This document outlines several common conventions of the horror genre including: use of blood, isolation, darkness, screaming, identifiable costumes, chase scenes, eerie settings, unknown killers targeting ordinary people or lone females. It also discusses how horror reflects society's fears and uses sound, costumes, and "Luton Bus Shocks" (false scares) to build suspense. Specific subgenres like slasher, supernatural, and psychological horror are mentioned. The final section summarizes several genre theorists' views that genres create audience expectations to guide production and understanding of texts.

1. CONVENTIONS OF
HORROR
RHYS WILLIAMS

2. CONVENTIONS OF THE HORROR
GENRE
•Blood
•Luton Bus Shocks
•Isolation
•Darkness
•Fog or bad
weather
•Chase scenes
•Screaming
•Identifiable
Costumes
•Good vs Evil
•Use of Sound
•Eerie Settings
•Unknown Killer
•Lone Female
•Ordinary people in
situations that the
audience do not
wish to be in
•Death
•Reflecting
Society’s Fears
•Weapons
•Young Victims

3. SCREAMING
Having a character scream adds dramatic effect and makes puts the
effect of panic and danger onto the audience and makes them feel like
they are with the character who is in distress. Screaming can take
place in or out of the shot.
IDENTIFIABLE COSTUMES
An identifiable character is when a character can easily be
identified by the audience. It can also be when we can
easily tell whether a character is good or bad.

4. USE OF SOUND
The use of sound is important in the horror genre as it builds
suspense, creates dramatic effect and identifies mood. Sound can be
used to slowly build up an event to the audience or it can be used to
trick them into a form of a Luton Bus Shock that makes them think
that a dramatic event is about to happen but it is actually something
normal.
EERIE SETTINGS
Eerie settings allow the audience to feel scared and the way that the
characters in the setting feel. Eerie settings come in the form of
places such as a haunted house or a swamp, or an insane asylum.

5. REFLECTING SOCIETY’S FEARS
The use of reflecting society’s fears is important in the horror genre
as it allows the audience to relate themselves to the person in danger
in the film. For example, a film showing ghosts attacking a person’s
home would be reflecting society’s fears in the way that people have
a fear of their home being attacked.
LUTON BUS SHOCKS
A Luton Bus Shock is when a build up occurs to an event that makes
the audience believes that a scare is about to happen when it actually
displays a regular event. For example, in The Purge, the character is
in the fridge and the shot is displayed so that we as an audience
believe that there is a scary character behind the fridge door, which in
reality when she comes to close the door we see that it is only her
son. This would be a Luton Bus Shock as it gets the audience on edge
and more into the film.

6. SUBGENRES OF HORROR
•Paranormal – Paranormal Activity
•Supernatural – Dracula
•Slasher – Nightmare on Elm Street,
Halloween
•Suspense/Thriller – Hannibal
•Psychological – The Shining
•Satanic/Religious – The Exorcist
•Sci-Fi – Alien
•Gothic – Sleepy Hollow
•Creepy Kids – Orphan
•Rampant Animals – Jaws, Piranna
•Splatter/Gorenography – Saw
•Erotic – Poison Ivy
•Dark Fantasy – Hellboy
•Comedy – Shaun of the Dead

7. GENRE THEORY Daniel Chandler
Genre is defined by
the conventions
Jonathan Culler
A contract exists
between creator and
reader concerning
‘Audience
Expectations’ of
genre.
Rick Altman
Genre Allows texts to
be produced to appeal
to different audiences.
Genre can be defined in
terms of media
language
Tom Ryall
Genre guides/effects
the production of the
text.
Steve Neale
Audience expectations
help them understand
the text
Creates guarantees of
meaning and pleasure