Horror

A Horror is a genre of film that aims to create a sense of fear, dread, alarm and panic. The purpose of a horror film is to evoke a negative emotional reaction from the viewers, by playing on their natural fears. Horror films are usually centred on an evil force, event or person. Many horror films include supernatural creatures, such as zombies, ghosts and vampires.  Traditionally, Horror films incorporate a large amount of violence and gore into the plot. Though it is its own genre, horror often overlaps other genres and form sub-genres, for example teen-horror or comedy-horror.

When making a horror film there are curtain camera shots, angles and movements that are used to makes the views feel curtain negative emotions and to portray meaning and emotions.

 Extremely wide/long shots are commonly used to establish the surroundings, convey loneliness and helplessness.

 Close up shots are used to emphasise characters, their emotions and reactions and to create suspense for the views because they do not know what is going on outside the frame. 

Slow pans are used to make the views feel frightened and anxious because they don’t know what is about move into the frame.

Hand held camera shots are used to make the scene(s) more realistic and it makes the viewer feel like they are part of the film and experiencing the horror first hand, which sparks more genuine emotions.

No music/soundtrack noise is used in some scenes, which helps to draw the viewer’s attention to the diegetic sounds featured in the scene. On the other hand loud sinister music is sometimes used to build tension as it suggests that something is about to happened which makes the viewer’s more scared. A good example of when sinister music was used to build tension is the Jaws theme tune.

Low-key lighting creates shadows and harsh contrasts between people, creatures and items on screen. Shadows add depth to the scene and creates a fear of the unknown.

Quick, straight cuts add a sense of urgency and chaos and they are also important because they can portray multiple character’s emotions in one particular moment, which is crucial because it can help manipulate what the viewers are feeling. Slow cuts can create the feeling of tranquility stability, which can create a false sense of security for the viewer’s making the upcoming events more emotionally effective.     

High and low camera angles depict one person’s weakness and insignificance and another person’s dominance.

In conclusion all of these camera shots, camera angles, camera movements, lighting, and editing techniques are all commonly used in the genre of horror to extract many negative emotions and to convey characters emotions and general emotive themes throughout the film.