Task 14: Genre Conventions

 Horror Conventions 

Setting/Atmosphere:

• Horror films are usually set in remote or isolated locations such as the woods, abandoned amusements parks, and ghost towns. This makes the characters helpless and easy targets.
• Another favourite location for horror movies are old buildings, e.g victorian mansion, this creates an element of the unknown. 
• Typically there would also be bad weather e.g storm to act as a omen and indicate they the characters are in for a storm.

 Characters:

Horror movies tend to feature certain types of characters

• 'The slut' - a  popular girl who gets with all the guys. Seem as unpure and thus is usually the first one to die
• 'The Jock" - a popular, yet stupid character. Typically the boyfriend of the said slut and also dies early on. 
• "the virgin" - a pure and innocent character who manages to stay alive for the duration of the film. 
• Twins/ Young girls and boys- They are used usually as ghost. Adds a scare factor because they typically look like old styled dolls. 

Plot:

• The characters usually forget about the threat or don't realise there's one to begin with. This makes the characters clueless and at a disadvantage against the killer. 
• The character(s) ignore all the omens, their intuition, and other varies warnings they might have received. 
• The light and phone lines get cut. adds a sense of the unknown and helplessness.
• There is a strange noise and someone goes out to investigate or the group decides to slip up. 
• Character runs upstairs to 'safety" instead of going outside. 
• The victim attempts to hide behind a window/door and the killer finds them. Often used as a jumpscare for the audience. 
•  Vehicle won't start when the victim attempts to escape, even though it was working fine at the start of the film. 
• Fake scare - The film creates suspense and the audience expects to endure a jump scare, except it's just something minor e.g the wind, door slamming, phone ringing etc.
• People deciding to take a short cut only to get killed.

The shinning - Come Play With Us Scene 

This particular scene illustrates some good examples of horror conventions. This movies uses twins to portray the supernatural element of the film. Towards the end of this clip we also get a fake scare, the twins kept getting closer and closer to the victim, creating tension and suspense.  The camera keeps jump cutting from the boy to the twins, the audience is lead to believe that something bad is going to happen, but the twins just disappear.