3. WHAT ARE HORROR FILMS?
Horror films are made to make us feel uncomfortable, to make us
panic and to frighten us. They make us have fears that we didn’t know
we were scared of before watching the films. But aswell as scaring us
they do make us entertained at the same time when watching it. They
involve death and there is usually a main villain.
4. SLASHERPsycho-1960
Black Christmas- 1974
Texas Chainsaw Massacre- 1974
Halloween-1978
I Spit On Your Grave- 1978
Friday 13th- 1980
Prom Night-1980
My Bloody Valentine-1981
Nightmare on Elm Street- 1984
Scream- 1996
I Know What You Did Last Summer-
1997
5. Slasher
In slasher films, the killer stalks and kills the victims one by one.
The killer- Usually male, you don’t know their identity- masked or lighting hides face,
same weapon used.
Victims normally young, good-looking, being punished for pre-marital sex and drugs.
This sub-genre is known for having a final girl, this is a young girl with male
characteristics who survives.
It has a high level of graphic violence and the characters develop throughout the
film, so the audience feel bad for the characters as they get to know them.
6. SPLATTER
The Hills have Eyes-1977
Evil Dead- 1981
Braindead- 1992
House of 1000 Corpses-2003
Saw- 2004
Devils Rejects- 2005
Wolf Creek- 2005
Hostel-2005
Martyrs-2008
Antichrist-2009
Human Centipede-2010
7. Splatter
It focuses on blood and graphic violence. They use special effects and they
focus on how the human body is vulnerable. In films like Braindead, it has a lot
of excessive gore that it turns into a comedy.
The term, “Splatter Cinema” describes the dead film franchise- “Dawn of the
Dead”, “Day of the Dead”, and “Night of the Living Dead”.
9. Vampire/Werewolves films
These films usually have young characters so that the film has a wider audience.
The most famous vampire film is “Dracula”, and there are over 170 versions.
This sub-genre is quite popular from 1922 with “Nosferatu” and the recent Twilight Trilogy.
11. Psychological/Supernatural
These can include ghosts, demon, witches, poltergeists etc.
This is one of the most popular sub-genres because it has realism in the film so the
viewers think that what happens in the film could happen to them like Paranormal
Activity, thinking that evil forces are in the world and the fear of the unknown.
They focus on possession and dark forces.
12. ZOMBIE
Night of the Living Dead- 1968
The Crazies-1973
Dawn of the Dead-1978
Evil Dead-1981
Thriller-1983
Day of the Dead-1985
Braindead-1992
28 Days Later-2002
Resident Evil-2002
Shaun of the Dead- 2004
Rec- 2007
Zombieland-2009
The Walking Dead-The TV Series
13. Zombie
Some zombie films can be other genres, “zombie comedy”, sci-fi, thriller, romance.
They are portrayed as the representation of social, economical and cultural issues and
how they affect the world today.
17. J-Horror
J-Horror films are Japanese Horror.
They focus on psychological horror and anticipation involving ghosts, poltergeists,
possession and exorcism.
A convention that J-Horror uses is Yurel. The Yurel are Japanese ghosts that are in the
world with emotions that don’t allow them to pass on. The Yurel are females that
wear white clothing with long black hair which is the tradition of Japanese women
growing their hair and they put their hair up. They only let their hair down in death.
18. THRILLER
Carrie- 1976
The Shining- 1980
Misery- 1990
Silence of the Lambs- 1991
Seven-1995
Funny Games-1997
The Sixth Sense-1999
The Village-2004
Mirrors-2008
The Strangers-2008
Buried- 2010
19. Thriller
A Thriller can be mixed with other categories, these are action thriller,
romantic thriller, psychological thrillers, sci-fi thrillers etc.
A thriller film has anticipation and suspense. The protagonist usually
has a problem, an escape, a mission or a mystery. In the film Buried,
he is in a coffin underground and his mission is to try and escape.
Most thrillers have a plot that has life and death issues and they can
involve murder mysteries. A common characteristic is the “who
dunnit” or the “will they catch him before he kills more people?”. For
example, in the silence of the lambs you don’t know who did it before
the very end. But in some thriller films like Jaws you know who is killing
the people.
20. Iconic Horror Characters
Ghost face
Scream-Slasher
Dracula
Vampire
Annabelle
Psychological/Supern
atural
Zombie
Evil Dead
21. Iconic Horror Characters
Billy the
Puppet
Saw- Splatter Frankenstein
Monster
The Ring
J-Horror
Johnny
The shining
Thriller
22. Semiotics
Phallic Power:
Knives- penetration- loss of innocence
Fangs represent sexuality- love bites
Flesh represents life for zombies to stay
alive
Body Transformation
Puberty- Carrie
Childbirth
Turning into a werewolf/vampire
Yonic: Corridors/Birth/Alien
Between death and life
Youth &Virginity (Death of Innocence)
Teenagers usually killed because they have had sex or
taken drugs
23. Theory
Representation of the Final Girl
The Final Girl is usually young and they are the survivor. They are usually in the Slasher films.
The Final Girl is in the films, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scream and A
Nightmare on Elm Street.
The Final Girl is typically a virgin, doesn’t have drugs, sometimes has a unisex name(Billie,
Sidney) and has history with the killer. She has the characteristics of a male with what she
wears and how she confronts the killer with a weapon.
Feminism: Male Gaze (Mulvey)
In horror films, the victims are usually female. They are represented as being vulnerable.
The males are represented as being dominant and powerful so they are usually the killer. It
is sexual objectification- the males like to watch the females being controlled in the film.
In a lot of horror films, especially slashers, they have male directors. So males haven’t been
portrayed like the women always do in a sexual way and the males are not controlled by
women.
But recently, in some films, males have been represented as sexual objects and this is the
“Female Gaze”.
Sidney in Scream
Has a close
relationship with
the killer.
24. Theory
Genre Development (Neale)
There are 4 stages:
Experimental
(Psycho)
- A Blonde sexualised
Woman
- Phallic weapon-knives
- Killer hidden by lighting
Classical
(Halloween)
- Teenager
masked
- Using hands as
a weapon
- Person got shot
but comes back
to life
supernatural
- Final girl
Revisionist
(Scream)
- Two killers
- you question
whether the
final girl can
have sex
Parodic
(Scary Movie)
- Audience need
knowledge of
conventions of other
horror films
- intertextual
references
25. Theory
Representation: Zombies, materialism & violence (Kim Paffenroth)
Gospel of the Living Dead, American Society shocked with violence and
materialism. Zombies represent being lost and losing identity and individuality.
They could represent the plague, or a disease. Zombies could mean the symptom
of decay of the behaviour of our society. They act without thinking so this could
represent how we do things unthinkingly.
In horror films, a zombie bites someone, they die and come back as a zombie. So it could
mean that when the zombies eat flesh they want to feel human, they want to feel alive.
26. Theory
Narrative: Binary Opposition (Levi-Strauss)
Hero vs Villain Vampires vs Werewolves Human vs Supernatural
The Binary Opposites are the narrative structure.
Feminine vs Masculine (Victims vs Killers)
27. Theory
Narrative: 3 Act Structure (Todorov)
Conventional Narrative structure pattern:
1. Beginning (Equillibrium) the “once upon a time” moment. This is where the characters are
happy.
2. Middle (Disequilibrium) there is a problem with a series of events that disrupts the
balance.
3. End (Resolution) The problem is solved overcome
Narrative: Character Types (Propp)
Character Role Definition
Hero
Villain
The Donor
The Helper
The Princess
The Dispatcher
The False Hero
Usually male, rescues the damsel in distress
Struggles with the hero
Gives the hero something to help with quest/mission e.g information,
object, to help resolve
Helps the hero to restore the equilibrium
Threatened by villain, needs to be saved by hero
Sends the hero on his/her task
Appears to be good, but revealed at the end to be bad.
28. SOUND
In horror films, they usually have loud noises to build up the suspense and to keep the
audience watching so they want to know what happens next. The sounds are used and
then there is silence. These sounds help to create jump scares and to scare the
audience when they least expect it.
Diegetic sounds that are typically used in horror films are the door creaking, foot steps
that can get quicker and quicker that makes the audience think that the killer is getting
nearer and nearer. Heartbeat sounds and breathing are used too. These sounds are all
iconic.
29. CAMERA SHOTS
The camera shots in horror films are usually extreme/close ups, medium close ups, tracking
shots and zooming in/out.
Tracking Shots are used in horror films because they follow a character to show the
audience that something bad might happen to them and this can hide the antagonist
from the camera so the audience don’t know when the killer might appear.
The close ups are used the most in horror because it shows different emotions and facial
expressions of the characters. You can tell whether a character is the victim or the villain
and a close up is good to use if a character is screaming or crying because this appears
scarier to the audience.
Zooming in can show the importance of the shot. If it has been zoomed quickly it can
make the audience jump and if the zooming is slow it makes the audience think that
something is going to happen.
30. LOCATIONS
The locations are usually in the woods, in a haunted house which is mostly used in
psychological/supernatural films. However some zombie films can be shown in the daylight
in the city as this makes the situations seem more realistic so this shows the audience that
the situation could actually happen so this can make the audience scared thinking that
this can actually happen to themselves. Another location can be a deserted area where
there is nothing around meaning that nothing and no-one is around who can save them.
31. LIGHTING
In horror films there is usually low key lighting, this is used to make it scarier to the
audience as if you was to watch a horror film where a lot of it takes place during the
day you wouldn’t be very scared. It can sometimes be dark to hide the identity of
someone as they don’t want the audience to see who the killer is.
32. PROPS
They normally have sharp weapons such as knives, axes, chainsaws. There is fake
blood being used as this makes it very gory and horrible for the audience to watch.
A way that they keep the identity of the killer hidden is by wearing a scary mask.
In Zombie films, they usually have guns to shoot the zombies and there is usually blood
everywhere as zombie films can be quite gory.
33. STOCK SITUATIONS- Set pieces
The most common stock situation in a horror film is the antagonist with
a weapon chasing after the victim who is hiding and running away.
The victim usually trips up so this slows them down and the killer gets
closer and closer to the victim so this gets the audiences attention and
on the edge of their seat because they think something will happen to
the protagonist.
In our sub-genre, Zombie, the typical scene is where a zombie appears
and they bite someone, they either die or come back as a zombie.
34. Stock Characters of Zombie Sub-genre
The betrayer- they get bitten by a zombie but they dont tell their friends
that they have because they dont want to get shot in the head by
them or they are scared of the fact that they will turn into one, so they
might hide where they were bitten.
The sacrificer- They might have been bitten, injured or they are a slow
runner. They tell their friends to leave them.
The Expert- they know what to do when killing zombies- they say the
zombies need to be shot in the head.
The innocent-
The betrayer- the pregnant women in Dawn of
the Dead gets bitten but her partner doesn’t
tell the others because he doesn’t want her or
the baby to get killed.
