2. Setting
• Isolated house
• Graveyard
• Haunted house
• Cabin
• Mental institute
• Forest
• Old/historical house
• Church
• Deserted towns
3. Technical codes
• Camera work is expressive and non natural, creating the heightened sense of fear and making the
audience on edge.
• Low angled shot makes the villain look powerful, high angled shot makes the victim seem powerless
and vulnerable.
• Ambient diagetic sounds of footsteps and heavy breathing.
• Extreme close ups showing the fear in the characters’ faces.
• Establishing shots showing the audience the setting and location of where the characters are.
• Point of view shots allow the audience to view scenes through the perspective of the character, making
them feel like they’re in on the action, enhancing the fear. This is also true with the use of hand-held
camera movement. Similarly, this makes it difficult for the viewer to see what is happening, distorting
the vision, and yet again heightening the fear the audience would have.
• Short takes create fast paced action and tension.
• Low key/ambient lighting makes the scene seem gloomy and scary, where the audience can’t see if
something is going to jump out.
• Motivated lighting through props such as lamps and streetlights only has light in a confined area,
creating shadows and shade for someone to be hiding and creates an extended sense of fear of the
unknown.
4. High angle low angle Ambient, low key lighting
Extreme close up Motivated lighting Establishing shot
5. Iconography
• Colour red: blood, violence and danger.
• Females in white: purity, vulnerability and innocence.
• Villains in dark clothes: evil, secretive and unknown. Likewise, the villain
may be wearing a mask/costume: hidden identity, mysterious and a shady character that needs to
be watched.
• Knife/weapon: danger, death and male power.
• Monsters are seen as dangerous and are to be feared because they are non human, and people
are instantly apprehensive and concerned about things they can’t understand.
• Characters usually get around the scenes in cars, getting stranded in the middle of nowhere,
creating a small, confined area for the villain to corner and attack them (creating a ‘he’s behind
you’ moment).
6.
7. Narrative structure
• Murder takes place at the beginning, then the rest of the film there is
more murderous activity following the first murder, and the hero
usually escapes death of the villain. The villain then becomes set on
killing the hero that escaped, however they do not succeed. The
villain/murderer escapes at the end, not returning to equilibrium and
leaving the film on a cliff hanger, open for a sequel.
8. Themes
• Male dominance. It is the male that usually goes after the villain to
stop them. Also, it is often a man who turns out to be the villain,
suggesting that men like to assert their power by using phallic
symbols (knife) to kills women.
• Fear. There has to be an uneasiness in the characters for the audience
to be scared and made to jump.
• Law and justice. The police are not usually the ones to catch the ‘bad
guy’, instead it is the civilians who uncover the identity of the villain,
or the villain does not end up being caught, leading to an unhappy
ending which is very common in the horror genre.
9. Character types
• Clear villain and hero- usually one villain which the collective ‘good’ are fighting
against, e.g. ‘Ghost face’ in scream.
• Blonde females usually seen as weak and innocently vulnerable. They are in ned
of protection. She is normally slightly dumb and therefore the first victim to be
killed in the villains murderous scheme. Whereas the brunette’s seem to be more
feisty and survive longer than the helpless blondes.
• The hero is typically a strong male who is brave and goes after the murderer.
There is a love interest often in horror films, so that the strong male has someone
to look after, and the female needs to be protected by their boyfriend.
• Villain is nearly always a murderer, who often wears a mask or costume to cover
up their identity, keeping them hidden from the characters and to the audience. If
they become injured, they will soon recover from this, exaggerating the idea that
they are inhuman.
