The Horror Genre

The Horror Genre

Horror films are films designed to scare and unsettle the audience. Horror films often deal with people’s nightmares, hidden fears and terror of the unknown. The horror genre goes back 100s of years. The first horror film was only a few minutes long called ‘Le Manoir Du Diable’ the film used things such as flying bats, medieval castles, cauldrons, demon figures, skeletons, ghosts and witches. All these things are still used in modern horror films. Horror films use many different techniques to try and scare and thrill the audience. The horror genre has also changed much over the years for example, in the 1940s they had a creature that was half man half wolf that ripped people apart but later on in the 1990s people who were completely human like Hannible Lecter became popular. Now it is more popular to be making films with ghosts and zombies as the evil character.

Horror films unsettle the audience by using things like music to create suspense before a big moment happens in a film. The film ‘scream’ uses music when the head teacher Mr. Himbry is killed. In this scene suspense is first created at first by music being played which has lower notes which build up to higher notes when you think the killer is going to appear. This is used a few times until the teacher opens a cupboard and the music is playing very high pitched violin music to make you think the killer is going to appear but he doesn't. After this happens the music cuts out this makes the viewer think that the killer is not going to appear until the teacher closes the door and the killer comes out from behind the door to kill the teacher. As this happens the music suddenly kicks back in with high pitched violin music to make you jump.

Other techniques used in horror films are things like low level lighting to create a creepy and mysterious atmosphere because darkness is usually associated with evil. Darkness is also makes people feel vulnerable and threatened because they are unable to see as well and people fear the unseen and the unknown. A film that uses low level lighting is A Nightmare on Elm Street. This film uses low level lighting well because even when you are watching scenes set inside the lighting is still low and had a dark tone to them. This helps unsettle the viewers and create a creepy atmosphere. 

Many films use a technique called jump scares. A jump scare is when something occurs suddenly like a killer appearing from behind something and murdering someone. Jump scares are often used in horror films as an easy (or some might say cheap) way of scaring the audience. A famous jump scare is in the film ‘the exorcist 3’. In this scene the camera is looking down a hospital corridor and you see a woman walk into one of the rooms a few seconds later you see the woman walking out of the room with a hooded figure following her with a knife. The other thing that makes this scene effective as a jump scare is the music again. The music in the scene is effective at making you jump because it starts very suddenly and very loudly as soon as you see the hooded figure.

Another common horror film trait is a killer that doesn’t speak. This is effects the audience because the fact that a murderer isn’t speaking means that the audience doesn’t know why he is trying to kill people which leaves the audience in suspense. One film that has a killer that does not speak is Michael Myers from the 1978 film Halloween. This is affective in the film because you don’t really know what his motive is for killing the teenagers.