Codes and conventions

Codes and conventions

First I am going research my chosen genre of horror and the conventions. This research will help me when it comes to me creating my opening to a horror film as it gives me ideas of what people look for in a successful horror film, I can use these ideas such as setting and characters. My research will be about stereotypes of a horror and general conventions. Although I already had some ideas about conventions of a horror film, this research will help me learn and understand more.

Horrors are usually set in dark, remote places this is to create a tense feeling and atmosphere among the audience because the 'unknown' creates the effect of fear. Isolated settings can create an eerie feeling because there is no one else around to help them or hear them. There are many common settings used in horror films such as:

• Dark woods.

• Psychiatric hospitals/mental asylums/general hospitals.  

• Haunted houses.



• Ghost towns.

 

• Historical places with a past.  

• Basements.

• Isolated places such as islands.

• Abandoned schools.

• Castles.

A lot of props are used in horror films, these can be used to give the effect of terror such as weapons or they can be used to scare people such as fake blood, body parts and masks. After researching ideas of props, I could use:

• A music box which could play eerie music.

• Fake blood.

• A knife as a weapon.

• A key to open a door which leads to the unknown.

• A door swinging.

• A torch to show what is hidden in the darkness.

There is a lot of typical action in horror films which the audience expects a successful horror to have, such as; they often use chases where a 'villain' or evil character tries to capture the hero or a good person. An evil character such as a ghost, a villain, a zombie etc attack innocent people and try to kill them. A hero saves innocent people such as children from the evil character. Usually all filmed in dark, gloomy remote places so the characters can't be helped or escape easily. Use music to set the scene such as slow tense music when someone is in trouble or something is about to happen and fast paced music when there is a chase etc. Often use camera shots such as close ups to show the intensity of the evil characters bad intentions and can show the terror or other intense emotions of the characters in the film. 

         

There are a lot of common characters in horror films, these are some of the usual stereotyped characters: 

• Vulnerable female character, usually a victim who is attractive but doesn't seem very intellectual and makes silly decisions.
• A character who does not believe what is happening such as they do not believe in the supernatural or they do not believe the theory behind the story.
• A male hero who saves the vulnerable female, he is usually strong, attractive and masculine.
• An unstable female who builds up suspense by panicking and jumping a lot.
• Evil character or villain such as a ghost, a spirit, a murder  a zombie, a vampire etc.
• An innocent person who isn't involved such as a child, pregnant woman or a passer by like a police officer.

There are a wide variety of typical story lines that occur in horror films regularly, for example:

• A vulnerable woman/girl gets possessed by a dark spirit and the parents and a priest attempt to exorcise the spirit.
• Woman is attacked or victimised by a villain and an attractive, masculine hero saves her. 
• A hero or heroine saves the the world from an alien species or monster who threatens the safety of the world. 
• An outbreak of a disease causes a zombie apocalypse and there is only one uninfected hero who saves the day and finds a cure, usually helping vulnerable people as well that are left.
• A scientific experiment goes wrong causing an outbreak of a new disease. 
• A 'mental patient' believes they are possessed but no one else believes them and they are put into a psychiatric hospital where someone else possessed seeks help from them. 

From this task of researching typical horror films and the codes and conventions I have learnt more about what people expect of a horror film and what makes them successful. I now know what is expected of my opening of my horror film. I have learnt that there is a a lot of typical or stereotypical features of a horror film such as story lines or characters which can make a horror successful because they are what the audience are expecting. I also learnt that props are an important part of horror films as they can create effects which will scare the audience or create a sense of terror and audiences that choose horror films expect to be scared or terrified.