What I have learnt from my research
From doing my research on horror I have learnt many things that will help me later on in my project:
History of horror
From studying the history of horror I have seen how they have evolved through time for example in the 1860s they started out as silent films, the most famous being Cabinet of Dr Caligari which then progressed onto the first vampire film Nosferta which caused a big outrage between Bram Stoker who believed it was too similar to Dracula which resulted in copies of the film being destroyed. Horror films over the years then dramatically changed with the main sub genre being slasher horror which is when a group of teenagers are usually hunted down by a psycho killer who kills the sexual lying active characters in the film, leaving the more androgynous characters alive. As the horror genre grew so did the amount of sub genres and hybrid genre that great with it, for example comedy horror with films like Zombieland and Shaun of the dead and also supernatural horror like paranormal activity.
Narratives
Horror films tend to stick to similar themes over the years such as good vs evil being the most common theme to feature. There is also known vs unknown which is also a common feature, this theme is mainly seen in supernatural horrors to create an element of enigma and fear to entice the audience.
The characters in horror films often show a male as being the psycho killer or villain as they are seen as the stronger gender compared to a woman. But a male hero are chosen for the same features. Any character that drinks, takes drugs or had sex are the first to usually die, this can mainly be seen in slasher films such as Halloween where the only character to survive was the androgynous female as she doesn't take any part in the other activities.
Representation
Final girl
Carol Clover came up with the final girl theory in 1992 when she wrote Men, women and chainsaws; gender in the modern horror film. After learning about the final girl theory and watching horror films in class they were very easy to spot as they are characters that have masculine traits and are often the only people to survive the killer.
Male gaze
With male gaze I have learnt that in most horror films females are portrayed as the sexualised object for the male audience to look at. They do this by using close ups of the body e.g. legs, torso or point of view shot from the males so the audience can see how the male feels about her.
Trailer conventions
From studying trailer conventions i have learnt that every trailer must include:
- The genre of the movie
- The name of the movie
- The production values of the movie
