2. • Supernatural is a sub-genre of
Horror that centres around
supernatural elements, such as
ghosts, the afterlife, the devil and
demonic possessions.
Supernatural films deal with the
unknown questions of life that
cannot be answered; therefore,
they tend to incorporate religious
elements into the narrative. Since
they tend to emphasize the
unknown, Supernatural films are
considered to be quite
suspenseful, which creates
tension for the audience when
watching them. These films often
cross over into other genres,
creating hybrids like
Supernatural-Comedy and
Supernatural-Drama.
• Unlike thrillers, Supernatural Horrors
do not limit themselves to specific
religious elements and tend to
contain more vivid and gruesome
violence. Possession is a sub-genre of
a sub-genre, but my group for our
advanced portfolio have chosen to
base our horror promotional package
predominately around Possession as
we have found that this is the most
effective sub-genre, and is the one
we have seen crop up again and
again when asking our target
audience. Supernatural Horrors and
Possession Horror films both tend to
have identical codes and
conventions, but there are
conventions which we would
typically associate with either
Supernatural or Possession.
3. •
•
Another common convention in possession
films are the colours that are used
throughout, typically the colours are dark and
mysterious; such as the predominant horror
colours red, white and black but greys and
browns are also used throughout the film
and also throughout the films trailers to
create tension and so the audience is able to
see common features that crop up again and
again therefore able to pick out the Horror
genre from any other. The film 'Sinister’ does
this a lot in their trailer as the colours are a
good way to create tension and fear for the
audience, The red, blacks and whites also
have a symbiotic link with there film poster as
these are the three predominant colours used
on the film poster.
There is a clear battle that
is shown throughout the
whole narrative between
Good and Evil; which tends
to be the religious
characters or props versus’
the Evil entity which they
are so desperate to get rid
of.
•
The main character always tends to be
the one that has been possessed and
they soon become the antagonist, e.g.
`The Amityville Horror’ and ‘The
conjuring’ when the possession literally
goes inside of her while she sleeps. Other
main characters include the protagonist
who either is tortured or harmed by the
antagonist or religious characters that try
to help remove the evil possession from
inside them e.g. ‘Insidious’ when the
priests and professionals try to perform
exorcisms on the possessed man.
•
The stock location tends to be
quite secluded, in an abandoned
house that tends to have history,
such as an old base for an old
mental asylum or deaths/murders
have happened in these houses
before. The truth tends to come
out mid way through the film e.g.
‘Mama’ as it is set in a rural
location and the real truth and
narrative behind the plot does not
come out until quite far on in the
film.
4. Here are some examples of the actual possessions and evil
spirits that gain control of the protagonists body, and then
torment them and their families. The two top right hand
images are both from the film ‘Insidious 1 and 2’ and these
characters have tormented the man since he was a child
and now start to do the same to his children and wife. The
other two images are from the film ‘Sinister’ where he uses
film and images to come to life and then kills his victims and
eats the soul of their children; and the last is an image from
the film ‘The Possession’ where a mystical box possesses a
young girl (the protagonist) and uses her body as their own.
These two images both show
examples of the stock location
within possession films. The image
to the left shows a house from the
film ‘The Amityville Horror’ it is
surrounded by trees and
woodlands and is very secluded
from other people which is the
perfect location for a possession,
as people have not lived their for
years and don’t know its history or
what happened there.
The image to the right is from the
film ‘The Conjuring’ it is
surrounded by mist and makes
the house seem scarier and builds
up tension as the audience are
drawn in to know what is inside
the house. The noose that is
hanging from the tree creates fear
for the audience as the home is
supposed to give a safe sense of
security but the noose just makes
is spine chilling and scary.
5.
6. The images above show different posters and DVD
covers from a range of Possession Horror films each of
these show common codes and conventions; the typical
colours of red, white and black are used throughout all 4
images above. The flames, the typography and the
background on the omen all have red in them , this
connotes the devil and hell which are big elements of
Possession films as the audience are able to relate the
colours to the content and sub-genre of film. The white
colours that take up a lot of the typography also connote
the evil spirits as we would associate is with ghostly
beings. But the white colours could also connote the
religious elements that are portrayed throughout the
sub-genre of supernatural/possession, as white tends to
connote innocents and purity and good.
The fact that the white typography is on top of
the red /dark background could be a possible
suggestion that good always triumphs over
evil. The black colours give a definite example
of evil as we would first associate the colour
black with badness as it is a common colour
that crops up again and again throughout the
Horror genre. Other such colours, such as
greys and dark blues are also used as they give
of an element of spirit like beings, being there
with them, they also make it seem as if a
presence is there such as in the paranormal
activity poster.
