Horror

    The horror genre is one that's goal is to evoke fear and disgust into its audience for the purpose of entertainment. Horror films usually deal with darker themes and topics, including elements like monsters, apocalyptic events, and religion. 

Content

Fear - Fear is the key factor in any horror film. Both within the film and as a part of the audience. The idea of the film is to instill fear into the audience through the content being presented to them. This is achieved through the fears of the characters in the narrative world of the film. Different sub-genres of horror explore the different fears of the characters more in depth, strengthening their connection to the audience. 

The Unknown - This could also be referred to as suspense or foreshadowing. It’s the build up to the climax of the film while still instilling that same fear. Since both the characters and the audience don’t know exactly what they are scared of, it creates this psychological thrill, which is what they crave from the movie to begin with. 

Plot twist - The defining element of a good horror film is the plot twist, the defining moment of how the events will play out. A plot twist can make or break the film, it can change the trajectory of how the audience will perceive the film, react, and respond to it. 

Production Techniques

Sound - Sound is a major element of horror, without it, the fear factor is removed. Many people say that if you watch a horror movie without the sound you realize that you aren’t affected in the same way. Sounds affect you just as much psychologically as what you see on screen. The use of sound effects especially as well as music can help create the atmosphere that is necessary to generate that sense of fear in the audience. 

Lighting - Lighting in horror films is essential. They use low-key lighting to create shadows as a way to develop mystery, create sudden reveals, or delay reveals. This all helps with the elements of the unknown and plot twists. All of this combined further stimulates the audience into having a more immersive experience. 

Marketing

    Horror films need to establish their audiences in their marketing to be successful. Typically this audience ranges from 15-30 years old and primarily male, but can depend on the film and sub-genre. This is because of the levels of bloodiness throughout all horror films. 

    Typically all horror films are marketed the same way, dark colors, shadows, eerie music, etc. The characters are usually scared to further establish the level of intensity of each movie. Finally, horror movies take advantage of psychological elements to convince their audience to watch their movie with only the few seconds they have in a teaser or a trailer. 

Samples

    The film Scream (1996) is about a town being terrorized by a masked killer (Ghostface). The movie follows a teenage girl, Sydney Prescott, as her and the people in her life get tormented by this masked killer. Sydney receives phone calls from him, threatening her. Sydney eventually figures out who Ghostface is and is able to kill him. Ghostface’s identity remaining a mystery to the end of the film helps create that fear of the unknown and strengthen the climax as well as the plot twist at the end of the film. Different levels of sound, sound effects, and the ringing of the phone are used as cues for the audience to know when something is about to happen. Small elements like specific camera angles give the perspective that the characters are being watched, giving the audience the perspective of the killer making them fear more for the characters. 

    The film The Shining is about a family who goes to live at a hotel during the winter while it isn’t in business to keep it maintained. Here, they experience different abnormal behaviors. Their son, Danny, sees things, the man, Jack, completely loses his mind, and more. The woman, Wendy, and Danny are able to escape leaving Jack behind. The Shining primarily ties the violence to emotional connections in the film, connecting them to the audience’s fear. Working together with the sudden changes in sound and lighting creates a chaotic environment. The audience doesn’t know what’s gonna happen next, creating that suspense and fear. 

Other Horror Films Include:

Representation

     In the iconic 90s sitcom Friends, many groups have minimal representation, only selected as side characters. The main cast of the show only represent the majority and stereotypes at the time. One of the main characters, Ross, was previously married but she ended up divorcing him for another woman. Most LGBTQ+ representation in Friends is done like this, referencing either their relationship or other side plots with similar story lines. 

    In addition, the show also uses humor as a form to discuss more serious issues like mental topics. For example, Chandler uses self-loathing humor to cope from his insecurity and things from his past. He is depicted making different kinds of jokes throughout the show and explaining how he uses humor as a coping mechanism. 

    Finally, one of the least talked about forms of representation in Friends was in 2001. After the September 11 attacks, the show payed tribute to the first responders and New York City. For example, they used the board in the guy's apartment to pay respect to the New York Fire Department. This is significant as it illustrates how a major event can impact everything. 

Sound

     During the sound lesson I learned that sound has a much larger impact on film than what I thought. Without sound the full meaning of the film can't be captured. I also learned that all sounds in a production are put together after filming apart from dialogue. These can be created from either previously recored sounds or foley sounds. 

    For our sound projects, we had to create a soundscape to represent a 1-2 minute scene. We had to find all of the sounds and create foley sounds to fit the scene as well as edit them together ourselves. We came up with an idea pretty quick, but we struggled to make it long enough. However, the sounds were easy to identify and list. Our outline of sounds made it easier in the editing process so we wouldn't forget anything. In addition, it helped us figure out what sounds we would use as foley sounds and which we would look for online. Finally, I used Adobe Premiere to edit our project as it's the one I've been familiar with the longest. However, I had to learn how to use the different sound editing tools since I wasn't as familiar with them. I figured out how to change the pitch of the sounds and fade them out to make them all smoother and also layer them to better fit together.

    We made our soundscape on a girl transforming into a mermaid. We decided to do this because we thought that there were a lot of possible sounds we could both use and create for this scene. The foley sounds were made well, but I think they could've been edited into the other sounds a bit better. I also think if some of the sounds had less background noise and were more clear it would be smoother, but overall I think it was alright. 

Sound Project Link