2. WHAT ARE HORROR FILMS DESIGNED FOR?
• Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's
primal fears. Horror films often feature scenes that startle the viewer; the macabre and the supernatural are
frequent themes. Thus they may overlap with the fantasy, supernatural, and thriller genres.
• Horror films often deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots
within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly
of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Prevalent elements
include ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons, vicious animals, monsters, zombies, cannibals, and serial
killers. Conversely, movies about the supernatural are not necessarily always horrific.
• Horror films are often used as a form of escapism for people that enjoy (or don’t enjoy it as much) being
scared and frightened.
3. KEY CONVENTIONS OF HORROR
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Incidental non-diegetic sound
Distorted diegetic sound
Extensive use of narrative off-screen space
Young/teenage characters
Use of hand-held camera: audience identification/realism
Point of view shots
Low angle shot
15 or 18 Certification (promises of pleasure) – debates on
passive consumption
Gore, blood and guts (typical)
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Slow pace of Editing, builds tension. Long takes
Three act narrative structure
Predictable narrative content (follows format)
Clear binary oppositions e.g. good v evil
Use of low key lighting
Use of CGI, FX
High production values but many low budget horror films
Dominant, hegemomic representation of gender: The
Female Victim
Extensive use of close up
4. ‘YOU’RE NEXT’ FILM TRAILER ANALYSIS
This is another establishing shot, showing the
front of the family’s home. It is also very
dark, another key convention, which connotes evil
possibilities.
This establishing shot helps to set the scene
of the film and also gives hints of a current
equilibrium. It is also a very isolated area,
common in many horror films.
5. ‘YOU’RE NEXT’ FILM TRAILER ANALYSIS
The dark hallway scene is very
common in most horror films due to the
fact they create a gloomy and eerie
atmosphere. In addition to this, you
cannot see what is in the shot very
well, sometimes letting your
imagination ‘run wild’ and think about
things that could most likely happen
next. After all, horror films are
designed to scare people out of their
wits.
6. ‘YOU’RE NEXT’ FILM TRAILER ANALYSIS
This shot shows a woman falling to
the floor along with many knives
and sharp objects. Weapons are a
massive part of horror films and
tend to be the thing to avoid,
particularly in slasher films. The
dispersing of the knives connotes
everything ‘falling to pieces’ or
becoming extremely dangerous
(no walking on thin ice, you’re
treading on knives instead)
7. ‘YOU’RE NEXT’ FILM TRAILER ANALYSIS
This shot shows one of the killers
looking under the bed at the next
possible victim. This is also an over
the shoulder shot which lets us see
things from the characters point of
view, in such a way to scare us even
more. It is also an unusual shot which
are very common in horror films as
well. They are mainly designed to
disorientate us and our senses.
