Research into the Horror Genre

You can identify horror films immediately as they all use similar conventions such as colours, locations, plot, actors, themes, narrative, characters etc. 

Locations-
Many horror films use isolated areas for horror films. Possibly urban areas, dark and narrow alley ways, many directors use these types of areas as it causes tension and panic for the audience as they realise the characters are all alone and have no where to escape.

Most of the locations will be 'dark' whether its naturally dark or whether it has dark history e.g an abandoned houses, hotels and insane asylums. Using these similar locations for the horror genre can be seen as a good thing as using Steve Neal's Genre theory people will enjoy the film as it repeats the setting and will be familiar to the audience. Many examples of horror films that use dark and isolated areas are 'Hostel' with the killer in a dark and narrow corridor and also 'The cabin in the woods' the film being set in an abandoned cabin so already it is dark and also the cabin being in the woods, woods being isolated and away from people/help makes the film scarier.










Colours-
The conventional colours for horror films are black and red. Black is used as its scary and creates darkness. When the scene is dark it makes it hard to see, already the audience would have a fear of the unknown of what is hiding in the dark keeping them engaged and on the edge of their seat. Red connotes danger and blood, always involved in horror films in some way. These colours are quite dark and not stereotypically happy colours therefore immediately it is linked to horror films. Many horror films use red and black in their movie posters and trailers to signify the genre being a horror. Furthermore, the lighting in horror films is expressive and non-naturalistic, Low key lighting is always used again to make it dark and eerie to create the atmosphere for the audience, to make them feel as if  they are in that room alone struggling to see what is in front of them. Examples of the conventional colours in horror posters.

Props and Costumes-
Many horror films have conventional props and costumes. The killer will most likely have a signature weapon either a particular knife or many different types of weapons he uses. The costume of the killer in many situations has a mask, this will be significant to the killer, E.g the killer in Scream wheres the ghost mask. The killer is always fully covered up, wearing dark colours and their costumes will most likely have blood on it. The other characters who would be the victims of killer will where primary colours, and everyday outfits as they are not in the know they are going to be killed. The victims never usually have props just the killer.  However in many horror films the victims might have a religious icon such as a cross to 'kill' the spirits such as in the last exorcism or The conjuring.

Music-

Conventional music for horror films mainly would either be non-diegetic sound of a soundtrack, the soundtrack would be slowly, and in many horror films the music would generally have an irregular rhythm to make the audience feel uncomfortable, the pitch would be low and deep to sound threatening. There would be a lot of ambient sound, if say the location was in the woods of animals making sounds, wind blowing trees, or the wind slamming doors, the characters would usually jump to this loud sound and make the audience jump with them as it creates tension. In many horror films there is contrapuntal sound such as in Insidious where there is demons taking over minds, murdering, you can hear an up-beat childish like soundtrack playing that juxtaposes what is going on. In another horror film the shining there are beautiful scenes of winding roads and countryside but there is quite scary, ominous music to foreshadow events to come, as you can see the clip showing this contrapuntal sound below.

Characters- 

 Following Vladimir Propp's character theory, horror films do conventionally have a villain (the killer), the hero (the person trying to save everyone), the donor (the person who gives their life away to save the others), possibly a donor however in horror films such as saw, the villain and the donor are the same people as he gives them a way out of dying through speaking to them through a tape recorder, there might possibly a princess that the hero wants to save because he loves her. However in horror films there always tends to be a group of people, a smart one who helps the group to live, but then there is always a stupid character who ends up doing something that puts the group in more danger, there always is one that dies or many that die, and there always seems to be one that gets away from the killer and survives. These are all conventional characters of the horror genre.



The conventional fonts for horror films is bold, capital letters, and very blunt, in some cases it can have blood dripping from it or spikes but mainly capital letters, this shouts to the audience and signifies it is not a fun film it will be scary just by looking at the font. In many films the film posters saying the title of the film is in capital letters, the credits in horror films the writing may be blurred a little, mainly in white, and very simple, in the opening sequence of 'Se7en' the credits are blurred, and the names of people fade and flicker on and off the scene to signify the killers brain, that he can't concentrate and is not all there. The font will express what type of film it will be, if there is blood it will be gory, if its blurry it might be to do with mental issues of the killer. But all fonts are capital letters, simple and bold to get the audiences attention.

Companies-

One conventional film company for horror films would be twisted pictures, this company was founded in 2004 and were responsible for the release of the saw franchise, dead silence, The tortured, Chain letter. This company only deals with the horror genre and as soon as an audience see the film was released by twisted pictures it is immediately recognised as a horror. Another film company founded by Jason Blum is Blumhouse Productions, this film company released some of the most successful horror films such as the Paranormal activity films, Sinister, Dark skies, the purge, Insidious films, Ouija, Jessabelle, and many new horror films coming soon.

Narrative-

The narrative for all horror films goes either one of two ways, the film completely gets closure, a character survives by killing the villain but all of her or his friends are dead. Or, it ends with a cliff hanger, leaving a lot of narrative enigma for the audience to leave them questioning what will happen resulting in sequels and possibly a franchise E.g. Insidious, Saw, The purge, The conjuring, Final Destination are all left un resolved this means they do not follow Todorov's narrative structure theory as it does not end on a new equilibrium. However, a film such as Truth or Dare, does follow the narrative structure theory as it is all resolved with the villain dead and a character has successfully escaped resulting in everything back to a new equilibrium.

 Themes-

Conventional themes tackled by the horror genre could possibly be Good vs. Evil, Depression (we are the night), Religion (Carrie), Childhood issues, Revenge (truth or dare), Supernatural (lesbian vampire killers), Science gone bad ( I am legend), Zombie Apocalypse (zombie land), Nightmares (insidious), Insanity ( Human Centipede). These are all themes conventionally explored by the horror genre.

Audience- 

The horror genre would have a quite mainstream audience as it can be enjoyed by a range of different types of people. People with a different demographic. Using the uses and gratifications theory by Blumler and Katz, people might watch horror films for entertainment as it gets them engaged in what's going on, it gives them an adrenaline rush from being frightened and terrified, however some people might watch it for social interaction as the horror genre is extremely popular and a lot of teenagers enjoy watching the horror films to get them scared and seem cool in front of their friends, some people might watch it just so they can talk about it with their friends and be involved not necessarily because they enjoy the horror genre.