2. Introduction
This power point shows the most significant and effective sub
genres of horror, it will give information on the chosen
genres and give examples of already existing horrors films.
These sub genres are
Slasher, Supernatural, Psychological, Gothic and
possession; they have the ability to terrify audiences and
captivate them in the world that the directors and
producers have created.
3. Supernatural Horror
Supernatural horrors generally focus on the invasion of an unnatural being possessing and
mentally attacking a family. The main type of family that is usually focused on would be
one which has little children, as these children are usually the ones which the spirit
chooses as its victim. The use of children in supernatural horrors is common as it uses the
innocence a child has and turns it into an evil demon who will kill anyone. Themes
which tend to crop up in supernatural horrors are the afterlife, devil on earth, and
demonic possession, these themes are effective as they bring to life perhaps the horror
stories an audience might have heard and not believed, a convention typically used in
supernatural and possession would be a beginning text in the movie stating it is based
on a true story , this changes the horror completely for an audience as the chance of
the horror film actually happening to them becomes a possibility; ultimately causing
intense fear for the audience. Examples of this sub genre would be; Drag me to
hell, The final exorcism, Insidious, The conjuring.
4. Slasher Horror
Slasher horrors tend to be based on a psychopathic killer who seeks
revenge or just to generally kill anyone. In slashers the killer will stalk his
victims and we as the audience will see the killers view of his victim
through camera techniques. A convention in slashers is based on the
characters used such as the “Final girl” usually it is a female who will
survive to the end and most likely kill the murderer. Violence is a
common and continuous convention which occurs in a slasher film as
well as the killer having a specific weapon of choice which the
audience can then identify them by, such as Freddy Krueger having
his slasher claw fingers, and Jason in Friday the 13th with his sword.
Examples of slasher films are; Scream and I know what you did last
summer.
5. Psychological Horror
Psychological horrors rely on the characters fears and beliefs, they will
most likely have a plot which typically turns out to have the opposite
ending that the audience were expecting due to the psychological
plot that has been created. An arguable thriller which is
psychological is Shutter Island the end result has a completely
different one that the audience were expecting and had a difficult
plot to follow, this is why psychological horrors are so successful as
they always grip audiences. A convention in psychological horrors
would be a character being mentally ill or the film will have a
supernatural element that gets involved which is generally where the
horror comes into it. Examples of psychological horrors would be
Saw, Hannibal, Psycho.
6. Possession Horror
Possession horrors are currently the most popular; they have the ability to
completely and utterly horrify and terrify the audience with the idea
of somebody being possessed by an invisible force, this adds to the
fear factor as the audience soon realise that realistically there is no
way of stopping the nightmare. Usually in Possession films religion is
involved and a priest of some sort or psychic has to step in, to use
religion or find the reason as to why the evil spirit is about, and almost
every time an exorcism is performed which then the ghost
leaves, however sometimes it will return, again adding to the horror of
the audience at the mystery of never knowing if its gone for good; a
good example of this would be Insidious 1&2. Another example would
be Mirrors.
7. Zombie Horrors
Zombie horrors are based on mindless human beings that have been raised
from the dead by an unwilling or evil individual. The film will usually be
based around the idea of the living vs. the dead, and will fight for their
unlikely survival. A convention of zombie horrors is the common idea of
the zombies main scare is the fact they need to feed on the living in
order to survive, which ultimately creates the plot of the survivors finding a
way to find either more survivors or just to ultimately kill off the rest of the
zombie species. Although these films can tend to not actually be
completely terrifying its more the fear of the unknown as we cannot
happily say there are no such thing as zombies, as quite typically this is
most likely what the characters at the beginning of the film would have
also believed too, also this type of sub genre tends to have an extreme
amount of jumpy moments. Examples of zombie horrors are I Am
Legend, 28 days later.
8. My chosen Sub genre
For my chosen sub genre me and my group have decided to chose
Psychological. We find that although it is not the most common used
type of sub genre these days it most certainly is the most
interesting, and films with this sub genre are usually those which grip
audiences to their core and make them fear themselves and
possibilities of what the mind can do to you which they were unaware
of before watching the movie. Psychological horrors not only have
the ability to terrify you but they make you think and most usually trick
you from what you think is happening is actually the complete
opposite such as in the uninvited, the audience is forced to believe
the girl is being haunted, however she is actually psychologically ill. I
will enjoy experimenting with the wide range of possibilities of this sub
genre as there is so much that can be done with it to make our trailer
terrifying yet so gripping you cant cover your eyes and you have to
watch.
