Horror film is a genre that aims to create a sense of fear, panic, alarm, and dread for the audience. These films are often unsettling and rely on scaring the audience through a portrayal of their worst fears and nightmares. Horror films usually center on the arrival of an evil force, person, or event. Many Horror films include mythical creatures such as ghosts, vampires, and zombies. Traditionally, Horror films incorporate a large amount of violence and gore into the plot.
Examples of Horror Film:
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A Nightmare on Elm Street - Freddy Krueger, an evil being from another world, stalks a group of teenagers and kills them through their dreams.
Saw - Two men are held hostage by a psychopath, who is
set on teaching his victims the value of life by putting them into
demented life or death games.
Friday the 13th - While trying to re-open a summer camp, a group of camp counselors are mysteriously murdered by a machete swinging slasher.
Sub-genres of Horror:
Comedy-HorrorComedy-Horror combines comedy with traditional horror movie themes and characters. Comedy-Horror films aim to scare the audience, but also provide comical outlets that let the audience laugh at their fear.
Examples: Beetlejuice, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead.
Teen-Horror
Teen-Horror is a sub-genre that revolves completely around a teenager or a group of teenagers. Typically, these movies have a large cast and a clear hero or heroine. Teen-Horror films often play upon traditional teenage issues, such as dating and prom, and turn them into suspenseful and thrilling situations.
Examples: I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Monster-Horror
A Monster film is sub-genre of Horror that centers on a struggle between human beings and a monster(s). Often, the monster in the film has been created in an “experiment gone wrong.” The monster usually serves as a villain, and the film portrays a hero or heroine that ultimately saves the world from the monster. Although these movies commonly fall into the Horror genre, Monster films have a long tradition within Science-Fiction and Fantasy film as well.
Examples: Aliens, Godzilla, Feast.
Slasher
Slasher film is a sub-genre of Horror film that revolves around a psychopathic killer. This killer stalks and murders his victims in extremely violent and memorable ways. Though it centers on a specific killer, the violence is what sets Slasher films apart from other horror films. A Slasher film will devote more screen time to portray murder and mayhem than a traditional Horror film.
Examples: Halloween, My Bloody Valentine, Black Christmas.
Supernatural-Horror
Supernatural-Horror film is a sub-genre that includes ghosts, demons, or other depictions of supernatural occurrences. Often, Supernatural-Horror films combine elements of religion into the plot. Common themes in Supernatural-Horror films include the afterlife, the devil, and demonic possession. Unlike Religious Thrillers, Supernatural-Horror films are not limited to specific religious elements and can contain more vivid and gruesome violence.
Examples: The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Ring, The Omen.
Zombie-Horror
Zombie film is a sub-genre of Horror film that portrays mindless human beings who are raised from the dead. These films often include a Zombie invasion, and center around Zombies feasting on human flesh. The plot of a Zombie film then revolves around the struggle between the living, and the living-dead. Zombie film not only falls into the Horror genre, but Sci-Fi, Thriller, and Comedy as well.
Examples: Land of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later.
Atmosphere
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Dark scenes filled with disturbing shadows and strange and alarming props are typically seen in horror movies. These scenes reflect the eerie atmosphere required to create a frightening mood. These scenes create suspense and viewers can "get the creeps" before the actual horror arrives.
Sound
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Horror films typically turn normal sound effects into "creepy" sound elements. With good timing, a sudden loud bang or a falling object crashing to the floor will deliver a shock factor. It can also involve a jittery scene set in dead silence, which makes the anticipation of what comes next more frightening. The beat, pacing and instruments of the music help establish tension in horror movies.
Graphic Scenes
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Most horror films include graphic scenes of explicit gore. These elements typically feature violence caused by humans, monsters or supernatural beings. Computer advancements that started to show up in movies in the late 1980s made it possible for film makers to create convincing special effects. Horror film makers used those special effects to make their scenes of violence more graphic. 1980s and 1990s horror were mostly low-budget slasher films. By the 2000s, horror movies typically featured a torture, murder or revenge theme that created horrific scenes.
Evil Forces
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A horror movie antagonist can be any type of person, animal or creature that represents some kind of evil force. Some common evil elements as of 2011 are ghosts, werewolves, vampires, demons, vicious animals, cannibals, zombies, masked killers and deranged beings. Victims of these evil forces are usually characters that have apparent weaknesses of character or physicality. They are the underdogs that either fall prey to the evil forces or gather the courage to defeat them.
The Protagonist
- A horror movie Protagonist is usually a female character. This is because stereotypically, Men think they are able to overcome a threat more readily than a women, also the audience wouldn't be as scared if the protagonist was high school football player/jock because they would feel he can handle the situation by beating up the slasher. However if the Protagonist is Female it would be more effecting in creating suspense, as stereotypically, females are weak, vulnerable and cant protect themselves, so the audience feels having a woman running for her life is a lot more scarier as its more believable that the killer will get her.
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