Horror Genre Conventions

Genre is important for many reasons, the first and perhaps most important of which is in the production of the movie because it acts as a basis in which the film maker can develop a story from. Secondly, for the audience, the genre allows them to predict if they would enjoy the film and gather a personal preference about which types of films they will enjoy more. Finally, the analysis or critic can investigate choices made during production and how the genre effects these choices made.

To help establish the importance of genre, I found this quote from the book, ‘Advanced Studies in Media’ by Joe Nicolas and John Price. “Genre – Which originates from a French word meaning ‘type’ – has always been a powerful idea in the making and analysis of feature films.” This quote backs my earlier points that genre is essential in not only making the film and helping the film makers but also for critics and audience to analyse the final product.

My team and I have decided to create a horror film trailer; there are many typical features and conventions that make a film distinctive to the horror genre and not for instance romance or comedy.

 Horror films are designed to provoke fear and alarm in the viewer and evoke their worst fears whilst as the same time captivating and entertaining the audience. Many common conventions used to create this kind of emotion are for instance using settings and locations which connote isolation and desolation, usually a place with a dark history such as an old school or abandoned house, a deserted attic/basement or even a forest or abandoned road. All these places will instantly set fear upon the viewer and perhaps enable them to sympathise with the characters from the beginning of the movie as they understand how scared the character would be feeling in their particular situation.
 

 

For example, in the film ‘The woman in black’ it is set in a small community where there is a remote abandoned house, this initially gives the viewer a sense of fear whenever the house is shown or mentioned. We see upon numerous times that the house is extremely isolated with very little ways of getting in and out due to the tide submerging the only available road.

Not only does the setting help establish the horror genre but it is also typical for there to be theme of death, for example a murder or ghosts and zombies etc.  

 Death is a taboo subject which frightens many people which is why it is a typical sub-theme within the horror genre.  Often there is a monster or some form of evil in which the main characters have to defeat, unlike in a thriller this Proppian villain character will not be a human but instead, some form of living dead, typically a doll, ghost, zombie, or vampire and so on.

For example, in the blockbuster movie, ‘Chucky’ a doll is used for the villain, not only do the scars on his face and body frighten the viewer but the fact he is a doll enables the viewer to relate more and therefore give an added sense of fear. To further back my point of the ‘living dead’ it is made evident that a doll, which should usually be lifeless has come to life and sieves to cause fear and corruption upon those he encounters, this upsets the norm of everyday life and leaves the viewer asking questions as to whether this could actually happen. 

Further characters from Propp’s theory typically found in a horror movie are the ‘damsel in distress’ or ‘princess’ characters, this is commonly a female who finds herself a victim of the villain and usually is the only one subject to the hauntings. As in ‘Insidious’  the woman stays at home looking after the children whilst the father goes out to work, it is during this time that the strange happenings occur leaving the father not to believe the mother. 

However, breaking the norm of the ‘damsel in distress’ character who seeks the help of the hero is Clovers ‘final girl’ theory, this girl is the protagonist of the film who is the last to survive and she defeats the ‘evil’ or ‘monster’.  She challenges the stereotype of women because she acts with bravery and intelligence unlike the ‘princess’. Clover says that this final girl becomes more and more masculinised as the film goes along and although this makes her seems as through women are in fact the stronger character I agree with the point that in factually this disproves that the female characters are superior to men because in order to defeat the evil the girl must use something which connotes men, for example a chainsaw or knife.

Take the movie ‘Friday the 13^th’ for example, here Alice Hardy is the final girl, she is the one who figures out the mystery of the murders and ends up beheading the murderer, she also features in one of the most memorable final scares in horror movies. The relevant clip is shown between 1:13-1:40 in this video. 

Further choices made within a horror film upon any other genre are within the camera-work and editing, for instance many high angles are used, this is usually used to connote authority however in a horror it is also used to give the impression that there is something more superior to us humans which plays on our fear of the unknown, not only this but also point of view shots give the sensation that someone or something is watching us, creating enigma codes.  These are very useful for in my own production as these are two issues in which we want the viewer to feel whilst watching the trailer.

Dark, Chiaroscuro lighting which low key, high contrast is used to emphasise the audience’s fear of shadows and unknown.  I believe that my trailer will be more effective if we too use Chiaroscuro lighting effects along with common horror themed colours such as red which connote blood and danger and black which connotes death and sin.

Through analysing typical Horror genre conventions I feel as though I can refer these into my own production work. For instance, instead of just using a school for the setting we shall show that it had a ‘dark history’ at the beginning of the trailer by establishing the death of a girl. This leads me on to the villain character who will be a young girl ghost. The audience will know the history of her whereas the characters will not, known as dramatic irony. The use of dramatic irony will allow the audience to relate or sympathise with the unknowing characters and perhaps desire to save them.