This document summarizes genre research on horror films. It outlines the origins of the horror genre in 18th century gothic novels. It then describes common conventions of horror film trailers, including establishing shots, logos, fast editing, narratives, and title screens. Finally, it details other frequent horror conventions like isolated settings, dark color schemes, masked or supernatural killers, and the use of sound, camerawork techniques, posters, magazines, and typical trailer structure.

1. GENRE RESEARCH
SUMMARY

2. ORIGINS
• The Horror Genre came from gothic novels in the 1700s and has been around
since the start of cinema.

3. TRAILER CONVENTIONS
• Establishing Shot
• Production Logo
• Fast Paced Editing
• Narrative
• Diegetic Dialogue
• Title Screens

4. HORROR CONVENTIONS P1
Sound
• Lots of non-diegetic sound
• Voice over
• Mood
Setting/Location
• Isolated places
• Abandoned house
• Isolated town
• Countryside
• Woods
Props
• Knife
• Axe
• Supernatural power
• Never a gun, weapon needs to kill you slowly
and painfully

5. HORROR CONVENTIONS P2
Characters
• Parents
• Teenagers
• Children
• Villain/Killer
Villain/Killer
• Psycho
• Masked killer
• Usually male
• Ghost/Demon
• Doll
• Outcast
Colour scheme
• Dark
• Gloomy
• Blackish/Greenish
Editing
• Short clips
• Jump cuts
• Fade to black
Camerawork
• Close ups
• Establishing shots
• Tracking
• High angles
• Wide shots
Titles (Order)
Disclaimer
Distribution companies
Film title
Release date
Camerawork
Close ups
Establishing shots
Tracking
High angles
Wide shots
POV
Handheld

6. PROMOTIONAL PACKAGE
• Brand Identity. (Colours, shot types,
actors and fonts)
• Different features such as hyperlinks,
billing blocks, videos etc.

7. POSTER CONVENTIONS
• Billing Block
• Image of Main Characters
• Portrait
• Review Quote
• Title
• Actors Name

8. HORROR CONVENTIONS
• Black, red and white colour scheme
• Small titles – generally at the bottom
of the poster
• Release date
• Low lighting to disguise characters
• Use of one large image to grab the
audiences attention - optical focus.
If the image isn’t large it is a long
shot of a main location which adds
suspense to the film
• Captions
• Anchorage

9. MAGAZINE CONVENTIONS
• Matshead
• Strap Line
• Plug
• Image of Main Characters – Long or Mid
shot
• Barcode
• Cover lines
• Header and footerbrands
• Cover Story
• Date and Issue

10. TYPICAL TRAILER
• 112 Shots
• 27 scenes
• Typically Lasting 1, 2, 3, 4 seconds
long