Genre theory, specifically on theorists

1. HORROR FILM THEORIST’S

2. The Philosophy of Horror (Noel Carroll)
This means that the characters in our short film will state to the
audience who to fear and when to fear them, this could be created
through the narrative, jump scares and the girls becoming frightened
by the ghost story.
The narrative has to include something that is threatening to the
protagonist and goes against a normal day to day life. The antagonist
has to in someway be inhuman and go against sane actions or even
have a power of unknown forces. The antagonist has to break through
barriers of the unknown and tap into common fears
‘Attraction Repulsion’
means that the
audience although are in
fear of the film and
characters it contains
are also satisfied and
enjoy the pleasure of
being terrified. Horror
films breaks through the
barriers of what the
audience are sheltered
by such as serial killers,
ghosts and criminals.
Although they see this
on TV they rarely
experience it in their life
time.
Horror films need to show both sides of the characters, so the
audience can identify themselves with the characters even if
they are the antagonist. This gives the audience either more of
an understanding of the motive of the antagonist or even to
understand the character itself.
The sight of gore or suffering of pain on the characters,
pleases the audience, as it gives them visceral pleasures. The
relationship between the audience and the horror film is
because it pushes the audience out of their comfort zone by
focusing on nightmares and fears the audience may
experience.

3. THE FANTASTIC (Tzvetan Todorov)
The audience must decide for themselves that the situation that the
characters are put in are through supernatural forces or the real
world. This is very apparent in our short film as we give the audience
the choice between the woman's motive of murdering her other half
whether she was possessed or mentally ill, however we reveal at the
end she is possessed by a demon. The protagonists also experience
this choice.
When the audience are completely
unsure whether the film itself is
reality or supernatural it causes
them to start to experience
distress from not being able to
differentiate the two. This is will be
created in our short film through
the audience trying to decide if the
woman is mentally ill or possessed.

4. The Ocular & Spectatorship
Horror is not only made by the gore
or scariness of the character but
rather the audience sympathizing
with the character and being able
to put themselves in the characters
shoes. The victim of the horror
needs to be in desperation to
survive and have a back story in
which the audience feel sorry for
and want the character to survive
through the horror till the end of
the film.
This means that the audience will endeavour to connect with the
protagonist and all the pain they have to endure during the film. The
film needs to create scenarios in which the audience feel like they are
experiencing it themselves through the character such as being
murdered or harmed or even terrified.
The film needs to create characters in which the audience
sympathizes with, they need to be completely innocent to what
happens to them or even very apologetic towards something guilty
they committed. The antagonist also needs to be understood by the
audience as they need to know the reasoning behind their intent to
murder or harm the protagonist whether it is through being mentally
ill or through supernatural affect.

5. The Shadow (Carl Jung)
The shadow is the antagonist of the film, they cause the
disequilibrium. The antagonist in a horror film must represent a spirit
of evil or threatens the characters and audience.
The subject meaning
the protagonist, is
oblivious to the
antagonist and the
threat they give
towards the
protagonist. The
protagonist does
everything in their
power to not believe
the truth of the threat.
This is the sort of horror we would like to create which is the abject
horror as we want to terrify the audience. As the antagonist is
possessed however everyone else reckons she was mentally ill to
avoid the truth, this terrifies the audience as they are unsure of the
power behind the antagonist. The antagonist is not just visually scary
but in their actions needs to frighten the audience
Demonic possession is a very strong theme in our short film and so we
must follow this.