Sahra Ahmed

Genre Research As a group we had decided to create a production of the genre horror. Horror is a film genre which aims to frighten or startle a viewer, the ways in which it does this is by playing on the audiences primal fears and vulnerabilities. Horror films often consist of the viewers phobias, hidden fears, mental illnesses, revulsions and apocalyptic events. Horror films mainly revolve around an evil force, person or event and many of these horror films incorporate an extremely large amount of violence into the plot. Horror films mainly have ghosts, vampires, zombies or any sort of mythical creature. The literal definition for horror is An intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust.

The history of horror includes the gothic tradition this is a combination of both horror and romance. An example of this is The Castle of Otranto full of supernatural shocks and mysterious melodrama and also suspense. Another example of this is Frankenstein; a novel written by Mary Shelley or Dracula (1897). The first ever horror movie produced was a silent, short film called Le Manoir Du Diable.

Furthermore, German expressionism is also part of the history of horror as it came in to action in the 1900s as a result of world war one; this had happened because Germany had found itself under a high demand to start producing its own films as the government had banned foreign films within the nation. German expressionism was only short lived and soon it had started to fade within a few years however it influenced theatres in general to for many years after. Moreover, horror within the 1940s were changed into primal animals such as werewolves from monsters, an example of this is the film Cat People (1942).

Many horror films typical music choices include high stringed and orchestral music to create tension and eerie atmosphere to play the with audiences mind. Clothing worn and general settings are more than often related with the colours black and red.

The codes and conventions of horror include montage editing and rapid shots to increase suspense and anticipation; the shots used can also have hidden meanings such as extreme close ups these may be used to emphasise something for instance; the emotion a character is feeling. Another shot can be when the camera follows the character that could possibly be running or walking, this gives the audience an idea that - possibly the character is being followed or tracked, this is called dollying.

Sahra Ahmed

Also, other codes and conventions are: Danger Death Powers

There are a few subgenres of horror, one being super-natural horror, another being dark fantasy and sci-fi horror, psychological horror, satanic/religious and erotic horror/paranormal romance etc. [1] Psychological horror is driven by characters fears and focused more on psychological dread than on murder, mutilation, and gore. Could be supernatural, but is more often associated with those twists where the protagonist turns out to be insane.

Top Ten Horror Movies of 2000-2013 according to IMDb: [2] 1. Youre Next (2011) 2. The Conjuring (2013) 3. Dark Skies (2013) 4. Dark Circles (2013) 5. No One Lives (2012) 6. Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) 7. Antiviral (2012) 8. Into the Darkness (2009) 9. Painless (2012) 10. Would You Rather (2012)

References: [1] http://www.imdb.com/list/BxOOUt0ekMY/ [2] http://joannaparypinski.com/2011/06/29/list-of-horror-subgenres/