Conventions of Horror Films

Themes of horror films- these include:

• Death- films involving this theme include the Scream franchise, The Ring, The Fog, Pet Cemetery. This theme links to our film, as the story centres around a girl who was murdered whose spirit kills whoever is sent her gift.
• Revenge- films involving this theme include Friday the 13th, Carrie, The Grudge, The Crow. This theme can also occur in films of the thriller genre, which can cause the two genres to overlap. The theme of revenge links to our film that we are making, as our film is about the spirit of a murdered girl who kills anyone who receives "the gift" in order to get revenge for her murder.
• Good VS Evil-films involving this theme include A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Exorcist, Dracula.
• Psychopathy- films involving this include Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, The Halloween franchise, the Shining.
• Danger/Fear- films which involve this theme are the Saw franchise, Mirrors, Wrong Turn.

Setting and location

The setting of an horror film is usually a small community or an urban area, somewhere that news of a murder or strange goings on would travel fast amongst locals. Places with a dark and disturbed history are often used as locations in horror films, such as haunted houses, abandoned asylums or hospitals, towns where there has been previous murders or massacres, isolated countryside areas, dark woods, dark alleyways or tunnels, attics, basements and deserted mines, these are all examples of locations for horror films. Although, some of these settings and locations are paradigms, as an haunted house, abandoned hospitals and dark woods are things the audience will expect to see in an horror film.

Technical conventions

Camera shots such as hand held shots are used in horror films in order to show the characters point of view and create a sense of realism. By doing this, a sense of dread is created for the audience. Also, extreme close ups are often used in the horror films in order to show the characters reactions and emotions, make the audience indentify with that character and imply to the audience what is going to happen next. High and low angle shots are used in order to show power balances between characters, which is useful in horror, as they can be used during fight scenes between victims and murderers.

Ambient, diegetic sounds such as footsteps, cries or screams are noticeable aspects of the horror genre in order to make the film more disturbing. Non-diegetic sounds such as intense, slow or creepy music and a persons heat beat are also important in horror to create dramatic tension. For example, the remake of The Grudge used creepy music to create suspense and scare the audience, whereas the original Japanese version did not, it just relied on silence, which shows that some conventions of a horror film can change with the nationality.

Editing techniques such as iris may be used in horror films in order to show a characters mental perspective of something so the audience focus on this. This also may be used to reveal new elements of the film to its audience. The editing may pick up pace once the action picks up or slow down once the action slows down. If editing hasn't picked up in a while, this implies to the audience that something is about to take place.

Visual Images

Colours such as red or black appear a lot in horror, as they imply danger, fear and create the dark feeling of the film and also link to the evil characters in the film. These colours are also paradigms, as you may expect to see red or black in horror films and tou may also expect the lighting to be gloomy, which is why the lighting in horror films is kept low-key and underexposed in order to make the film look gloomy and link to the themes. Although, lighting may become more overexposed once the villain/killers are defeated.

Props are a component which always help people to identify with the horror genre. Certain objects help the audience to recognise a certain character or murderer, such as the weapons which include, machetes, knives or chainsaws but also costumes, an example being Freddy Kruger's red and green jumper and Michael Myer's overalls and white mask. The weapons such as knives and chainsaws and the notable costumes are the sign of a horror film, as the audience will see it, which will let them know that this is a horror film and help them identify with the genre.

Iconography of monsters from classic horror films also create connotations of fear and help audiences to identify with the genre, examples include werewolves, vampires, mummies and Frankenstein's monster.

Narrative Structure of Horror Films
 The films always start with the problem or situation straight away being addressed, more characters being introduced, characters being killed and ends with the hero or heroine defeating the villain, but a door is alwatys left open for a sequel to be made. Most of the time, the killer, demon or monster has not really been defeated, which means they come back in the next films.

The structure of horror films is often basic and predictable, especially in the sub-genre slasher films, where the killer has gone insane due to a childhood event or just a mental illness and is locked away for a few years, then returns to their home town and kills off groups of teenagers. The teenagers who the killer preys on are often perceived as stupid, ignorant and oblivious to the killer, however, there is usually one teenager who actually notices the strange goings on and is usually the character who survives.

Characters in Horror Films

Here are some examples of the character types you are likely to find in a horror film:

• The Protagonist- who ends up being the hero or heroine of the film and survives and saves everyone.
• The villain- usually either a monster, serial killer, psychopath, alien or mutated freak on a murderous rampage.
• The stupid teenagers who the villain preys on: these often consist of ditzy characters, stuck-up characters, naive characters and idiot boys who think they can "get the girl".
• Creepy children-these add effect to the film, as they create more fear.
• Parents-these are usually oblivious to the events and most of the time do not believe their childrens stories.
• Police officers-these can either be good or bad.

These characters tend to be paradigms, as this is the way you may expect characters in a horror film to be presented, especially in American horror films. In the 1970s and 1980s, the characters were quite similar to these, as it was usually the "good girl" who didn't "put out" to boys who survived whereas her friends or other characters who "messed around" were killed. This was done to show audiences that good people always conquer. Nowadays, any of the characters can survive, despite what they've done or sometimes, they are no survivors at all, which shows that the paradigms or convnetions of horror films can change over time.

The character conventions can also change with the nationality of the film, as the original Japanese Grudge, Ju-On, used characters who were normal looking Japanese people and did not conform to any of the above stereotypes of horror film teenagers. However, the American pastiche used a pretty woman to play the lead role of the protagonist and a good looking actor to play her boyfriend, which shows that American horrors often try to appeal to younger, modern audiences by doing this. Also, the American version's sequel, The Grudge 2, used characters which conformed to the above stereotypes, as two of the teenage characters were stuck-up and also quite ditzy and oblivious to the events surrounding them.