AS Media

1. By Fern Barlow

2.  Small, isolated communities/places. Dark streets and narrow
alleyways. Large cities or run down ghost towns. Anything
that portrays the feeling of isolation or being alone.
 Often places with a ‘dark’ history, abandoned hotels, houses,
prisons or asylums.
 Locations for good horror films could be: lakes, motorways,
roads, woodlands, cabins, gloomy underground tunnels,
creepy hotels, abounded houses, graveyard, asylum, blizzards
and many other dark locations.

4.  POV shots are very important in horror films because it allows the
audience to see the world from the monster/victims eye. This usually
happens at the end or the middle of a typical horror film.
 High and low angles can connote fear and nightmares
 Framework sometimes makes it harder to see the killer creeping up.
 Disturbing sounds are very important in a horror movie, diegetic
sounds like footsteps and non-diegetic sounds like a heartbeat.
 Shots used like ECU (extreme close up) on a certain victims face can
help the audience identify horror and fear.
 Editing can create unsettling tension and suspense. Is the editing
hasn't been paced up you know that something very bad is about to
happen.

6.  Screen style: dark colours are used like red and black, these
particular colours portray evil, danger and blood
 Low-key lighting helps to create dark shadowing and
unfamiliar shapes in the darkness.
 Props help us further identify the horror genre. Some specific
props can help identify a certain villain or character.
 The iconography of the villain displays fear and terror:
vampires, zombies, werewolves and many others.

8.  The main victim/hero of the movie
 The villain often a serial killer, ghost or monster
 The immoral teenagers or citizens that always get killed
 Good or bad police officers
 Creepy children
 Ghosts, Zombies, Psychopaths, stalker, the list goes on.

10.  Revenge
 Lust
 Envy
 Suicide
 Depression
 Nightmares
 Insanity
 Supernatural
 Good verse evil
 Beyond death
 Science gone bad
 Zombie apocalypse
 Childhood issues
 Mental illness
 madness
 Possession