conventions of psychological horror films

1. CONVENTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
HORROR FILMS
By Alice Richardson and Leah Walker

2. GENERAL CONVENTIONS
 This type of horror sub-genre is more subtle as there is not a lot of physical harm
to characters or a lot of blood. This genre focuses on the mind of a character,
they tend to cause discomfort for viewers as they expose common psychological
fears and vulnerabilities. They expose the evil that hides behind normality
amongst humans, but with splashes of the paranormal which the audience is
unable to relate to completely. In psychological horror one of the main purposes
of the film is to frighten the audience mentally, whereas this is not the case in
thrillers.

3. SETTINGS
 The setting can often consist of; big houses, forest/ woodland areas, ware
houses, schools, and hospitals and so on. These types of settings create a
sense of realism for the specific target audience as they are able to relate
to the film on some level, having seen/ been or currently live in these
settings. We also may see shadows/ silhouettes which, increases the fear
for the audiences as they begin to picture themselves in this position
which is why it seems to have much more of a severe effect as it makes
them unnerved and terrified.

4. SOUNDS
 Common sounds/ music that we hear when watching a Psychological
Horror film are; Contrapuntal Sound- this is sound that doesn’t match
the action that is on screen.

5. WEAPONS
 When watching a Psychological horror film, the weapons you
tend to see are not actual physical weapons, but tend to be more
supernatural and psychological. For example, the killer’s twisted
minds act a weapon of fear against the victims in the film. Also,
in Supernatural horror films things such as visions, jumpy
moments and so on are used as weapons of fear, supernaturally,
rather than actually possessing a knife, or axe for example. The
weapons are not a physical element of hurt but the mind sets
tricks to make the audience see as if they are getting hurt by
something.

6. CHARACTERS
 The killer usually appears to be normal; there are not usually any
usual physical signs that would identify the person as a killer, this
is because they may lead an average normal lifestyle with no
other possible reasons to point to the way that they are.
 Psychological horrors tend to involve ordinary people who tend
to be the person subjecting the horror onto the other characters
which often makes it difficult to identify who the killer is. Very
often the evil works of this character is not shown until the end
or when the story of the horror is fully established.