Horror Film ResearchBY- CELESTINA

Idea of horror movies 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 centre 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.

Iconic Horror Films/ Characters

Profile: Roger L. Jackson Film: ScreamSignature: Buck Knife, Ghost face mask

Profile : Jason VoorheesFilm : Friday the 13th

Signature : Hockey Goalie Mask

Profile : John KramerFilm : SawSignature: he cuts a puzzle shaped piece of flesh from victims who didn't survive (symbolizing their missing survival instincts)

Iconography of horror

A family moves into the haunted house

The disfigured face or mask

The screaming victim ‘the final girl’ The phallic murder weapon: knife, stake, chainsaw

Binary oppositions of good and evil e.g Dracula/Van Helsing

Darkened places where the ‘monster’ lurks: woods, cellars

Sub-genres Film genres often branch into sub-genre, as in the case of psychological horror (demons and

possession)

Slasher films typically involve a psychological killer, who stalks & kills a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a phallic object such as an knife

Splatter films or gore film is a subgenre of horror film that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. These films, through the use of special effects, tend to display an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human body and the theatricality of its mutilation.

Monster is a name commonly given to horror movies, which centre on the struggle between human beings and one or more monsters.

Zombie are creatures usually portrayed as either a reanimated corpse or mindless human being

Zombies are portrayed as representing a variety of social, economical and cultural issues, affecting our world today (consumerism for example)

Sub-genres

Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, expectation, uncertainty, anxiety and terror. Thrillers often add a strong investigation angle to the film, it becomes a mystery than a slasher orsplatter

Japanese horror, also known as j-horror is the Japanese contribution to horror fiction in popular culture. A common convention for j-horror is the ideology of ‘yurel’ . A yurel are female Japanese ghost who wear white clothing (funeral attire in japan) and have long unkempt black hair. Which comes from the tradition of Japanese women growing their hair long & wearing it up. Only letting it down in death

psychological horror focus on mental conflict such as paranoia These become important as the characters face perverse situations, often involving the supernatural, immorality and conspiracies. psychological horror tends to keep the monsters hidden

vampire have always intrigued and frightened people from cultures around the world. Demonic or supernatural possession was often juxtaposed with blood-drinking, sex, and corpses the practice of cannibalism. This emerged the genre of vampire movies