Theoretical Approaches To Horror Films

Many theories have been developed regarding the horror genre ranging from why we enjoy watching them - taking a psychological approach to the spectacle horror which talks of the camerawork and special effects.

The Philosophy of Horror - Noel Carroll: His big idea was attraction/repulsion. As an audience we are attracted by gore and transgression as well as repulsed by it. We enjoy seeing the point of view shots of the killer for example the we have POV shots in 'Halloween' of Mike Myers. However we fails to identify with the killer, we fear vampires and their powers but are attracted to them. A fine example would be 'Twilight' where fans found Robert Pattinsion aka 'Edward Cullen' attractive yet feared his character and his family. We can't stand what we're seeing yet we can't stop looking. 

The Uncanny - Freud: Uncanny is when something is strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way. It is something secret and disturbingly strange. Freud thought the uncanny is that which has ought to have been secret but that has come to light within the unconscious or subconscious mind. It is essentially the return of the repressed and it is projected onto objects, people and places. 

The Shadow - Jung: Jung simply said that 'the shadow' is a projection of what we all fear and strongly dislike being projected onto an external figure. 'The monster' in horror films is essentially the bad parts of us in a character. 

Carol Clover: Clover wrote an essay in 1987 titled 'Her Body, Himself' which argued that horror films offer the teenage males of their audience an illicit opportunity to revel in their feminine side. Using Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze Theory' she took a closer look at the low-budget exploitation genre in which typically all the female characters are murdered bar the one girl who managers to escape the villain. She argued that horror is one of the few genres that consistently asks the audience to identify with a triumphant female protagonist. Meaning that a 'sexist' genre may actually not be so sexist after all. 

Adam Lowenstein: The big idea was spectacle horror. Spectacle horror is a combination of special effects, camerawork, gore and sound. It's essentially what is done in the film to create a medium that is moreover about appreciating the art of the genre as it is about the darker motives. 

Cynthia Freeland: It was said that the graphic violence and gore in horror are so over the top that a 'perverse sublime' is created. Freeland said that they are so far-fetched and unrealistic that we can enjoy the films on an aesthetic, entertaining level as we know the events occurring can't happen to us. 

Conventions of Horror

Conventions are the way in which something is done. As the horror genre has become more popular over the years, many films have done things in the same style and typical traits and themes have been developed. The main convention of horror films is 'Good vs Evil'. This has been present since the start of horror films. Its the base of every story line and is usually a conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. Here are the typical conventions of horrors broken down into different categories:

Mise-en-scene:

• Location - Characters are placed in a location that lacks easy access and out of the way with no one around to help. For example the woods, a summer camp, an isolated house, an abandoned town or amusement park. 
• Night time/Darkness - A large majority of the film takes place at night or is filmed in the darkness so the characters are more alert making the audience more on edge.
• Props -  include weapons such as guns or in a slasher films - a knife/machete. There is also often a use of paintings/antique or something ancient of some sort used to create a sinister atmosphere. Many paranormal horrors use bibles and crucifixes as a sign of religion and symbolising the devil and us used to anger the thing that is haunting the characters causing more violence and horror. 
• Colours - The colours red and black are often used as a popular connotation of both are danger and death.
• Lighting - There is often a use of shadows as this helps reveal the villain without the audience seeing their actual face or body. A feature that's often used is the flickering of lights which causes the audience to feel nervous and scared as the characters do. 
• Costumes - The stereotypical girls are usually 'slutty' have blonde hair and wear short skirts and dresses. 

Sound:

• There is often a use of exaggerated diegetic sounds which creates a lot of tension. 
• The music becomes more tense and fast paced as it leads us to an intense scene for example the shower scene in Psycho which makes the audience jump.

Characters:

• The Blonde - who usually dies first and has the 'slutty' costume for example in Halloween, Mike Myers kills his sister who is blonde and up to no good with her boyfriend upstairs. 
• The Athlete - the other characters tend to look to him for guidance and tries to be the hero figure.
• The Virgin - is always the character that survives as they are pure and not affected by evil.

Iconography:

• The fear of the unknown has become more popular in recent films, more specifically in psychological/paranormal horrors. As the characters fear the unknown this leads the audience to also be scared.
• Paranormal films tend to have ghostly symbols, dark places, unusual things happening for example swinging lights and slamming doors.
• There are jumpy scenes where things tend to pop up in front of the screen with loud sounds such as wind or unexplained noises.
• Typically there is a character that doesn't believe in any of the horrors taking place so they contact a priest or such to help but anger the villain more creating more trouble.
• The theme of Good vs Evil has always been a huge part of most story-lines as their is usually a problem between the protagonist who is good then the antagonist who is bad. 

In my short horror film, I will by fault use some of the conventions as they can't be avoided  and it wouldn't be a horror film without them. The conventions that I will most likely be lifting will be psychological/paranormal ones as I am making a psychological film. I'll use the typical good vs evil theme as it just wouldn't be a horror film without it. In terms of location I will potentially base it in the woods/forest as it creates isolation and an eerie atmosphere as nobody is about. My characters will most likely be teenagers with a lot of curiosity which is a theme featured in several horror films. A convention that will be very influential on my piece will be the fear of the unknown as I plan to not reveal or show a lot of the antagonist and this is popular within the psychological genre. 

Auteur Theory

Auteur Theory is a theory of filmmaking that holds a film reflects the director's personal creative vision. It came about in France in the late 1940s as the cinematic theories by Andre Bazin and Alexandre Astruc became outgrown and dubbed by the 'Auteur Theory' by American Film critic Andrew Sarris. It focuses on:

1. Individual stylistic features
2. How texts are determined by artists' creativity
3. How texts emerge as part of an artists body of work

When the Auteur theory was being developed, Alfred Hitchcock was frequently acknowledged as the consummate exemplar, and his name evokes immediate expectations in terms of themes and techniques. Some elements of the Hitchcockian style consists of:

• Climax plot twist
• The cool platinum blonde
• The presence of a domineering mother in her child's life e.g. Psycho
• An innocent man accused
• Restricting the action to a single setting to increase tension
• Characters who switch sides and/or who cannot be trusted

Another well known Auteur is Brian De Palma. He directed many infamous films some being Scarface, Carrie and The Untouchables. He did many psychological films and had a theme of graphic violence which was very influential in Dressed to Kill and Body Double, this sparked a lot of controversy with film critics and the viewing public. He is also known for quoting and referencing other directors' work through his own pieces. For example 'Dressed to Kill' was a homage to 'Psycho' by Hitchcock in which he lifted the idea of a surprise death of the lead actress and exposing the the psychiatrist at the end. De Palma was also noted by film critics throughout his career for his unusual camera angles and compositions. One of his trademarks is framing the character using a canted angle against the background and he's been known to use the split-screen technique to show two separate events happening at the same time. 

Francois Truffaut who played a part in the origins of the theory expressed that directors should use the mise-en-scene to imprint their vision on their work. Truffaut was a film director, screenwriter, producer, actor and film critic. He headed the group of French New Wave Cinema which was group of French New Wave Cinema which was a group of French filmmakers. He remains an icon of the french film industry as his career lasted over a quarter of a century and worked on over 25 films. Truffaut wrote an article called 'Une certaine Tendance du Cinema Francais' which translates to 'A Certain Trend of French Cinema' in which he talked about the state of French films and, certain screenwriters and producers. The article sparked a lot of controversy as Truffaut didn't talk positively of all the aspects and wasn't accepted. From this the Auteur Theory was born which simply stated that the director was the 'author' of his work. 

Modular Narratives - Allan Cameron

Allan Cameron came up with the idea that contemporary cinema uses a cycle of complex narratives to operate. Modular Narrative explores the representation of time in a way that reflects anxieties specific to the present. It articulates a sense of time as a divisible and subject to manipulation. Cameron identified four different types of modular narrative:

• Anachronic 
• Forking - Path
• Episodic
• Split Screen

Anachronic modular narratives have no dominance between any of the narrative threads and involve the use of flashbacks and/or flash forwards. The narratives also often repeat scenes directly or via different perspectives.

Forking - Path narrative juxtaposes alternative versions of a story. It shows the different possible outcomes that could have taken place had there been small changes in a single or group of events. The forking - path narrative introduces a number of plot lines that tend to contradict one another.

Episodic narrative is a story that is told through a series of episodes of segments for example a soap opera or television series. There are two types of episodic narratives, the first being abstract series which is characterised by the operation of a non- narrative formal system which appears to dictate the organisation of narrative element such as a sequence of number or the alphabet. An episodic anthology consists of a series of shorter tales which appear disconnected but share a random similarity. For example the 'Final Destination' films are all connected in that those who being targeted to die were all nearly involved in a roller coaster accident. 

Split Screen narratives differ from other types of modular narrative as their modularity is articulated along spatial rather than temporal lines. The screen is divided into two or more frames, juxtaposing events within the same visual field, in a sustained fashion. A well known example of this is the television series 24.

An Introdution to Narrative

Narrative is a spoken or written account of connected events; a story. It is how the story is told. The Narrative theory sets out to show us that what we experience when we 'read' a text is to understand a set of conventions. Narrative explores the conventions of:

• Genre
• Character
• Form
• Time

The difference between the story and plot is that:

• Story - Includes information not shown
• Plot - The key events

There are different types of narrative structures that can be used when making films. Some different types are:

Linear Structure: the story will go in a straight line or in other words in chronological order. Many films follow 
Beginning                                                 Middle                                               End
Audience introduced                                Events stay                                        Closure
to character and story                              behind

Open Structure:
It follows the linear structure until it reaches the end where there is no closure so the audience are left to wonder what happens next and make sense of it themselves. Open structures usually have many characters and no foreseeable ending. As there is no sense of ending it could go on forever. This structure is popular with television soap operas such as Coronation Street. There are many more characters and the focus shifts between them. Often there is more than one story line and time is more chronological and more 'real time'. An example of this structure being used in a film is 'Inception'. By the end of the film, things are so out of control that the audience questions where the dream ends and where reality begins. It's all just a dream within a dream. Or is it?

Closed Structure
There is a definite ending and clear conclusion for the audience. There is a 'The end' and we know the whole story of what happens. The audience is aware that they are watching a complete story so therefore expect a likely end in mind. Unlike open structures, time is compressed and not with the 'real time'. Time and events are usually catered to the particular story and not linked with the outside world. The audiences usually identify narrative roles such as the hero, villain and victim. There tends to be a small number of central characters so the audience gets to know the character in depth. 

Circular Structure 
The narrative begins at the end events (often with the climax). The audience are taken on a journey arriving back where they started. A circular structure can mean that nothing can change and the story will always return to the base point so that the same happen again ad again. A popular example of film that follows the structure is Pulp Fiction. It's told out of chronological order and follows three interrelated stories that all link together at the ends

Economics of horror films

The genre of horror is known for producing low budget, high quality popular films. Jeremy Gardner, a director said that fans of horror films are more interested in how the film will affect them than seeing the movie stars. Therefore horrors can focus on provoking a reaction than on expensive casting choices.

On Hypable.com's '20 low budget movies that became massive blockbusters' list, eight out of the twenty were horror films. The first being a huge horror favourite 'Halloween' was made on a budget of $325k and made more than triple that bringing in $47 million. Others that featured in the list are:

Friday the 13th, Budget: $500k Box Office: $59M
The Purge, Budget: $3M Box Office: $89M 
Night of the Living Dead, Budget: $114k Box Office: $42M
The Conjuring, Budget: $20M Box Office:$318M
The Blair Witch Project, Budget: $60K Box Office: $248M
Saw, Budget: $1.2M Box Office: $103M

The most profitable film ever made based on return on investment is Paranormal Activity. It has a small budget of $15K and in the box office made $193M. It made 12 times its budget and has successfully had 5 other films made surrounding it. 

This shows that horror films don't require huge budgets in order to be successful. They can be simply made yet still be effective.