Genre Research - Horror

What is Horror?

  

  To put it simply, the horror genre is a method of telling a story in a suspenseful, intimidating, and shock. The intent of horror is to mainly shock and terrify its audience. Speaking of which, the audience can range from those who love being scared and having goosebumps to those who will have nightmares the next night but will still watch because of curiosity. This genre's target audience however are those who are easily scared by anything either if it's supernatural, sanity, and of course the blood and gore parts. This genre has been apart of the media sphere for a long time from what started from books and literature has advanced into movies, television series, and even video games. 

Genre Conventions

Content

    The use of the audience's phobias is very common to see in horror movies. In fact, it is the entire genre of playing into the character's phobias and trick the audience that they should be in fear of their phobias and that they are very much real. Very big companies like Blumhouse intent to scare their audiences with the advantage of abusing their phobias. Many phobias can reach to the supernatural, psychological, or even gore. Of course companies are aware that some of their audiences are different and they need to change how much fear factor they incorporate into their production. This instance is seen in the different of PG-13 an R-rated films. 

EX: The phobia of clowns kidnapping children and luring them into dangerous habitats is incorporated in the move It. This phobia was used to induce fear upon clowns and strangers.

    It's very commonly known that in horror movies the characters that meet their fate aren't the brightest even when the situation that is present is very easy to get out of alive. This is a plot used in many classic horror movies and it is so that the killer can be seen as the winner and strike far in the audience that they can kill anyone that stands in its way. However, sometimes the audience can find this infuriating and get annoyed when the character dies eventually. This might also be intentional as it makes viewers at the edge of their seat to see if their favorite character of the franchise will live till the end of the movie

EX: This classic trope is seen in many of the Scream movies as the killer, Ghostface, slaughters his or hers victims one by one until they get revealed by the end. This continues the ongoing series of the movies. 

Production Techniques

    In many horror movies there are slow moments that build up suspense in order to make the audience know they are about to be jump scared but at the worst possible time. Even if you know it will come sometimes the audience will still get spooked and even though repeated, it's a classic characteristic of horror movies that we love to see in the movies. 

EX: In the Jaws movies, the slow and suspenseful moments until the shark shows up leaves the audience at the edge of their seat as they listen to the iconic sound motif that is played faster and faster but the movements in the scene are slow and drag on.

Institutional Conventions

Marketing

    The marketing in this genre can vary to seeing random references to the movie in real life to making the movie seem like the next big and terrifying movie that has ever been brought to the cinema. 

     In many movie posters of these big horror movies are seen with either the colors red to black which mostly signify blood and fear. These kinds of colors are seen in more higher rated movies that aren't for the lighthearted and should be taken seriously. Most posters included the "killer" or "attacker" and all of their victims that are seen with distraught expressions as this isn't a funny movie. 

EX: A movie that shocked the internet with its clever marketing tactics was Smile. This is where some actors would go into public places and smile into the camera in order to market for the movie.

Film Samples

The Conjuring (2013)

The movie The Conjuring (2013) is actually a series of movies that all take place in a timeline. However, the first one is the perfect embodiment of paranormal horror and has references to the supernatural. This incorporation of haunted dolls, evil spirits, and priests that are called to banish them. The first movie is actually based on the real-life experiences of two people, Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are investigators that investigate hauntings and paranormal activities with families. This film uses clever jump scares with an unsettling setting and environment that completely intrigues the audience and submerges them into the story. Ed and Lorraine try to help a family that is being attacked by dark forces and supernatural beings. This film has the production design of having slow moments followed by jump scares that can catch you off-guard. As well as the incorporation of the phobia of the devil and definitely more religious topics. However, the audience doesn't have to be any sort of religious in order to enjoy the movie. 

Child's Play (1988)

The film Child's Play is about a young boy named Andy who receives a innocent-looking doll named chucky. As you can see from the movie poster, Chucky is anything but innocent. He is actually a doll possessed by the soul of a serial killer and goes on a killing spree as a doll. Through this movie the incorporation of the phobia of haunted dolls is used to scared children that have dolls at home. Most likely, the audience will have a little fear factor that contributes to the idea of haunted dolls even though they know that the plot is make-believe. This movie also has that common trope where the characters are seen to be clumsy and can't escape from a plastic doll even though the audience can see that it seems fairly achievable to escape chucky. However, most of his victims are those who are caught off-guard and don't take the haunted doll seriously and when Chucky proves them wrong they have already met their fate. 

More Horror Movie Examples!

Goodnight Mommy (2022)

Terrifier (2016)

Friday the 13th (2009)

Halloween (1978)

The Ring (2002)

Representation Patterns in Media

    Representation in the early 2000's is very differentiated from how it is in the media now. An example of representation of diversity, or lack of, can be found in the 2004 film Mean Girls. One of the side characters, Janis Ian, shows a clear element of feminism and against the social norm of being popular. The movie uses the selection of how she's seen visually and what she says to contribute to the characteristics of this character. She's seen as the hateful, "edgy", and cool girl that is laid back but can also be mean. She is also the main character's best friend that is trying to be her ally and help her from the mean girls.

    Another example of this film that shows the representation are the three mean girls that are the antagonists of this film. Their names are Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith. Karen Smith is stereotyped as a "dumb blonde" and doesn't gain any character development even towards the end of the film she's seen as just a mean girl who cares about her looks. Regina George is the typical mean girl and is shown through a negative lens that she is a backstabber and insecure. Gretchen Wieners is another character that is seen as a stereotypical "second-hand man" to Regina George that is the typical two faced mean girl that is seen as insecure and constantly compares herself to her "best friend".  

    This film repeatedly shows the stereotypes of mean girls, however, it might be accurate to how teenage girls acted towards each other at the time. These stereotypes are negative and represents how girls acted towards each other considering insecurities, friendships, and relationships. For instance, the representation of how Karen Smith acts is a very exaggerated way of how dumb blondes got their reputation of only caring about their looks and not their education. This representation differs from how this movie is in more modern versions in order to accurately represent how teenagers act. 

Sound Projet

     For this project, we were assigned to create a 1-2 minute film with just audio and no visuals through sound effects and foley sounds. We were randomly paired with a partner to develop a storyline that can portray a location that can be layered with various sounds. We had to make at least for sound effects as foley sounds created by random objects using a "foley stage".

    While creating our outline, me and my partner decided we would portray a storyline that is in a rather quiet place but has opportunity for a lot of layering audio. We came up with the story of a teenage girl getting a doctor's appointment and it ends with her focusing on the clock because she is annoyed how she still has to go to a pediatric clinic with little kids. To effectively plan this project we used a outline that helped us picture what sounds we wanted to include and which ones we would need to make from random objects in order to create a good story: Soundscape Planning Outline.docx

    We broke down this story into five scenes that our project will flow as: arriving to the clinic, walking to checking check in area, checking in, going to sit down, and finally, waiting to be called up. We knew we had to incorporate the usage of kids crying, sneezing, and coughing to give the illusion you're in a pediatric clinic office as well as other key factors to indicate the character's attention to everything around her. For example, when walking by the kid sneezing and playing with blocks you can hear the kid's movie playing in the background and u can hear crying from the examination room. Using Adobe, we used the editing technique of selecting a room reverb in order to make it sound like the crying was coming from outside the waiting room in order to bring life to the illusion of waiting in a clinic. Also, the kids sneezing and coughing was a good way to layer these sounds along with the background noise of the receptionist desk, also known as the check in area.

     After choosing which four sounds we would create using foley sounds, we decided that these sounds were mostly background noises except for the clear indication that this is a teenager walking. For instance, the walking we saw that most audio effects used high heels, and I thought it would be better to utilize a ink bottle and a piece of paper to indicate she's walking in sneakers and give the story a more realistic approach. In addition, the background noises used were putting on gloves using rubber, getting hand sanitizer by squeezing a wet paper towel, and a ticking clock by hitting a role of tape and a screwdriver that added dimension to the audio project. This is a video of the foley sounds that were created: RomeroSeoane_foley_per7.mp4

     Lastly, something that I believe was done very well was the brainstorming and different techniques used to layer these sounds and give a audible sense of actually being in the pediatric clinic. I believe it's rather clear that you're in a doctor's office and it relates to kids in some way because you hear sneezing and you're checking in. On the other hand, something that could be improved was the use of words in our project, when checking in we used 6 words to portray the sense of being asked if you have an appointment and to sign medical slips. This was really difficult to make it concise so we don't waste 7 words, however, this problem can be avoided next time if the sound can replace the words. For example, when asking to sign a piece of paper instead of saying "sign" it could be more effective to tap the clipboard with a pen to indicate they need to sign the forms.

Final Project: RomeroSeoane_soundscape_per7.mp4