Conventions and Iconography of Horror

1. CONVENTIONS
AND
ICONOGRAPHY
IN
OF HORROR

2. Lack of God • The Narrative of many Horror film has a focus
around a devil-like creature/ spirit which haunts
and harms the central characters. Many Props
such as bibles and crucifix's are used as a
defense from these supernatural forces.
However, it is also a typical convention of horror
films for these typical religious icons being used
to highlight a lack of God and to symbolize the
devil.

3. Colour • Typically, in horror, all colours and lighting are very
low-key to create a tense and scary atmosphere. Many
of the colours frequently used have very important
connotations and symbolism.
• Green is envy, environmental or budgetary
• red is bloody, passionate or speedy
• yellow is sickness, insanity and sunny
• Black and are potentially two of the most important
and symbolic colours as they’re so striking and
change the mood that the director is trying to portray
in a specific setting.
• Typically, white is used to connote purity, innocence,
and even infancy, especially in regards to women.
However, many films use this typical representation of
white to fool the audience, and use the colour white to
create a false sense of security for the audience.

4. Shot Types
• Birds eye and high angle shots: These shots are used to portray a
person or object as powerless and defeated. These are normally
used to show the power difference between a weaker and
stronger powers.
• Close up shots: These are used to show the emotion of characters.
This helps the audience to feel as though they’re building a
connection with the characters as they’re able to relate to the
emotions of characters.
• Tilted shots: These can be used to create tension as the setting is
‘off’, the audience can infer that something unnatural will soon
happen.
• Establishing and Extreme long shots: These are used to show the
audience the key settings in the narrative. These can be crucial
to show how deserted a town or city is.
• Low angle: These are used emphasize the power held by a villain
and to highlight how scary and intimidating they are
• Hand-held shots: these are used to create a sense of reality, and
in tern, creating a scarier atmosphere as the audience view these
occurrences as events that could also happen to them.

5. Children
• Children who have a supernatural or sociopathic
understanding of the rules of normality deliberately
disregard them are typically shown in horror. Children’s
innocence and virtuous qualities are generically
subverted in horror as we expect children to be
represented as non-threatening entities. Horror is able to
force doubt into our natural assumptions, which is a
staple of effective horror.
• Film Theorist Mary Jackson identifies the fear inflicted
by children in She talks about the sub-genre 'Children as
Horror', and identifies our fear of these 'Evil Children' as
the representation of our terror of failing the younger
generation: ‘Not surprisingly, in the run of child-as-
monster films, frequently the real point is not the evil of
children, often the victims of demonic possession
themselves, but rather the ineffectiveness of the family,
church, and state – America’s most highly valued
institutions – to guard themselves against deception and
impending destruction.’

6. Setting • Setting is a crucial aspect of mise-en-scene as it
initiates the way in which the narrative goes.
• Typically, Zombie films incorporate a deserted town or
city to show the unusual events, even at the state of
equilibrium.
• Churches and Graveyards are often use as a
contradictory to their normal holy connotations. They
are often used as settings to highlight the lack of God
and supernatural presences haunting the characters.
• Forests are often used as they’re often large,
expansive and very easy to get lost in locations. ‘The
Blair Witch Project’ is an example of a film which
furthers this, filming in a forest at night to further the
tension.
• Houses are often typically used as they create a sense
of reality for the audience. Houses are such a normal
aspect of our everyday lives and are unavoidable,
which makes them the perfect setting.