BTEC EXTENDED DIPLOMA – CREATIVE MEDIA PRODUCTION (TV & Film)
Unit 26: Film Studies
Assignment 1 of 1
The Horror Genre – Scarily Entertaining
In modern day, the horror genre is a very popular genre amongst the public, Horror films often deal with the viewer’s worst fears. They create a living nightmare for the audience and can cause true terror for some. Horror films have many sub genres. Including Psychological Horror, Slasher Horror, Splatter Horror and Zombie Horror. There is no type of horror that is more common than the others. So I’ll start with one of my favorites, The Psychological horror.
Out of all of the horror types this is the one that requires the most active spectatorship. As the story relies on the audience’s fears, thoughts and feelings to cause the emotions needed to create the scares. They also usually play on the audience’s guilt and beliefs, and use very strange and unnerving music scores and sound effects, this builds up a lot of tension and creates a stronger plot. A prime example of a psychological horror is The Sixth Sense (1999). The story is about A boy named Cole Sear “Haley Joel Osment” who communicates with spirits but doesn’t know they're dead. He then seeks the help of a child psychologist “Bruce Willis”. This film is a perfect example of a Psychological horror. As it uses unnerving sound effects, and some very powerful shots to build tension and get inside the mind of the viewer. A prime example of this is the shot where Cole is in his bedroom and he wants to go to the bathroom. He runs to the bathroom, hoping he won’t see anyone. But as he finishes there is a shot where a silhouette walks past the lens of the camera, along with the jumping sound effect used. This is a perfect shot, as it builds up a lot of tension and could make the strongest of minds crumble. This is the main reason why psychological horrors are my favourite, as they really make the viewer think and allow them to try and figure out what is going on. Then, just when they think they know, all is revealed and they are sat there. Not knowing whether to be scared or amazed.
Another very notable horror type would be the Slasher horror. Typically, Slasher films usually don’t require an active spectatorship. This does open up the audience slightly. As these films are usually just for notable antagonists and gore. The storyline never differs too much. All Slasher films usually have a group of friends or group of people, who are terrorised and murdered by either a notable “killer”(Halloween; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; A Nightmare on Elm Street) or by an unknown person/people, who is/are revealed at the end, usually surprising the audience (Scream; I know what you did last summer) . These are the ones that usually cause the viewers to have a more active spectatorship, as they try to figure out who the killer is as they watch. Slasher films are usually known for their gore and suspense.
As for the horror genre as a whole, the main reason why audiences (Including myself) like horror films and go to see horror films varies, it very much matters what type of horror movie it is, for example, in terms of Psychological horrors, audiences watch them for the suspense, jumps, and the active spectatorship needed. Whereas audiences will watch Slasher Horrors for other reasons, such as the gore and the antagonists.
In my opinion horror is the best genre of film, the main reason for this is there is so many different types of horror films, whether I want to actively spectate a film and really get into it or just watch a film for some entertainment and for some jumps. The genre is so widespread and allows so much space to be very unique and creative. This is the reason why it is my favourite genre and I hope horror films keep developing and surprising audiences, like they have been for years.
