Generic Horror

conventions:April Carr

Genre translates to the type of film. A horror film is supposed to appear scary and

sinister to the audience.

Themes:

Horror films centre around the dark side of life; the strange, forbidden and alarming events. The typical themes of horrors include:• Revenge• Haunting• Demons and exorcisms• Gore• Apocalypse (zombies)• Serial Killers• Ghosts

Mise-en-scene:

• Lighting: Low key, lots of dark contrasts shadows and silhouettes, puts the audience on edge and creates mysterious or sinister situations.

• Props: Violent weapons often feature in films as a main aspect such as in Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the chainsaw). Antiques often also feature in horrors to give a sense of mystery to the film.

• Setting: Often an isolated location where there is no escape, for example in the woods. Setting is also in grungy, dark conditions to give off a sense of unease.

• Costume: Often are iconic and represent the whole character or film, for example costume in the Scream franchise is now well known. Masks are often used as hiding a killers identity adds tension and mystery to the film eg. ‘who is the killer?’

Settings:

Setting often include areas such as:• Graveyards• Asylums/ Hospitals• Basements/ Attics• Isolated areas• Run down cities• Woods

Cinematography:

• High and low angles are often used throughout horror films to show power. For example to convey to the audience that a character is inferior a high angle shot, looking down on them, will be used.

• Close-ups are also used to display emotions to the audience and allow the audience to match a characters feelings.

• Point of view shots are also widely used within horror films. This is because it keeps the audience involved, therefore when something shocking occurs they also become scared.

Horror film examples: