Stars and type casting

                                                                       Chloe Moretz

Chloe Morets is known to be a typical young girl horror film actor. This is mainly because of her style of acting which is used in many Horror films such as Amityville Horror and Let Me In.

Chloe Moretz in Amityville Horror

 

 

directors style/ significant director of the genre

M. Night Shyamalan is a director who has created many different horror films. The horror films that he is most known for are; The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable, The Villager

Wes Craven is another well known director who creates Horror films. The films he is know for are; Scream(1,2,3,4), The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street etc.

Film Production and distribution companies

List of Film Production and Distribution Companies

Univeral Studios

Warner Bros.

Paramount Studios

20th Century Fox

New Line Cinema

Hammer Films

Working Title Films

CBS Films

Summit Entertainment

 

 

These companies can either distribute or produce the films. By producing the film they would have to provide a location, create the film, fund it, raise money for the production of it etc.

By distributing the film they would have to promote the media product through advertisment, select locations on where the films would be shown, where the films premiere/s would take place etc.

gender representation

In horror films the females tends to become the person who lasts out throughout the movie (till the end). They are usually one of the main protagonists.
Males tend to survive throughout the film however they tend to be killed off by the monster/ killer within the film.
In horrors there are usually three groups for males and females in films; the useless character, the hero and the monster.
However males are portrayed as being the killer within horror films and females are shown to be the damsel in distress (being chased by the killer).

Resident Evil- After life - Alice contrasting her female role by being the main protagonist.

Character Types

There are typical characters who are usually in horror films. Based on teen horrors the stereotypical characters are:

A jock
A geek
A non-believer
A loner
A pretty girl
A stupid/ ditsy girl
An old man/ woman (who tends to have a scary story to tell)
A redneck
The killer

All horrors have different character casts however the typical ones are either a group who end up being the ones who get attacked or followed and killed off one by one or a family who move into a home and unusual events occur e.g. The Amityville Horror

Editing and Narrative

Editing
Editing is a very crucial part of the film making process, as it emphasis the genre more. this links with sound aswell. Editing is known to be the art of film making as it is the aspect which produces the final piece and puts everything together. It gives more effect to the scene and what is happening in that particular moment, such as; fast straight cuts within a moment of panic.

Shaun of the Dead- fast cuts and sounds.

NARRATIVE
Narrative plays a big part within films from either Rom-Coms to Horror. In Rom-Coms it would usually (as a typical Rom-Com film) contain a female voice over talking about their/ a love life or reading a diary etc. Within Horror Films it tends to be talking about either a tragedy that had occured or news-reports.

Mise-en-scene and sound

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is important in all films including horror films. Mise-en-scene is important in horror films as it can tell the audience the time period the film is set in, who are the victims through the way they act, who is the attacker/ villain, who the main protagonist/s are etc.

Low key lighting tends to be used in horror films to create a suspence e.g. lighting behind the attacker (his/ her face is hidden), deep, distinct shadows, sillouettes are formed. Horror films tend to have low light to make it look dark.

In certain horror films a prop is used e.g. the murder weapon being an axe or knife. This helps to build up a tension as the main protagonist/s will be aware of the prop and would/ will try to stay clear or out of arms reach from the attacker with the weapon. A film that uses a knife as the murder weapon is Scream.

The setting/ location of a horror film is usually set/ located somewhere where it is deserted, looks scary or has a story/ history to the area. (See link for information about famous horror movie settings/ location: http://thefw.com/real-life-horror-movie-locations/)

Sound

Sound is very important/ powerful in horror films as they make certain scenes more scarier due to the non-diagetic sound that is being played. Without sound most scenes won't look scary or be able to scare the audience as they watch.
 By doing research I've realised that orchestral music are used for sound in majority of horror films as by playing/ using certain instruments such as the violin, it can make a specific scene seem scary.

Psyco- Shower killing scene (sound/ music)

"There is an audio sequence in horror films that most people recognize. A long eerie musical build-up of strings or horns as the victim approaches a closed door (for example), followed by a violent orchestral hit as the victim opens the door to encounter whatever is hidden behind it. This is a type of musical cue that is quite common in horror films. Whenever the audience hears this build-up, it knows that something is going to happen." (Quoted from:http://www.eng.umu.se/monster/john/sound_music.htm)