Kiran's Keyboard: October 2022

Horror

Halloween is tomorrow, and its time for a scare. Why not research some horror?

First of all, it's important to define horror before we can fully dive into its components. Horror is a genre of fiction thats purpose is to scare, disgust, or frighten the viewer. The term horror comes from the Old French 'orror,' which means 'to shudder or to bristle'. Horror has been around since the 10th century where people told stories of werewolves. Horror tries to make an eerie atmosphere for a viewer, and usually works of horror can be interpreted as symbolism of a larger fear or issue in society. Horror movies are especially popular during the time around Halloween where people are yearning a good scare. A lot of the time these movies are rated R.

Content

Fear or terror is an important factor of horror films. It's what the purpose of horror is: to scare. So obviously any good horror movie will have lots of scary elements in it. There are lots of ways that fear is incorporated into a horror film. The setting is one of the genre conventions that are usually always the same type of setting. The settings of horror films are usually set in a rural area, the woods, near graveyards, along highways, or in a lonely/isolated/cursed house. This type of setting will be used in most (if not all) horror movies. These settings are the best to instill a sense of fear into the viewer. An abandoned house will create creepy vibes while a setting in the woods will create a sense of loneliness and isolation. Usually in horror movies there are the same types of characters. Usually there's a main protagonist, a stupid teenager that gets killed, a creepy kid, police officers, a young girl, and a group of friends. A kid that gets killed will throw off the viewer and create more suspense. Having a group of teens makes it so that when they split up, they are very scared. There is usually a monster, ghost, killer, or possessed object that is the antagonist of the movie. For example, dolls can be possessed to become a scary thing.

EX: The film Annabelle: Creation is set in a lonely house on a farmland where a possessed doll terrorizes some little girls. This follows the conventional settings and character of the horror genre.

Another thing that is used often in horror films is foreshadowing. There are usually little clues in horror movies that point to what will happen next or if the main character will get attacked, etc. The small moments of foreshadowing help build the suspense and fear of the viewer as they have an idea of what will happen.

EX: The film Hereditary uses foreshadowing when the main character's teacher is talking about Greek tragedies saying what happens when you ignore the signs of fate. This can be applied to the main character as he later ignores all of the signs as well.

Usually, the narrative structure or the plot is similar throughout different horror films. There's usually a hero or protagonist who needs to go on a mission to solve problems or kill monsters to save the people around them and themselves. There is usually an event that will lead the killer to become insane and then the villain will return to his home-town to kill or prey on teens. The teens are usually dumb and start the horror in the beginning. There is usually a survivor, most of the time its a female character.

EX: The film The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It features a man possessed by a demon who killed other people. The demon is angered by the investigators.

Production Techniques

Low key lighting is prominently used in horror films. The harsh shadows that it creates makes the subject of the scene look more dramatic and scary. It creates a tension within the audience because they would feel powerless as there is something unknown in the dark. Also, horror uses lots of silhouettes to use darkness to their advantage.

The color schemes of horror films have lots of reds and blacks. They also use lots of darker colors. This links to blood, danger, and evil. These colors can create a sense of fear by creating a darkness in the scene.

There are typical shots that horror films use. They use high angle and low angle shots to connote fear and indicate a power difference between two subjects. This can make the main character feel weak as the monster feels strong. POV shots can be used to simulate the perspective of the main character or the monster. This can be used in a chasing scene. Also in chasing scenes there are usually no stabilizers in the camera, so the camera feels shaky. This adds to the fear and suspense.

EX: In the film Friday the 13th Part V there is a part where a character is being chased by Jason Voorhees, and the scene uses a shaky camera to increase suspense.

Marketing

The usual target audience for horror films is the age group of 15-25 years old. The most common reason of why is because young adults and teenagers enjoy scares and thrill. The thrills of a horror film are more likely to scare a younger group of people than older people. Also, older people don't really like that horror movies are more cheap to make, so they don't really watch horror films.

Movie trailers for horror films are usually filled with suspense and action. This makes the movie look exciting while most of the time, horror movies can be a bit slow-paced. This makes the movie look more exciting, which makes people want to watch the movie more. The trailer will be full of blood and dramatic music to make the trailer exciting. It will introduce most of the main characters and either keep the antagonist as a secret or showcase the villain. Doing this will give a brief overview of the movie, so watching the trailer also may spoil certain events in the movie.

Samples

The film Get Out (2017) is a psychological horror movie about a black man who finds out a horrible secret about his white girlfriend. This film embodies the film genre of horror because it really messes around with the minds of the viewer and has some scary and creepy scenes in it. After going for a road trip with his girlfriend, the main character Chris arrives at his girlfriend's family's house. There is a plot twist where Chris finds out that the family is almost taking the black people as slaves starting off with Logan who screams "GET OUT!" The movie has lots of close up shots of Chris's face who is very scared, as seen in the poster above. It shows Chris's terror due to the family.

The film It (2017) is the first film of a two-part adaption of Stephen King's novel with the same name. It primarily covers the first half of the book. The movie tells the story about The Loser's Club, who are a group of 7 reject children, and they are terrorized by "It." The monster terrorizes the children with their personal fears. This film embodies the film genre of horror because it has lots of scary scenes with gore and suspense. For example, in the beginning of the film, a kid named Georgie tries to catch his boat as it falls into a drain. He meets Pennywise who rips his arm off and drags him into the sewer. This scene is pretty terrifying as we see the horrible face of the monster tearing Georgie's arm off. This is just the beginning of the horror that the movie shows. There are many other paranormal and terrifying events in the film that make it part of the horror genre. Just seeing a creepy clown standing in the distance staring at you is enough to instill fear into you. When Pennywise opens his mouth and reveals his razor teeth, it is really scary.

Other Horror Movies

Nope (2022)