Typical horror films and the conventions of them.

Background information;
The two first ground breaking horror movies that was made were Frankenstein, and Dracula, both made by universal in 1931, since then countless horror films have been made by a number of different production companies. One of the most famous and scariest was the exorcist made by Warner Bro's in 1973, it won several academy awards and is one of the highest rated horror movies of all time.

The horror genre has many different audiences, but it mainly targets young adults between the ages of 16 and 25. They do this by using the main characters as young adults, which the audience can relate to the people on screen and see themselves in the situations that they are in.


The Horror genre has many conventions that are seen in almost every horror film, for example the main section of the film is very dark and gloomy, which reflects the mood of the film. It also adds and creates tension for the film.

The mise on scene of every horror film is almost the same, there is always a lot of low key lighting, and a lot more towards the end of the film, where the tension is at its highest. There is normally some sort of prop which plays an importance in the storyline, and this is brought to attention by the lighting and the camera shots. This is shown in the picture on the right, which shows a dark figure inside with very low key lighting hifing his face, which adds to the tension and the suspence that the scene creates.

The camera shots used in horror films are used in an affect which gives scenes a lot more tension than they would normally have. They often leave a lot of important information out of the camera shot, which only gives the audience limited ideas in to what's going to happen next, this gives the film a lot more tension, as the audience does not know what's going to happen next.

The sound that is used in horror films generally gathers a lot more tension as the plot of the films gathers pace and momentum, this will generally make the film a lot more scarier, and gives the scenes a lot more tension, which keeps the audience watching.