Haley's Blog: Genre Research- Horror

Why Horror?

To me, horror is the most intriguing genre of all. There are so many aspects that go into it and many different routes that can be taken. As someone who wants to pursue media, a horror film is a main goal of mine. The different depths of horror and how it can either make you really think, or is just scary with a more basic storyline. I love it all and am excited to dive deep into it.

Content:

What is horror? Horror is is a genre intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. This definition doesn't seem too intriguing, but once put into motion is very clear. A large aspect of horror would be the actually scaring itself, which can come in many forms.

A well known scare-type is jump scares. Jump scares are when the "monster", or whatever haunting thing, comes by surprise. With this there is usually loud music, bright lights, and overall an intense feeling. The most recent "IT" movies, which happen to be one of my favorite horror movies, has a good amount of jump scares.

Another scare-type is suspense. Suspense comes to play with every scare in movies. Without suspense keeping you on your feet, those scary moments would just boring. Suspense comes in different forms, like music, lighting, scenery, spoken monologue, etc. Suspense usually occurs in important scenes that the directors want to make sure the audience is paying attention in. "A Quiet Place" is a movie with a lot of good suspense scenes. Overall, that whole movie keeps the audience on its feet.

Techniques:

One technique that goes into all genres, but is specifically important in horror, is noise/music. Even if you hear "silence" in a horror film, which is usually made to add more suspense, it's most likely not silence and is white-noise. White-noise is noise that contains many frequencies with equal intensities. It can add an erie affect, usually used in horror. In films like "A Quiet Place", which is based off of no speaking, white-noise fills those potentially "awkward" spots. Another huge technique, which tends to go over white noise, is background noise. It is very under appreciated because it isn't very noticeable. It makes the film seem more real, and puts the audience into the scenery more. This is super helpful in horror because it makes the film even creepier and seem more real.

Marketing:

Why do most people enjoy watching scary movies? Because they like the thrill and intensity that comes with it. Thats what most horror directors and editors bring in their posters, commercials, and trailers. With the use of colors, lightning, and editing the movie is marketed to make you scared but excited to learn more. A great example of this is the horror movie "The Shinning". The poster shows a very influential part of the movie, and the two leads. This makes the watcher curious as to what is going on, but also terrified for the girl. Horror films are usually watched by younger adults/teenagers, as the age limit for most are 13-18 and up. And the marketing is not usually too light-hearted. Because most horror films are about monster, or killers, or some crazy antagonist, the posters are usually dark shades and colors and has some scary looking thing on it.

Samples:

"IT"(2017) is about a how a killer clown, Pennywise, comes to terrorize the town of Derry every 27 years. Pennywise conforms into whatever your biggest fear is and bring you into your death. In this movie it is center around teenagers, as those are the only people who see 'It". The group of "Losers" kids must muse come together and fight their biggest fears. IT uses everything that I have written about in this post, jump-scares, suspense, thrill, intensity, dark lighting and shadows, background noise/music, etc. It embodies that feeling of being terrified but wanting more, with a hint of comedy. Overall, this film incorporates everything a horror film should be and more.

"Hereditary"(2018) is probably the most intense horror film I have watched. It is about a family who inherited this very unfortunate fate from the grandma and her niece doing "rituals". It is hard to go into detail about the plot because it would spoil the movie. There are many unexpected twists and turns and just some overall creepy stuff in this movie. It's a great movie and very creative. It keeps the audience on it's feet the whole time but is definitely not for the light hearted. Overall it's use of darkness in the poster is very underlying for the story of the family. I think it is a great horror film to watch, and is definitely different than most.