Research-
Horror

Repertoire of elements

The repertoire of elements in horror films is very different from those used in a romantic comedy for example. While comedies, thrillers and love films create a welcoming and happy feeling, horror creates a dark and scary feeling. The idea of a horror is obviously to put fear into the viewers, some different aspects of repertoire elements have different objectives but all are there to add to the scary effect.

Mis en scene

We generally expect horrors to be set in places such as haunted houses, deep dark gloomy forests and abandoned out of the way places; some are set in normal houses and fit in with a normal lifestyle. This adds to the scary effect because it makes the audience believe that because it is happening in a real place it is real. The moon is a very popular source of light in many films as they want to keep it as dark and scary as possible.

Themes/ Ideas

The main theme of a horror is death; a character usually tends to die fairly near the start and most defiantly at the end of a horror film. A lot of horrors track a particular character who undergoes lots of scary and weird experiences, then comes face to face with death towards the end of the film. Other times the storyline follows that of the killer or the bad guy in the film, this is effective because when we see this person appear at times in the play it is scarier.

Style-Lighting

This plays a key part to how scary a horror may be to the viewer, in most cases it is dark and very gloomy sometimes with bad weather adding to the scary atmosphere. There are horror films that are set in the day though; this is an effective way of making a film believable because although we can relate to the night time most people are at their most active in the day time so when something strange happens it gives it a greater effect on the realism.

Characters and Relationships

The characters vary in horrors, modern day horrors include a lot more humans than they used to. The effect of using humans in a horror is that like some other aspects of the repertoire of elements it adds to the realism and the believability of the film. It is common in horrors that we have for example; ghosts, monsters and characters in masks, these are also effective in making an audience frightened as we think to ourselves when watching about what we would do if we saw that in the real world. The relationship between characters is mainly some sort of grudge that they want to make another character pay for, although sometimes we see a love relationship turn nasty or a friendship group hunted.

All media is constructed and the reason these ideas are used in horror is because it is what people find scary and all of these repertoire of elements contribute to that effect.

Josh Thompson

Similar Films

Horror Films


Friday 13th

Some believe that Friday the 13th is a remake of the film released in 1980 but it’s not. It is an origin story written by Damien Shannon and Mark Swift. The film is constructed in an odd way with an opening 25 minute prologue, the opening credits come up and the story begins. A group of teens are hiking through a woods looking to set up camp for the night. You become aware that they are looking for a large-growth or more obviously a marijuana plant, which they plan on selling. As they set up camp two of the group go into the tent while the others go off to do some extra searching. One of them inevitably dies and the chase is on to capture the other teens. Jason (the killer) ends up killing them all and the title Friday the 13th appears. The story then follows another group of teens in search of what happened to a member from the other group. As the group get into varies troubles from leaving the house they are staying in or ignoring the others instructions and die gory deaths it comes to a final showdown between a character looking for one of the original group and the killer Jason. The film leaves the viewer on the edge and at numerous times we think both are going to die, eventually ‘Ginny’ outwits Jason and kills him. The story then takes an unexpected twist and shows us a flashback and shows why Jason is killing people. The film is part of a series and reminds us what happens if we hadn’t seen it before. This is another unusual bit of structuring as it shows us at the end and not the beginning of the film.

The Final Destination


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195714/plotsummary

Josh Thompson and Hayden Bately