Horror films typically feature isolated settings like abandoned buildings, forests, or small towns. Technical elements contribute to the horror genre, including unsteady camerawork, point-of-view shots that involve the viewer, and low lighting that emphasizes darkness. Common props include weapons, masks, and body parts. Slasher films conventions include an unknown killer who wears a mask, young teenage victims with an innocent "final girl" as the main character, and isolated small town locations that should feel safe but are not.

1. Horror Conventions
Rory Dickson-Stringer

2. Setting
 Small communities or isolated places like large cities, ghost towns,
countryside (farm like places).
 Places with a dark history, like abandoned houses, asylums, hospitals, hotels,
stores, camps etc…
 Typically locations – lakes, the countryside, farms, abandoned houses, forests,
cabins, cities, subways/underground, hotels/motels, cornfields.

4. Technical Codes
 Camerawork is not natural and is very expressive. High and low angles can
connote fear and terror.
 POV shots are useful as it allows the viewer to gain a first person experience
and make the audience a part of the film.
 Handheld shots are useful in horrors as it makes more real for the viewer and
due to the constant jerking and movement it gives the viewer uncertainty.
 Low key lighting is important in a horror because emphasises the darkness in
the film.
 Quick cuts are typical in a horror trailer to show the pace and the danger of
the film.

5. Props
 Weapons – knifes, axes, baseball bats, guns, chainsaws, machetes, swords,
scythes
 Body Parts – blood, limbs, guts, heads
 Clothing – standard teenage clothes for victims, letterman jock jacket
 Masks – Hockey mask, plain white mask, human skin mask

9. Slasher Conventions
 The final girl is always the virgin, starts as the innocent girl and throughout the film builds more
confidence an then turns into the “badass”.
 The killer/monster’s identity is usually unknown. They wear a mask to hide their faces. The mask is
there hide the identity or the disfigured face. Creates fear and tension among the audience as they
wonder what hides behind the mask.
 The location is usually a quiet suburban town. Helps create fear in the audience as it shows people
being murdered in a place supposed to be safe. Like Woodsbourgh in Wes Craven’s Scream. Also the
killer destroys the victims means of escape e.g. slashing the tires of the car.
 Usually a girl who dies first. This sets meaning and sets the audience into the film setting by giving
everyone the warning that the killer is here.
 Victims are usually young adolescents, so teenagers between 16-19.