Looking at what fears audiences have, the typical fears, and how they are shown through different films.

1. REPRESENTATION
AND FEAR
HORROR FILMS…

2. EVERYBODY
WILL HAVE A
DIFFERENT
VIEWS ON WHAT
IS SCARY AND
WHAT IS NOT.
WE ALL HAVE
DIFFERENT
IDEOLOGIES
WHICH LEADS TO

3. SOME OF THE MOST COMMON FEARS WHICH
PEOPLE ARE SCARED OF ARE…
▸Spiders
▸Death
▸Tortue
▸Snakes
▸Clowns
▸Dolls
▸The dark
▸Bees
▸Heights
▸Silence
▸Isolation
▸Pain
▸Disease
▸Derelict places.

4. DISEASE:
▸Disease- also known as Epidemic Infection- is a common fear for many people.
Horror films which incorporate the spread of a disease are often very realistic
and show what would happen to everyday life- meaning that viewers are often
horrified that this could happen to them.
▸Films which use the spread of disease as the fear are ones such as 28 Weeks
Later (2007), Infection (2004) and The Crazies (2010).
▸Throughout the film The Crazies they are lots of long shots of just the main
character and his four ‘followers’. This shows their isolation which the disease
would have created. When faced with a disease ridden character the editing
would pick up and long shots of the character will reveal their dishevelled
clothing to represent to the audience that they are separate to society- they
don't conform to societies ideologies of how to dress and when to clean.
▸This disease struck monsters would, in relation to Neale’s theory, be the
internal monster. The disease takes over people the community, threatening it
from the inside and taking over. This type of monster also creates to John
Cawelti’s theory that the horror genre often reflects aspects of society and
represents the feat which they have. Many people are scared of everyday
situations gone wrong and this is a clear example of that.

5. TEXT
DOLLS:
▸Many people are scared of dolls, wether it is because of their
souls galore or the high-pitched voice they are given in many
horror films- even their presence in a room can creep people out.
▸The film Annabelle (2014) was a film based on a doll which takes
characters soul and proceeds to haunt the community. In Neale’s
theory, this monster would be an External monster- and outsider.
This is because the possession comes from somewhere else
and brings a threat into the community. It invades a save place.
▸Using an old, decrepit doll as the antagonist creates fear
because of the age of it, the director would have purposely made
the doll look old to create the feeling that it has been neglected.
During the film there are many close ups of the doll to create put
the audience right in front of it and within close proximities of it.

6. LARGE, OLD, DERELICT LOCATIONS:
▸The fact that someone hasn’t lived in a house for over 30 years can
seriously scare viewers. Dusty, old, neglected building are a clear
indication of monsters like ghosts and spiritual beings.
▸A film which incorporate the location of a large, historic mansion is The
Others (2001). The film is about how a family of three- a mother with a
son and a daughter- live alone in the house which they believe is
haunted by spirits. The whole film is based around the house and low-
key lighting is used throughout, linking to the narrative and how the
woman has diagnosed her children with a condition where they cannot
be exposed to light, but also to create the dark and old feeling which
the location brings with it.
▸I don’t think I would be able to put this fear into any of the monster
categories which Neale’s theory speaks about, however in many films
which are based around an old house the monster usually, not always
though, a spirt which is persecuting a family/group of people. This
would be categorised as an external monster, coming from
‘somewhere else’ and invading the home.

7. ISOLATION:
▸A fear which many people have is being left alone- what would
happen if someone where to attack and you were on your own? This
links to my previous sold about old houses as they are often in very
isolated locations.
▸Isolation is very common in horror films, directors like to separate the
group and to take them individually. Many films include wide shots of
the characters or locations to emphasise how alone they are and how
there is no one around them- there is no one to save them.
▸Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is good example of how isolation is
used to emphasise the fear and to make the audience frightened.
There is a wide shot of their caravan near the beginning of the film, it
is driving along an open road and there is no other cars or even
building around them. This establishes the location, but also shows
the audience that these people are in an isolated location. The idea
that being isolated is a bad thing is encoded to us through many
different horror films; which links to Stuart Halls theory that media
encodes a reading and audiences have to de-code it.

8. THE STRANGER:
▸The fact that the audience doesn’t know one of the characters- wether its
their background we don't know or if it’s what they look like- it instantly
scares us.
▸The fear of the stranger is most commonly shown in slasher films. A
common prop in this sub-genre of horror is a mask, which hides the
identity of the antagonist. Audiences not knowing who is commit all the
murders scares us because it could be anyone of the characters and we
have to guess who it could be. This links to Barthes Enigma code theory,
he says that audiences enjoy it when they have to decode the narrative
before they are shown the answer- almost like an intellectual puzzle.
▸A film which strikes at this fear is Scream (1996). The antagonist in the
film wears a prop of a white ‘scream’ mask which was made very iconic
from this film. Throughout the whole film the audience are left to guess
who the murderer is, they are given many hints and are even lead in the
wrong direction and made to think that it is someone who it isn’t.
▸This fear links to another- The unknown. Audiences’ do not like not
knowing what’s going on and by covering the murders face it makes them
feel uncomfortable and they have to be afraid of everyone in the film.

9. SILENCE:
▸ Silence is the most useful sound for directors of horror- and the most
effective.
▸ Silence scares audiences because they know the conventions of horror
films: when there soundtrack or any other ambient noises cut out and there
is complete silence then something bad is bound it happen. This is supports
Stuart Halls encoding/de-coding theory as it shows how directors create a
preferred reading for the audiences which they have caught onto. This also
supports the idea that audiences know the conventions of films and therefore
it has become harder to scare them because of developments.
▸ The film Hush (2016) is a film about a deaf woman who lives alone in a house in the woods. Silence is used throughout
to conform to the narrative of the fact she is deaf and put the audience in her position, making them the Victim so they
can empathise with the character and experience the action for her point of view. It creates tension for the audience, but
also scares them because they begin to understand what she would feel whilst being deaf and being hunted by a man.
Other sounds are used, but a large percentage of the film is just silence with maybe a emphasised heart beat in the
back ground.
▸ Audiences are scares of silence because of the mystery it creates. There is rarely a moment in the day where we don’t
experience some sort of sound and the fact that it is cut off during the film makes us uneasy. It makes the scenario more
realistic as well, in other genres of film a soundtrack is usually in the background, so in horror when that cuts out it takes
us back to reality (where obviously there is no soundtrack) and make it feel as if they are portraying real life.