Jack Gallagher
Word Count: 1,167
Film Studies
Conventions of a Film Genre: Horror
The Horror Genre has existed since the early days of film and has become increasingly more popular as film has developed to a global audience, it is often known as the most unsettling of genres as it explores human fears that are designed to shock and frighten the audience, yet people still view this as entertainment. In this essay I will explore the conventions of the horror genre and explain of how it has evolved.
During the early days of the genre, classic gothic novels were used as the basis for these films such as Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), exploring mysterious creatures, dark imagry and general human fears like sanity and the nature of the body. These films often have similar themes and iconography: the image of evil or the unknown and the danger of the unexplained, famous films like Nosferatu (1922)use lighting and cinematography to evoke a unsettling mood and atmospehere that disturbs the audienece.
It wasn’t long before the horror genre spawned sub-genres like science fiction horror that made it more popular, films like Frankenstein and The Invisable Man (1933)showed a more human aspect of horror unlike the dark mythical anti-religious creatures like in Vampire movies.
The primary aim for horror films is to scare its audience, building tension and suspense that leaves them on the edge of their seats, useually having frequent scenes of peril and danger. Through the use of the conventions and stylistics, horror film makers have achieved a certain mood and atmosphere to scare the audience. By using sound for example, scenes can be built up to a shocking climax, E.G Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho (1960)uses the simple sound of water running to quietly build tension for what is about to happen during the infamous shower scene, then when the killer strikes suddenly, high pitched strings are used to mimic the motion of the victim being stabbed, furthermore tension can be built by errie music acompanied by dark lighting and mise en scene to reflect on the horrifying events that are about to take place, this is often a deserted and/or dark environment.
These stylistic can be combined to create scenes that convay the feeling and message that the director wanted to achieve. The footage that is captured is the most important, as cinematograpy and editing restricts the audience to a certain amount of exposure, by using restricted narratives the audience see what the characters see, making it just as shocking for the audience as it does for the character when something scary happens like the Antagonist suddenly appearing behind them. Editing is also key to executing a scene as it often emphasizes what is happening on screen E.G fast paced editing is used for chase sequences and distress to represent the characters chaos and struggle to survive. Films like 28 days later (2002) show the protagonist running away from the monsters through quick editing and shaky camera shots only showing the threat in short bursts to keep the creatures obscured and frightening while emphasizing the struggle and pace the characters are forced into.
As film technology advanced so did the imagination of film makers, during the 50s and 60s the cold war had overshadowed the second world war showing the world how technology could be used against man, the space race had begun and the public was curious about the stars more than ever, the science fiction genre had begun to appear in films and It wasn’t long before horror crept in aswell. Films like It Came From Another World (1951) and The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) explored the human fear of the unknown. This genre became more defined throughout the next 60 years with films such as Alien (1979) and The Thing (1982) bringing a more terrifying aspect to the effects extraterestrials could have on the human body, this can also be known as the ‘Body Shock’ Genre.
Throughout the past 60 years the genre has seen a significant amount of sub-genres produced these include: Religious, films like The Exorcist (1973) causeing convroresy and uproar to its explict themes drawn from christian faith; Gore, Movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) depicting extreame scenes of violence that have inspired the bloody genre more notably during the 80s with the low budget ‘Video Nasties’ that were released, most controversial of all The Evil Dead (1981). Futhermore as time has gone by audiences have become less scared of the movies being released so the genre has evolved into new sub-genres, Pyschological films like The Shining (1980) and more recent Japanese films like The Ring (1998) dealt with more subtle yet equalily distrubing plots that focused mostly on sound and atmosphere to set the stage.
As horror has progressed the quality and techniques used have varied, landmark films like Halloween (1978) and Alien (1979) have depicted a female protagonist, which was very unconventional at the time as females in most movies, not just horrors, were portrayed as helpless and scared, these female rolemodels showed a more realistic approach and less herotic protagonists, it also contrasts with the situation, these films also hightened the popularity of Monster/Creature features and teen Slasher films that were made more accessable to teenagers plot wise.
The stylistics in film have evolved to portray certain genres better than before, in horror cinematography has been altered to emphasize what is happening on screen, movies like The Blair Witch Project (1999) take a more documentary style approach to trick the audience into beliving the events could have occurred, other films that have used this technique are Cloverfield (2008) and Paranormal Activity (2007), the shaky camera is used effectively to mimic the panic and distress the characters feel, this is also used to shock the audience with extreame closeups of their reactions limmiting the viewer to only see the character on screen, similar more traditionaly shot hollywood films use these techniques to not reveal the Antaonist, keeping it in the dark and underexposed to retain mystery and because the viewers imagination is the most frightening tool to manipulate.
There are many typical conventions that are used in the horror genre, the audience often expect there to be atleastone survivor useually being the main protagonist and to have th eAntagonist be killed, this is seen in many films like The Exorcist and Jaws (1975), however to retain the suspensefull nature of the genre films have becom emore shocking, often ending with the question of “is it really dead” seen in Halloween or even end shockingly and unexpected E.G Carrie (1976) ending with her hand grabbing a girls foot from out of her grave or Friday 13th (1980) showing a calm scene where the survivor is resting in a boat, when the Antagonist jumps out of the water and pulls her in, emphasizing that sometimes the Antagonist is stronger than the Protagonist to the point where noone survives keeping themas terrifying figures.
