Horror conventions

1. Horror conventions
By Bushra Ijaiya

3. Horror film genre history
• Horror in the first half of the '80s was defined by slashers like Friday the
13th, Prom Night and A Nightmare on Elm Street, while the latter half
tended to take a more light-hearted look at the genre, mixing in comic
elements in films like The Return of the Living Dead, Evil Dead 2, Re-
Animator and House. Throughout the '80s, Stephen King's fingerprints
were felt, as adaptations of his books littered the decade, from The Shining
to Pet Sematary. Twenty-first century horror in the US has been identified
with remakes of both American (Friday the 13th, Halloween, Dawn of the
Dead) and foreign films (The Ring, The Grudge), but there have been
innovations within American horror -- most notably the "torture porn" of
Saw and Hostel fame. Outside of the US, there is as great a variety of edgy
and innovative material as there has ever been in the genre, from Canada
(Ginger Snaps) to France (High Tension) to Spain (The Orphanage) to the
UK (28 Days Later) and, of course, Asia, from Hong Kong (The Eye) to
Japan (Ichi the Killer) to Korea (A Tale of Two Sisters) to Thailand
(Shutter).
Reference: http://horror.about.com/od/horrorthemelists/ss/horrortimeline

4. LOCATIONS
•Small communities or isolated
places
•Dark streets
•Run down ghost towns (isolation
or loneliness)
•Lakes, Motorways, Cabins,
Subways, tunnels,

5. GENRE
• GOOD VS EVIL - The good vs evil is shown in the ‘Omen’ when a boys family is
Christian family vs the individual who is possessed by the devil this shows the battle
between good vs evil for example when the family drive past the church the possessed
individual by the devil begins to act violent and abusive. This shows the horror of good
vs evil as a sub genre, and how it can be portrayed through movies.
• RELIGION – Religion was revealed in the film ‘Unborn’ as the main character
was being followed by an evil demon/spirt that killed people around her. In order for
this demon to be diminished, religious rituals had to be said by a priest. This indicates
that religion is needed for the horrific problems to be taken out of your life. This also
links to CHILDHOOD ISSUES because it only occurred as she was a twin, and
followed her since she was young.
• SCIENCE GONE BAD – ‘Frankenstein’ originally a 1930s film Henry Frankenstein
is a doctor who is trying to discover a way to make the dead walk. He succeeds and
creates a monster that has to deal with living again.
• CLASSIC GOTHIC – ‘Dracula’ – 1931, was set in England, nineteenth century Castle,
large private houses, a foreign country – Transylvania. The plot was the killing of the
monster Dracula. The iconography such as the night time and the moon, were clear
compatible matches to being associated with Dracula. Crucifixes, holy water, candles,
bats and cobwebs are props are key for the characters of Hero’s and Monsters.

6. FEATURES
• Camera angles/movement: low angle and high angle to
connote fear/insignificance and power. POV creates the
audience to but put in the world of terror.
• Sound: Scary, stabs, ambient, demonic (laughs), nursery
rhymes, sinister music, extremely important feature (eg
heartbeats) gives an insight to the emotions and feel of
the character in the film
• Editing: Long takes to build up fear and suspense, sharp
cuts, fades and graphic matches
• Lighting: Dark/shadowy lighting, gloomy, low lighting to
exaggerate the unknown
• Mise en scene: Props, helping to identify genre
immediately (religious symbols, knives masks

7. Todrov narrative
• Equilibrium outset
• Disrupted equilibrium by some action
• Recognition that there’s a disruption
• Attempt to repair disruption
• Reinstatement of the equilibrium

8. Copy cat theory
• The copy cat theory relates to something which is
publicized in he media that creates a lot of attention
resulting in other people imitating or ‘copying’ this
in order to gain the same level of attention.
• Audiences react differently to various situations as
they have different interpretations.
• This can relate a lot to horror conventions as most
crime and deviances. For example the ‘James Bulger
case’ where the murderers watched Childs Play 3 a
film bought by the child's dad where they were
influenced by scenes in the film.