Results from the questionnaires and surveys

Would you pay to go and see a psychological horror?

 

Do you prefer to go alone or with someone to the cinema?

Gender?

Do you like horror films?

Do you like psychological horror films?

What is your favourite movie genre?

We did ask participants what type of social networking sites they use to get a vague idea what type of people they are and how they prefer to communicate via the Internet. As we gave them more than one option and they were aloud to tick more then one we couldn't show this on a chart. All participants said that they used Facebook and majority of them also used Twitter and a small amount of people still used Tumblr and Instagram.

Another question which we asked the participants was how they find out about new films and when the will be released. As we had more than one answer which each participant could tick we found it hard to produce it on the blog. Majority of the participants said that they find out about new films from adverts and online but a minority amount of people said they find out from magazine or another type of source.

Group Trailers Analyses

The Ward (2010)

• Dont give away too much information
• Short, quick, snappy shots
• Quiet singing music
• Fade outs
• Black outs
• Informs who the director is
• The actors in the film are shown
• Shows minimal violence to keep the viewer wanting more
• Name of the film at the end of the trailer
• Separating texts into clauses

Side Effects (2013)

·         High budget film as well-known actors are in it

·         Upbeat music to start with

·         Fade outs

·         Short clips

·         Music changing to distressing beats

·         Separating texts into clauses

·         Atmospheric music throughout to suit the scenes being shown

·         Actors name being shown towards the end of the trailer

·         As the music speed the clips short it fit the flow

·         Name of film at the end of the trailer

Sixth Sense (1999)

·         Throws you straight into it

·         Heart beat music

·         Lighting pulses with the heart beat soundtrack

·         Fade outs

·         Actors name being separated through the clips

·         Rating and people critics shown in the clips

·         The name of the film at the end followed by a final clip

·         Voice over

Film Distribution and Marketing

What is meant by the term film distribution?Film distribution is making the public and the target audience know about the film

What does a film distributor do?A film distributor has many roles in a highly competitive business these roles can include:

• Identifying its audience
• Considering why they'd go and see it
• Estimating the revenue potential across all the formats of its release
• Developing plans and partnerships to build awareness of and interest in the film
• Aiming to convert as much interest as possible into cinema visits
• Persuading exhibitors to play the film (cinema operators)

Distributors share and discuss their release plans with:

• Filmmakers and producers, who are likely to have nurtured their projects for years through the development and production stages
• Cinema exhibitors present the finished films on their screens
• A host of external partners and suppliers such as publicists designers and media agencies.
  

How does reach relate to film distribution?Reach means how many media platforms the film has promoted this means that if the film has a big reach then it has promoted across the board for example radio, TV, trailers, posters, competitions etc. Reach has high expenses. It costs a lot to have a lot of media platforms to make your film be known about but taking the risk of not having many media platforms can result in not many people coming to watch the film which means profit costs decrease.

What is meant by the marketing plan?Every film has a detailed marketing plan. Film distributors use marketing objectives which include create visibility, raise awareness and engage interest. The marketing plan helps come up with a marketing budget it helps with knowing where to reach their target audience and where they are most receptive to communication. Some of the marketing materials which are involved in the main marketing plan are Word of Mouth, Posters, Trailers and Online+Mobile.

What is meant by the distribution plan? The distribution plan is all about when and how to release, finding out who the target audiences is and finding out if the film is a genre film and finding out if you have a big budget or not for the distributing and seeing if you have competition.

What is the difference between advertising, publicity and promotion? Advertising is the materials when releasing a film for example trailers and posters. Publicity includes things like reviews, its not all about you yourself seeing the advertisement you may hear it from elsewhere which then would make you aware of the film and also interviews. When the people are not in character but they are still publicising the film.  Promotion is about the merchandise. Companies will let people pay them to use their trademark.

Horror Film Teaser- House Of Wax

The distrubutors for this horror film was the Warner Bros, Pictures. The release dates were April 30th 2005 in Tribeca, May 6th 2005 USA July 14th 2005 Austrailia. Opening Weekend $12,077,236 (USA) (8 May 2005) (3,111 Screens) €89,046 (Netherlands) (29 May 2005) (40 Screens)

 

 

The Woman In Black (Watkins, 2012)

The Woman In The Black

Who do you think the primary and secondary target audience is for The Woman In Black?Why?I think the producers of The Woman In Black target their primary audience towards the young adult section but also if keeping it open to a more middle aged audience. The primary audience targets people from the ages of 16-25 whilst the middle aged audience target those who are above 25. I find that they targeted the primary audience as most young adults are looking for something to scare them, and make them jump and what will make them on the edge of their seats. Although they reached out to the secondary audience as there is an aspect in the film which draws the more intellectual audiences which challenges them to think about the narrative, but also the secondary audience look for films which will make them feel that they are apart of the film.

How was Woman In Black marketed?The Woman In Black was marketed through a variety of different ways. A big part of the marketing which enabled so many opportunities in the advertising business and what made it a lot easier to reach out to their audience was Daniel Radcliffe as the main character. This made it easier for the producers to reach his fan base and open up a wider talk of the gossip. Daniel also had to do many interviews worldwide to boost the campaign and promote it more on a wider level. A lot of media based advertising were used through newspapers, magazines, the official premier, photo shoots, trailer and even competitions in newspapers which will allow audiences to win tickets to either the cinema

viewing or watch it at the theatre. Trailers and film posters where very important with making the campaign. Audiences will see the trailer and will be able to realise the genre of the film 'horror' but also the sub-genre 'paranormal' and will know whether or not they will want to go and see it or not.





Do you think the marketing materials for the film were appropriate?Why?

I do feel that the marketing materials used for the film were appropriate in the respect that they used a big media based approach when reaching their audience and spreading the word of the film. Also the design of the posters represented the genre/sub-genre of the film that the producers were looking for. Daniel Radcliffe was heavily used in the marketing process of the film. He was able to reach the primary audience through his fan base from Harry Potter which helped the film in a lot of ways and helped spread the word of his appearance in the film.

What kind of release did the film have, how much did it cost to make and what was the industry impact?

The release of the film was big with all the publicity from the advertising campaign the films estimated budget was $17,000,000 the opening weekend in the USA made $20,874,072 showing on 2,855 screens while in the UK the opening weekend made £3,153,020 showing on 412 screens following make a word wide  $127,730,736. These were the countries where the film was released and how much each country made on the opening weekend and the release date.

Why do you think the film was so successful?



I feel that there are two reasons why this film was so successful. One of the main reasons why i thought this film was so successful was because of Daniel Radcliffe's fans. The helped the public get engrossed with the film and helped the publicity with the media. A lot of the public may of realised how successful Harry Potter was which he starred in so thought that this film would rank a high success rate aswell and thought that he wouldn't of starred in a film which wouldn't be a high quality film so that helped them make their mind up whether or not to go and see it.

Another reason why i think this film was so successful was of all the media based advertising involved with it. It was hard not to see the trailer pop up on screen or adverts down the sidebars of all your social networking site and even looking through magazine or newspapers there was always an article about the new release. It was the new best thing it played in your head that everyone is going to see this amazing film and you had to be apart of that experience.



The Cabin in the Woods- 2012

The Cabin in the Woods
 



What were Jeremy Tunstall's 4 character roles for women and do they apply to Cabin in the Woods?

Jeremy Tunstall's 4 character roles are:

• Domestic: The girl which has the dominant characteristics of a domestic character is Dana.
• Consumer: The girl with the characteristics of a consumer is Jules. Jules is the typical 'girly girl' who likes to spend money.
• Sexual: Jules definitely takes the role of being the sexual character in the film. The way she dresses and how she acts around males comes shining through and that's why she is the first to be killed.
• Marital: Dana shows the most marital type within the female characters. She is shy and conserved in the way she dresses and isn't the most forward girl in the group when it comes to male attention.

How is Dana typical of Clover's 'Final Girl' Theory?

Dana does follow Clover's 'Final Girl' theory. Clover's theory states that the final girl has
androgynous traits, remains virginal and pure whilst her friends pair off and have sex. Her name isn't a particular girly name and that she is a bookworm who makes it to the end of the film either by fighting back or being rescued.

Dana dominantly wears jeans throughout the film and doesn't show a lot of skin. This could been seen as a masculine way as she doesn't dress up like a girl would normally and doesn't wear a face full of makeup to impress the opposite sex; Dana doesn't really worry about what she looks like. We see at the start of the film that Dana is a bookworm and does worry about her grades and cares a lot about her education but also we see her having a side 'relationship' with one of her teachers showing more daring and secretive side of her. One of the first scenes we see in the film is her standing in her room in her underwear. Her underwear resembles a child's type underwear which is a bit out of date for her age. We know that Jules would of never of worn that style of underwear so this also backs up Dana following the masculine links.

 

At the end of the film we see that Dana is the 'Final Girl' in the film but not the 'Final Person' to survive. Throughout the film we see her fighting back and fighting to survive which shows a typical masculine linked thought and turns to aggressive violence to make her survive; whereas most females would be scared to fight back and would rather be saved being to predominantly 'damsel in distress'.  The only trait that doesn't follow Clover's Final Girl Theory is that Dana isn't a virgin she isn't pure but she doesn't seem to be sexual towards any of the male character's in the film.

 Jules undergoes mental and physical transformations during the film, what are they and how do they cause her to become a horror archetype?

We see many both physical and mental transformations to Jules throughout the film. At the start of the film Jules informs the viewers that she has recently dyed her hair from originally being a brunette to now becoming a blonde. This resembles a physical change as we can physically see the change and the difference. This links with Propp's 8 character types, making Jules the role of the ditsy, blonde, 'bimbo' who cares too much about what she looks like and is always wanting the male attention. Later on in the film we realise that the people behind the whole organisation put a chemical into the hair dye which changes the way Jules thinks. This is a form on a mental change. Another mental change which we see in the film is when the organisation place aroma's on the forest floor which give out a certain toxin which changes the mental state of Jules which then leads to her getting with Curt and her mind being controlled and changed in a certain way.

                                                                                                 

Is Mulvey's Male Gaze theory exemplified in the film and if so, how? Think about framing, camera angles and POV shots?

Mulvey's Male Gaze is shown in the film dominantly by Jules. A lot of camera work is shown towards Jules for example tilt work, close ups, extreme close ups low angles and many more. There's a scene in the film where Jules is dancing rather erotically by the fire in the cabin, the camera is at a low angle making the audience seem that they are sitting on the sofa or a chair watching Jules dance but also as the camera is at a low angle it shows that she has more power then the viewer. Another scene where you see the 'Male Gaze' take place is when Jules gets dared to kiss the wolf and we see the camera using a tilt affect whilst Jules is walking up to the wolf head. The cameras starts up at her feet slowing working its way up her body and finally ending with a close up of her face, this makes the viewer feel that they're 'checking her out'.  





In the film we, as an audience, are made to be voyeurs; when does this happen and why is it important in regards to representation of character?
In the film we see this happen when Dana is in her room about to get undressed and Holden can see her through the mirror in his room but Dana is unaware that Holden can see her through the mirror. Dana goes up up to the mirror which then clicks to the audience that she cant see Holden, Holden stands there watching for a bit then realises that it is inappropriate and knocks on the wall getting her to stop. He then offers to swap rooms with her being a gentleman. When they both swap rooms Holden starts getting undressed in front of the mirror hoping that Dana is watching and playing up to the advantage that Dana can see him, but he cant see her, this is an example of  scopophilia in the film.

Summarise the way women are represented in The Cabin in the Woods. Are they objectectified and there to provide satisfaction  for heterosexual males and/or do they fulfil another role/purpose?



In the film women are represented in a way like objects. Everything has to go in a certain way and in a certain routine. The scientists make Jules look/behave like a 'slut' so she would be the first one to get killed. The scientists sit at watch Jules act in a more devious way with Curt as some sort of pleasure for them whilst watching her in the woods. 

On the other hand the represent Dana as an innocent bookworm who cares a lot about her education. The show both types of a female character. They make Dana look the a survior and will do anything to sruvive even if it means she has to fight. Dana is shown as a more fearless character the Jules.



The History of Horror

History Of Horror

Frankenstein, Dracula and Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde-Horror's roots in classic literature
There are three most well known horror stories of the 19th century. These three are "Frankenstein" which was written by Mary Shelley in 1818, "Dracula" which was first written by Bram Stoker and finally "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" which was written by Robert Louis Stevenson and first published in 1886. The horror genre only started to have code and conventions towards the end of the 18th century.In the 18th century horror/gothic novels were marketed towards women and often female protagonists also horror first properly originated in England in the second half of the 18th century.

Monsters and Mad Scientists-1930During the 1930's horror was reborn and featured monsters and mad scientists as the main characters. Universal Studios emerged during this decade becoming very famous for their horrors Frankenstein and Dracula as these two monsters are recognised today. Enthusiasm for horror increased from the 1920's to the 1930's. 80 millions people (65% of the whole US population) attended the cinema weekly in the decade of monsters and mad scientists. In 1933 the year Hitler came to power, the mad scientist side of the genre had reached its peak to due his dictatorship being a bit too similar to the characters in these films.

Primal animal, within;Werewolves and Cat people-1940 In 1940's people were dying in the ward and this was the main fear factor in people's lives so they incorporated this fear within their films. They made it look like the Werewolves could be seen as the Nazi's an idea of this is that when a werewolf bites a human, they transform and pass on the 'condition'. In the film Wolf-man the werewolf dies this could be seen as Hitler can be defeated "propaganda". Women were left at home whilst the men went away to war. They experienced slight freedom which was then taken away when the men returned. They were unhappy about this and wanted rights resulting in films being released.

• Cat People: A movie where the females dominate the males and hold the power (by seducing and killing them)- The reason for cats being linked to women in films are that they can both thought to be sly gracious which links into their key motive to kill in the movies.

Alien&Monsters-1950's-The first movie to feature outer space and aliens was a low-budget movie called "Rocketship X-M"; this then started a trend of sci-fi films. In the 1950's the obsession with monster movies stems from the fears generated by co-existence with the atom bomb. Monster movies offered a vision of destruction created by non-humans;instead of generating chaos and disaster, humans represent a force of good. The monster movies of 1950's were the first blockbusters. In the 1950's peoples were worried that they were ahead of time in terms of technology and were scared that it would take over their lives. People lived in fear that the effects of technology was going to mutant and deform people. Also the race to space was also a major thing;because of the new obsession with aliens and creatures countries wanted to go to space and explore to see if there were other life form.

Hammer Film Production-
This genre was founded in 1934 focusing on many films such as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), The Abominable Snowman (1957), Dracula (1958), The Mummy (1959), The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) and To the Devil...A Daughter (1976). This genre have certain criteria which they stick to throughout their films such as; Colour instead of black and white, focusing on the victim rather then the creature. They use a structure in how the produce the films they call it the "Wheel of Inspiration"which goes like this Universal Project-Change Script-Audiences Like-Make Another.

Ghosts, Zombies, Satanism and Your Family- 60's/70's
During the 1970's horror film reflected the outlook on the decade, also whilst big budget, respectable horror returned. These types of films dealt with contemporary societal issues and mainly addressed genuine psychological fears. Some fear's in particular was childbirth and children. A film which focused on children in that era was The Exorcist which then became banned in the UK in 1999 which was then voted the scariest film of all time. These films reinforce that children can be unwanted which causes them to do bad things to their parents. Satanism also comes into this as the person "possessed" by the devil, and the exorcism is to get rid of the devil.
Ghosts stories started to appear in the 1960's which could be seen as a reaction against the elaborate creature features made in the late 1950's. A few films from this era were

• Rosemary's Baby (1968)
• Carnival of Souls (1962)
• Alice, Sweet Alice (1976
• The Omen (1976)
• Halloween (1978)

Slasher Movies/Body Horror-80's
Slasher is a type of horror that depicts a person/killer that mutilates a person with the use of knives, razors or other weapons whereas body horror is a genre of horror that's main feature is the graphically shown destruction and degeneration of a human body or bodies. Some famous films were

• Scream
• Halloween
• A Nightmare on Elm Street
• Friday 13th
• Psycho
• My Bloody Valentine
• Child Play
• Madman
• Prom Night

Slasher films first came about in the 80's due to advances in technology allowing them to use improved special effects; therefore enabled them to show much more explicit scenes which their target audience would soon come to love hence many sequels happening. 

Video Nasties-
These films where always straight to VHS which were heavily blamed for changing Britain. These films became increasingly popular due to the fact that they were refused British theatrical release. Some of these banned films were

• Absurd
• Axe
• The Beast In Heat
• Blood Bath
• Blood Feast
• Blood Rites
• Bloody Man

Gorenography and Torture Porn

Gorenography is a genre of film which focuses solely on showing brutal gore where plot, story and characters are non-existent. The popularisation of extreme graphic violence in the film came from films such as Audition 1999, Wrong Turn 2003 and the Australian film Wolf Creek 2005, took their cues from The Lat House on the Left 1972. Another strong film which was produced in 1974 was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre which helped emergence of a type of horror that emphasis on depictions of torture, suffering and violent deaths. How this genre has become popular is down to the audience. Viewers imagine disturbing thoughts in their heads which then can be represented through films, they also get a thrill out of the films giving them a fear factor and some people get a satisfaction when they are out of their comfort zone. 

Narrative Theory In Relation to Halloween (Carpenter,1978) and The Crazies (Eisner, 2010)

Halloween

Todorov- 3 Point Structure   
Tzvetan Todorov followers a simple three point structure also known as the 'Classic Hollywood Narrative' (CHN). The simple structure is the Equilibrium-Disequilibrium-New Equilibrium. In the film Halloween it starts off with Michael Myers killing his sister by stabbing her repetitively with a knife; this is already a disruption in the film so doesn't follow the simple structure which Todorov had created. Already we know that the film doesn't apply with the normal structure which a film normally consists with and makes the film a bit more difficult to follow without a simple order.

Propp- 8 Character Types
Vladimir Propp looked at 100 folk tales and identified 8 character roles within films.
These character types are:

1. The Villain "The Baddie"
2. The Hero "Protagonist"
3. The Donor "Provides an object with some magic property"
4. The Helper "Aids the hero"
5. The Princess "Reward"
6. Her Farther "Rewards the Hero"
7. The Dispatcher "Sends the Hero away"
8. The False Hero "Double Agent; hinders the hero rather than helping him"

Halloween Character Types-Propp

1. The Villain- Michael Myers
2. The Hero- Laurie Strode
3. The Donor- ? Could possibly be the kids as they gave her the strength to protect them
4. The Helper-Doctor Loomis
5. The Princess- The Kids that Laurie saves
6. Her Farther- The hero doesn't get rewarded
7. The Dispatcher-? Possibly be the the doctors who let Michael Myers escape from the mental asylum she wouldn't of had to save the kids.
8. The False Hero- Doctor Loomis could possibly be the false hero as he came at the last minute to try and safe every one yet Laurie did the main job. Also if he didn't allow Michael Myers to escape in the first place then no one would have had to been saved.

Propp's theory does apply with the film Halloween but can be argued to not apply with all character types as most of the character's in the film become more then one character type.

Levi-Strauss- Binary Oppositions
Claude Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. For example we understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL. Levi-Strauss looked for a deeper arrangements of themes. Strauss specifically looked into science fiction binary opposition and came up with six binary oppositions which were created by the narrative
These are:

1. Earth-Space
2. Good-Evil
3. Humans-Aliens
4. Past-Present
5. Normal-Strange
6. Known-Unknown

Halloween Binary Oppositions- (The ones that Levi-Strauss appeal to in the film)

1. Good-Evil: Good/ The Good in the film is the community which they 're apart of and the dedication Laurie shows when trying to save the children.
                      Evil/ The Evil is Michael Myers and his addictive behaviour towards killing innocent victims
2. Past-Present: Past/ We start off in the past and see Michael killing his sister in 1963 on Halloween Night.
                        Present/ It then changes to the present day of 1978 also on Halloween which then allows the viewer to associate the same two events and makes a link within the film. In the film we also see Michael Myers escape from a mental asylum on Halloween linking the two killings together and allowing us to make the judgement that he will kill again on the same night.

Levi-Strauss narrative theory does link in with the film Halloween with certain binary oppositions.

Bordwell And Thompson-Cause and Effect
Bordwell and Thompson study how chains of event work within films and how certain events triggers off another. They defined narrative as "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space". In the film Halloween the first killing of his sister on Halloween night triggers him off to kill again 15 years later on the same night. Also all the killing of the victims linked in with one another. Michael killed his sister after he witnessed his sister 'making out' with her boyfriend and then Michael killed her. With his more recent killings in 1978 he kills in a similar way. All the victims had either been with their partner at the time or was planning on meeting up with them, then he planned his attack.

The Crazies-2010

 

Does The Crazies follow the CHN?-No the film The Crazies does not follow the typical CHN structure as it doesn't start with an initial equilibrium but instead it starts with an disruption to the equilibrium.

How many of Propp's character types can be identified in the film?-
Villain: You could say that the villain was the virus but i feel that the villain was the US government which then driven the US army to kill innocent civilians which stemmed from the virus outbreak.

Hero: The hero in the film was David ( The sheriff ) who had a driven courage to save his pregnant wife and get them back to civilisation.

Helper: There are many helpers in the film starting from Russell (The Deputy Sheriff) , David's wife Judy, The solider in the barn as he didn't give away their location, possibly the government in the black car as he gave them confidential information.

Princess: The princess in the film is Judy.

Dispatcher: The government is the dispatcher as they were the ones that unleashed the virus.

The Donor: The Donor's are Russell and David as they both have guns which help with killing the crazies whilst David provides them with a car.

False Hero: The false hero is Russell as he starts off on their side and trying to survive but then catches the virus and starts killing innocent people and vital people which hold important information. Also the government could be the false hero as they make themselves look like they're helping people while actually they're killing innocent people.

List five examples of binary oppositions in the film and explain them briefly-

1. At the start of the film they show you the town on fire which is seen as (present) but then it flashes back to when the town was a 'perfect' place to live and all innocent and happy (past). The binary opposition :Past/Present
2. There is a significant binary opposition throughout the film 'Good and Evil'. We see good in David and Judy who try and save their town from the crazies but also we see bad in the crazies as they are going around killing everybody and we see bad in the government who makes the military kill innocent people to try and stop the spread of the virus. The binary opposition:Good/Evil
3. Innocence/Guilt- The crazies are perceived as being bad in the film but it isn't their fault that they have picked up this virus which has taken over them so they have a sense of innocence about them. The guilt we see in the film is by the government of making this virus which then leaked out into the wrong town corrupting their society.
4. Human/Aliens- The human part is represented in everyone being the same. Also how David and Judy act. David shows human nature when he goes back to save Judy from the military whilst the alien part is how the crazies are taken over. The way they act are not normal and is very unusual, it is as if they are being controlled by something else and they are possessed. The aliens could also be represented in the government. The government are acting in an aliens like behaviour which is very different to human nature, they're killing innocent people for no reason. This is not the way humans act towards one another and is very un-ordinary. 
5. Normal/Strange- This applies the most to the scene where Russell, Judy, Becca and David have crossed the field to get to David's and Judy's house to get the car. We see Judy start taking down her washing off the washing line. To Judy this is normal and nothing has ever interupted her daily routine, but its strange behaviour due to the circumstances of what is happening around her.



Identify the three 'durations' and give an estimate of the time each duration covers.

• Screen Duration- 92 Minutes
• Plot Duration- 3 Days
• Story Duration- Judy being pregnant and the plane crash, and even the virus being created,tested and sent for incineration.

Give two examples of events that cause later events in the film but which occur before the film 'starts'-

• Judy becoming pregnant: If Judy didn't become pregnant then she wouldn't of been taken away by the military because she had a fever and David wouldn't of gone after her which would of lead to them being killed so the virus wouldn't of been carried on.
• The plane crash: If the plane didn't crash then the virus wouldn't of been leaked into Ogden Marsh and people wouldn't of turned crazy and innocent people wouldn't of been killed. The virus would of been destroyed.

List two events from the 92 minute film that happen in a different time and space to the one we are shown.
When Russell tells David and Judy that the military slashed his tyres even though we didn't see it happen we know he was telling the truth because later on in the film we see his car at the side of the road with the spikes laying next to it.
Another event which we don't see happen is the military killing innocent people. Although we know they are tagging people around the wrists and taking them away when Judy and David go to the supermarket we then see in the film the innocent people that have been shot and burnt in the back of lorries.

Horror-Genre Conventions

Settings-
Isolated places, rural/suburban areas in cities to give more of a sense of isolation.
Abandoned houses, old lunatic asylum, places where you go back and visit.
Homes with cellars, attics, secret floors places where the audience feel enclosed and to give them the terror of being watched.
Night time, places which seem innocent int he day time, but give a whole different feeling when out of hours.
Religious/medical institutions- "possession, demons, psychosis.
Dreams and the unconscious mind

Technical Code-
Camerawork using weird high and low angles and also having shots which are canted which makes the camerawork more expressive rather then naturalistic.
ECU's "Extreme Close Up's" on the victim which enables the audience to be able to notify the main character and associate them with terror and to exclude threat from frame. ECU's on monster can connote invasion of our personal space.
POV "Point Of View" is important-subjective, hand-held or steadicam camerawork often places audience in monsters eyes which can raise issues about audience identification.
Use of depth of frame usually used on the protagonist in foreground, unaware of the monster emerging in the background.
Editing pace may be used to create suspense. Sudden increases in editing pace when there is no apparent threat creates feeling of jumpiness....."something must be about to happen"
Sound is very important to help create the suspense as sometimes sound is the first sense the audience is given with. Ambient sound for atmosphere, footsteps, heartbeats high in the sound mix.

Iconography-
Colours such as black and red obviously connotes (darkness, evil, blood, danger)
Lighting expressive and non-naturalistic; motivated lighting, low key, high contrast, chiaroscuro, to emphasis shadows.
Lighting direction from unexpected angles can connote (hell, bonfires, primitive instincts- as a natural light- sunlight, moonlight, room lights- is always from above us)
Commoner objects in the mise-en-scene would include weapons, blood,masks, icons of the supernatural "ghosts-moving objects" and religion "crucifixes, pagan symbols"
Iconography of childhood/innocence-dolls, playgrounds, clowns- children s songs

Narrative Structure-
'Classic Hollywood' Structure- enigma path to resolution-closure or hero-agent of change-quest-resolution-closure; applicable to genre there may be "false closures" for two reasons. 1. to suggest mythic quality of the monster 2. to enable a sequel. This conception is based on Todorov's theories.
Unambiguous hero of classic Hollywood narrative structure is somewhat problematic in many horrors- the slasher film has a main protagonist "the final girl" where other horror films has a victim/hero rather then a simple hero, and thus provides a point of masochistic identification of the spectator which makes it more complicated then other genres.
Some sub-genres have a narrative which are very formulaic. "Childhood psychotic event creates killer who returns to a past location on an anniversary to kill again"-Usually a group of stupid 'immoral teenagers' (Virginal, slightly masculine)-female character who survives "the final girl"
Barthes and Levi Strauss, structuralist narrative analysis-not so concerned with linear development but more with underlying mythic structures. "works well with horrors". Binary oppositions abound like innocence/evil. Horror often plays on this by developing very sinister atmospheres through reliance on our awareness of the existence.

Character Types-
Main protagonist "victim/hero"-see points on narrative structure.
Monster with a hidden secret or made psychotic by an earlier event.
Stupid/"immoral"teens to get killed
Children
Ineffectual police and "normal"law enforcers -horror is not containable on normal channels
The "have a go" hero will get killed
Scientists who do stupid things or over-reach their powers
People who refuse to believe

Themes-
Binary oppositions-natural VS unnatural "Good VS Evil" -Known VS Unknown.
Return of the repressed-Freudian Theory "horror is often close to sex in some way"
The hidden evil side
Science out of control