Horror Film Brainstorm

Typical Characters:

Villains

• Zombies
• Demons
• Animals
• Vampires

Victims

• Individuals
• Families

Body Horror

• Using limbs (deconstruction of the human body) to create monsters, or unnatural movements and functions which create a terror atmosphere.
• Supposedly in the 1980s horror audiences became intrigued by the human body and its insides.
• Examples: Teeth, The Invasion, Cabin Fever

Conventional technical areas:

• Close ups, long shots, pan, tilt, zoom, eye level, low-key lighting, high-key lighting
• Diegetic, non-diegetic, ambient, sound bridge, parallel
• Action match, shot reverse shot, short shots, special effects, order of shots, continuity
• Weapons, masks, limbs, blood, rope, torn dark clothing,

Typical Characters:

• Antagonist - usually survive having been the smartest and moral one of the group
• Protagonist - escapes death through fear and cowering away
• 'Irritating' character - first person to die, little care for to portray irony of it
• Shy character - opens up towards the end and is potentially a hero

Typical Locations:

• Isolated locations such as woods, house, laboratories
• Homes - bath, bed

Typical Plots:

• Threatened human life by beasts, zombies, ghosts or scientists.
• Group of friends taking a risk of going somewhere unsafe, undiscovered and dangerous, typically getting trapped by creature.

Comedy Horror

• Combines horror fiction with humour by having parodies and spoof versions of horror films.
• Examples: Scary Movie, Slither, Shaun of the Dead, Gremlins

Typical Plots:

• Ignoring the obvious - creates fun and frustration within the audience, portrays original movies as being stupid
• Turn scare into funny - builds up expectations of horror movies and teases it
• Apocalypse
• Victims' hometown in danger or someone they care for

Typical Settings:

• Isolated or deserted place such as forests, woods, small villages/towns, destroyed cities with little civilization left
• Often have a 'dark' history such as a murder house, asylums or place of suicide, or set in a place of an Apocalypse environment.
• Examples: forests, woods, city, countryside, villages, abandoned buildings, haunted house, homes, old mansion, fields, hospitals, factories, graveyards, theme parks.

Typical Characters:

• Impersonates - pretending to be someone else and imitates them.
• Clumsy villain - can be easily seen, are useless when it comes to being scary.
• Protagonist - often a hero who goes on a journey or quest to kill or solve problems
• Antagonist - frequently a monster of some kind, like a vampire, zombie, ghost, werewolf

Technical areas:

• Unnatural camera work with high and low angles to represent power with close-ups showing the fear and emotion. Extreme-wide shots to set the scene and point-of-view shots to connect with the characters. Depth of field can build suspense where the audience knows what is coming yet the characters do not, can help create stupidity of the characters.
• Disturbing, ambient, diegetic sounds are used to create the setting as realistic and fearful. Score's used for tension and dramatic scenes.
• Ordinary clothing for victim characters with typical scary, dark, torn clothing for villains with low-key lighting to create scary shadows
• Lots of short cuts to create speed and drama of dramatic scenes
• Natural lighting is more commonly used for the humourous scenes and expressive lighting for the fearful tense scenes

Themes

• Good v Evil
• Apocalypse
• Murder
• Sanity / Insanity
• Revenge
• Supernatural
• Monsters
• Afterlife
• Greed, Envy
• Suicide

Typical Settings:

• Medieval architecture like castles, churches and mansions
• Dark and gloomy, mysterious with dark winds
• Dungeons, secret passages and secret chambers
• Wild, dark, dangerous locations such as graveyards, forests and abandoned buildings

Conventional weather atmosphere:

• Sunlight - represents goodness and pleasure; also creates the idea that the creatures and villains cannot be seen in sunlight
• Mist - reduces visibility of objects making them darker with help from low-key lighting. This can be used when making an appearance of a scary character.
• Storms - create a dramatic scene and can signify a particular character

Typical Plots:

• Family history
• Revenge
• Ancient future predictions
• Inherited curses
• Fallen society that needs recreating to not be evil

Psychological Horror

Typical Characters:

Villains - have a 'normal' aspect to them so that they do not appear to be killers

• Monster
• Curse
• Doll
• Clowns
• Ghosts
• Serial Killer

Victims

• Couples
• Individuals
• Families

Typical Plots:

• Involve a tragic accident or brutal fatality
• Involves a curse or ghost which makes a haunted house haunted
• Flashbacks
• Revenge

Typical Locations:

Used to create realism so that the audience feel a sense of fear as they can imagine themselves being in the character's position

• Abandoned building
• Derelict and dark
• Graveyard
• Woodlands
• Warehouses
• Schools
• Hospitals

Sci-Fi Horror

• Science-Fiction created by using paranormal activity. It can also deal with the fear of technology
• Often that the horror is created by using science fiction characters like aliens or robots
• Examples: Alien in the Mist

Typical Plots:

• Post-apocalypse, during an alien invasion or science experiment
• Good defeats evil
• Fear of technology

Typical Characters:

• Equality between characters - work together to defeat evil character(s). Often educated and intelligent due to science basis.
• Villains tend to be inhuman and extraterrestrial

Typical Locations:

• Desert
• Woods / Forest / Jungle
• City (urban areas)
• Fire station
• Caves (underground)

Horror Romance

• Focuses on romantic love including aspects beyond scientific explanation combing together themes of love, fantasy and horror.
• Examples: Only Lovers Left Alive, Bride of Frankenstein, Let the Right One In

Typical Characters:

Couples - come under conflict with an evil character or have to battle against them

Villain - can be human or inhuman who commit trouble

Typical Settings:

• Isolated places - woodlands, forests
• Honeymoon - Hotel, beach

Slasher Film

• Includes high amounts of violence, usually revolving around a psychopathic serial killer stalking and killing several victims.
• Usually has a significant weapon that is associated with the villain.
• Examples: PSYCHO, PROM NIGHT, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Friday the 13th

Conventional Technical areas:

• Close up shots - contrasts between emotions and feelings of different characters. Varying shot lengths to build up an atmosphere for the event.
• Non-diegetic sounds to create eerie atmosphere with synchronous sounds to match with torture events. Possibly score used if slow scene taking place or if stalking.
• Mixture of ordinary weapons like guns and knives yet some everyday items like rope to scare the audience by making it appear more real-life. Commonly dark clothing is used with blood and rips to add effect to the character's appearance.

Typical Plots:

• Similar to 'Splatter' films whereby there is amounts of blood, violence and mess.
• A Psychopath killer stalking students with their deadly weapon

Typical Characters:

Villain

• Human
• Mentally and physically deformed who have previously been traumatised

Victims

• Groups of friends
• Couples
• Students

Benefactor

• appears minimally throughout and helps the final survivor.

Typical Characters:

• Villain

May be human or inhuman who have a mask to cover their identity. With low-key lighting and camera work to hide them and make them horrific. This makes the audience uneasy and feel fear as they do not have any identification of the killer.

Conventionally a criminal due to trauma from early life.

Typically in dark clothing, perhaps torn, with a choice of their own weapon

• Victims

Typically weak and vulnerable

A final girl survivor

Chosen group by the villain

Typical Settings:

• Quiet, sub-urban town
• Low population
• Far from civilization
• Schools

• Quiet, sub-urban town helps create feat within the audience as it is a place where you would not consider fear or risk
• Low population allows for victims to have no help from surrounding people as there is not anyone around to help

Typical Plots:

• Victims may be aware of a threat and the action is the threat taking place.
• Power cuts with no signals or help from elsewhere
• If involves zombies, the action may be created by a zombie Apocalypse.

Action Horror

• Combines evil with an event or supernatural using gun fights or frantic chases to create action.
• Stereotypically include zombies, demons, gore, vicious animals and vampires.
• Examples: Dawn of the Dead, Dusk until Dawn, Blade