The document discusses various horror film subgenres and their common conventions. It analyzes supernatural, psychological, slasher, possession and gothic subgenres. For each, it identifies common narrative structures, character tropes, locations, and visual/audio techniques. For example, it notes possession films typically feature religious imagery and are set in isolated places with dark histories. The author's group chose the possession subgenre for their film due to its complexity, relevance and opportunities for creative expression.

1. By: Miriana Younan

2.  There are many different codes and conventions that make
up the different horror sub genre. Codes and conventions are
things that you recognise, to identify a certain genre, such as
space is known as a convention of a sci-fi film. In order to
understand and highlight each sub genre, we carried out a
research task to identify each sub genre conventions,. So we
can apply it into our film and make it more appealing to the
audience and can related to the sub genre chosen.
 I will be discussing four different sub-genres that exist within
the larger genre of Horror. These sub-genres
include Possession, Slasher, Psychological, Supernatural and
Gothic.

4. Supernatural

A convention that always occurs in supernatural horror is that it is normally set in
a home or other everyday places. A supernatural presence is not something that
someone can escape from or fight against this is what makes this sub-genre so
terrifying. Supernatural films are usually set at the protagonist's home because it
creates that fear that your safe place is not safe at all and it being supernatural
you don’t know what could happen next. The supernatural object creating fear is a
ghost, spirit or a curse.

There are two common narrative of supernatural horrors that tend to be used.
One revolves around the idea that a new family are moving in a home that turns
out to have a history and to be haunted. Soon they are being tormented by
paranormal events, such as in The Amityville Horror.

The other common narrative that is also used is when a person is either cursed or
a spirit comes after them for example in Drag Me To Hell, where Christine is
cursed.

It is conventional for this sub-genre to use orchestral music as it suits the scenes
presented. Contrapuntal sound is also used to create fear and terrify the audience
for example when something terrible is going to happen by adding sound that is
meant to be sweet and innocent it scares the audience more as your are turning
something innocent into something terrifying, by adding a child's laughter to a
scene it becomes sinister. For example in Amityville horror as the woman walks
past a room you hear a child's laughter.

5. Conventions

The location for a supernatural film is set where the protagonist is most familiar with or
has spent a proportion of their life in the setting. However this depends on the narrative
of the film. The most common setting is at the home of the protagonist. The main
characters home is usually isolated and excluded. With having a supernatural presence
within a home unwelcomed is not easily accepted. For example in ‘MAMA’ the two girls
are brought to a cabin in the woods where there's nothing around only the woodland.
Which resulted the children not being found for a long time. The isolation of the house
creates an eerie, mysterious atmosphere.. Where it leaves the characters to rely upon
themselves to attempt to overcome the supernatural being and survive. A supernatural
presence isn't easily accepted by a person and it is not something that one can escape
from or fight against, this is what makes this sub genre so terrifying and intriguing.,
supernatural horrors are set in peoples homes because it promotes the fear of
something unwanted and unfriendly entering your own personal space, which frightens
the audience make their home uncomfortable and not safe to be in.

6. Conventions
 In the supernatural horror one of the leading character is
always being followed by a being or presence that
usually does not reveal itself to others only the one that
they come for. For example in ‘Insidious’ when the
pictures of the father as a young child is shown there is a
being in the form of a women whom appears in every
image that comes close and closer to him. This is when
the audience is informed of the fathers gene being
passed on to the son causing him to be lost in the
alternative place know as the further.

8. Psychological

A psychological horror does not contain gore and weapons, psychological plays with
the mind of the audience making them feel vulnerable.

The killer normally has a twisted mind and that acts as an instigator of fear and is, in
effect, their ‘weapon’. A disturbed or tormented individual is the main antagonist
who may come back to get revenge on their victims. The may be a child this could be
because it terrifies the audience even more because they are turning an innocent
child into a devil/monster . Most of the times the victims tend to be female and this
could be because the fact the mothers are maternal and the female audiences
watching will be able to relate.

Psychological horror are set normal settings like big houses, schools and hospitals.
These types of settings creates realism for the audience and they are able to relate
to them. They will also feel vulnerable as they feel their safe place ( their home) is
not safe from anything and that danger can invade their safety.

In psychological horrors, the ‘monster’ looks normal too; they are normal and even
attractive sometimes on the outside, but have purely distorted minds. Very often the
evil works of this character is not shown until the end or when the story of the horror
film is fully established. Psychological horrors often feature a really good twist
towards the end.

9. Conventions
 Psychological horror films will generally rely on the characters
beliefs, fears and any hidden truths about the character or what they
have done. The location of a typical psychological sub genre tends to
be in authentic housing, hospitals, locations that are in the
audiences every day life which in return produces a connection that
the audience has with the film. Very often psychological films will
base its narrative on facts or actual occurrences in real life, this is
true for films such as ‘The Strangers’ which are based on a true story.
Film, markers often like o add if a film is based on true events
because it adds value to the film, and also increase the scare factor
because the audience will realise that there is a real possibility of it
happening in real life to them or anyone close to them.

11. Slasher

Most slasher films have a final girl which survives till the end. The features of the final girl are suggestive that
she is not very feminine to suggest that she has the kind of qualities required to out wit h killer and survive.
Their costume is generally quite conservative and they are normally the most clever out of the friendship circle.
The final girl always survives to the end, generally she has a chase scene to endure and at the end of this there
will be the confrontation were the killer is defeated, killed or warded off. The final girl will usually be a brunette,
not very sexual and she may be unpopular amongst her circle of friends.

The slasher villains are portrayed as mentally deranged and/or physically deformed individuals who were
traumatized in many instances at an early age. The killer in slasher films is usually male, his identity is often
hidden and unknown, as they usually wear a mask , this gives the effect of not knowing the killer , the killer
staying unknown and the victims always staying aware of who it could be a close friend or an enemy . The
costume that hides their body and makes them look more physically imposing. The killer is usually big and
strong which makes it impossible to kill him. Slasher killers tend to prefer brutal hand held weapons such as
knives, axes, machetes and chainsaws. This gives the killer an up close and personal relation with the victim,
that he will be killing.

Many slasher films feature a group of teenage friends and most of them end up dead which usually leaves one
survivor who is usually the final girl. The group of friends tend to be young, attractive and high school or college
aged.

There are two main types of locations in the majority of horror slasher films, suburban neighbourhoods and
woods. More commonly used is suburbs, this helps to leave the audience with a sense of fear because it is a
place that you would consider to be safe in. The location could be part of the killer’s identity as it could be
associated with a bad childhood or a significant event which the killer was involved in. Examples of existing
major films which take place in surban areas are Halloween and Scream, Casey is home alone in an isolated
mansion in a wealthy suburban – meaning there are plenty of rooms and places for a killer to hide with limited
neighbours or towns nearby. Another location is woods, which is rarely used in slasher films, but it is still used.
An example of this is Friday the Thirteenth, which took place in woods by a lake

12. Conventions
 The location is quiet and eerie, in a suburban town,
this helps to maintain the sense of fear because the
audience can relate to it ensuring authenticity as its
a safe haven. The location may indicate being a part
of the killers identity, it may even hold a significant
event which the killer was involved in or bad
childhood. The location is often in a small populated
region and is often far from civilization. The killer
destroys his victims means of escape e.g. Their
vehicle which makes their escape impossible and
allows the killer to his victims freely without
interferences.

14. Possession

Possession films are usually based on an object or a person being possessed by
an evil spirit. This then leads to them showing abnormal, scary and horrific
behaviour as if manipulated by evil itself. Audiences will see characters
levitating, contorting their bodies or speaking in strange voices or languages.
They may even kill animals or eat insects.

Possession films use religious imagery, especially Christian or Jewish religious
artefacts e.g. Crucifix, due to the fact that priests and religious figures are often
drafted in to perform exorcisms or to get rid of the evil present. It also creates
more of a scare factor as people who are religious will be more terrified as they
believe this could happen to them. The great history of the religions featured in
possession films leads the audience to believe that the evil spirit has also been
in existence for a long time, meaning that it is hard to get rid of the evil spirit.

Conventions of location for possession films are usually set in the home or
isolated locations with lots of dark history and the location is normally a large
house or even a place of worship. The place of worship ties in with the religious
imagery convention of the genre. These places are normally old which gives the
the audience a sense that the place has a lot of history and evil has been there
for years and will continue to be there and terrorise its next victims.

16. Gothic

Gothic horror films were popular in the 1920’s , 30’s and 40’s. Gothic horrors feed on our
darkest fears and desires, and conjure up creatures of the night into being. The monster is
usually mythical, such as vampires, werewolves, headless horsemen and ghosts that either
try to kill or haunt their victims. Gothic films are usually set in a isolated location such as a
dark misty forest or a big house/ mansion in the middle of nowhere in far off mystical lands
that the audience would never visit. Castles and graveyards also feature.

Gothic horrors are often set in the past and use dark shadows and lighting.
Conventions:
o
An atmosphere of doom.
o
Medieval castles with rooms such as dungeons and torture chambers
o
Low key lighting e.g. Women in black uses low key lighting throughout the film; it is
extremely dark.
o
Untamed landscapes which are empty
o
Graveyards and holy relics
o
Beast transformation e.g. Frankenstein we see Frankenstein being created by the professor.
o
Weather is misty it is usually used to darken objects to introduce the terrifying person or
thing.
o
Storms- it is used to accompany important events.

17. The sub genre chosen by my group
 My Group and I decided to choose the Possession sub-genre because
we believe that it is the most interesting genre to create a film
in. There are many conventions to follow and challenge and there are
also many different narrative possibilities. Since Possession films are
becoming increasingly relevant in today's society, it would make sense
to create a film that will appeal to a wide range of audiences that like
to watch the latest Possession films such as "Insidious 2" and "The
Possession".
 Since the sub-genre is one of the more sophisticated Horror sub-
genres, we can target a sophisticated audience that understands the
many codes and conventions of the genre.
 Not only will the film be interesting for the audience, it will be very
interesting to create the film itself in all stages of production, from
brainstorming narrative ideas to story-boarding to filming and to
editing. We believe as a group that the project will be very interesting
to produce and will allow our creative ideas and thoughts to
flourish. This will allow us to develop as media practitioners because
of the great opportunity for creative ideas.