Theories the Horror Genre uses

Horror genre follow similar theories to each other, such as Claude Levi Strauss's theory of Binary opposites, Roland Barthes code theory and Tzvetan Todorovs narrative structure theory. 

The horror genre use Strauss's theory as many of the horror films have binary opposites of Good Vs Evil, a Victim and a killer, this makes it clear to the audience who the bad character is and who the good character is. An audience might enjoy binary opposites as then the film would be easy to follow and entertaining instead of having to constantly focus and concentrate on the film so they understand and can be interested in it such as the film nightmare on elm street expresses strongly the good vs evil binary opposite. However, some horror films also confuse the audience and make a character in the beginning bad but then turn out to be good, this is an example as in the film OUIJI, a character called 'Dorris' is made out to seem an innocent young girl being beaten by her mother who just wants to get away from the spirits however in the end it turns out that Dorris is the evil character who actually wants to set the spirits free this could be confusing for the audience but also might get them even more engaged. 

The horror genre also use Roland Barthes code theory to engage the audience, the codes in the narrative can help the audience interpret to help the plot. The horror genre uses enigma codes throughout to make the audience engaged as they are never completely told why its happening, or why the devils are haunting them etc. It makes the audience want to carry on watching to find out why however some horror films end not completely answering all the codes, they leave it to the audience themselves to interpret. 

Todorov's narrative structure theory is used in most horror films as they all start mainly with an equilibrium of everything being fine and normal, then a disruption such as a devil haunting them, then a battle for resolution like trying to get rid of the devil from their lives, then a new equilibrium, the devils gone and either haunting someone else or they've destroyed the devils spirit. However some horror films do not end with a new equilibrium such as Insidious the dad at the end kills the women that helped him get his son back, this is not normal but does get the audience intrigued and want to see the sequel to insidious.