Research - Conventions of the Horror Genre

In Studying the Media, O'Sullivan, Dutton, and Rayner state regarding genre: "The concept of genre can be seen as a way of classifying particular styles or types of media texts by identifying common elements, that recur by being repeated again and again and act as a set of rules associated by both producers and audiences with certain types of text." There are many different genres of film, and each of them have different "common elements" associated with them. The trailer my group is producing is of a hybrid genre, one of these genres being the horror genre. A common theme in this genre is isolation, as these films often have isolated locations, like haunted houses or remote landscapes e.g. forests. Often, characters become isolated from anyone else, either through being stranded in a remote location alone, or by other characters being killed off. Horror films frequently pit the protagonist against the antagonist one on one. This sense of isolation makes horror films scarier as the main character is without help or intervention from the outside world. Horror films conventionally feature many gothic elements, such as haunted houses with gothic architecture or vampires, a common type of horror villain.

Villains in horror films are often undead, e.g. zombies and ghosts, or anything seemingly unnatural to put the viewer on edge. Young girls, dolls and clowns are often used in horror films, either as the main villain in the case of films like Annabelle, or to add to the creepy atmosphere in the case of films like The Woman in Black.

Other horror films contain more lifelike scenarios, locations and villains, which scare the viewer by allowing them to relate to the characters and situations included, making them think that the tormented protagonist(s) could be them. Examples of this include Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, where the main antagonists of the film are ordinary birds, which most people will see each day, making the film more frightening. The main protagonists in horror films are often normal people, frequently females as they are stereotyped as being helpless “damsel in distress” type characters, who will eventually have to overcome their antagonist.

Horror films often have low key, frequently chiaroscuro, lighting, as darkness is linked strongly with fear, and raises questions as to what could be hiding there. Horrors also frequently feature slow editing with lots of sustained shots to increase suspense and shock. Once something shocking happens within the scene the editing usually speeds up and less sustained shots occur.

Use of sound is also key in the horror genre. Strange diagetic sounds often occur to bait the characters on screen to find out what the noise is which can isolate them and put them in danger. Viewers familiar with these conventions will know the danger the character is in before the character does, creating dramatic irony, common in horror films. In both trailers and films of this genre, sudden loud noises are used to scare viewers, not the content on screen however gory or unpleasant it may be. By creating suspense and conforming to genre, horror films can scare viewers as easily as with a loud bang.

Our group’s film will support these conventions, as the antagonist is the ghost of a young girl, who torments a singular female character, who will be isolated and have to fight the villain one on one. The female protagonist will also conform to the stereotypical damsel in distress character type. Also, the film is mostly set in an old gothic school, supporting genre conventions of gothic architecture and older buildings as setting. The film contains some lifelike, ordinary scenarios, such as a young girl going to secondary school, which are common in the horror genre. However it also contains the supernatural in the form of the villain, a female ghost.

Conventional low key shots and loud noises, both diagetic and non-diagetic, will be used as they are simple, effective ways of scaring viewers, which we will need to do to make our trailer more likely to succeed. If our trailer was not scary, people would not want to see the film the trailer is supposed to be for, as this film is in the horror genre. A very simple way to shock audiences is with loud, unexpected noises.