age limited at 18 to prevent younger audiences from viewing it as they contain footage that they may find disturbing and could possibly mentally scar them. As for the 18-25 year olds, these types of movies would be more suitable for them as they are old enough to understand that the films are not real and they can handle the blood/gore and possession that take place.

Sub-genre of horror : comedy.

• The targeted audience for comedy horror movies is teenagers. These movies are aimed to make the audience laugh but also to make them scared. These movies are usually "parodies" of horror films. An example may be scary movie 1,2,3,4 and 5.

FB COMMENTS

FEEDBACKS

From the feedback from Facebook and survey monkey, we found that loads of people would expect to see the same things for example, blood, gore and for it to be very scary. These are all conventions of horror movies, so it showed that most people have the same idea about the horror genre as it is what we are always shown by movies, programmes etc.

Lots of blood34%

Scary33%

Good story line11%

Makeup effects11%

Death11%

What do you expect from horror movies? (from the interviews)

Conventions for Horror Genre

PLOT

DeathOne stupid characterAlways falling when running awayCreepy child

“Annabelle”

“Orphan”When Esther stubbed the dad, killed the nun with a brick and set the tree house on fire with the boy

“The Orphanage”

CHARACTERS TYPES AND REPRESENTATION

Evil entity – mysterious and ugly

Curious one – have to explore

Stupid one – ruins the plan

Macho one – tries to fight and save everyone

Scared one – runs and hides (every man per himself)

Calm one – “everything is going to be okay!”

Ones that warn you at the beginning

“Brain” of the situation – knows what they are doing and makes a plan

“Insidious”

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE Beginning starts calm (equilibrium)

Middle – haunting/murders begin (disequilibrium)

End – most people dead and one get used to their new reality (new equilibrium)

“Wrong Turn 5”

Chronological – sometimes flashbacks

CAM SAMC SHOTS

Establishing shot – shows overall location

Wide shot – shows body movement e.g. running away

Close up – shows details e.g. scared eyes, wounds

POV – shows what they are going through

Mid shot – to show face, reactions

ANGLES Low – someone looking in a basement High –victim’s lack of powerCanted – to makes us feel uncomfortable or to involve

“The Others” – establishing shot “Chucky Doll” – close up

“The Silence of The Lambs” – uses POV to create tension

“Clover field” - counted angles

COMPOSITION

Shallow focus

“The Others”MOVEMENTS

Pan and track - chase

MES - CHARACTER

Costumes – torn, dirty clothes (stained with blood), mask

Make up – smudged makeup (from crying), wounds on the face, damaged hair

Props – some sort of weapon (knives, axes, gun etc.)

Young kids – ghost, paranormal

“The Last House On the Left”- Damaged hair- Dirty face

“Down Of The Dead”- Dirty clothes from blood

“Paranormal Activity”

“Sorority Row”- weapon

MES – SETTING

Location – forest, outside the city, isolated, abandoned, location with a hidden past

Exterior and interior

Type of building – mostly dilapidated houses, barn, factory

Time – mostly evening and night

“Wrong Turn”- location: forest - Exterior

“Texas chainsaw”- Types of building : factory- Time: evening/night

“Silent Hill”- Village with hidden past

“Jeeper Creeper”- At the end : factory

“Jeeper Creeper 2”- Bus - Daytime

MES – LIGTINING/ COLOUR SYMBOLISM

Colours : often black (dark, mysterious), red (dangerous), blue filters

Non-naturalistic

Low key light – can help to create dark shadows and unfamiliar shapes in the blackness

Available light – streetlights

Light can be motivated in the world of the film – e.g.. Torches, fireplaces

“Saw”

“The Orphanage”

EDITING CGI and special effects are used in horror to make the situation seem more dramatic and scary.

Fast pace - e.g. when running away; medium pace

Fast forward – to create tension

Jump cuts – during chase scene etc.

Eye-line match – when they see something horrible

Match on action

Cross cutting – e.g. when hiding from a killer; killer is trying to find them

Straight cutting (transition) – to show realism

SOUNDThe non-diegetic - often used within horror. It can be eerie and create tension within the audience e.g. heartbeat

Diegetic sound – often used for distortion and to make the audience scared, e.g. screaming, breathing

Asynchronous – e.g. hear someone's steps

Volume control – combination of loud and quiet

Dialogue – e.g. whispering or shouting

Sound perspective – e.g. a friend is far away and they scream to the victim to run away

Sound motifs – associated with character or place

Sound effect – e.g. sudden explosion

REPRESENTATION• Almost all of the male are represented as hegemonic masculinity, who act macho

and heroic and want to save everyone.

• Almost all of the females are represented as helpless and victims that need to be saved by a male hero.

• The youth – can be seen as less experienced and more vulnerable to the type of events that happen in horror films.

What we like in horror movies?

Ewelina

• When they have a good story line

• When they scare me to death

• When they have lots of good special effects

• When they use POV (point of view), I feel involved

• When they use good sound effects

• When they includes ghosts, demons, or other depictions of supernatural occurrences

• I really like psychological horrors, but also supernatural and slasher

Gabriella

• Horror is my favourite genre as although most have similar concepts, they always fins new and interesting way to portray a particular entity or creature. I also like the fact that they contain a lot of suspense and thrill which although may lead to the same outcome; they may have a plot twist which will keep me intrigued. The main reason why I like to watch horror movies is to see the different ideas that they come up with as to the way the kill characters or resolve the problem.

Nikol

• My favourite thing about horror movies is the suspense that it provides the audience with and the impact that it leaves on you (makes you scared and concerned after the movie has ended)