Learning aim A.

1. Unit 10: Fictional Film Codes and Conventions
The horror genre is one of the most popular and mostrespected genres the film
industry. The genre is well known for its gory images and gruesomeviolence.
Blood and gore is usually associated with the Slasher sub-genreas each victim is
killed of one by one in very gruesomeways by either a serial killer more a
monster. The props for a slasher are mainly weapons such as a kitchen knife or a
chainsaw. Italso uses a lot and fakeblood and fake goreto show the audience
how sadistic the killer can be. Horror can also but in to the unrealistic territory
with the paranormaland supernaturalsub- genres with various antagonists such
as ghosts, demons or even mythical creatures. Horror relies on scares and a scene
of dread to make it effective to get a reaction fromthe audience. Horror also
relies on plenty of blood to make the audience unconfutableand on edge as
fountains of blood sprays every waretheprotagonists arekilled off.
According to a theorist named Steve Neale, he said that “Genres are instances of
repetition and difference; this is what pleasures for the audience is derived from.”
So when the audience goes to watch a horror film, they expect to see a lot of
familiar codes and convections such as one of the protagonists wonders off on
their own and gets killed off for the first kill of the film. When going into a slasher
film, they’ll will expect to see a lot of kills and the drunk teenagers stereotype
witch is associated with the slasher. Each slasher is the sameas they are expected
to have a high kill count and have the same.
For example, in the Slasher horror filmHalloween, it uses point of view shots to
make the audience think who are we following and we also get to what he sees
when he killed his victims and the audience get pleasure out of this as the
audience have come to watch this film for the kills and they get the senseof
satisfaction as each person dies.

2. Ref.1.
In this scene(reference 1), the point of view shot shows theaudience that they
are looking through the killer’s eyes. The visuals are restricted and distorted
because this viewpoint isn’t as good as the audiences as he is wearing a mask and
this makes the film scarier as we don’t know what’s in the room. Italso shows a
very gory kill as Michael Myers stabs his sister rapidly and this is satisfying to the
audience as they are here to see Halloween for the kills. It’s a very gory kill and it
uses fake blood to show the horrific kill in as much detail as possiblewitch is a
piratical effect with is common in the mis-en-scenein horror.
Halloween is set in the suburbs wherenothing terrible happens. It’s usually the
safestplace but in Halloween it makes you think that nowhereis safe as the
setting is in the suburbs. This is a convention of a horror film because it is a
relatable place it the audience and it makethem feel like nowhereis safe. Michael
Myers’ mask is used to hide the identity of the killer. This makes the audience
wonder who is the man behind the mask. I think the reason why they wear masks
is to show the protagonists and the audience how horrifying the killer is. Italso
shows ambiguity as their real identity is hidden to try and keep the audience
thinking about who could be man/thing behind the mask.

3. His infamous head tilt shows theaudience that he is sadistic and takes pleasurein
stalking and killing people. His head tilt is unnerving for the audience. There is an
emptiness interpreted for this action. Itis not an everyday behavior to a normal
person. Itcould seem to be used to show who he is through expression and not in
speech. I think when the main antagonistin a horror filmact strangeand
abnormal, it puts the audiece in a state of panic bacause no normal person would
do that in reality.
Lighting also play a very importantpart in Halloween as there a lot of dark lighting
to limit whatthe audience can see and that will make them on edge at times as
the characters arebeing stalked. The use of low key lighting creates a feeling of
nervous anticipation as they don’t know when something is aboutto pop out and
that is the purposeof most horror films. Its all about the scares.
Ref.2.
In this scene, where the dead body come out of the dark and scares the main
protagonist. The lighting is very limited as we don’t know that that body was

4. going to swing out of the dark to scareus as wecould not see it coming as it was
too dark to see whatwas in the dark roomand this is whatmakes the audience
scared as they don’t know whatis in the dark roomand then the body come out
into the light and scares the audience even more and this is effective as lighting in
this scene created tension as they don’t know what’s going to happen in the
room.
John carpenter’s iconic soundtrack helps the film to become scarier and
suspensefulwith the horror heavy music. Its mosticonic piece of non-diegetic
music is it main theme with its fastpaced piano music witch plays at the opening
credits to show the audience that this is going to be a very scary film with the dark
and gritty tone of it. Most horror films use scary and atmospheric soundtracks to
get an emotional responsefromthe audience.
Another film for example is the supernaturalhorror filmThe Conjuring. The
Conjuring uses various amounts of stings to get a reaction fromthe audience. This
is whatwill scarethe audience as the buildup to a scary moment in the conjuring
is mostly in silence as this will makethe audience on edge as it is to quiet until the
sting sound kicks in and all the silent built up hit the audience to make them
scared. Itis mainly used in a jump scares.
ref.3.
In this scene, it relies on the science when one of the protagonist goes to check if
there anything in the wardrobe, thereis nothing but silence until one looks up at
the wardrobeto see the ghostas the non-diegetic sting kicks as the camera

5. zooms in on the ghost to create the jumps careto give the audience a shock as It
has been quiet for so long hearing a sting that laud and in there face.
The conjuring is set in the stereotypicalhaunted house to show the audience that
this is going to be a supernaturalhorror filmas haunted houses areassociated
with ghosts and demons. It’s a visual iconography in the horror genreas various
other horror films such as psycho and the Amityville horror usethe haunted
housesetting to create all of it scares and kills.
While Halloween relies on bloody and gory kills to scarethe audience, the
conjuring relies on jump scares to makethen effective on what they do to make
them scary.
Horror narrativeis usually structured in the same way and mostly follow narrative
codes. According to Todorov’s narrativetheory, a narrative follow five
transformations. thefirstone being the equilibrium where everything is normal.
Next is the disruption of the equilibrium wheresomething happens that makes
this abnormal. Next is the recognition of the disruption where the main
protagonists relies that something is wrong which leads onto the attempt to
repair the damage where the protagonist’s try to solvethe predicament and then
the new equilibrium wherething are back to wherethey were fromthe start.
most horror havean epic conclusion as they havea final showdown with the
villain with either a fight to the death or a great escape. Both Halloween and the
conjuring havea big shown with the villain a they both try to resolvethe
disruption.
In the present day of Halloween, it starts with an equilibrium as the main
protagonistLorie is going through her normal routine of going to schooland
hanging out with friends. Next come the disruption in the equilibrium as doctor
Lummis discovers the Michael Myers has escaped fromthe metal hospital. Lorie
recognizes the disruption as shefinds out that there is someone stalking and
trying to kill her on Halloween night and as her friend’s startacting strange.
According to a theorist named Vladimir Propp, Lorie is the hero in the film
because shehas to protect the kids sheis babysitting to makesure that they are
not going to be killed by Michael Myers. Doctor Lummis is the helper as he is
helping Lorie to get away and kill Michael Myers as they both attempt to repair
the damage of the disruption.

6. ref.4.
This scene marks the ending of the film as doctor Lummis potentially killed
Michael Myers. Itmarks a new equilibrium for the protagonists as they are safe
fromMichael Myers. However, wefind out the Michael has disappeared. This
leaves an open ending as the killer had escaped to ready to come back in a sequel.
ref.5.
This scene shows us thatthis film has an unrestrictivenarrativeas weknow that
Michael is back to life to kill Lorie and Lorie doesn’tknow that. This will make the
audience feel scared for Lorie as she doesn’tknow that she is still in danger. This

7. is effective in horror filmas they havegrown a bond with the main protagonist
and only with the audience knowing that they are in danger will makethem
scared for the protagonist.
Like Halloween, the conjuring follows the same structureas they find out and
something is wrong in there every day life’s and haveto find help to get rid in the
predicament. ends with a new equilibrium as they are both safefromthe
antagonist. but in The Conjuring, every loseend is tied and nothing is going to
happen to the protagonistever again and there no open endings. But in
Halloween and ending is moreambiguous because as we saw in reference 4,
Michael’s body has disappeared and we don’tknow where he going to go next, is
he going to stay in the Haddonfield to terrorizemore young teenagers or has he
moved on to the next city to start the massacreall over again. Halloween sets up
a sequel while the conjuring does not.
Both films use binary opposition as Michael Myers tires to kill Lorie and battle and
in The Conjuring it’s the Warren and Parron family vs the ghost. It’s a battle
between good vs evil.