HORROR FILMSHANNAH PADDICK

WHAT ARE HORROR FILMS DESIGNED FOR?• Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by

playing on the audience's primal fears. Horror films often feature scenes that startle the viewer; the macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Thus they may overlap with the fantasy, supernatural, and thriller genres.

• Horror films often deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons, vicious animals, monsters, zombies, cannibals, and serial killers. Conversely, movies about the supernatural are not necessarily always horrific.

• Horror films are often used as a form of escapism for people that enjoy (or don’t enjoy it as much) being scared and frightened.

KEY CONVENTIONS OF HORROR• Incidental non-diegetic sound

• Distorted diegetic sound

• Extensive use of narrative off-screen space

• Young/teenage characters

• Use of hand-held camera: audience identification/realism

• Point of view shots

• Low angle shot

• 15 or 18 Certification (promises of pleasure) – debates on passive consumption

• Gore, blood and guts (typical)

• Slow pace of Editing, builds tension. Long takes

• Three act narrative structure

• Predictable narrative content (follows format)

• Clear binary oppositions e.g. good v evil

• Use of low key lighting

• Use of CGI, FX

• High production values but many low budget horror films

• Dominant, hegemomic representation of gender: The Female Victim

• Extensive use of close up

‘YOU’RE NEXT’ FILM TRAILER ANALYSIS

This establishing shot helps to set the scene of the film and also gives hints of a current equilibrium. It is also a very isolated area, common in many horror films.

This is another establishing shot, showing the front of the family’s home. It is also very dark, another key convention, which connotes evil possibilities.

‘YOU’RE NEXT’ FILM TRAILER ANALYSIS

The dark hallway scene is very common in most horror films due to the fact they create a gloomy and eerie atmosphere. In addition to this, you cannot see what is in the shot very well, sometimes letting your imagination ‘run wild’ and think about things that could most likely happen next. After all, horror films are designed to scare people out of their wits.

‘YOU’RE NEXT’ FILM TRAILER ANALYSIS

This shot shows a woman falling to the floor along with many knives and sharp objects. Weapons are a massive part of horror films and tend to be the thing to avoid, particularly in slasher films. The dispersing of the knives connotes everything ‘falling to pieces’ or becoming extremely dangerous (no walking on thin ice, you’re treading on knives instead)

‘YOU’RE NEXT’ FILM TRAILER ANALYSIS

This shot shows one of the killers looking under the bed at the next possible victim. This is also an over the shoulder shot which lets us see things from the characters point of view, in such a way to scare us even more. It is also an unusual shot which are very common in horror films as well. They are mainly designed to disorientate us and our senses.