Horror genre

Setting

• Isolated house• Graveyard• Haunted house• Cabin • Mental institute• Forest• Old/historical house• Church• Deserted towns

Technical codes• Camera work is expressive and non natural, creating the heightened sense of fear and making the

audience on edge.

• Low angled shot makes the villain look powerful, high angled shot makes the victim seem powerless and vulnerable.

• Ambient diagetic sounds of footsteps and heavy breathing.

• Extreme close ups showing the fear in the characters’ faces.

• Establishing shots showing the audience the setting and location of where the characters are.

• Point of view shots allow the audience to view scenes through the perspective of the character, making them feel like they’re in on the action, enhancing the fear. This is also true with the use of hand-held camera movement. Similarly, this makes it difficult for the viewer to see what is happening, distorting the vision, and yet again heightening the fear the audience would have.

• Short takes create fast paced action and tension.

• Low key/ambient lighting makes the scene seem gloomy and scary, where the audience can’t see if something is going to jump out.

• Motivated lighting through props such as lamps and streetlights only has light in a confined area, creating shadows and shade for someone to be hiding and creates an extended sense of fear of the unknown.

High angle low angle Ambient, low key lighting

Extreme close up Motivated lighting Establishing shot

Iconography

• Colour red: blood, violence and danger.

• Females in white: purity, vulnerability and innocence.

• Villains in dark clothes: evil, secretive and unknown. Likewise, the villain may be wearing a mask/costume: hidden identity, mysterious and a shady character that needs to be watched.

• Knife/weapon: danger, death and male power.

• Monsters are seen as dangerous and are to be feared because they are non human, and people are instantly apprehensive and concerned about things they can’t understand.

• Characters usually get around the scenes in cars, getting stranded in the middle of nowhere, creating a small, confined area for the villain to corner and attack them (creating a ‘he’s behind you’ moment).

Narrative structure

• Murder takes place at the beginning, then the rest of the film there is more murderous activity following the first murder, and the hero usually escapes death of the villain. The villain then becomes set on killing the hero that escaped, however they do not succeed. The villain/murderer escapes at the end, not returning to equilibrium and leaving the film on a cliff hanger, open for a sequel.

Themes

• Male dominance. It is the male that usually goes after the villain to stop them. Also, it is often a man who turns out to be the villain, suggesting that men like to assert their power by using phallic symbols (knife) to kills women. • Fear. There has to be an uneasiness in the characters for the audience

to be scared and made to jump. • Law and justice. The police are not usually the ones to catch the ‘bad

guy’, instead it is the civilians who uncover the identity of the villain, or the villain does not end up being caught, leading to an unhappy ending which is very common in the horror genre.

Character types

• Clear villain and hero- usually one villain which the collective ‘good’ are fighting against, e.g. ‘Ghost face’ in scream.

• Blonde females usually seen as weak and innocently vulnerable. They are in ned of protection. She is normally slightly dumb and therefore the first victim to be killed in the villains murderous scheme. Whereas the brunette’s seem to be more feisty and survive longer than the helpless blondes.

• The hero is typically a strong male who is brave and goes after the murderer. There is a love interest often in horror films, so that the strong male has someone to look after, and the female needs to be protected by their boyfriend.

• Villain is nearly always a murderer, who often wears a mask or costume to cover up their identity, keeping them hidden from the characters and to the audience. If they become injured, they will soon recover from this, exaggerating the idea that they are inhuman.