Horror Genre Conventions

                  Horror Genre Conventions

Setting: Often set withing small communities or isolated places. Places with a scary "past" that returns to terrorize once again. Abandoned asylums and lunatic houses with scary stories. Night time is very common as the dark allows for many things to be hidden. Houses with attics and cellars that allow for hiding places and the typical place to explore.

Technical Codes: Expressive camera work over naturalistic to portray horror and fear, with unusual angles that are not comfortable to look at. POV shooting (subjective) using hand-held cameras and placing the audience in the monster/killers shoes so you can see the terror of the victim from their point of view. Use of depth of view, with the killer slowly emerging from darkness/background to meet the victim.

Iconography: Visual signifies such as the colours black and red. These portray evil, darkness and blood, all very obvious and easily identifiable. Lighting is expressive. Bladed weapons such as knifes, scythes and axes. Masks to hide the identity of the killer. 


Narrative Structure: Groups of youths partying/ going on trips that go horribly wrong. A haunting event from childhood that returns to kill again. Usually a masculine character, and the typical dumb, sexy, naive girls that get killed off one bye one. There tends to one girl, the "final girl" who is sensible, has morals, and a virgin.


Character Types: The main protagonist tends to be the "victim/hero". The final girl who is a good girl and virgin. Stupid "immoral" teens that get killed off. Ineffectual and useless police/law enforcers who cannot do anything helpful. The confident "wannabe" hero who tries to save the day but ends up getting killed them self  People who are in denial and refuse to believe. Mad scientists who overstep the mark or lose control of their power.





Themes: Binary opposition- good v evil, known v unknown, natural v unnatural. Return of the repressed/dead. The hidden evil inside. What comes after death? Often close to sex in one way or another.