What are some of the key conventions of the horror genre?

The horror genre has many conventions that make it very distinguishable and unique from any other genre. However, it is not only conventions that make it a genre, more of an expectation between the audience and institutions. The key conventions of any genre are: settings, technical code, iconography, narrative structure, character types and themes.
The setting of a horror genre is normally an isolated place, more rural than an inner city. In this isolated place there will usually be an abandoned house, or a place of significance to the killer which they want to return to. This is true to the film, ‘Halloween’ where the killer returns to his first home to murder more people. It is also true of ‘The Shining’, where they are left to run a hotel by themselves, leading to the Jack to become insane. Usually the house will have different levels; this is linked to the psychologist Freud’s analysis of the brain (http://shrinkwrapped.blogs.com/blog/2006/03/the_return_of_t.html), where he says that at the bottom is the unconscious where we repress bad feelings. This transposes to horrors as usually something evil or a secret is kept in the basement of the house. Horror also is sometime set in a mental hospital or the killer has escaped from one, this is shown in ‘Halloween’ also as after killing his sister Mike Myers is sent to a mental hospital but then breaks out to return to his old neighbourhood.

The camera work in a horror is often expressive and not naturalistic as to make the audience feel that the film isn’t natural and is visually and mentally disfiguring. Directors use weird high and low angles, and also a lot of canted angles to make the audience disorientated. Extreme close ups are used so that the audience identify and feel sympathy for the victims and they also exclude the monster from the frame so we are left to wonder where they/it are. One of the most common camera techniques in horror is the point of view shot. The audience is put into the monster’s eyes so we can see the victim and it also raises issues about we, as an audience, identify with. Another main camera technique used is using the depth of frame to show the protagonist in the foreground and the monster appearing in the background to add to suspense and tension. The editing can also connote danger, if there is a sudden change of pace in the editing from slow editing, then the audience knows something is going to happen.

The iconography of a film is a clear signifier of the genre. In horror the colours red and black both connote darkness, evil and blood. The lighting of a horror creates weird shapes and un-naturalistic/expressive lighting which make people and objects look disfigured. Mise-en-scene would also signify clearly to the audience what the genre of the film would be, in the horror genre the mise-en-scene would consist of weapons (mostly knives), blood, supernatural objects and religious items. Horror normally has iconography of childhood and innocence as they are a binary opposite of evil, so horror plays on this and develops sinister atmospheres by using dolls, fairgrounds, nursery rhymes and children.

The narrative of a horror film is similar to others as it has the classic Hollywood narrative structure, although they may be false endings and the real ending left open because then they can make a sequel or to suggest a mythical quality of the monster. The genre also uses a lot of ‘red herrings’ which are things that make you think something is going to happen but then doesn’t, these are used a lot in horror films to provide more tension. The structure of a ‘Slasher’ film is very formulaic, like the film ‘Halloween’, the killer has a psychotic background and returns to a certain location on a certain anniversary to kill people, the victims are usually immoral teenagers with one sensible female who survives.

The main protagonist of a horror film is normally a victim/hero, where they are targeted throughout the film as a victim but eventually survives. Monsters are normally made into a killer by psychotic earlier events or in the case of ‘The Shining’ they are driven psychotic by isolation. The victims are normally young and mostly stupid teenagers and driven by sex. Children are often a victim or the protagonist of a horror film, relating back to the binary opposites where children are indicated as innocence. Usually in horror films the law are useless and will not catch the criminal, this adds to the tension of the movie as we think there is no way out for the victims.

Normally a main theme of horror is that science is out of control. In ‘Frankenstein', (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTNN5h8CG_Y), this is true as the professor Frankenstein makes a monster; this was part of the mad scientist stage of the horror movies and is a key theme of most horrors. Murders in horrors are also linked to sex a lot, which is true of ‘Halloween’ as the victims are killed when they have or are having sex.

Overall, there are key signifiers of a genre, but many things overlap with other genres so it is hard to pin down certain conventions of each genre and films cannot contain every single set of conventions so we have our own expectations that make up a genre.