A2 Media Studies
As a group, we researched the horror sub-senre and decided to focus on the paranormal genre to focus on and look at in detail
Horror sub-genre - Monster
The monster sub-genre generally revolves around innocent characters who struggle to stay alive against these monsters. The monster genre links closely to other genres besides the horror genre. For example, it closely links to both the fantasy and science fiction genre. Typically, the monters are created are a result of destruction of habitat, effects of radiation or an experiment gone wrong, and are usually the antaganist of the film and portrays the hero as the person who saves the world from this monster.
This sub-genre also focuses on well known myths (Big Foot) or early roman monsters (Frankenstein and The Invisible Man) however, some film makers also like to create new monsters. These monsters help connote fear disgust and horror, for exapmle, werewolves, vampires, and mummies.
One of the first monster film was a silent film – The Golen (1915). This was one of the first films to actually include a creature. In the 1930’s, american film industries begun to produce more succesful films within this genre. Examples are Dracula and Franenstein in 1931. Both these films were influenced by German Expressionism in 1922. After the 1960’s monster films were much less popular, but still were produced.
Horror sub-genre – Killer
This genre links to both a horror and a thriller film, as they tend to involve a psychopathic killer murdering or stalking a sequence of people in a violent way. The killer genre became quite popular between the years of 1978 and 1984 between the release of Halloween (1978) and A Nightmare on Elm Street. During this time, most of the films that were successful were influenced by Halloween using a simple template of teens being stalked by the antagonist. This allowed the film-makers to put their own spin on the plot resulting in some films being more popular than others.
Despite the decline after this time period, the genre became slightly more popular after the release of Scream in 1996, but then declined again after the early 2000’s. The main success after this was found by creating remakes of the most popular films in that genre. Something that some killer films use is once the character dies, their picture in a yearbook will be crossed out. This was firstly used in Thirteen Women in 1932 and the idea was used later in other films like Prom Night and Graduation Day.
The main character is generally both the villain (a frustrated character seeking revenge) and the victim (often a women). The genre often uses silence to create anxiety and tension for the audience. Some killer films involve a masked villain which reinforces the claustrophobic fear shown by these films and to keep the killers identity unknown.
Horror sub-genre - Paranormal
We have decided to choose the paranormal genre to research because
this is what we want our short film genre to be. Therefore, we will look
at this in more detail. We found the paranormal genre the most
interesting as a group and thought that we could be creative with this
particular genre.
Typical Codes and Conventions
Paranormal horror films are usually set in protagonists home, if not the horror
tends to take place in areas that are close to the protagonist e.g. Workplace,
garden, car. This creates the fear of something unwanted in your personal
space. The paranormal presence isn’t easily accepted by the character and is
generally something that the protagonist cannot escape from or fight against.
Some films include two shots of where the ghost or spirit is supposed to be,
therefore many horror films are aware of space. Characters in a paranormal film
will either join the spirit, curse, etc. or try to fight against and destroy it.
Signs of something paranormal being present includes candles flickering,
doors opening or locking by creaking open or slamming shut, footsteps or
floorboard creaking, shadows through keyholes, and the spirit moving or
disappearing in photos and objects. Films that tend to follow common codes
and conventions usually include a bathroom scene where the protagonist
will look in the mirror and see the spirit/curse/ghost/etc. This scene tends to
take place when the protagonist seems to forget about the problem and
is usually relaxing. Nightmares are used in paranormal films as a way to
communicate to the spirit to try and find out why they are here and what
they want.
Females in paranormal films are more likely to be the ones who believe or
are possessed by the spirit. This is because they are more emotional and t
herefore more receptive to spirits. However somethimes, this can be children
because of their vivid imagination so are more likely to see spirits or ghosts.
By using females or children, it allows the audience to relate more to the
characters in the film, making it more scary and therefore more believable.
Three primary factors of the horror film
Tension – This is created through shock, mystery, terror or suspense. This is an element that is very important for a horror film to make the audience more invested in the film.
Relevance – To make sure that the horror film is seen, filmmakers need to make sure that it is relevant to the target audience. This can be for a universal audience. In this case, aspects may be death, the fear of the unknown, or even societal issues. There is also personal relevance. This is to be able to identify with the protagonist and condemn against the antagonist.
Unrealism – The audience knows that what they are seeing is not real even though there are some horror films that are very graphic. This is much worse for children because they have a harder time trying to separate reality and fiction even if it’s on a TV screen.
Examples of Paranormal Films
Horror Sub-Genre Reasearch
What is Paranormal?
The paranormal genre is to do with powers of the mind that are beyond normal. It is a phenomenon that science cannot currently explain or measure. Examples are ghosts, the existence of the soul, spiritual entities, extra sensory perception, clairvoyance, communicating with the dead, and angels. Many genres link with others making the lines between them become blurred. So films that focus on other genres like historical fiction and science fiction could also be classified as the paranormal genre.
Noel Carroll
Noel Carroll came up with a theory on narrative of a horror film. The narrative structure includes 3 stages. These are,
1• He said the first stage is the onset phase, this is where the distraction is created.
2• This is followed by the second stage, the discovery phase. This is when the characters in the film discover the distraction that has been created.
3• Finally, the third stage is the Disruption phase, where the character destroys the source of the distraction to restore normality.
