This document discusses conventions of the horror genre. It notes that horror aims to create a sense of fear in audiences by focusing on dark or evil forces. Common themes include hauntings, murders, demons and ghosts. Narratives typically involve heroes facing evil characters or spirits and surviving to defeat them. Settings are usually remote, dark places like forests and abandoned homes. Characters include protagonists, villains, teens and possessed children. Examples like Insidious and The Woman in Black are provided that follow these conventions through their characters, settings and use of fear.

1. Genre Research
Genres have specific characteristic features that are
recognised by audiences. A genre sets up expectations
for the audience.

2. Forms and conventions of the horror
genre
 There are several things that are expected from each
genre. The horror genre aims to create a sense of fear so
the audience. Horror movies usually feature focus on a
dark or evil person, force or event.
 The horror genre can often overlap with Thriller, Fantasy
and Sci-Fi genres.

3. Themes in the horror genre
 As the aim of a horror is to scare and thrill the audience,
the genre some of the typical themes of horrors include:
 Haunting
 Murders
 Revenge
 Demons or Ghosts
 Religion
 Evil
 Insanity
 Good Vs. Evil

4. Narratives in the horror genre
 Horror movies usually focus on problems that the main
characters face. There is usually an evil character or spirit
that causes the issues and then a heroic, brave character.
 The hero is usually the character that survives at the end
of the movie or is the one to defeat the ‘evil’ character.
 The stereotypical narrative of a horror movie is that the
main group of characters are friends, all teens and they
will be killed or haunted one-by-one and then the ‘hero’ is
left to survive. There is also one character who is scared
more than the others and they are, usually, the first to
die.

5. Settings in the horror genre
 The setting of horror movies is stereotypically a remote
village, or abandoned home.
 The settings are usually dark and mysterious.
 Graveyards, cabins, forests and woods etc. are
stereotypical to the horror genre.
 American, family neighbourhoods

6. Characters in the horror genre
 Protagonist – hero
 Villain – evil person/spirit
 Teens
 Possessed children
 The worrying parents of said children
 Demons/zombies/ghosts
 Murderers
 Stalkers

7. Examples of these conventions: Insidious
 www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1YbOMDI59k
 Insidious sees a child become possessed
and his parents try to solve what is
wrong with him. He attracts spirits and
the house becomes haunted.

8. Characters
 The characters in Insidious follow conventions of one of the
stereotypical horror movies: there is a possessed child and
concerned parents.
 The child then attracts demons to the house and the parents
are unsuspecting of these, as seen in the picture below. This
plays on the viewers fear and adds to the sense of surprise.

9. Setting
 There is one shot of outside the family home showing the sun
shining and it looking ‘normal’.
 However the majority of the shots inside the home are dark
and mysterious showing that the house has a dark secret,
leaving the audience wanting to watch the movie to find out
what happens. There are mysterious figures and shadows
shown around the house showing it’s haunted too.

10. Fear
 The trailer plays on the viewers fear showing mysterious
people, demons and strange figures within the house.
 One scene shows the hospital bed which previously had
the child in covered in bloody handprints intriguing the
audience to find out how this happened.

11. Examples of these conventions: The
Woman In Black
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPYMUnJGURI
 The movie was based on a novella by
Susan Hill. The movie is set in the
Edwardian era and sees a small village
haunted by a ghostly ‘woman in black’.

12. Characters
 The main character, played by Daniel Radcliffe,
is told to sell the house. He is the Protagonist.
 The three little girls mysteriously jump out of a
window and fall to their death and are then
ghosts, seen in the woods etc.
 The ‘woman in black’ haunts the house and is
the main threat and instigates fear.

13. Setting
 The house that the main scary happenings go
on is abandoned and in a very remote area,
this is very typical of a horror movie. Derelict
buildings are generally scary and thought to be
haunted.
 The shots inside the house are very dark and
gloomy.
 The weather is very mysterious and foggy.
 All of this creates a sense of uncertainty and
mystery for the viewer.

14. Fear
 The trailer shows mysterious figures and
ghostly children, playing on the audiences fear.
 It is ‘jumpy’ and surprising in the way that non
diagetic music and screams accompany scary
scenes to scare the viewer and leave them in
suspense.