Media Studies Portfolio: Media Studies Portfolio

Horror

Genre

A horror film is a film that seeks to elicit a physiological reaction, such as an elevated heartbeat, through the use of fear and shocking one’s audiences. Horror films bring suspense and excitement to the audience. While watching a horror film you are always on the edge of your seat.

Genre Conventions - Content

The target audience for horror films are people ages 15-23. This is the most common age group because teens and young adults enjoy thrills. The mise-en-scene of a film in the horror genre are either a dark isolated setting or forest/abandoned building. Isolated settings create a feeling of being trapped making it apparent the characters cannot escape. High and low angles are used to connate fear and even nightmares. Point of view shots are very effective in this genre because it puts the audience in the perspective of the victim or monster.

Editing plays a huge role in creating the suspense of movies. In the horror genre creating minimum cuts for a long period of time creates the feeling that something is bound to happen. Frequent cuts create an intense dramatized view of a scene. Pathetic fallacy, a kind of personification that gives human emotions to inanimate objects of nature, are used in horror films such as thunder and rain are used to create a vibe.

Character development is expressed through costume design. In many horror films, the killer would have a special costume to accommodate the personality of the character. The colors used throughout costumes are usually black or red. Black represents fear, unhappiness, evil, sadness, remorse, anger. Red represents death and blood.

Lighting throughout horror productions is dull and includes flickering lights and shadows to bring more suspense to a scene. Low key lighting is mostly used in horror films because of the effects it creates. Low key lighting includes Lights that move when the actor is placed differently in order to gain the correct shadow effect.

Production Techniques

The 5 main elements of the horror genre is fear, surprise, suspense, mystery, and foreshadowing. The producers mainly want to keep you on your toes even though you can probably tell what is going to happen next.The mysterious fogs often used in these movies and grey lighting are archetypes that everyone associates with this genre. The music used in these films adds to the suspense and makes you anticipate that jump scare that gives the viewers that rush of adrenaline. The foreshadowing forces the viewers to pay attention to the film and makes you kind of guess what will happen next, it’s sort of like a game. Some studies say that people love spoilers in movies and it keeps them interested in what they are watching. All horror movies follow the same basic archetype, however the thrilling thing about each one, is that they have no rules to follow.

How Is Genre Marketed

Horror films are like no other genre and are marketed through advertisements and props. Horror movies are even marketed in haunted houses around halloween time. For example, Halloween horror nights in Orlando Florida is a huge tourist attraction and hosts a huge haunted house every year that thousands of people attend, Each house is inspired by a certain horror film bringing more people in to see that film. Social media makes a huge impact on potential viewers considering 77 percent of the United States uses social media. Snapchat has in the past put a special filter for an upcoming horror film which in return got a lot of people excited for the film premiere.

Film Example #1

Hereditary (2018)

The film hereditary completely embodies all of the conventions of a horror film. Pathetic fallacy is used throughout the film with the dark skies and rain. The lighting within the film is dull and creates a scary vibe. The colors black and red are used in the costume design symbolizing danger and death. The movies setting is in a big house isolated for the main part of town and the main character is trapped in a state of mind in which he cannot escape creating the feeling of being trapped. Events take place during the movie in which cause extreme suspense and causing the audience to sit at the edge of their seat.

Film Example #2

Would You Rather (2012)

The film Would You Rather was created in 2012 and produced by David Guy Levy, Maura Anderson, and Zak Kilberg shows all of the components of a horror film. The location of the film is in a big house completely isolated from any other people and the house itself is locked down with no way to get out. Close up shots are used throughout the film to show the pain and suffering of the actors/actresses which brings more emotions to the audience. The lighting of the film is dull and props are used throughout the movie to express danger and pain. Blood is used to bring the scenes to life. The music in this film adds to the rush and adrenaline.