AICE Media Studies 24-25: Genre Research

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.