CONVENTIONS OF HORROR

RHYS WILLIAMS

CONVENTIONS OF THE HORROR GENRE

•Blood

•Luton Bus Shocks

•Isolation

•Darkness

•Fog or bad weather

•Chase scenes

•Screaming

•Identifiable Costumes

•Good vs Evil

•Use of Sound

•Eerie Settings

•Unknown Killer

•Lone Female

•Ordinary people in situations that the audience do not wish to be in

•Death

•Reflecting Society’s Fears

•Weapons

•Young Victims

SCREAMINGHaving a character scream adds dramatic effect and makes puts the effect of panic and danger onto the audience and makes them feel like they are with the character who is in distress. Screaming can take place in or out of the shot.

IDENTIFIABLE COSTUMESAn identifiable character is when a character can easily be identified by the audience. It can also be when we can easily tell whether a character is good or bad.

USE OF SOUND The use of sound is important in the horror genre as it builds suspense, creates dramatic effect and identifies mood. Sound can be used to slowly build up an event to the audience or it can be used to trick them into a form of a Luton Bus Shock that makes them think that a dramatic event is about to happen but it is actually something normal.EERIE SETTINGS Eerie settings allow the audience to feel scared and the way that the characters in the setting feel. Eerie settings come in the form of places such as a haunted house or a swamp, or an insane asylum.

REFLECTING SOCIETY’S FEARS The use of reflecting society’s fears is important in the horror genre as it allows the audience to relate themselves to the person in danger in the film. For example, a film showing ghosts attacking a person’s home would be reflecting society’s fears in the way that people have a fear of their home being attacked.

LUTON BUS SHOCKS A Luton Bus Shock is when a build up occurs to an event that makes the audience believes that a scare is about to happen when it actually displays a regular event. For example, in The Purge, the character is in the fridge and the shot is displayed so that we as an audience believe that there is a scary character behind the fridge door, which in reality when she comes to close the door we see that it is only her son. This would be a Luton Bus Shock as it gets the audience on edge and more into the film.

SUBGENRES OF HORROR

•Paranormal – Paranormal Activity

•Supernatural – Dracula

•Slasher – Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween

•Suspense/Thriller – Hannibal

•Psychological – The Shining

•Satanic/Religious – The Exorcist

•Sci-Fi – Alien

•Gothic – Sleepy Hollow

•Creepy Kids – Orphan

•Rampant Animals – Jaws, Piranna

•Splatter/Gorenography – Saw

•Erotic – Poison Ivy

•Dark Fantasy – Hellboy

•Comedy – Shaun of the Dead

GENRE THEORY Daniel Chandler

Genre is defined by the conventions

Jonathan Culler

A contract exists between creator and reader

concerning ‘Audience Expectations’ of genre.

Rick Altman

Genre Allows texts to be produced to appeal to different audiences.

Genre can be defined in terms of media language

Tom Ryall

Genre guides/effects the production of the

text.

Steve Neale

Audience expectations help them understand the text

Creates guarantees of meaning and pleasure