Traditional Horror Conventions

              Traditional Horror Conventions



Settings.

In a horror movie there are range of settings that you might see. The setting is a good convention within a horror movie because it often increases the tension within a film and sometimes brings a  scary atmosphere to the movie.


This picture is from the film 'The Women in Black' and it is of the house that is involved. This house creates a haunting atmosphere for the audience as it looks different to a normal house. This is because often the spooky house will be set in the middle of no where and it will be shown at night more than in the day because this makes it look more frightening then if it was in daylight.

Another setting that is used in some horror films are graveyards. Graveyards are a great setting to use because it gives a feeling of death to the audience which adds a hook to the movie because it leaves the audience eager to find out more. A graveyard is a great setting to use because no matter what light you put it in, it always makes the spooky atmosphere increase because it of all the gravestones and the representation of death with every object within.





Costumes.

Costume is a great convention for horror because it emphasises the theme of the movie through what the character is wearing and what they look like. Traditional costumes for horror movies are often dark for the villain as it creates mystery for the character.


Take the Women in Black, her costume was very simple but at the same time created a scary atmosphere from the start. The simple black dress outfit but for the fact that it covered her face made the film more scary because we couldn't see what she actually looked like and it remained a mystery for the audience.


In contrast to the Women in Black, films such as 'Insidious', all of the characters, apart from the devil figure, we see are wearing normal day to day clothes with normal make up. This is also a great costume idea to use because it gives the audience the impression that the film is real because the majority the characters look real. This also creates a supernatural feel to the movie because they are just a normal family as we know and then things start to go wrong.



Characters.

In a horror movie there are often the most obvious of characters that are involved. Characters have a massive impact on the movie because each character has a role which has an importance to the storyline.

One of the most obvious characters that are always involved with a horror film is a villain. Villains come in different forms, some look like normal everyday people and others have a distinct look about them which is normally a devil or a ghost. Sometimes in horror films there is just one main villain but sometimes there are multiple villains that may work together or are all separate and do different things.
Villains have a big part in the horror movie as they are one of the main character(s) involved. The villain can sometimes be a mysterious character that the audience do not know much about or the villain can be an obvious villain, mostly shown by what they wear and how they behave through the first section of the film.



Another obvious character is the "damsel in distress" who is the most obvious character that is going to get into trouble for some sort of reason. Take the 'Human Centipede' for example, the audience can tell that the girls that are involved from the beginning are going to get into some sort of trouble because they are very naïve girls that you can tell have no common sense right from the when the film introduces them. This character helps the storyline of the film because without an innocent, naïve character(s) there wouldn't be much of a plot to go on.


Occasionally in a horror movie there is a character that gets too big for his or her boots and tries to act all strong, often because there is an attraction to the opposite sex. This character is great in a horror movie because it gives a twist to the movie because the audience thinks that they will survive and they don't or they disappear and the audience doesn't know what happens to the character.

Relevance to topics.

In a horror movie there can sometimes be a connection with a certain event such as Friday the 13th and Halloween. These two topics are great to use in a horror movie because it creates superstition for the audience because of the fact that they are already dates that some people believe supernatural things happen in. It is a good idea to use dates because there are stories that are told about these dates and the movie can involve one of the stories which would make the audience believe that what they were seeing was true even when it is still just a story.


Some horror plots have some relation to ghosts or the devil. Take the 'Paranormal Activity' for example, the plot is based on ghosts doing different things to normal people in a normal every day setting. This a good to use in a horror film because it freaks the audience out more because of the fact that nobody has proven that ghosts aren't real so some of the audience will believe that it actually had happened.


Sound Effects.

Sound effects also have a great impact on the atmosphere because things like screams make the audience jump and is frightening. Other sound effects like creaking doors, children laughing, footsteps all create more suspense and can make the film have eerie feel to it and will potentially add to the hook of the plot.


Lighting.

The majority of horror films are mostly in dark light, whether it be set at night or just on a dull, gloomy day. Having a film set in a dark light makes the film seem to be more eerie then it is because the audience cannot always see what is behind or in front of one of the characters and that brings a lot of suspense to the film. Dark lighting makes the audience more on the edge of their seat and wondering what is going to happen on this dark and gloomy night.
On occasions, horror films are set in the daylight. Having it set it the light makes the film a little more realistic because it is the most obvious lighting for a horror film.

Building Tension.

Silence in horror films often create a lot more tension for the audience because after a silence often comes a loud noise whether it be a scream or a crash. Tension in horror films make the horror film better because it grabs the attention of the audience and makes them feel like they need to keep watching in case anything important happens. Eerie silences often make the audience scared and the thrill of being scared makes the audience want to carry on watching.

Music.

 Music often has a big effect on a horror movie because it creates a lot of suspense and often makes a scene scarier. The use of pitch and different instruments, strings, piano, drums, make the tension in the film increase because they create an atmosphere and often put the audience on the edge of their seat waiting to find out what is about to happen. 
 The Music can be either; Diegetic, which is what you should hear in the scene so the audience and the characters can hear it e.g. footsteps, a car's horn, or the music can be Non-Diegetic, which is when the audience can hear but the characters can't e.g. narration, the soundtrack.
The types of music that are commonly heard in a horror film are;
Orchestral
Choral
Layered (one instrument starts and then others join in)
Loud/Quiet
Crescendo (getting loud)
Climax
Sound Bridge (carries on)
Synchronous (doesn't match the action)
Major (happy and bright)
Minor (sad)
Riffs
Motifs (one type of song associated with one person)

Five Main Scene Openings.

• Flash backs
• Panning of landscape
• Narration
• Title sequences
• Chase/Gun scene

Key Opening Credits.

The key opening credits that you would normally would see in an opening of a film are as followed;

1. Directors and Producers

2. Main Actors and Actresses

3. Production Companies

4. Film Editors

5.  Associate Producers

6. Executive Producers

7. Music Producers/Creators

8. Designers e.g. Make-up, Costume etc.

9. Co Directors and Producers

10. Screenplay