History of the horror genre

Horror Is a very popular and fascinating genre of film. It creates an impact on the audience which is said to ‘play with your fears’ and also interlinks themes such as fantasy, supernatural and thriller.

Horror first began in the late 1890’s with the first film being Le Manor du Diable, which was made in silence.

Over the years horror has become increasingly popular and reached the top of the box offices. Films such as Nosferuta, is an example of early day hits.

Around the 1970’s the horror genre began to become more popular than before, especially after the film ‘The exorcist’ was released. More people began to like the genre due to the fascination from watching this!

The 1980’s was the most prominent year for the horror genre as this is where everyone was wanting to go and see horror movies and therefore later in this decade, the films became available on television as well!  Films such as ‘Nightmare on elm street’ were released.

In the 1990’s The Blair Witch project attracted a wider audience as a result of the fear and mental disturbance from this film.

Horror is now one the most captivating and highest gross film genre around. Many films made now are remakes of old film which are made scarier through the use of more technology such as CGI.

 

Key Conventions of a Horror Movie

 

Horror is a very popular genre within the Film industry and is known to be very profitable as well. When making a horror film there are specific key conventions in each. I researched the key conventions to help me consider which of these would be most successful for the opening of my film.

Setting:

One main convention of Horror films is where the location is. This gives insight to the audience to the dangers of the setting. Various hints are usually given. The setting in Horror films vary depending on the storyline some locations are based inside for example in a haunted houses, others may be outside in the woods. However most films use a variety of different locations throughout the film. Examples of other settings:

-          Isolated places

-          Dark streets

-          Small alley ways

-          Graveyards

-          Abandoned areas

Iconography

Sound is used effectively to create emphasis. Watching a movie without sound would make it less scary. The non-digetic sound that carried on while the story is going on the audience begins to jump. Heartbeats, footsteps and screams are effective sounds used to add to the sinister atmosphere of the film.
The lighting in scary movies is usually dull and dark and many shadows are portrayed to make it scarier. Shadows and funny shapes are usually shown whilst the camera shot – panning is used.
Many other camera shots are used such as close ups to place the audience into the situation of the character. This helps to add emphasis on the overall effect.
Sometimes weapons are used such as knifes, at other times masks are used to cover up and identity as well as dolls, for example chucky.

Characters:

-          A victim

-          A villain

-          Teenagers

-          A baby

-          Gangs

-          Ghosts

-          Serial Killers

-          Stalker

-          Stereotype

-          Mother

-          Group of friends

-          Hero

Ratings:

Examiners look at issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, sexual violence, theme and violence when making decisions. They also consider context, the tone and impact of a work (e.g. how it makes the audience feel) and even the release format (for example, as DVDs are watched in the home, there is higher risk of underage viewing). This information was taken from the BBFC site. Most horror movies are usually rated over 15 due to the frightening bloodthirsty and violent nature of the genre.

 A Few classic horror movies:

-          Halloween

-          Scream

-          The Shining

-          Dracula

-          The exorcist

Feelings portrayed whilst watching horror movies

-          Suspense

-          Terrified

-          Astonishment

Common Themes

-          Revenge

-          Envy

-          Beliefs

-          Paranoia

3 Famous Horror Directors

As part of our preliminary tasks one activity was to research 3 famous directors within our chosen genre. I decided to research William Friedkin, John Carpenter and Wes Craven. Choosing directors was not particularly easy. However I based my decision on horror movies i enjoy and believe were effective in playing with my fears.

William Friedkin

^·          Was born in the ‘Slums’ of Chicago on the 29^th August 1935 

^·          William came from a poor background but got his inspiration from sneaking into cinemas to watch films.

^·          After he completed high school William he acquired his first position in the entertainment industry in Chicago WGN. This position was directing television as well as making documentaries.  

^·          The French Connection was his first hit, which was a success on the basis of his innovative thinking.

^·          He directed the film The Exorcist which is known to be one of the greatest horror films according to ‘thetimeout.com’ which received 10 Oscar nominations.

^·          William also directed many other films such as Deal of the Century, however he soon realised horror was were his success lied. And then returned with the film ‘The Guardian’.

John Carpenter

·         In the film industry John has several roles, for example a director, actor, producer and screenwriter.

·         He was born on 16^th January 1948 in New York City.

·         Whilst growing up John was fascinated by horror films which inspired him to study filmmaking.

·         John studied at Western Kentucky University and USC Film School in LA.

·          He directed films of many genres such as Sci-fi and Romance but horror was his best.

·         In 1978 John directed ‘Halloween’ which was a massive success which was having said to come from using “cheap scares” effectively.

·         Fans described many of his films to be “entertaining as ever”.

·         He early 2000 John began to remake many films including ‘Halloween’.

·         A few years ago he has returned, directing the film –The Ward

Wes Craven

·         Was born in 2^nd August 1939 born in Ohio, USA.

·         Is a very iconic director who is clever at genre bending and innovative horror.

·         Wes first feature film was of The Last House Left which was directed in 1972.

·         A few years later he wrote and directed the film ‘Nightmare on Elf Street which reunited youths with the fear of the genre.

·         In 1996 Wes won the Best Movie award for his film – Scream which grossed over 100 million, releasing him to a new level of success.

·         In 2009, Wes remade a film of The Last House Left

·         His most recent film was a sequel of the ‘Scream’ movies directing a fourth one in  2011.

 

Horror Moodboard

This is my moodboard on the horror genre. I researched many horror films to gather ideas on potential film ideas for our coursework. In my moodboard i added classic horror movies such as 'Nightmare on Elm Street', 'The Exorcism', Scream and many more. This was helpful as it helped to consider possible locations for our filming and effective images we could protray.