1. Ms Taylor-Williams
What aspects of a film determine its genre? Refer to at least two films in
your answer
The main aspects that determine the genre of a film would be the
conventions, these are the constitute parts that are necessary in order for
films to be mass produced by the industry and in turn understood by the
audience. Conventions serve as a blueprint for genre films they are the
foundation for all genre films they can be adapted or deviated from
innovatively to add to a genres scope, or they can be stuck to rigidly in order
to guarantee financial success.
The horror genre is one as old as time, horror films are unsettling films
designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to invoke our
hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and
entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. The main way that
horror films set out to do this is by utilising the conventions of horror. The
audience are familiar with these conventions and they expect to see them if a
film is classed as a horror.
Conventions that are used in a horror would be the use of a frightening place
the main setting of a horror film is set up as being a frightening place be, they
can sometimes be familiar place to both the characters and the audience
which makes them all the more unsettling. For example in the film Scream
(Craven, 1996) the film is set in a quiet American suburban town, the
characters probably walk the streets of the town daily without a care in the
world. This scene of tranquillity is shattered from the opening of the film when
the killer invades the home of the victim (Casey) the ‘home’ is supposed to be
somewhere where you feel safe, it’s not a place that should be invaded by
strangers. The opening of Scream is made more disconcerting by the fact that
the house is isolated and distanced from help. This sense of isolation and
secluded setting is often used in horror films, and the audience can relate to
this. It can also be found in films such as the Blair Witch Project (Sanchez,
1999), here the woods are the main settings and the characters are fearful of
what may be lurking in the darkness of the woods. Another film that creates a
sense of a frightening place and isolation would be Creep (Smith, 2004), it
takes the familiar public settings of a tube station and turns it into a lonely,
sinister place to be, a place where ‘things go bump in night’. Within this film
there is a sense of being trapped, a tube station to the audience is a transient
location you go in and you come out, but what happens if you can’t escape?
Another convention used to help the audience recognise a horror film would
be the use of iconography in a horror film this would most likely be the
weapons that are used to seal a victim’s fate by the killer. Although
iconography can also be religious symbols such as crosses, and related
Christian imagery, these images or iconic elements are usually immediately
recognisable to the audience and utilised again and again by the film industry.
Masks are quite frequently used in horror films for the sole purpose of hiding
the identity of the killer, this is used in films like Halloween (Carpenter, 1978),
where the killer Michael Myers wears a white mask to keep his face hidden

2. Ms Taylor-Williams
from his victims. The use of the mask is again seen in the Scream trilogy, the
scream mask influenced by the painting of the same name became an iconic
image of the 90s. Masks serve the purpose of disorienting the audience and
keeping the killers identity a secret until the climatic end. Knifes, and related
weapons are used by killers because they are intimate violent weapons. The
killers must attack from close quarters and often stabs many times,
heightening the fear and pain of the victim.
In addition to the conventions already mentioned the style of camerawork can
add to the recognition of the horror genre. The most popular shot being the
point of view shot, favoured in films such as Halloween, as well films such as
SAW, and Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) these films utilised the point of view shot
by placing the audience in a voyeuristic position. In Halloween not only are
audience placed in the position of the killer (Michael Myers), but the point of
view shot serves to also hide the identity of the child killer. In Psycho the point
of view shot is use when Norman Bates uses a peep hole to spy on Marion
Crane as she undresses in the room next to his parlour. In the contemporary
horror film SAW the point of view shot is utilised though the use of CCTV,
possible adding to the contemporary ideology that in this day and age
everyone is being watched. The sole purpose of the point of view shot is to
place the audience in the characters shoes, whether it is the victims and in
this case the purpose is empathy or the killers where it serves as being either
shocking to the audience or to some it can be cathartic.
867 words (intro, and 3 conventions discussed)
I would continue in this same vain so that I have systematically gone
through all the conventions (genre elements) and provides sufficient
textual examples, not just sticking to 2 films but trying to utilise all case
studies as well as other horror films that I can draw on.
In a penultimate paragraph I would then bring in the discussion of
problematising some things that I have said possibly by saying –
‘although there are many elements and conventions that are utilised in
order to make a genre film such as horror recognisable to the
audience, sometime it can be hard to define a horror film as horror by
these elements alone…’
To conclude why we need conventions relating to audience and
industry and summarising that sometimes it can be hard to classify
genre films… but they all have a firm foundation etc.