Horror movie work

1. Horror movie conventions
By Emma Hillary

2. Setting
• Usually and isolated location. Possibly places with a ‘dark history’.
• Somewhere that is dark or has low level lighting.
• Examples of ideal locations would be: an abandoned house, dark
woodland, an isolated barn etc.
• I aim to use multiple locations in my trailer, including a dark barn,
forests, and an isolated house.

4. Technical codes
• Editing may jump, and cut what seems to be randomly to cause
confusion and for the audience to be unsettled.
• Disturbing sounds are effective in creating atmosphere. Ambient
diegetic sounds like footsteps or doors creaking, and non diegetic
sounds such as a heartbeat.
• Handheld shots are popular and make it difficult for the audience to
be fully aware of what is going on. Again causing confusion and fear.

5. Iconography
• Visual style: often dark colours(for example red and black which
connote death and blood).
• Common props are masks, weapons. Props can help the audience
identify the genre.
• Lighting is expresses and unnatural. Low level lighting can create
different shadowing.

6. Themes
Common themes of horrors are…
*Madness
*Good vs Evil
*Science gone wrong
*Confused mental state
*Confusion over reality
I plan to use all of theme themes in my concept and narrative.