Slasher horrors are possibly the most well known type of horror, and this often attempts to entertain the audience rather than to horrify them completely and generally involves a masked villain killing off the characters one by one e.g. "Halloween" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". ( As seen in the image of Mike Myers to the right ). A slasher movie is a lot more gory and bloody compared to the other sub genres.
Thriller/supernatural horrors are focused more on the unknown, and can be suggested as more of a psychological horror. It keeps you on the edge of your seat more frequently as it works by creating tension and suspense normally though a build up of unfortunate events. Thriller films can illustrate a more realistic type of horror, as they tend to play on the traits of people e.g. including innocent little girls in a sequence., as seen in "The Shinning". This is due to us knowing zombies don't exist, where as murders are a frequent occurring thing in society.
Monster horror is the more obvious form of horror, where you have a noticeable villain generally from the initial opening sequence. They tend to take shape in the figure of well-known monsters such as Dracula or zombies, this is evident in films such as "Nosforatu" and "Night of the Living dead".
In order to decide on the type of horror I was going to use for my teaser trailer, I watched a diverse amount of horrors. The case studies I am going to discuss include "Nosforatu", "Night of the Living dead" and "The Shinning". When evaluating them I am deciding on which I find most horrific and why this is.
The film "Noferatu" was made in 1922 and showed how important emphasis on music and lightening-shadowing was, due to it being a silent black and white movie. Therefore sound was used in order to create suspense, by using low key organ sounds which may represent funeral music. In early films make up was a crucial part of Mise En Scene, which is evident with the character of Nosferatu, whose black outfit contrasted with his white face. This creates a sense of the living dead amongst the audience. “Nosferatu” attempts to create a psychological horror and uses words on screen in order to generate a sense of tension for the viewers. The writing is in scripted across the screen in a font that looks like those you might find in old spells, creating a mysterious vision for viewers allowing them to produce their own interpretation of the style of writing. The opening sequence gives us a “definition” of Nosferatu, connoting what the film will be about. This is one of the typical conventions of a fictional horror where the “monster” is introduced to us from the off, making the film less scary as we already know what is meant to horrify us. Nosferatu does include many of the typical conventions of horror we expect to see. Yet it seems to be the longest chase scene ever made - boat vs man. This doesn’t particularly keep me engaged, as I constantly need a rapid transaction of frames to occur in order to keep me on the edge of my seat. Therefore the use of editing helps to increase the sense of horror.
“Night of the Living Dead” (1968) is a low budget production, that portrays a typical zombie film which includes trapped characters attempting to escape. The blatant use of zombie characters making continuous counts of attack upon members of the public, makes the film become a slightly predictably “hammer horror”. This is due to lots of physical violence occurring throughout the duration of the film, which does encourage me to look away yet not because I’m scared but due to the gory images then tend to churn my stomach. However suspense is still slightly produced as death steers closer panic builds among the characters and arguments take over. As their bonds begin to break, panic ensues in the audience as when characters patience is tested this leads to a rising level of tension for the audience. Typical characters are demonstrated in this film i.e. the damsel in distress being guided by the strong male protagonist. Horrors are meant to engage with our nightmares, tap into the unknown. Even though “Night of the Living Dead” may meet this specification for certain viewers, for me it just seems unrealistic. Due to it being considerably too gory and based upon fictional monsters, which we know don’t exist and cannot literally harm us.
“The Shining” (1980) builds on our race’s obsession with horror by using a very closely connected family unit which eventually spilt as the film progresses. The reason the film verges on the side of a more "scary" horror for me is due to it being a normal guy that slowly cracks, which is evident amongst our everyday lives. Making you leave the cinema more wary and questioning everybody’s actions, looking for a reason to be able to connect them to the tragedy Johnny suffers. Horrors should create a sense of fear among the audience, knowing you shouldn’t look but wanting to see. For me this is illustrated when Danny continuously cycles down the corridors at a fast pace always turning corners. So we are expecting something to happen, however more often than not an empty frame can be more terrifying then that filled with what we expect. As once Johnny is seen on the screen we feel at rest, however the noise that’s never what we expect allows the audiences mind to wonder questioning why we thought it was what it’s not. This is known as the “Bomb Theory”, where the bomb just never seems to go off at the moment you expect it to. This allows a greater connection to be made between the audience and the characters because we feel empathy for them; as we believe we know more than them. Yet “The Shining” plants ideas into our minds and always seem to lead us in the wrong direction which makes the expected then unexpected. On several occasions we are forced to look at characters frightened faces, making us uncomfortable. Once again creating suspense as when we are concentrating on a still shot over a period of time, we expect in return a quick change in transactions with a loud noise in order to make us jump. Horror films incorporate our fears into visuals, building an adrenalin rush and this is most present in quick paced chase scenes which tend to disorientate the viewer. As Danny runs through the maze this heightens the sense of tension, as we feel as if he is trapped due to the tall hedges towering over him. Making him look vulnerable and timid. This is where “The Shining” really made my heart beat as the continuous use of flickering shots from point of view shots, to ones of Danny’s face and even of his feet running made me feel very uneasy. Once again because we are awaiting for the expected shot that never seems to occur.
Overall I would say its the more psycological horrors that venture into the possible that disturb me. As there is always the slight possibility of it happening to YOU !! Therefore I am going to use the sub genre of the psychological horror in my teaser trailer, instead of monsters.
