Savannah Ricketts – Media Studies

CODES AND CONVENTION OF HORROR MOVIES.

WHAT IS HORROR?

The horror genre causes the audience to have an overwhelming feeling caused by something frightfully shocking , terrifying or revolting.

Horrors which cause such a feeling :

• Killing

• Looting

• Horror of war

• Exorcisms

• Arising corpses

Producers use these type of themes with in a Horror to play on the audiences primal fears ( first fundamental fear) ,the way in which they do this is to deal with the viewers nightmares, hidden fears , revulsion and terror of the unknown.

DIFFERENT HORROR GENRES

Supernatural

Paranormal Activity : A beyond normal experience the appearance of shadows and moving objects which are caused by unwelcoming spirits.

SETTINGS OF A HORROR MOVIE

House Setting

Why this chosen setting ? A house is commonly seen within in such horrors as a paranormal activity horror as the paranormal activities with in horror are usually based with in the home where an individual lives on their own or most commonly it is seen with in a Conventional household in which all or most of the family experience the supernatural entities however with in Paranormal horrors such as ‘Paranormal Activity 1 (2007)’ we see that the family does not just experience the supernatural entities but they all in fact experience this entity differently especially with the children this is may be because children are generally categorised as being a lot more vulnerable in comparison to adults as they are still learning through the primary socialisation of their parents ; primary socialisation is the process in which a child begins to learn from primary institutions such as the family and school . Parents generally tend to not teach their children about the spiritual entities outside of the world which can be seen with in the world unless the child has directly spoken to their parents and queried to them as to whether this is normal or not as a result it is common for a parent to say ‘They are not real ‘ although this does not stop the child from exploring spiritual entities further as they are not aware of the supernatural encounters being a terrified experience until they experience it themselves

Hall Way – Setting

Hall ways are another setting which is commonly used in horror which feature RSA’s institutions ; Marxist Althusser talks about repressive state apparatus institutions which help to repress those who have broken the law and are put into institutions such as prison or do not fit into society following traditional norms and values such as those who suffer with a mental illness i.e. an psychopathic person they would be put into a different repressive institutional system being the psychiatric hospital . These institutions are used as they clearly show people with ‘uncontrollability’ over their actions which in horrors they may dramatize and over exaggerate and say their uncontrollability leads them to become possessed or gives them power to possess another being or cause harm to another being or even killing another person.

We see the use of institutions such as psychiatric hospitals predominantly in new horror films of the 21st century this being horror film producers today are more adventures in terms of settings as they want to create competition for other horror film producers and be unique in attracting their own target audience instead of appealing to any horror film audience as their may be horror fanatics who are interested in films based around troubled people with in hospital . Horror films ‘The Woman In Black (2013) and Insidious (2013) use the setting of a psychiatric hospital as well as a general hospital .