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Codes and Conventions of Horror Films and Trailers

The conventional reasons for creating a horror film are to frighten and panic the audience as well as causing dread and alarm, however in a way that still captivates and entertains the viewer in a cathartic experience. This genre also often in hidden fears which maybe created through the use of:

· Nightmares

· Vulnerability

· Alienation

· Revulsions

· Unknown terror

· Fear of death

· Loss of identity

A good example that uses many of these is the film 'The Possession'

The Primary Target audience for horror genre are usually males between the ages of 16-24 as these are the mainstreamers, as result the certification on these films are either 15 or 18 depending on the extent of explicit content.

The Narrative structure/ themes of horror films usually include:

· Death and Murder

· Mind Games

· Torture

· Survival

A good example of where this narrative structure is used is 'Cabin in the Woods'



 

Conventions of a Horror Trailer

Content:

• Always include short snippets of the fast paced, exciting shots.
• Usually includes an isolated location as this evokes feelings of alienation.





• Often use young characters around 16-25- Seen as naive, vulnerable and helpless making the audience feel protective over them, however sometimes this is changed when a young person is used to play the killer rather than the victim.

• Binary Oppositions are usually made clear without giving away too much of the story plot.
• Usually has a sub plot of male/female relationship
• Includes a catchy tagline which would also be shown on poster and will stand out to the viewer for example “They won’t stay dead!” in ‘Night of the living dead’.



• Includes dates for when the film is coming out and famous actors being used and ‘from the creators of’.



Camera angles:

• Often include lots of close ups and extreme close ups of gore or of characters in fear or pain to leave the audience wondering what has happened.

• Sometimes includes an establishing shot to set the location, so the viewer can get a feel for the style of the film.
• Can include POV shots from the killers’ perspective following their victim or can be hidden behind an objects showing a crime.
• Another shot that could be used is a low shot looking up at the killers face so that the audience takes the position of the victim.

Sound: 

• Diegetic: Often distorted, things inlcuding: doors creaking, screams, scraping
• Non Diegetic: Uses Incidental non diegetic sound, needs to set the tone and genre of the film.

Editing:

• Tends to be fast paced, with rapid cuts and short shots to show the exciting parts and to quicken the pace and keep the viewer interested or can be slow pace with long shots to build up tension and suspense to keep the audience on the edge of their seats and wanting to know what is going to happen.

A good example of fast, short editing would be the trailer or 'Seven':



      
      Mise-en-scene:

• Lighting: Uses dark low key lighting to create suspense and suggest that things are hiding from the audience in the shadow.

• Props: Often uses fake blood for gore and weapons such as knives and guns etc. to show that there will be hurt, pain and action in the film. 
• Text: Many trailers have text which will be in an easy to read font, usually eye-catching and is often in white, black or red as these are all bold colours and red has the connotation of blood.



• Makeup/costume: Costume differs depending on the individual nature of the killers or victims. Makeup can be used to create serious and minor wounds eg, bones sticking out, facial disortions and deep gashes.

    Representation: Often has a Dominant, hegemonic representation of gender and therefore often uses a female victim.

• Villain: Shown as powerful, clever and cunning, in control and invincible
• Victim: Shown as weak, scared, vulnerable, innocent and helpless.

History of Horror

We thought that a key piece of research of which would help with our understanding of the genre horror would be to research the history of horror with:

• key conventions of the genre at the time
• famous films from this time period

We researched between 1890s to the present day, breaking it up into seven groups.

1890s-1920s

Key conventions:

• silent films with the first supernatural events appearing
• gothic themes were present during horror films
• first monster and first vampire shown in horror movie (The hunchback of Notre-Dame and Nosferatu)

Famous films and trailer:

Le Manoir du diable (The Haunted Castle) 1896 

The Phantom Of The Opera 1925

1930s-1940s

Key conventions:

• gothic themed films were heavily present, and some films blended gothic horror with science fiction
• in examples such as Frankenstein and The Mummy, whilst they were designed to thrill they also incorporated more serious elements

Famous films and trailer:

Dracula 1931

Frankenstein 1931

1950s-1960s

Key conventions:

• colour was used for the first time in films, which allowed the films to be more realistic
• whilst ghosts and monsters still remained frequent in horror, threats from 'outside' such as alien invasions as well as contemporary issues through the advances in technologywere introduced
• low budget gore-shock films were made

Famous films and trailer:

Psycho 1960

Night of the Living Dead 1968

1970s-1980s

Key conventions:

• horror films with more supernatural themes were created; the devil represented supernatural evil
• evil children and reincarnation became popular
• creation of Jaws by Steven Spielberg led to a wave of killer animal plots
• the 1980s saw an increase of gory 'B movie' horror films

Famous films and trailer:

The Exorcist 1973

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 1974

Jaws 1975

1990s

Key conventions:

• a few films were created part of a mini-movement of self-reflexive horror films. Each film touched upon the relationship between fictional horror and real-world horror
• due to the advances in technology, the genres of sci-fi and fantasy drew away the attention from horror films. To bring back the interest of horror films they featured teenagers who were fully aware of, and often made reference to, the history of horror movies, and mixed ironic humour with shock

Famous films and trailer:

Braindead 1992

Scream 1996

2000s

Key conventions:

• psychological horror started in the early 2000s including The Others
• the zombie genre of horror movies had a come back
• a larger trend was a return to the extreme, graphic violence that characterized much of the type of low-budget horror from 1975 onwards
• an extension of this trend was the emergence of a type of horror with emphasis on depictions of torture, suffering and violent deaths often referred to as "horror porn" such as Saw

Famous films and trailer:

Final Destination 2000 (and sequels)

Final Destination 5 webpage

 The Others 2001

The Grudge 2004 

The Grudge webpage

Saw 2004(and sequels)

Saw Webpage

2010+

Key conventions:

• usually uses an isolated location
• uses young characters often
• death and murder, mind games, torture and survival are all key aspects of horror films
• females are almost always shown as being the victim and the man the murderer

Famous films:

Piranha 3D 2010 

Piranha 3DD webpage

Human Centipede 2011 

The Human Centipede webpage

The Woman in Black 2012 

The Woman in Black webpage

Horror Genre

We chose the Horror genre because as a group we all have a passion for current horror films and would like to experience creating a horror film idea. 

Benefits

-Location is easy to consider because using effects when editing, you can make any location seem spooky/scary.For example: The lighting can be changed, a high key area can be transformed into low key area.

-low budget - costumes, location etc.

-We are able to use a variety of sound effects or minimal dialogue to create tension 

Constraints

-Exact codes and conventions of the sub genre would be hard to get correct when creating a trailer. 

-Some special effects would be hard to create. For example: graphic deaths as we don't have the correct equipment. For example: The Saw films

Introduction

As Year 13 media students, we are creating a teaser trailer, film poster, website and blog. Our blog will follow our  progress throughout the stages of making this project. Thanks!