Similar Media Works Profile: Genre: Horror

Similar Media Works Profile Genre: Horror

Dictionary Definition of Genre • ‘Horror’- describes a genre of motion picture or literature intended to thrill viewers or readers by provoking fear or revulsion through the portrayal of grotesque, violent, or supernatural events. • ‘Psychological Horror’ - is a subgenre of horror fiction that relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot. Psychological horror is different from the type of horror found in “slasher films," which derive their effects from gore and violence, and from the sub-genre of horror-of-personality, I • n which the object of horror does not look like a monstrous other, but rather a normal human being, whose horrific identity is often not revealed until the end of the work Definitions from: http://bestuff.com/stuff/psychological-horror

Storyline and Characters Usually based on one character who is troubled by a spirit, unnatural creature or psycho. They are called the protagonist. The spirit, killer or unnatural creature are called the antagonist. There are usually minor killings throughout the film, and then the main killing happens at the end or the antagonist gets found out. Sometimes in a horror film, the main killing happens at the very beginning of the film then the rest of the film is focused on the protagonist hunting the antagonist down. A recurring theme in horror is childhood and how problems have progressed. For example in the ‘BOOGEYMAN’ at the beginning the main character is a little boy, being haunted by an unnatural creature. Later on the film skips the rest of the boy’s childhood and focuses on him as a man, trying to figure out whether the unnatural creature is a figment of his imagination or something he must stop. Setting Usually set in a big old house, like in the ‘BOOGEYMAN’ which gives off a haunted house vibe. As well as a big old house, murders in horror films are usually set at night making the audience feel tense whilst watching the film. This is due to the way that as it’s dark in the film, it makes the audience anxious and aware to the fact that something may jump out. Setting also varies with character. For example it would be different based on their personality, age, sex and life story. For example a male adult’s bedroom would be very different to female child’s bedroom as the colours would be different, the lighting would be different and props would be varied.

Target Audience Horror films are usually certificate 15 or certificate 18. So this narrows the target audience down to people aged 15 and above. The reason for the high certificate is because horrors are usually very violent and gruesome, which would be unacceptable for children to watch. Especially as horror films in the 21st century focus on blood, violence and gruesome special effects. However psychological horrors focus on the storyline a lot more making it more complex and making the audience have to think about what they are watching. As psychological horrors need the audiences attention for the whole film because the audience need to pick up on hints and clues to be able to understand the film and its conclusion. Therefore the audience is more likely to be older people, 18 and above as they would concentrate on the plot much more than teenagers who are more interested in blood and gore. Also female teenagers are not usually interested in films with lots of depth and a complicated plot most female teenagers would rather watch a ‘chick flick’ or a ‘romantic comedy’. In addition most females are quite squeamish and wouldn’t be interested in the violent gory part of a horror either, so horrors are more for men than women. Horrors of the 21st century would not attract older people (60 onwards) as they would not be used to the modern day horror; being lots of blood, zombies (‘Final Destination and death they would rather watch a film from the 1960’s being mainly about ghosts, fear of the unknown and social psyche.

http://boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=slasher

Audience Expectations Audience expectations for films based on the genre of horror usually include expectations of blood, killings, special effects, a twist in the storyline etc. Blood is a main expectation from the genre as it links in with killings and death. This may be horrifying for some people and thrilling at the same time, and has been linked to horror films for decades. Special effects and twists in storylines are used with films that include blood and killings as a main theme throughout the film. Another expectation could include unnatural creatures, such as ghosts, zombies, vampires etc. Since the very first horror film in the 1930’s, many horror films have been based around unnatural creatures like Frankenstein and Dracula. Mad scientists have been linked to horror films from films like Frankenstein and Dracula, and they now can be expected in horror films, even if the film has nothing to do with that particular subject. Some people in an audience see horror films as an expression of our subconscious wish to smash our fears and/or the norms that oppress us. The audience expect the underside of normality to be exposed and for irrational chaos beneath respectability and convention to explode and to threaten to engulf society. Whilst watching horror the audience expect to half long for the forces of chaos to win but fear at the same time what that chaos will reveal about ourselves. Mainly the teenage audience expect and want to be frightened and amused by nightmares.

Technical codes •

• •

• •

Horror films mainly follow around one character or a group of characters. A stereotypical storyline for a Horror following a single protagonist, for example, would be that character’s goal to track down a murderer or a criminal, through horrific events leading to a shocking finale. Whereas, for a storyline based around a group of character’s, the film would follow a plotline that would concentrate on the groups survival or there downfall. Horror films make a lot of use of tracking the main character. This is to make the audience focus on this character more, and mid-shots and close ups are also used for this effect. The main technical codes that are used in horror film are the “camera angles”. Camera angles make up an entire film; they portray every aspect of a character and the relationships involved. Also the emotion in the scene. For example, if you wanted to show someone higher metaphorically to show authority, you would use a low angled shot from that person so they look physically higher. To show a lower authority, you would use a high angled shot looking down on them. There are also; close ups, long shots and mid-shot. Horror films tend to use a lot of wide shots of places to create the illusion you are looking for the protagonist or he is in the room also. There are often a lot of silences to create the feeling of suspense and tension. So when an unexpected noise happens, which is again common in horrors, it creates more of a fear amongst the audience.

Analysing the use of Technical codes

•

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ravt_8esUO4 The very beginning of this clip from the film “The Exorcism Of Emily Rose” makes use of a lot of technical codes. Tracking and Dutch, low, high angles are used. Also the camera uses close up shots on the victims face to show her emotion. The tracking in this is used to make the audience feel like they are following the victim around, as if they are the ones harassing her, which is a common factor in psychological thrillers.

Mise-En-Scene The main elements of Mise-En-Scene are; Sound, costume, lighting and camera angles. • Sound – Sound in horror films is mainly silence, which is used to create suspense and tension. A lot of extra diegetic sound is added into films such as these, as to create a realistic sound during the filming and to make it prominent still would be difficult. • Costume – Costume in films is normally used to represent something. So in a horror film, if someone continually wore the colour red for example, you would link the connotations of red so death and violence to what is going on in the scene at the time. Also, what the actors are wearing in the scene. People who wear ragged clothes you would see were poor or of a lower social class but in a horror film the costumes tend to show the damage and the violence that the victim has gone through. So a cut in the sleeve of a top could show they have obviously tried to be caught, but could also symbolise the damage to themselves from what is going on in he film or scene. • Lighting – Lighting in a horror film is often dark and dim or very bright lights. By having darkness a lot in horror films it creates the illusion you’re not quite seeing everything there is to see, therefore creating fear amongst the audience. Also the lighting used tries to make the scene look as realistic as possible. • Camera angles – Camera angles in horror films are often a lot of high and low angled shots and close-ups. This is to give a detailed view of the main character, also blocking out of the shot anything going on around them, such as the protagonist. Tracking and panning are used fairly often and it creates the illusion you are part of the victim, which is often to main intent of a horror – you fear for the victim because of the protagonist.

Example of a Mise-En-Scene – The Shining. The Shining was filmed in 1980 and was directed by Stanley Kubrick. The parts of Mis-En-Scene I’ll be analysing will be the; sound, costume, lighting and camera angles. At the opening of this scene you immediately get a mid-shot of Jack by the bathroom door. He is wearing a red jacket and cheque shirt. The colour red connotes danger and death, red symbolising blood. He is singing the dialogue of the wolf when he is attacking the pig’s houses in turn. The story of this is associated with children’s stories so to contrast the innocence of children and the stories told to them against the horror of Jack about to cut the door down to kill his wife who is inside the door. There is also extra diegetic sound over the shot; it is of a high pitched sound but is coming in slowly so the audience doesn’t notice it until it gets louder over Jack. The use of this sound builds tension within the audience and hints that something bad is going to happen as the tempo of the music is slowly building up, like the mental illness of Jack. The lighting around Jack is coming from a single lamp to the left of him. The lamp is on the bedside table shining up into his face connoting danger. On the other side of the door, is Jack’s wife in the film. She is wearing a dressing down, showing she has obviously just got out of bed. By her wearing a dressing gown, the audience can immediately tell that is night time and she has clearly got out of bed in a rush. The use of a dressing gown connotes the vulnerability of her, as we associate night time with eeriness, danger and it is when we feel most vulnerable. The camera tracks her to the sink, where she has placed a kitchen knife in the sink beforehand. Throughout this time the tempo of the music has started to get quicker and the pitch of the music is getting higher. The lighting in the bathroom is clinical, white and sharp. It illuminates her facial expression evidently, the main light is coming from above her from a ceiling light so therefore is not natural light. When the shot goes back to Jack, the camera then is behind him as he raises the axe to crash into the door. You can see the mess the bed has been left in which signifies to the audience there has been a rush. The pitch of the music then gets higher still until Jack plunges the axe into the door, where it pauses and we hear the thud of the axe against the door and then the scream of Wendy. The scream denotes that Wendy is terrified and we don’t even need to see her face to understand that. A scream is associated with fear so it adds again to the heightening fear of Jack. The camera tracks the axe as it goes backwards and forwards into the door. This happens twice and on the third, the camera angle shifts to show the axe coming in the through the door. This makes the audience feel like they’re involved in the scene and are actually a part of the moving axe. The sound of the axe coming in through the door is diegetic but there is still the extra diegetic sound over the top. This has now suddenly turned to a high pitched, fast tempo sound to a low thrumming sound. We carry on watching the axe hack through the door sideways. The camera now progresses around so the audience are watching the axe come through the door face on and can see the hole that has ready been made. We can also see Jack’s facial expression, this adds to the dread we as an audience feel for Wendy as the look on his face is sheer malice. The music then goes back to its high pitch again from the beginning of the clip, it indicates that something bad is going to happen again as when the music was last used Jack started hacking the door. The camera then moves back to the other side of the door again where there is a wide shot of Jack and the bedroom. Again, we see the bed and the bedside light that is just casting a light up the wall causing the rest of the room to look dim. We then watch him successfully cut the door and walk over to the hole created. The music then gets considerably noticeable and high pitched as the camera angle does a close up of Jack’s face looking into the door. The expression on his face is chilling and is even more manifest as he put his face into the directly bright light of the bathroom. We then close up on Jack reaching in to turn the key in the lock. Then we see Wendy cut Jacks hand in a close-up shot and then again on Jack’s face as he shouts in horror because of his hand. It leaves us wanting to know if Jack successfully got through the door or not, and if Wendy will escape and survive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TVooUHN7j4

Generic Symbols There are some things that are seen in horrors over and over again; sometimes its part of a set or the setting, props which are used regularly or costumes and colours . Set; Common settings; • Church- Reason being churches are for worship however to make it shocking when there is murder in a church or by a church it is more disturbing and horrific. • Graveyard- Simply because it is the home of dead bodies, therefore it is scary and a common place for evil spirits, black surroundings and sad memories which all reflect on death. • Bedrooms- Its meant to be a place of relaxation and safety however horror films usually focus on the fact people are unprepared and close in on bedrooms where the antagonist catches the protagonist. Also it’s a small space with no escape which would build tension. Props Common props are usually weapons as murder is the main theme in horror films. Common weapons; Big knives/ kitchen knives- Using kitchen knives makes it realistic and also they look harmful and dangerous. Polaroid pictures- Some films include Polaroid pictures of people they are hunting down or use for evidence.

•Release date: Cinema-Friday, February 4,2005.

BOOGEYMAN

•DVD/ video- Tuesday, May 31,2005. •Genre: Horror •Running time: 86min •Director: Stephen Kay •Studio: Columbia Pictures •Producers: Sam Raimi, Robert G. Tapert. •Screenplay: Eric Kripke, Juliet Snowdon, Stiles White. •Cast: Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel, Syke McCole Bartusiak, Lucy Lawless.

Tim (Barry Watson) is a normal, twenty-something year old guy. But an intense, paralyzing fear that has been terrifying him since childhood is tearing him apart. To the point where he feels his life is in danger. The incident that left Tim fearing everyday happened when Tim was a child, every night his dad read him a bedtime story. Many of these stories were horror based, even though his mum disapproved of them, but Tim and his father made sure his bedroom was safe when the lights finally went out. Until that one fateful night. That scarred Tim for life he watched , paralyzed with fear, his father get violently sucked into the closet, and was never seen again. Tim is terrified that the Boogeyman will return and take him as he has taken so many before. Many years later, after Tim's mother (Lucy Lawless) dies, he is forced to return to his childhood home and face the source of all his fears.

The Shining •

A man, his son and wife become the winter caretakers of an isolated hotel where Danny, the son, sees disturbing visions of the hotels past using a telepathic gift known as "The Shining". The father, Jack Torrance, is underway in a writing project when he slowly slips into insanity as a result of cabin fever and former guests of the hotels ghost's. After being convinced by a waiter's ghost to "correct" the family, Jack goes completely insane. The only thing that can save Danny and his mother is "The Shining". • Director: Stanley Kubrick Release date: 23 May 1980 (USA) Genre: Horror/Thriller

The Ring •

The story begins with two teenage girls discussing the events of the previous weekend, during which one of them, Katie Embry (played by Amber Tamblyn), went to a cabin in the mountains to spend time with some friends. While talking, the subject of a supposedly cursed videotape is brought up. The other girl, Rebecca 'Becca' Kotler (played by Rachael Bella), states that anyone who watches this video receives a phone call, in which a voice says, "you will die in seven days." Then, exactly seven days (to the minute) after viewing the tape, the viewer dies. Katie reveals in horror that she had watched that video at the cabin last weekend with three friends, exactly seven days earlier. After a series of unexplainable occurrences, involving a television in the house turning itself on and eerie sounds, Katie is mysteriously killed while Becca has the misfortune of watching, causing her to be institutionalized in a mental hospital. • Director: Gore Verbinski Release date: 21 February 2003 (UK) Genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller

The Blair Witch Project Three film students go to Burkittsville, Maryland to make a documentary on the infamous Blair Witch legend. They go missing, but a year later their footage is found in a bag inexplicably buried under an abandoned 100-year-old house. The director is Heather Donahue, her main cameraman is Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams is the sound crew. According to legend the Blair Witch is the ghost of Elly Kedward of the late 1700s. Several children accuse Kedward of luring them into her home to draw blood from them. Kedward is found guilty of witchcraft, banished from the village during a particularly harsh winter and presumed dead. By midwinter all of Kedward's accusers along with half of the town's children vanish. Fearing a curse, the townspeople flee Blair and vow never to utter Elly Kedward's name again. In 1825, eleven witnesses testify to seeing a pale woman's hand reach up and pull tenyear-old Eileen Treacle into Tappy East Creek. Her body is never recovered, and for thirteen days after the drowning the creek is clogged with oily bundles of sticks. In 1886, eight-year-old Robin Weaver is reported missing and search parties are dispatched. Although Weaver returns, one of the search parties does not. Their bodies are found weeks later at Coffin Rock tied together at the arms and legs and completely disembowelled.

The Omen •

Was released on 6th June 2006 “666” (A Remake of the 1976 original.) • Directed by John Moore. • A child that will steer humankind down the road to hellfire has been born, and as his evil flourishes in a world full of hate, the ominous Biblical prophecies slowly begin falling into place in director John Moore's remake of Richard Donner's 1976 horror classic. Robert (Liev Schreiber) and Katherine Thorn (Julia Stiles) were as loving parents as any young boy could ask for, but as fate would have it, their new son Damien is far from the typical child. Now, as the mysterious boy's growth begins to share frightening parallels with the Biblical passages detailing the rise of the Antichrist, and the lives of all who seek to reveal his true nature are cut gruesomely short, Robert and Katherine are forced to face the horrifying prospect that their child has been sent from Satan to hasten the fall of modern civilization, and that there is little they can do to curb his prophesied path of ultimate destruction.