Main Sub-genres of horror

IntroductionThis power point shows the most significant and effective

sub genres of horror, it will give information on the chosen genres and give examples of already existing horrors films. These sub genres are Slasher, Supernatural, Psychological, Gothic and possession; they have the ability to terrify audiences and captivate them in the world that the directors and producers have created.

Supernatural Horror

Supernatural horrors generally focus on the invasion of an unnatural being possessing and mentally attacking a family. The main type of family that is usually focused on would be one which has little children, as these children are usually the ones which the spirit chooses as its victim. The use of children in supernatural horrors is common as it uses the innocence a child has and turns it into an evil demon who will kill anyone. Themes which tend to crop up in supernatural horrors are the afterlife, devil on earth, and demonic possession, these themes are effective as they bring to life perhaps the horror stories an audience might have heard and not believed, a convention typically used in supernatural and possession would be a beginning text in the movie stating it is based on a true story , this changes the horror completely for an audience as the chance of the horror film actually happening to them becomes a possibility; ultimately causing intense fear for the audience. Examples of this sub genre would be; Drag me to hell, The final exorcism, Insidious, The conjuring.

Slasher HorrorSlasher horrors tend to be based on a psychopathic killer who seeks

revenge or just to generally kill anyone. In slashers the killer will stalk his victims and we as the audience will see the killers view of his victim through camera techniques. A convention in slashers is based on the characters used such as the “Final girl” usually it is a female who will survive to the end and most likely kill the murderer. Violence is a common and continuous convention which occurs in a slasher film as well as the killer having a specific weapon of choice which the audience can then identify them by, such as Freddy Krueger having his slasher claw fingers, and Jason in Friday the 13th with his sword. Examples of slasher films are; Scream and I know what you did last summer.

Psychological HorrorPsychological horrors rely on the characters fears and beliefs, they

will most likely have a plot which typically turns out to have the opposite ending that the audience were expecting due to the psychological plot that has been created. An arguable thriller which is psychological is Shutter Island the end result has a completely different one that the audience were expecting and had a difficult plot to follow, this is why psychological horrors are so successful as they always grip audiences. A convention in psychological horrors would be a character being mentally ill or the film will have a supernatural element that gets involved which is generally where the horror comes into it. Examples of psychological horrors would be Saw, Hannibal, Psycho.

Possession HorrorPossession horrors are currently the most popular; they have the

ability to completely and utterly horrify and terrify the audience with the idea of somebody being possessed by an invisible force, this adds to the fear factor as the audience soon realise that realistically there is no way of stopping the nightmare. Usually in Possession films religion is involved and a priest of some sort or psychic has to step in, to use religion or find the reason as to why the evil spirit is about, and almost every time an exorcism is performed which then the ghost leaves, however sometimes it will return, again adding to the horror of the audience at the mystery of never knowing if its gone for good; a good example of this would be Insidious 1&2. Another example would be Mirrors.

Zombie Horrors Zombie horrors are based on mindless human beings that have been

raised from the dead by an unwilling or evil individual. The film will usually be based around the idea of the living vs. the dead, and will fight for their unlikely survival. A convention of zombie horrors is the common idea of the zombies main scare is the fact they need to feed on the living in order to survive, which ultimately creates the plot of the survivors finding a way to find either more survivors or just to

ultimately kill off the rest of the zombie species. Although these films can tend to not actually be completely terrifying its more the fear of

the unknown as we cannot happily say there are no such thing as zombies, as quite typically this is most likely what the characters at

the beginning of the film would have also believed too, also this type of sub genre tends to have an extreme amount of jumpy moments.

Examples of zombie horrors are I Am Legend, 28 days later.

My chosen Sub genre For my chosen sub genre me and my group have decided to chose

Psychological. We find that although it is not the most common used type of sub genre these days it most certainly is the most interesting, and films with this sub genre are usually those which grip audiences to their core and make them fear themselves and possibilities of what the mind can do to you which they were unaware of before watching the movie. Psychological horrors not only have the ability to terrify you but they make you think and most usually trick you from what you think is happening is actually the complete opposite such as in the uninvited, the audience is forced to believe the girl is being haunted, however she is actually psychologically ill. I will enjoy experimenting with the wide range of possibilities of this sub genre as there is so much that can be done with it to make our trailer terrifying yet so gripping you cant cover your eyes and you have to watch.