THE HORROR GENRE

Contents:• What is the purpose of the horror

genre?• The subgenres in horror• Effective film in the horror genre

What Is The Purpose Of Horror?•Horror Films are unsettling films designed to frighten and

panic, cause dread and alarm, and to connect to our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time.

•Horror films effectively centre on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsions, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, loss of identity, or fear of sexuality.

•These points are the purpose of horror films and they’ve been so successful ever since they were created as early as 1911 because people enjoy being scared and they are always looking for new and original ways to scare themselves silly.

Subgenres In Horror: Teen-Horror: Comedy-Horror:

Monster-Horror: Slasher:• Basic Slasher have existed for a long time but really became popular in the early 80’s with the success of Halloween and Friday the 13th.• This sub-genre usually features a lot of pursuits and a lot of gruesome murders. • Teenagers are often their favourite prey.

• This sub-genre regroups the monster films that have either been inspired by early roman (e.g. Frankenstein in 1818 or The Invisible Man in 1897), or by well-known myths and legend such as Bigfoot or the Bogeyman. • We can also throw in it the monsters from the fantastic world (Trolls, Dragons, etc) and those who became really famous in the 30’s such as The Mummy or The Creature from the Black Lagoon, since they now became a part of the modern mythological bestiary.

• Not really a sub-genre in itself since it describes a kind of film that can be found in almost any sub-genre (slasher mostly, but also vampires, monsters, ghost, etc.). • Usually very cheesy, this kind of movie always features dumb teens, a childish romance and an almost compulsory happy ending. •Appeared mostly in the late 80’s- 90’s.

• There are elements of comedy in a large number of the films genre presented above, but only a few movies really emphasizes on the comedy itself. • This is however a rising sub-genre

Supernatural Horror: Zombie Horror:

Paranormal Horror: Psychological Horror:

Splatter Horror: Horror Romance:

Subgenres In Horror::• At the limit with science-

fiction, this sub-genre often features a hero (quite often a teen or a kid for some reasons) with paranormal powers but who, unlike super-hero, is often unable to control them properly, resulting in pretty bad things.

• The paranormal and the fear of the unknown is naturally a classic topic of horror. • Gathering everything from ghost to demons and even witches, it is usually the part of horror cinema that gets the scariest.

• Zombie’s films could be part of the monster genre, but the sub-genre has been so exploited that it now deserves its own main separate genre. Technically zombies are undead human that wakes up from their grave for whatever reason: nuclear, apocalypse, witchcraft, etc. • But recently, new movies that features zombie-like virus and infection have started to come out. • Psychological Horror & Thriller

is the part of horror that feels the most real since it features the work of humans, either that have become crazy or that are stranded in exceptional situations. • Often linked with the thriller genre, these films build most of their horror around psychological tension.

• Splatter is the default term to define gory films. • Emphasizing on gruesome scenes, splatter films slightly differs from torture films by the fact that they use graphics and gory scenes within a story that is not centred on the torture itself.

. Often linked to vampires, there are nevertheless a few exceptions such as Warm Bodies (2013).

Subgenres In Horror::Gothic Horror:

Torture Horror:

• Gothic Horror defines a very atmospheric type of horror, a blend between dark horror, melancholy and romance. Associated with the gothic culture, its main inspirations are Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.• Torture films actually focus their story on the torture itself. • Whether it has a goal (like in Saw or Martyrs), or for pure pleasure (Hostel, Guinea Pig), these films often relate the story of mad people and the poor innocents that meet them.

An American Werewolf In LondonAn extremely effective horror film that was

released back in 1981 was called ‘An American Werewolf In London’.

This film that was directed by John Landis offered to the audience a more simpler and traditional horror film in comparison to the film ‘The Howling’ that was released earlier in the year. In this film a man is bitten by a werewolf while visiting a quite part of the English countryside and results in him becoming a werewolf when the moon is full.

Why Was It An Effective Horror Film?What makes this film so effective to the audience is the way in which the

quite simple story is created and presented to the audience through a wide range of different technical features though camera shots, angles, mise-en-scene, editing and sound.

The most noticeable and original feature that can be found in this film is the use of mise-en-scene in the spectacular special effects makeup used for the werewolf transformation scenes. In earlier horror films these transformations would have been done though a series of fades from one stage of the monster makeup to another.

When shown to an audience ‘An American Werewolf In London’ offered a horrifically painful scene of the transformation that seemed to be taking place before the audiences eyes due to the stunning makeup effects and the series of close up shots used to show the extreme detail on the main character. Also the sound effects added through the editing added to captivating the audience because it allowed them to feel as though they were in the moment and watching this man transform into a wolf before their eyes.

Another impressive makeup feat was demonstrated through the spectacular throat wounds suffered by the hero’s friend (who returns from the dead to warn the hero of his fate), which appeared to be utterly appalling and disturbingly beautiful at the same time.‘American Werewolf In London’ also has a great sense of humour that enhances some of the horror situations, but never descends into a parody.An example of this is in the opening scene an over-the-top version of the rural Gothic with the local pub being called “The Slaughtered Lamb” being a good touch but also it delivered the genuine suspense and horror. The use of British and London locations and some British stereotypes bring a sense of freshness to the film which helped it become one of horror cinema’s more memorable werewolf stories and also a very effective horror film in general.

Why Was It An Effective Horror Film?

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