Horror conventionsBy Bushra Ijaiya

Horror film genre history • Horror in the first half of the '80s was defined by slashers

like Friday the 13th, Prom Night and A Nightmare on Elm Street, while the latter half tended to take a more light-hearted look at the genre, mixing in comic elements in films like The Return of the Living Dead, Evil Dead 2, Re-Animator and House. Throughout the '80s, Stephen King's fingerprints were felt, as adaptations of his books littered the decade, from The Shining to Pet Sematary. Twenty-first century horror in the US has been identified with remakes of both American (Friday the 13th, Halloween, Dawn of the Dead) and foreign films (The Ring, The Grudge), but there have been innovations within American horror -- most notably the "torture porn" of Saw and Hostel fame.

Reference: http://horror.about.com/od/horrorthemelists/ss/horrortimeline

THEMES OF THE HORROR GENRE• GOOD VS EVIL - The good vs evil is shown in the ‘Omen’ when a boys

family is Christian family vs the individual who is possessed by the devil this shows the battle between good vs evil for example when the family drive past the church the possessed individual by the devil begins to act violent and abusive. This shows the horror of good vs evil as a sub genre, and how it can be portrayed through movies.

• RELIGION – Religion was revealed in the film ‘Unborn’ as the main character was being followed by an evil demon/spirt that killed people around her. In order for this demon to be diminished, religious rituals had to be said by a priest. This indicates that religion is needed for the horrific problems to be taken out of your life. This also links to CHILDHOOD ISSUES because it only occurred as she was a twin, and followed her since she was young.

• SCIENCE GONE BAD – ‘Frankenstein’ originally a 1930s film Henry Frankenstein is a doctor who is trying to discover a way to make the dead walk. He succeeds and creates a monster that has to deal with living again.

• CLASSIC GOTHIC – ‘Dracula’ – 1931, was set in England, nineteenth century Castle, large private houses, a foreign country – Transylvania. The plot was the killing of the monster Dracula. The iconography such as the night time and the moon, were clear compatible matches to being associated with Dracula. Crucifixes, holy water, candles, bats and cobwebs are props are key for the characters of Hero’s and Monsters.

MISE-EN-SCENE• The props helping to identify genre immediately (religious

symbols, knives masks) - Small communities or isolated places with a hidden past, this creates a sense of tension, these are usually set during the night/ dark eg. Silent Hill, Dark streets, Run down ghost towns (loneliness), Lakes, Motorways, Cabins, Subways, tunnels

• Characters – a few might include: The Protagonist – Usually a female role, smartest of the group and therefore survive, to create a path for a sequel, The unlikely hero – The character the audience suspects to be the antagonist due to their behaviour and appearance, Sex appeal – This role is often filled by a promiscuous blonde women, usually first to be killed, stereotyping viewed as dumb, Evil character – Serial killer, demonic possession, ghost, if human they usually wear a mask disguising themselves and fear of unknown.

FEATURES• Camera angles/movement: low angle and high angle to connote

fear/insignificance and power. POV creates the audience to but put in the world of terror. The technical codes show the camera work to be expressive rather than naturalistic, using weird angles and canted cameras a common in horror movies, to possibly emphasise the difference of the scary tension rather than using everyday camera angles that usually express the neutral or happy mood. They also use extreme close ups and point of view shots in order to express fear or to make the audience feel more involved in the increasing tension. Eg Silence of the lambs.

• Sound: Scary, stabs, ambient, demonic (laughs), nursery rhymes, sinister music, extremely important feature (eg heartbeats) gives an insight to the emotions and feel of the character in the film

• Editing: Long takes to build up fear and suspense, sharp cuts, fades and graphic matches

• Lighting: Dark/shadowy lighting, gloomy, low lighting to exaggerate the unknown. Noir lighting is known for harsh light that skims across the face helps to imply there is a sense of mystery just as many noir characters are two faced.

Close up

Camera: High/low – PowerJump cuts: Quicken time/TensionAmbient sounds: Diegetic - realism

COPY CAT THEORY• The copy cat theory relates to something which is publicized

in he media that creates a lot of attention resulting in other people imitating or ‘copying’ this in order to gain the same level of attention. Audiences react differently to various situations as they have different interpretations.

• This can relate a lot to horror conventions as most crime and deviances. For example the ‘James Bulger case’ where the murderers watched Childs Play 3 a film bought by the child's dad where they were influenced by scenes in the film.

TODOROV NARRATIVE• Equilibrium outset • Disrupted equilibrium by some action• Recognition that there’s a disruption• Attempt to repair disruption• Reinstatement of the equilibrium

A film that follow these steps perfectly is Die Hard.

• 1. John McClane (Bruce Willis) is coming home to his family for Christmas and all is calm. (The equilibrium)

• 2. Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his team of terrorists take over the nakatomi building which is hosting a Christmas part of which McClane and his wife are attending.

• 3. (2 points of recognition) McClane isn't in the room when the terrorists storm in so is able to move up the builiding when he hears screaming. People outside of the building realise there's a disruption when a police man's car is shot at from the building.

• 4. The police try sending in a SWAT team in which fails. The situation is solved by John McClane throwing Gruber out of a high floor window which kills him.

• 5. The equilibrium is restored when the police got McClane, his wife and the other hostages out of the building, and the McClanes leave in a police car.

Additional features• Iconography – using visual objects that signify the genre:

colours like black and red that link closely to blood, evil and danger often do this on movie posters and use misty, blue or

dark filters. The colours can even show the evil within characters. For example White indicates purity and innocence although white clothing is used in ‘The Ring’ this can identify a false interpretation of the child character as we would assume the child to be friendly.

• Narrative theory – Indicates how the story is told, in horror films a cliff-hanger in sequencing films is common, or a shocking relevance at the end to explain why everything happened and how it led up to that specific moment. E.g Saw – Cliff-hanger, Identity – Reveals important information about previous events leading to the ending

The ring, Saw and Nightmare on elm street all show evidence of the blue filter for horror.