HORROR MOVIE SUB-GENRES

GOTHICSUPERNATURAL

POSSES

ION

PSYCHOLOGICAL

SLASHER

SLASHER SUB-GENRE

This genre is the most prominent of all the sub-genres. It tends to feature a masked killer with a lethal weapon or object. For example, The (2013) Movie ‘SMILEY’ features a gooey masked villain with a large knife which we would associate with Slasher and the audience would be able to identify the ‘knife’ as a typical convention. Another example would be ‘The Chucky sequels’ where the antagonist ‘Chucky’ stabs his victims with a sharp knife.

SLASHER SUB-GENRE CONVENTIONSMany gruesome deaths occur in Slashers. An example would be

in Chucky where his victims are bludgeoned to death.Final female survives at the end after tackling the villain. She is

typically brave and intelligent as well, for example in Scream where Sidney stays alive till the end.

The Female (sacrificed lamb) is dispatched early on in the narrative to show the agenda of the killer and to signal the sub-genre earlier on, for example in the first ‘Scream’ film where Casey is the first female to die.

Example of Slasher films: ‘Friday the 13th’, ‘I know what you did last summer’ , ‘A nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘ The Boogeyman 2’.

SLASHER SUB-GENRE CONVENTIONSThe location is normally set in a very quiet, suburban

town and could be nearby a high-school or hospital. This type of location would bring fear and terror to the audience as they would consider themselves to be safe in their own home. For example, in ‘The Curse of Chucky’, the victims are killed in their family home after the death of their relative.

Also, not many people would live around the area (low in population).

With regards to technical devices such as lighting, it is usually dark and dim. Profile and ambient lighting are commonly used to create realism and further fear for the audience.

THE CURSE OF CHUCKY (2013)Set twenty five years after ‘Child’s play’, a chucky doll arrives in the mail of the family home of paraplegic Nica and her mother Sarah. That same night Sarah is found dead from a stab wound and her death proclaimed a suicide.

The next day, Nica’s sister Barb arrives, accompanied by her husband Ian, daughter Alice and live-in-nanny Jill and Father Frank, a Priest. Alice finds Chucky and keeps him. Nica and Alice cook Chilli for dinner. And Chucky secretly pours rat poison into one of the bowls. Father Frank eats the poison, and after leaving the house, is beheaded in a fatal car crash.After everyone else has gone to their rooms to sleep. Nica attemps to trace down the origins of the Chucky doll. She looks up ‘Chucky Doll Evidence’ on the internet, where she finds new articles of the unsolved Chucky murders and the doll’s link to serial killer Charles Lee Ray.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SUB-GENREThis genre is the least scariest of all the sub-genres as focuses on the mentality of the villain as well as the characters fears and emotional instability to create

tension and realism for the audience. ‘Plot twists’ are a commonly used device. The characters

usually face internal battles with inner desires such as love and revenge, and example would be in Psycho when

the villain murders his wife in the bath tub because of lust.

Examples include , ‘The Ward’, ‘The Last Exorcism’ and ‘The Haunting’.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SUB-GENRE CONVENTIONS

This type of horror is more subtle and does not necessarily involve blood and gore, so there is less physical harm to the

victims.Moreover, the killer would appear “normal” but be “abnormal” inside. They do not appear like typical villains such as the villain

in Psycho.They normally revolve around the characters beliefs, fears and any hidden truths about the character such as what they have

previously done.They also tend to involve ‘ordinary’ people who subject the

horror onto the other characters which often makes it harder for the audience to identify the killers identity.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SUB-GENRE CONVENTIONS

The evil works of this character is not shown until the end or when the story of the horror is established .

The rely on the mind of the audience to create fright and terror.

Othere xamples of films of the genre include: ‘The Shining’, ‘The Uninvited’ and ‘Orphan’.

THE WARD (2010)At the North Bend Psychiatric Hospital in 1966, a young patient

names Tammy is attacked and killed by an unseen force during the night.

Kirsten, a troubled young women , sets fire to an abandoned farmhouse. The local police take her to a psychiatric hospital. She is

taken to the ward she meets other patients: Iris, Emily, Sarah and Zoey.

Kirsten is taken to the room which was previously Tammy’s and meets her therapist , Dr. Stringer. She is unable to recall anything

about her past . Later , she awakens in the middle of the night and sees a horrible disfigured figure staring at her...

SUPERNATURAL HORROR SUB-GENRE

Supernatural horror movies include ghosts, demons and spirits. They often involve some sort of religion in the plot to make the audience more scared. For example, many people in today’s society belong to a religion and it plays a huge part in every day life, so for a horror to feature religious aspects to scare the audience is very clever and effective!

Examples of this genre include: ‘The Exorcist’, ‘The Grudge’ ,The Omen’, ‘Final Destination’ and ‘The Conjuring’.

SUPERNATURAL HORROR CONVENTIONS

They are usually set at the home of the protagonist and places that are close to the main character, for example

their workplace or school. A supernatural presence is not easily accepted by a person and is not something that one can escape from or fight against. This makes the sub-genre

more terrifying and fearsome.Other conventional location settings are woodland and

forests such as ‘The Blair Witch Project. The key costume in supernatural horrors are “simplistic”. The main character would be likely to wear conservative attire. She is likely to wear neutral, pastel colours such as light greys and blues. The make-up of the female character gives her a natural

fresh-faced look. The weapons used are normally household appliances such as ornaments and kitchen utensils such as a

bread knife. An example would be in the film ‘ The Uninvited’.

THE GRUDGE

The Grudge describes a curse that is born when someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage or extreme sorrow. Those who meet the evil supernatural force die and the curse is reborn repeatedly, passed from victim to victim in an endless, growing chain of horror.

The Saeki family lived happily in Suburban Tokyo, but housewife Kayako Saeki fell in love with her college professor, Peter Kirk. Obsessively writing about him in her diary. However, her husband Takeo discovered the diary. Believing Kayako was having an affair, he becomes mentally disturbed and murders his wife by slapping her neck to a 90-degree angle and crushing her throat.

POSSESSION HORROR SUB-GENRE

Possession movies start with a normal equilibrium that the audience may be familiar with in everyday life. Most possession films happen during the late hours of the day, to make it more real and scary for both the audience and characters.

Most possession films are based around families. For example in ‘The Conjuring’ where the family are victimized and one of the evil spirits takes over the father as well as the child.

Also, the evil spirit or demon will try to communicate with the innocent victim evil visibly or in their minds.

Examples of possession films include: ‘The Possession’, ‘The Rite’ and ‘The Entity’.

POSSESSION HORROR CONVENTIONS

A typical convention is Possession horrors is that the evil spirit will take over an innocent young child. An example would be in ‘The Exorcism’. With regards to props, they tend to be subtle such as cuddly toys and sleeping gowns to familiarise the audience with the genre.

Weird movement of the body occur to further scare the audience and to make the victim appear as though they are being controlled.

The locations are usually set in a large family house or suburban area to show that they are lonely and more vulnerable.

Many close-up shots are used to show the real emotions and feelings of the character.

The ‘evil spirit’ usually comes out at night when its dark and doomy.

INSIDIOUS (2011)Riene and Josh recently move into an new home with their three children. One morning, Riene looks through a family

photo album with her young son, Dalton, who asks why there are no pictures of Josh as a child Riene reasons that Josh

dislikes his picture being taken. Later, Dalton goes to investigate the noise in the attic and falls down a broken

ladder. The next day , he falls into a mysterious coma, which doctors unable to figure out why...

GOTHIC HORROR SUB-GENREGothic horrors combine elements of both horror and

romance. It is believed to have been invented by author Horace Walpole, in the 1700s. The most famous horrors of

the genre include ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Dracula. Gothic horrors are the less common of the other horrors

and is usually set in the past, in mystical, mysterious islands and is the most traditional of them all. Although it may not be obviously scary, it still features elements of horror such

as an evil villain and torture to the main protagonist. An example would be in ‘The Women in Black’.

Examples of other Gothic horrors include: ‘Gothika’, ‘Nosferatu’, ‘The Innocents’ and ‘The Wolfman’

GOTHIC HORROR CONVENTIONSThe weather is misty and gloom. Storms tend to occur as well. The villain often

poses as a ‘Hero’. The ‘outsider’ like ‘Cain’ in ‘Frankenstein moves along the edges of society, in caves, monasteries and convents, examples of locations set in the past to create more fear for both the audience and characters.

Marriage is usually the resolution in Gothic horrors to try and bury the past.Revenge is shown as the act of repaying someone for a harm that the person has

caused.

A narrator tells the story and determines the story’s point of view but does not understand the importance of a particular situation or makes an incorrect conclusion.

GOTHIKA(2003)Dr. Miranda is a psychiatrist who works in penitentiary, in a mental institution sector. She is married with Dr. Douglas

Grey, the chief or department where Dr. Pete Graham also works. Chloe Sava, a patient of Dr. Miranda formerly abused by her step father claims that she is frequently raped by the devil in her cell. After leaving the asylum on a stormy night , Dr. Miranda has a car accident and when she wakes up, she

is inmate of the institution, being accused of a horrible crime and having no memory of the incident.