Horror/Slasher Genre
The typical iconography of the horror genre can include, but not limited to, haunted spooky houses, scary face masks, bloody weapons, creepy dolls and eerie ghost elements like a Ouija board. A subgenre of Horror could be the slasher genre which all incorporate the aforementioned iconography. The characters of Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Freddie Krueger and Leatherface all have scary masks/faces, wield a weapon and habitat some creepy locations.
In terms of environment, these movies normally focus on a location that makes the audience and characters feel isolated. Using past examples, the Halloween franchise has the character in a trapped house, the Friday the 13th franchise is in a secluded camp and Midnight on Elm Street takes this idea to the extreme and has the characters trapped in dreams.
One big technique that is synonymous with the horror genre is the use of “jump scares”. This technique generally consists of drawing out a particular scene by lowering the volume and increasing the tension. The music or sound effect is then amplified with a sudden appearance of something on screen to scare the viewer. In recent time, this technique has been looked down upon by fans who see this technique as a cheap way to create fright.
Many horror films tend to incorporate teenagers or young adults as the central characters. These characters tend to facilitate the general high school archetypes such as the sporty jock, the nerd and the everyday person who the audience normally gravitates and relates to. Other characters could be categorised as the “non-believer” to whatever situation is occurring – doubtful any killer or ghost exists. These films also generally include “immoral” teenagers who end up inevitably dying. A great example of the character archetypes can be seen in A Cabin in the Woods which plays off this and uses it as a narrative point throughout the film.
The conflict of most horror movies generally revolves around the characters attempting to escape an evil until they must inevitably face the evil and ultimately overcome it. This evil can come in the form of a knife wielding murderer, a haunting ghost or undead zombie. An example of this can be seen with John Carpenter’s Halloween. The movie is centred around a girl in high school who is being stalked by a mysterious figure. This figure wears a white mask and wields a kitchen knife.
Scream is a good example of a film that showcases a lot of the conventions of a horror film. The director, Wes Craven, used these conventions as a plot device and made the movie very self aware. One character in the film is a big horror movie fan and tends to recite the tropes throughout the film. The audiences of horror films are generally young adults which possibly reflects why the characters are generally around this age span.
