Codes and conventions are used in horror films and TV shows to elicit fear in viewers. Mise-en-scene elements like settings in isolated cabins, forests, or abandoned buildings create a sense of mystery and danger. Costumes are typically dark and pale makeup is used to indicate ghosts or death. Low-key lighting and camera techniques like Dutch angles and point-of-view shots disorient viewers and hide threats. Unsettling sounds, silence, and non-linear music build tension. Opening credits often set the ominous tone through dark colors and fonts that relate to the story.

1. Codes and Conventions
of Horror TV Shows
and Films

2. Mise en Scene
Mise en scene includes; setting, costume/makeup, staging

3. Setting
• Outside forces (i.e. elements, landscape and
the unknown) incite fear in the characters and
audience. Setting can also help create the
atmosphere, tone and theme.
• Cabins. E.g. in the woods – creates sense of
isolation
• Forests – dark and mysterious. Lots of
shadows and contorted lighting for the
monster/person to hide.
• Cemeteries – set the scene of death and
supernatural activity.
• Abandoned/Old buildings – haunted houses
(typically Victorian with lots of windows and a
gothic feel.)
• Institutions (e.g. hospitals) – phycological fear

4. • Gloomy clouds
• Lots of windows
• Gothic
• Monochrome
• Trees
• Usually low angle shot
Creates fear as the audience is supposed to feel comfortable and safe at home. Violation of a safe and familiar setting.
Victorian houses have lots of doors and windows which make you wonder what is inside and give you the feeling that
someone or something might be looking back at you through a window.
Large abandoned family
houses

5.  Real-life house
House in the show 

6. Costume/make up
• Helps the audience identify the
protagonist and the antagonist.
• Costumes are usually dark – helps to
reinforce the genre.
• Pale colours can represent death or
innocence/naivety. (good for
victims/protagonists).
• Blood is often used as it signifies danger
and death.
• Ghosts - Any skin on display will look
completely pale except for the eyes.
Filmmakers want you to feel like they’re
real.

7. Children are often used in horror films to show
the battle between good and evil.
They represent innocence and naivety. When they
interact with evil, it shows lost innocence which
viewers can relate to which makes the horror
more personal and frightening.
Could also make it more realistic.

8. examples

9. Lighting
Usually low-key lighting to create mystery and suspense. Dramatic and abstract
lighting can be used to create fear.

10. Low key lighting
• Creates unnatural feeling
• Tension as something could be hidden in
the darkness/shadows that the viewer
doesn’t see at first. The lighting helps
hide it
• Pathetic fallacy helps to set the scene
• Creates tension due to its mysterious and
dark atmosphere, controlling how much
of the surroundings and characters are
revealed.

11. Uplighting
• Casts shadows and distorts the human
face, accentuates certain features,
creates shadows around the eyes
• Looks unnatural because it doesn’t occur
in the natural world
• Our brains try to recognise faces which is
disturbing when they are distorted

12. Silhouetting
• Doesn’t give us enough of the
information we're looking for, like facial
features, attire, etc.
• This distortion is even more intense when
it comes to casting prominent shadows,
because it plays upon the human fear of
the unknown.

13. Editing
helps to interchange between shots to create the storyline and build
tension

14. Shot Placement – You can either let everything play out in chronological order, or you can jumble the
timeline a little to make the audience feel like they have to figure something out. Jump scares are often
used to frighten the audience. The important elements are creating a sense in the audience that
something is going to come and then subverting that expectation in some way so that when it does come,
it's unexpected. What's really important is building the tension , releasing the tension a little bit, and then
having the jump scare.​
Transitions – how it moves from shot to shot. To build pace quickly, cuts are usually used to get from
one shot to the next rapidly, with no transitions in between the two shots. Fade to black – mainly used to
help narrate the story at a slow pace so that tension can be built from the off. Sometimes fades to black
are used to connect different sequences with each other that ordinarily wouldn't connect. In horror films,
these shots usually display different points of fear from the characters; an example of this is in the sinister
trailer below, towards the end of the trailer.
Pacing – how fast the story moves, helps to give the story direction. Keeps the audience intrigued and
creates suspense.

15. Shot type and Camera movement

16. Hand-held camera
shot
• Adds a sense of reality
• Make the audience feel more involved
• Increases fear as it makes the audience
feel like they are with the characters
• Creates the feeling of instability
• Effective in chase scenes
• Allows the operator to follow action very
closely, creating a greater sense of
immediacy for the audience.

17. Dutch angle
• often used to portray psychological
uneasiness or tense action in order to
cause disorientation to the viewer.
• can give a surreal or nightmarish feel to a
scene where something already feels
different from the structured shots that
came before and after it.

18. POV shot
• A sequence that is shot as if the viewer
were looking through the eyes of a
specific character. The audience is placed
in the position of the killer who is slowly
sneaking up on a victim.
• Creates fear because you know where the
monster/killer is but the victim doesn’t
which makes then seem more vulnerable.

19. Sound
• Sounds such as footsteps of the threat pursuing it’s victim create tension and fear.
• A persistent low hum can make key sounds within the scene (e.g. creaky floorboards and whispers) more unsettling.​
• Non-linear - (e.g. psycho) The iconic shower scene is complemented by shrill, piercing strings, mirroring the victim’s
screams and slashing of the killer’s knife.​
• Infrasound - characterized by low frequency (below 20 Hz). Can be caused by natural disasters and severe weather
conditions like thunderstorms and earthquakes. Humans are conditioned to associate these noises with impending
danger. A common technique composers use is to insert these sounds throughout a score, further aggravating the
viewers’ feelings of disorientation.​
• Breathing sound effects​ - creates suspense.
• In a monster horror film, the creature’s breathing creates suspense and fear. Sound designers can also play with
other non-speaking vocalizations, like roars, hisses (e.g. Ridley Scott’s Alien) or calls to other monsters.​
• Silence – for example, in between footsteps, emphasises the character’s vulnerability.
• The sound of a distant clock ticking can develop a sense of impending danger.

20. Credits

21. • Dark background
• Font may relate to
the story
• Usually white font
but another colour
may be used if it
relates to the
theme or the story

22. Initial shots playing with main credits can set
the scene/introduce main characters/set the
tone of the story etc.
 For example
Artistic interpretations (including
drawings, images, words, characters,
animation etc) relating to the story.
For example 