1. Genres have certain characteristics which are
easily recognized by an audience. Therefore
these are reproduced over and over again.
Audiences the start to gain expectations of
what a movie will offer and will seek pleasure
in figuring out the story.
Therefore they use stock
characters/plots/props/situations ect. which
are easily comprehendible by an audience.
Genre Traits

2. Semantic
This is concerned with conventions of the genre that
communicate to the audience such as
characters, location, props, music, shooting styles
and other signifiers.
In horror Locations Props Music
Characters •Sorority House •Weapons •Eerie
•Helpless girl •Abandoned •Blood •Sudden
House/Area
•The misunderstood •Candles (highlighting
•The Couple •Field critical moments)
•The Jock Shooting Styles
•The Underdog •Close-Up (show
emotions)
•Long-Shots
(Groups/Show what's
happening around)
Semantic & Syntactic

3. Syntactic
This is concerned with the relations between these elements
and the structure of narratives in genres.
The generic syntactical approach within a horror film is, it starts
out slow were equilibrium is undisrupted. The characters are
introduced usually in the same scene that disruption will occur.
However then something will suddenly happen, this is where
editing quickens and the story starts to unfold.
However at end there is a rush of action which can be due to an
attack or an escape. The narrative may slow down and the story
unfolds explaining why such events happened.
Semantic & Syntactic