Horror Film Conventions

Horror films are unsettling films designed to;

·         Frighten and Panic

·         Cause dread and alarm

·         Invoke our hidden worst films

·         Captivate and entertain us in a cathartic experience

·         Often conclude in a terrifying shocking finale

Fears created by horrors;

·         Nightmares- In some horrors, they can create fears which make people literally fear even when sleeping. For example, In Nightmare on Elm Street, people are attacked actually in their dreams, and for some people, they could actually start to fear sleeping itself.

·         Our Vulnerability- A lot of the time in Horrors it comes to the point where the victims become helpless, whether it being there not fast enough, strong enough, the murderer/monster being a step ahead every time etc. For example, In Friday the 13^th, the killer, Jason Voorhees, seems to be everywhere, and they increase the tension by never actually showing where he is, but him moving, then finally showing him

·         Revulsions- In some horror films there is a lot of gore/torture, in films such as Saw, the main plot revolves around the gore of the film, which can cause the audience to gain fears of such things.

·         Terror of the unknown- In most horror films there is points where the characters enter somewhere without knowing what’s going to happen, for the audience this can cause be scary as it makes them think when they don’t know fully about a place are fully aware of.

·         Fear of Death- In almost every horror film ever made there is at lest one death or close encounter, so it is natural for the audience to grow a general fear of death.

·         Fear of sleep/darkness etc. – This links to vulnerability once again, what scares the audience is being attacked when they either have no way of seeing what is coming or not being awake to defend themselves. In Nightmare on Elm Street, what the bad guy in the film “Freddy Krueger” does is haunts them in their dreams, and whatever he does to them there happens to them in real life, so would cause a fear in the audience of being hurt when actually in sleep.

The stereotypical horror contains;

·         A lead character that often results as the survivor/ hero of the film

·         The killer/monster often has a trademark characteristic in the way he kills, for example the type of people he kills/ where they are/ what he kills them with.

·         There is usually a character who you are drawn to dislike, who often dies very late in the film

·         The outcome is almost always that of the hero surviving and the bad person/monster is prevailed upon

·         It is often ended in a way which makes it seem like there is a chance of extra killing.