Codes and Conventions Of A Horror And Thriller

A horror film is usually going to start of with music being played, the music will be played at a certain pace depending on how the director wants the audience to feel at that present moment in time, either way the music is to make the audience feel anxious or tensed, it creates a eerie atmosphere. This type of genre strives to encourage fear and apprehension from their viewers by colliding supernatural into reality situations. Modernized horrors usually contain graphic violence or bloody gore. Horror films differentiate due to the years which make it harder to compare or group them largely which results in contrasts between them which become very clear.

The typical settings of A Horror Film Are:

o Preliminary introduction into ordinary lifestyle
o Type of bizarre murder/death – killer maybe known or unknown
o Credits follow horror theme – creepy font, title movement, image eg pumpkin, weapon, etc
o Main characters introduced – young/ youthful
o Teenage kids – easy target also vulnerable – home alone
o Teenagers usually a couple – football jock boyfriend and cheerleader blonde bimbo girlfriend.
o Mysterious phone calls – dubbed sinister voice “Who’s There…?”
o Family ties broken
o Sisters killed by brothers e.g: Halloween
o Sometimes unsuccessful acts of heroism
o Victim unprotected
o Superhuman killer – doesn’t die successfully = sequels

Some information was gathered from: http://smay-fuller-suttonmediaas.blogspot.com/2008/12/codes-and-conventions-of-horror-film.html

Codes and Conventions of A Thriller Film:
Thriller are typically set in claustrophobic spaces such as:

* planes
* coffins
* under water
* boot of a car
* elevator/lift
* walk in freezer
* tube trains
* white van
* small room
* car
* prison cell
* narrow alleyways
* multi-storey car parks

and the lighting is always seem to be very dark and Chiaroscuro - light against dark - creates a sense of illusion, nightmare whilst also being aesthetically pleasing. The director always uses surprises and twists to play with the viewers mind, and the different camera angles and quick cuts to draw suspense, the music that is added to create tension, there's typically always mirrors and stairs, flashbacks and time sequences are also used to make the audience think and your most likely to always see the film from a killers point of view.