This document discusses various conventions and elements of the horror genre. It covers conventions from different decades, including the slashers of the 1980s and remakes in the 2000s. It also discusses common mise-en-scene elements like isolated settings, religious symbols, and character archetypes. Additionally, it outlines several horror subgenres like good vs evil, religion-based horror, science gone bad stories, and classic gothic stories. The document also notes common technical elements like camera angles, sound, editing, and lighting used to create tension and fear.

1. Horror conventions
By Bushra Ijaiya

3. Reference: http://horror.about.com/od/horrorthemelists/ss/horrortimeline
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.

4. Mise-en-scene
• The props helping to identify genre immediately (religious symbols, knives
masks) - Small communities or isolated places with a hidden past, this
creates a sense of tension, these are usually set during the night/ dark eg.
Silent Hill, Dark streets, Run down ghost towns (loneliness), Lakes,
Motorways, Cabins, Subways, tunnels
• Characters – a few might include: The Protagonist – Usually a female
role, smartest of the group and therefore survive, to create a path for a
sequel, The unlikely hero – The character the audience suspects to be the
antagonist due to their behaviour and appearance, Sex appeal – This role
is often filled by a promiscuous blonde women, usually first to be killed,
stereotyping viewed as dumb, Evil character – Serial killer, demonic
possession, ghost, if human they usually wear a mask disguising themselves
and fear of unknown.

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. The technical codes show the camera work to be expressive
rather than naturalistic, using weird angles and canted cameras a common
in horror movies, to possibly emphasise the difference of the scary tension
rather than using everyday camera angles that usually express the neutral
or happy mood. They also use extreme close ups and point of view shots in
order to express fear or to make the audience feel more involved in the
increasing tension. Eg Silence of the lambs.
• 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. Noir lighting is known for harsh light that skims across the face
helps to imply there is a sense of mystery just as many noir characters are
two faced.
Close up
Camera: High/low – Power
Jump cuts: Quicken time/Tension
Ambient sounds: Diegetic - realism

7. Additional features
• Iconography – using visual objects that signify the genre: colours
like black and red that link closely to blood, evil and danger often
do this on movie posters and use misty, blue or dark filters. The
colours can even show the evil within characters. For example White
indicates purity and innocence although white clothing is used in
‘The Ring’ this can identify a false interpretation of the child
character as we would assume the child to be friendly.
• Narrative theory – Indicates how the story is told, in horror films
a cliff-hanger in sequencing films is common, or a shocking
relevance at the end to explain why everything happened and how it
led up to that specific moment. E.g Saw – Cliff-hanger, Identity –
Reveals important information about previous events leading to the
ending
The ring, Saw and Nightmare on elm street all show evidence of the blue filter for horror.
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.