CONVENTIONS OF A HORROR FILM GENRE

Horror films are created with the purpose of seeking a negative emotion from the audience, playing on the fears of the viewers; it often deals with the themes of unknowing and the terror which occurs with this. Plots often involve a force of evil, whether it be a person, event or place - these often have super natural origins such as ghosts, aliens, vampires, demons, vicious animals, zombies or murderers. It has undoubtably become one of the most popular genres recently. Horror films have an obvious macabre feel, often with supernatural themes. Horror films are also often overlapped with genres such as fantasy, supernatural and thriller. 

Introduction and history of horror films

• Horrors films go back to around 100 years ago; it is one of the oldest genre of film known to date. From the early days people recorded stories of ghosts and other shadowed shapes which were emotionally connected to the unknown and the fear of being in danger. Horror films reflected on such stories and therefore give the audience and opening into that scary world without actually being in danger themselves.
• The premise of the unknown and the lack of knowledge was incorpreated into monsters which were often used within German silent-era films throughout the 20's.
• As these monsters became more mainstream and widely known due to their success in movies, they had to be changed to become more origional and therefore maintain the same level of fear. Monsters then took the form of real people in relaistic and everyday settings which scared the audience even more.
• Nothing embodies this ideal more than Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' which was created in 1960. This was something which had never before been seen by an audience and therefore created shock and horror in its viewers. The idea was, however, a success, and is now one of the most famous horror films of all time.
• Another prominent film of the era was also 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' which was created in the middle 70's. It received a huge amount of notoriety for its on-screen exploits.
• In the 90's there was a lack in the release of films which were genuinely frightening so example, 'Night of the Living Dead' in 1991 and 'Scream' in 1996. Later in the century a horror/ sci-fi crossover started to have great success with films like 'Cube' in 1997.
• In the 2000's people started creating comedy crossovers. 'The Evil Dead' in 1981 was actually the first film to do this, however, after this very few films of this hybrid genre were created until recent times. It was then proven that the genre was not only successful but embraced by an audience. Regardless of what the evil is, be it zombies – ‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004) and ‘Zombieland’ (2009), vampires – ‘Lesbian Vampire Killers’ (2009), demons – ‘Jennifer’s Body’ (2009), aliens – ‘Slither’ (2006) or just horror tropes – ‘Tucker and Dale vs Evil’ (2010) horror/comedy crossovers never seem to disappoint.

Sub-genres

• Action horror - the element of horror combined with gunfights, elaborate chase scenes and other elements associated with films of action genre.
• Comedy horror - combined horror and comedy
• Gothic horror - gothic horror is a type of story which contains elements of goth and horror. At times it may also have some type of romantic understory which unfolds.
• Psychological horror – Relies on characters' fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music, emotional instability and at times, the supernatural and ghosts, to build tension and further the plot.
• Science fiction horror - a hybrid genre of horror and sci-fi which involves usually characters from other planets such as aliens
• Slasher film - Revolves around a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims. These films are normally extremely graphic and violent in subject matter. 
• Splatter film - these films deliberately focus on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. Through the use of special effects and excessive blood and guts, they tend to display an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human body and the theatricality of its mutilation. Not all splatter films are slashers, and not all splatter films are horrors.
• Zombie film - based on the idea of zombies and apocalypse ideas

Codes and conventions

• The location of horror films are normally in an area which is mostly deserted, such as the woods, a ghost town or abandoned house of some kind. Often these settings, especially in more recent horror films, are place in realistic or real places in order to scare the audience and make the story believable.
• The characters are under some kind of threat, whether it be danger, death, a curse or worse. 
• A common thing which occurs in a horror movies is a power cut of some kind. All the lights are turned off which awakens both the characters and audience's fear of the unknowing. 
• Along with the previous convention - often phone lines are cut to show that the characters have no contact with any kind of help.
• Strange noises are also a convention of horror films; again the idea of the unknown is played on here.
• Often one of the strongest conventions is the characters running away or hiding - normally in ridiculous ways where the audience knows they will be discovered.
• The victim(s) are normally humans. Where as the villain is normally either a killer or a mystical being.
• If there is a vehicle in which they are attempting to escape in, it normally does not start.
• Someone is normally killed within the first five minuets, setting up the plot and sense of immediate danger.
• The weather is normally very reflective of the mood, horror films are normally accompanied with stormy or rainy weather which connotes something bad is going to happen. 
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