What is Horror?

Preeti Jandu

What is Horror• 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

• Examples of horror films:

A Nightmare on Elm Street - Freddy Krueger, an evil being from another world, stalks a group of teenagers and kills them through their dreams.

Saw - Two men are held hostage by a psychopath, who is set on teaching his victims the value of life by putting them into demented life or death games.

Friday the 13th - While trying to re-open a summer camp, a group of camp counsellors are mysteriously murdered by a machete swinging slasher.

HorrorHorror includes the following:

• Structuralism• Characters• Setting/ location• Props• Villain • Camera work/ sound paradigms

Characters • Characters a mostly simply dressed e.g. A lady wearing a simple top and jeans looking casual, often dull colours are worn.

• Character is normally a women/child being chased by a man shows women are more weaker.

• Character is scared once they see a weapon, villain or see a sign of danger created by the villain.

• Character is shown to be very frightened, feeling isolated, lost, need of help, screaming, crying, vulnerable, hiding from the villain, finding a weapon to use on the villain, protecting either a child or someone who means a lot to them.

Setting/Location• Setting could be in a dark house, in the woods, in the bathroom, bedroom, cellar, loft or an old attic. The location is normally dark, dull and in a quiet, isolated environment. For example if the setting and location is placed in the woods it will be dark which represents fear as the character is not able to see what's coming, with big trees and you will be able to hear digetic sounds such as the owl making noises or small insects making noises, the character breathing or screaming in fear.

Props and Weapons• Props can help us to further identify horror genre. Specific props can

be identified with a certain villain or character (Chainsaws, Machetes, Knife, Claw Gauntlets, Costumes, Firearms etc).

• Common objects include: Weapons, Masks, Icons of the Supernatural, Religious Icons etc).

• Props are used to identify different characters such as dark clothing for a villain.

• Weapons are often sharp objects which creates a sense of fear.

Props and Weapons• Props can help us to further identify horror genre. Specific props can

be identified with a certain villain or character (Chainsaws, Machetes, Knife, Claw Gauntlets, Costumes, Firearms etc).

• Common objects include: Weapons, Masks, Icons of the Supernatural, Religious Icons etc).

• Props are used to identify different characters such as dark clothing for a villain.

• Weapons are often sharp objects which creates a sense of fear.