Hello readers. BOO! Did I scare you? I hope so because today we will be talking about the horror film genre. Horror is a versatile genre with many branches, but for today we will just look at the main conventions of horror movies overall and how they affect the story.
Sound
One large element of horror is the use of sound. Horror movies are very intentional when it comes to sound placement, utilizing silence heavily. In order to properly build suspense, horror movies use uncomfortable silence which builds anticipation for what's next to come. Horror movies also use sudden sounds to create jump scares. A random glass breaking, screaming, or a door shutting aggressively are all instances of this. Another example, is in The Conjuring 2, there's a scene where Lorraine is in a dark room with the Nun. When she first enters the room catholic music is playing, she then turns it off and begins looking around the room. The music then suddenly turns back on causing a jump scare as we know the spirit is in the room, but she hasn't attacked yet, instead using music to scare Lorraine.
Sudden and mixed pace
Another convention of horror movies is a unstable pace. Horror movies use jump cuts, smash cuts, cuts on action and more to speed up and slow down the pace of a movie. Horror movies generally begin/are slow pace up until a moment of horror. This is so that the horrific event is shocking to reader and has a affect on them as the pace is suddenly changed from what their use to. This can activate fight or flight as the sudden burst scares the viewer.
Wide Shot
Another major convention of horror is wide shots. Wide shots are used in horror both to isolate the character within the shot by emphasizing their surroundings and also to create a sense of unease. Wide shots in horror usually display the character/subject in the center of the frame or isolated and then show the background to build suspense as it's vast, large, and has the ability to hide a lot within it. Though a wide shot leaves the scene exposed, other elements like sound and context can result in the exposure in anticipation and suspense.
Thank for you reading!
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