Horror Movies Essay

The Horror Genre Essay
The Horror Genre
The Horror Genre has been very popular ever since Etienne Robertson, the pioneer of film horror,
made the first film. The film 'Phantasmagoria' was more of a theatre shadow play. It was made
during the French revolution.
Since then, thousands of Horror films have been made. Many developments have been used in
newer films such as special effects and 3–D animation. A genre is formed when a type offilm has
certain elements that become essential to that type of film. These elements are sometimes called
"generic conventions". Around these large genres sub–genres have evolved such as supernatural and
sci–fi horror films like 'The Fly' and 'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein' In...show more content...
They are dressed in a long beige coat and a hat, they smoke a lot of cigarettes and are discreet and
smooth. Not all modern films have detectives but older films like 'Psycho' and 'The Shining' have
them.
In some films there is Pathos created for the killer because of his mental state. Sometimes the
killer's are out for revenge or they are insane. In 'The Fly' the main character Seth undergoes a
genetic change and loses his mind, this makes the viewer feel sorry for him.
Horror films have a typical narrative structure. Like 'Psycho' and 'Jaws' they start with a scene of a
killing, usually the most brutal and graphic. This sets the scene and lets us know what is to come.
After the first kill the murders become more discreet. Next the title sequence comes up and then the
main characters are introduced. The killer then appears when everyone has been introduced and it
is usually night time, plotting another attack or on his way to fulfil it. The next part is an
unsuccessful attempt to kill the next victim. The final and most gripping part is the part where the
detective must try to work out who is killing and prevent the next strike. Then the killer is revealed
or stopped, resolving the narrative. A common device used in most horror films is the 'Red Herring'.
This is when the audience is led to believe something about someone in the film that isn't true,
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Horror Film Analysis
1.According to King, civilized people enjoy horror movies because it shows that we are not
afraid and it is a way to exercise our dark sides. Watching horror movies allows for use to face
some of our greatest fears, and once conquered, we feel better about our abilities to face our fears.
Every civilized person has a dark side to them and this can be feed by watching horror movies. The
content in horror movies fuels our need to see death and other horrible parts of the human
experience. In reality, horror movies keep some of our sanity in check.
2.To King, horror movies are like roller coasters because they incite fear in the minds of the young
and there are many twists and turns. Typically, young people are more likely to go on roller
coasters that older people are and that is the same with watching horror movies. Young people
like to put themselves in the uncomfortable situation of watching a horror movie in order to test
their ability to face fear face on. Like a roller coaster, a horror movie can cause us to scream out of
fear in our seats because of something unexpected. The many plot twists and jump scares in horror
movies are equivalent to the corkscrews and unexpected drops on a roller coaster.
3.Horror films are like public lynching's, according to King, because some of them conation
graphic scenes and they cause fear. In the gorier horror films, there are a lot of deaths,
decapitations, and a ton of fake blood spewing out of a recently murdered body. Therefore,

The Horror Genre Essay
The Horror Genre
The horror genre is a topic that can be written or filmed about. In this essay, I will be concentrating
on films, and how the horror genre is included in them. The main ingredients in a horror film are
music, sound effects, lighting, camera trickery & special effects and most importantly a clever,
catchy, scary script. But to make horror what it is, a director will include many other things that
create suspense and the eerie atmosphere of the scene, or simply make us cringe. The prop are not
just there to fill space, the costumes aren't chosen because the character had to wear something or the
film done at night because the filming finished late. I will explain the reasons these...show more
content...
The viewer will feel sorry for the victim, and feel hatred towards the murderer, getting him or her
involved in the film – how often have you been watching a film and the person sat next to you
starts saying 'Yes! Yes! Kill him!' or 'Don't be stupid! It's obvious he's guilty!' I certainly have
(usually my mum). If the victim is female, she is often attractive, making male viewers like her –
and then angry when she is killed, again getting angry with the murderer. Once a person has started
getting involved in a film, they won't want to stop watching it – they'll want to see the guilty
murderer get caught, or killed.
Of course, in a horror film not all characters are real – and nor are the events. Camera trickery,
special effects and make–up add to the realism of a good horror film. The lighting adds emphasis to
make–up, a character's personality or a frightening scene. If something surprising happens, such as a
hideous monster jumping out on someone, up lighting will be used. This is when the lights are
shone from the floor, up onto something, e.g.. under someone's chin. This causes no shadows on the
person's face, making it seem big and bright, thus often scary. This usually makes a person jump,
increasing the thrill of the film. Otherwise, down lighting can be used to make a person

Essay on Horror Films
Horror films
Movies have been growing increasingly more explicit for years. Horror films are no longer based
on a cleverly written script with lots of twists and turns, but rather how graphic and twisted the
images are throughout the movie. Horror films are appealing to viewers for various reasons. In fact,
according to some film critics, "good" horror films have particular characteristics. Maggie
McCutcheon in "Too Disturbing, Too Shocking," According to Olson, people particularly enjoy
experiencing the end of their fear and terror. Once the fear and terror have ended, people feel
better. And, according to Stephen King in "Why We Crave Horror Movies," horror films can help
us confront our fears, and help us deal with the "bad side" of...show more content...
Another image is a Dead tree outside the house making scary shadows every time it storms and
also tries to eat Robbie. And in the closet there is a monster that takes Carol Anne and at the end of
the movie the closet turns in to a Giant throat with a serpent coming out of it sucking the house in to
the earth. So clearly the viewers can see the characteristic of visual images in the horror film
Poltergeist. Another characteristic of a horror film is Vitality or strength of source of horror.
Stanley J. Solomon in "The Nightmare World" claims If the depiction of archetypal fears is one
aspect of the genre, the process whereby these fears become dramatic incidents in a film reveals at
least two other genre traits: the degree of unpreparedness on the part of the endangered victim, and
the vitality or strength of the source of horror. The movie Poltergeist certainly has this
characteristic. Some examples are a normal looking neighborhood, Tweety dies , Steven has a
remote control war with his neighbor , Carol Anne answers the TV people questions, Diane
mentions the swimming pool what if Carol Anne falls in, the way the clown looks when its lighting
in the kids room and when the Tree and storm clouds look and the hand reaching out from the TV,
but only Carol Anne sees it– rest of the family thinks it's a earthquake and the chairs stacked up, out
from the table , and Robbie utensils are bent. So you can definitely tell

Why I Love Horror Movies Essay
3/22/2012 English 100 The Best of Horror movies
Many people would say that their favorite way to have fun is to go to a beautiful beach and build
sand castles or hang out with their friends at the mall. But for me, put me in a dark theater with a
murderous psychopath on the loose threatening teenagers and I am happy. I am a lover of horror
movies. This is something that I don't always tell people, because it seems kind of weird to enjoy
being scared and grossed out by lots of blood and gore. But in fact, I love horror movies, and I am
not alone. And I am not crazy. Horror movies can be not only fun, but some experts have even
argued that they are harmless or even good for us.
There are many people who say that horror...show more content...
Out of all of them I was the only one who was not afraid. I did not scream, nor did I ever cover my
eyes like they did. At one point Barbara tried to leave in the middle of the movie because it was
too "scary" I quickly put my leg up in front of her and told her "relax its not even that scary we
didn't pay ten dollars just to see half of the movie and leave". She stayed but it would have been a
good idea if I had let her go. Why? Because she constantly kept screaming every 10 seconds a
"scary" part came up in the movie. Farah on the other hand was trying to keep it "cool and tough"
just like I was, she didn't scream much but the expression on her face was priceless, you can tell
she was scared. But I kept laughing at them and saying "it's not even that serious" so they
probably thought I was really "tough". So this is what Stephen King means when he says we try to
prove how strong we are or how cool we can play it knowing that the movie is really scary.
Most interestingly, he says "By the time one turns 40 or 50, one's appetite for double twists or
360 degree loops may be considerably depleted" (King) Once we start to get older our love for
horror movies start to disappear and we become little kids again that are afraid to watch scary
movies. So King is also basically saying that mostly the younger generation prefers to watch horror
movies. "That may explain why horror movies are most popular with younger audiences. Teens and
twenty–somethings "are more likely to

Essay on Horror Movies: An Art Form?
Ever since the advent of celluloid films, horror movies have always held a fascination for viewers.
Just why do people pay good money to be scared out of their wits? Apart from its entertainment
value, the horror movie satisfies certain primordial needs in man. Through the horror movies, one is
able to come to grips with one's personal demons, fear of death and other irrational phobias and in
the process achieve a catharsis. Far from being morbid, such movies actually affirm life for the
movie–goer, for he is able to emerge from the dark into the light, both literally and figuratively,
having explored the world beyond our normal perception as well as the deep recesses of the human
soul and say, "It's good to be alive."
Horror...show more content...
And that is the greatest fear of all.
In the horror movie, however, death is not the be all and end all; it could be the start of a diabolical
way of `life', as a vampire, zombie or a resurrected creature as in the case of Frankenstein's
creation. Such creatures are a travesty of life and their very presence serves to reaffirm our
humanity and provide us with a catharsis for our fear of death, for there are worse things, after all.
At the most basis level, horror movies are about the age–old fight between good and evil. At a
deeper level, however, the beast within us is the evil that we have to conquer. This is exemplified in
such movies of spiritual possession as The Exorcist and The Omen. A variation of the possession
myth is the myth of transfiguration or metamorphosis. Dracula transfigure his victim with a bite; the
full moon transforms a mere mortal into a lethal lycanthrope; a potion facilitates Dr Jekyll's
metamorphosis into the evil Mr Hyde. These "monsters" are a symbol of the duality of human and
reflect man's constant struggle within himself.
The horror movies of the past ten years of so have tended to be more violently graphic and visceral –
a reflection of modern times, perhaps. Think of the blood and gore, of the violent deaths at regular
intervals in such movies as the Friday the Thirteenth series, I Know

Horror Movies Essay
"Natural Born Killers," " Psycho," " Friday the 13th ," and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" are all
horror films. In these films there is always some crazy person or monster–like character that goes
around and slaughters innocent people. And usually, but not all the time the killer is killed at the end
of the movie. The media publishes or broadcasts stories that say that horror films influence people to
imitate these wrongful acts of violence. I believe that these movies do not influence people to imitate
these murderous crimes onto innocent people. Horror films are a way for people to exercise their
violent emotions with out hurting anyone.
The media publishes ,in my mind...show more content...
Byers was shot and left a quadriplegic. She later died of cancer. Her relatives say the couple that
robbed the store was incited by watching "Natural Born Killers." The lawsuit accuses the film's
director Oliver Stone and the producer, Time Warner Entertainment. It says they intentionally
incited copycat crimes (Crabb). I believe this lawsuit is stupid. It is sad that someone was shot
and later on died. But everyone knows the horror movie is a just a movie. The couple that shot
Patsy Byers had a choice whether they were going to rob the convenience store or not . The horror
movie did not force them to go rob. They had freewill.
Horror films provide people with an outlet for their violent feelings they have inside. When someone
people watch horror films they imagine doing harm
to their evil boss at work. But they just imagine this, they know if they acted on these emotions
they will end up in jail or even worse, the death penalty. Even when I watch a horror film I
imagine killing the bad guy in the movie, because of the awful crimes the bad guy commits in the
movie. But I know killing people is wrong. The movie does not influence me to act on these
anticivilization feelings that I have. The horror movies are a fantasy for some people to let out
violent emotions.
I believe that if society did not have horror films to watch , then some people would

Horror Movies Essay

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