AS MEDIA STUDIES - Psychological Horror Codes and Conventions

Psychological HorrorCodes and Conventions

What is Psychological Horror?

Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror fiction, film, TV and video games which rely on the characters fears and emotional

instability to build tension and scare the audience.

Film Examples;

Jacob’s Ladder Silence of the Lambs Shutter Island Blair Witch Project

What defines a ‘psychological horror’?

“it’s the kind of movie where the mind makes up for what the director doesn’t feature outright. It’s the monster in the closet where all you see is a pair of glowing red eyes. It’s the suggestion that a house is haunted and then walking through said location and hearing all kinds of concerning, creepy noises. It’s not a violent killer with a chainsaw chasing you around. It’s not a thriller where the police are trying to catch a heinous murderer. The main facet of a psychological horror film is what isn’t shown, not what is.”

Quote from a University Professor

The Significance of Posters

Despite the title of this being “tooth fairy”, the ghostly white font in what looks to be a child’s scribble and dark palette colours easily distinguish it from being the happy fairy tale. Most horrors use the typical horror palette in dark muted tones, bright reds, monochromatic tones and wispy azure greens and ghostly mint blues in order to distinguish them from happy comedy films or other genres such as sci-fi. The also use distorted imagery and shadows to create ominous figures.

Common Editing Techniques Low Key Lighting – dark lighting and shadows are seen

as scary as unseen things could be lurking in the dark.

Long takes with slow editing to build up tension.

Discordant, high key string instruments in moments of suspense.

Jump scares

Contrapuntal Audio

Disequilibrium

Heavy usage of binary opposites eg. light vs dark

Incidental music to create an heavy atmosphere

Iconography and symbolism to keep the audience alert

Hermeneutic codes to keep the audience guessing

Common Settings

Abandoned Asylums

Formerly deserted houses after a murder or mysterious incident (eg.

satanic rituals) took place.

Old, traditional houses in ruins

Graveyards

Why is iconography used? Iconography is symbolic representation and is

important as conventional meanings attached to an image or images connote wider pictures.

Key motifs instantly strike emotion into us, for instance spiders = fear whilst sunshine = happiness

Iconography

Typical Characters

Typically blonde, beautiful and young to attract the male gaze

Depicted as being weak, dumb and in need of protection from the main male lead

Overreacts to horror situations Oversexualised Portrayed in an irritating light, the audience are

normally rooted to support her death or wish it Never the first to die, normally the third

or second. When they do die it’s in a gore filled horrific manner.

Of some importance to the main lead First to do something stupid

Female Victim

Film Examples

Sinister

True-crime writer Ellison Oswalt moves himself and his family into a house where a horrific crime took place earlier, but his family doesn't know. He is

trying to find out more about the crime so he can write a new book about it to help his flailing career. He uses some “fake" film footage he finds in the house

to help in his research, but he soon finds more than he bargained for. There is a figure in each of the films, but who or what is it? As a result, his family start to suffer and things take a turn for the worse. Will they survive? (Source: IMBD)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgYxydrVlDk

Mama

Annabel and Lucas are faced with the challenge of raising his young nieces that were left alone in the forest for 5 years.... but how

alone were they? (Source: IMBD)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZlY47eCdas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lReemWmO5o

The Woman in Black

A young lawyer, struggling with work after the death of his wife, is sent to a remote village to settle the estate of a deceased eccentric woman who owns an English

manor. The village residents want him to leave as they are trying to conceal a deadly secret. But he refuses, and soon discovers that the house of his client is haunted by

the vengeful ghost of a woman dressed in black. (Source: IMDB)

J-horror J-Horror often has psychological horror and tension building

as its prime focus and is thus considered a sub-genre

Many J-Horror films are very low budget, Ringu (The Ring) had a budget of US$1,200,000 whilst the American remake had a budget of US$48,000,000. Despite lower funding, the Japanese original is considered far superior by critics.

J-Horror tends to draw influence from traditional Japanese folk stories particularly revolving around the occult and poltergeists.

Influential Psychological Horror Directors

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most well established directors for psychological horror films.

He was ranked //2 on Empires ‘Greatest Directors Ever’ list. (2005)

He is often called the ‘master of suspense’. In order to draw suspense in his films, he’d

alternate between different shots to extend and draw out time. He was also known to use unique POV shots and camera angles in his works.

He has directed a grand total of 69 films.

“Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.”

Alfred Hitchcock films