Horror films seek to elicit negative emotions in viewers by preying on primal fears. They have evolved over time to reflect new generations' fears, from alien invasions after Sputnik to mutated creatures from nuclear power. Successful horror films feature iconic settings, stereotypical characters like the final girl and jock, unsettling sounds and music, mysterious villains hidden behind masks, and disturbing weapons like knives and chainsaws used to kill victims.

1. What is Horror?
Jaspreet Bhatoa

2. Horror Definition
Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from
viewers by playing on the audiences primal fears. They often feature
scenes that startle the viewer, and the macabre and the supernatural are
frequent themes.

3. Horror Evolution
Horror movies have evolved over the decades, adapting to each new
generation and preying on (or catering to) their fears. The launch of the
Russian satellite Sputnik resulted in a lot of movies about alien invasions.
The birth of nuclear power lead to a rash of films about mutated
animals, insects and people.
And so it goes today. While the fixtures of the genre -
ghosts, monsters, madmen and demons - remain unchanged, they are now
presented in new, innovative ways. Vengeful spirits emerge from
computers and zombies are created by viruses in biotechnology
labs, reflecting our current fears, and yet whatever the origin, the result is
always the same - carnage, insanity and death. Some things have changed
in horror movies, but some things never will.

4. The Basics
There are three essentials parts that make a Horror film; the
iconography, themes and the structure. The paradigm for the most
successful horror films are the setting/location, characters, sound, the
villains and the weapons/ props.

5. Setting/location
A good horror movie has a unidentified location. The location tells the
audience where exactly are you going to find the serial killer or ghost. Once
you see a movie that captures a location so well, the audience will have a
fear to go back into any place that resembles it. If the location doesn't’t
relate, then a movie doesn't’t scare the audience and it hasn’t fulfilled its
true purpose. With Horror films the settings/ location are similar as they tend
to be in big dark empty houses, woods, attic/basement and big buildings.
A nightmare on Elm
Friday the 13th
Vertigo
street

6. Characters
In horror films there are always the stereotypical characters; The female;
she is the person that will last through the whole movie because she is a
virgin. She is probably the first character introduced in the movie. The wise
guy; also known as "the smart guy" .The wise guy is usually either the most
likeable or most annoying character in the movie. He's either the first or last
to die. The jock; this guy is simply there to be killed. He contributes nothing
in the way of comic relief or suspense. The cheerleader; the cheerleader is
more likely to be killed as she might sleep with a lot of boys making her
sinful. The killer; the supernatural killer who keeps coming back and who
really doesn't have a pertinent connection to any of the other characters.
The innocent girl
The killer
The jock

7. Sound
To have a successful horror film is the appropriate to use the right sound.
Traditional horror films have fairly predictable soundtracks. It is easy to
predict when the frightening parts are about to take place, based on the
foreboding tunes played immediately beforehand. There is another
technique that directors like to play is placing the music right before the
scary part, ending it suddenly (providing the audience a false sense of
relief) and then resuming it immediately, just as the next “shock” appears on
screen. Truly scary films are excellent at creating a mood that isn't too
obvious. For instance, in the movie 2003 Thriller, High tensions”, the
director limits the use of sound so the killers boots creaking as he walks
across the floor can be truly heard.

8. Villains
There's a certain fear that the audience get when they don’t know exactly
what they’re against. It scares each soul to see a murderer behind a generic
mask. It makes them seem inhuman because the audience has no idea
what's under the mask. For a good horror movie its best to have something
unnatural about the killer or ghost. If there's nothing unnatural about these
killers/villains then that audience have a safe boundary.

9. Weapons/ props
The weapons that serial killers use in films have a really big impact on the
audience. Some people say that the kind of weapons the villains use to kill
is directly related to how they feel about their victims. The directors want the
audience to feel a certain way about the gore they are seeing on screen.
The most common weapons that are used in horror films are; the butcher
knife, hooks, the chainsaw, the Axe and ropes.