Audience Theories.

In class we have discussed our roles as an audience and analysed audience theories.

• You would talk to your friends about horror movies, but it is unlikely you would talk to your parents or grandparents  - it is a genre usually shared between peers. 
• Word of mouth is vital for promotion of horror films - eg. social networking

My experience of watching horror, is that I tend to be more scared of the idea of watching a horror film than the film itself. It is the build up and anticipation that frightens me, more than anything else.

Paul Wells did research into 4 different age groups (16-25, 26-40, 41-55, 56-80) and asked them what the earliest and latest horror movies they had watched were. Conclusions I can draw from the results of this study are that people have become desensitised to Horror over time and directors are constantly pushing boundaries in order to shock and scare audiences. Horror has transformed into a social genre that is watched with others as an activity. It also shows that horrors change to fit with world wide issues that are happening currently.

Psychoanalytic theory - Spectatorship and male 'gaze'

• Women made to look weak, powerless, vulnerable, passive, submissive, seductive/modest.
• Femininity and sexuality is focused on by camerawork - audience is influenced by how the male character responds to her, eg. pity, attraction.

Laura Mulvey - Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)

• Women are presented as sexual spectacles and objects of pleasure for the characters and audience. 
• Men fetishise women imbuing them with an overvalued and unrealistic status - 'fetishistic scopophilia'.

Todorov and Propp.

I have studied Propp and Todorov's theories to see how useful they are in analysing Horror narrative.

Propp's character theory

• Propp analysed 100 folk and fairytales to identify how characters are used to move the narrative forward.
• The emphasis was on looking at characters not as representing real people, but as functions whose role was to move the narrative forward.

Characters

1. The villain – struggles against hero.
2. The hero – drives narrative.
3. The donor – provides hero with magic gift
4. The helper.
5. The Princess.
6. The Princess's father.
7. The dispatcher – sends the hero on his way.
8. The false hero.

I decided to apply this theory to one of my favourite movies, Lord Of The Rings, to see just how accurate it was. 

Lord Of The Rings

1. The Villain - Salron
2. The hero - Frodo Baggins
3. The donor - Gandalf
4. The helper - Sam
5. The princess - Arwen
6. The princess's father - The elf king
7. The dispatcher - Gandalf
8. The false hero - Aragorn

This shows that Propp's theory does work the majority of the time, across all genres. 

Criticisms of Propp's theory

• "He ignores character, tone and mood in his analysis which differentiates one tale from another."
• Levi-Strauss was a main critic as he came from the structuralist approach of seeking meaning in these tales, which Propp does not do. 

Propp was a formalist who was trying to uncover the building blocks of folk tales and stories. 

Todorov's Basic Narrative Theory

• A state of equilibrium 
• Disrupted by an agent of change
• Leads to a process of final resolution
• Return to a new equilibrium 

Todorov's Extended Narrative Theory

• Exposition
• Development
• Complication
• Climax
• Resolution

I find these studies useful to an extent, as they fit the conventions of a typical horror movie, however, many films try to play on typical conventions in order to surprise the audience, as well as stick to common conventions. This means the theories do not apply to every horror film, for example, Scream. Scream is a film that tries to break the common narrative of horror movies in order to keep the audience constantly on edge and surprised. 

Nosferatu (1922) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

In class we watched two adaptations of Dracula, originally a novel written by Bram Stoker. The first film we watched was 'Nosferatu (1922)' and the second 'Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)'. We also talked about how horror films present the known and unknown narrative in order to have more of an impact on the audience. It is common for horror movies to begin in familiar settings with regular events occurring. This makes the audience feel more comfortable for the beginning of the movie before things start to go wrong, such as the arrival of the villain. This means that when this does happen, the audience is shocked and even more frightened because of the contrast between what is familiar and comforting and what is unknown and unnatural. 
I have explored the known/unknown narrative in both of the Dracula films.

The films Nosferatu (1922) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) both use the known and unknown narratives in order to create an impact on the audience. By contrasting the known against the unknown, the film has a bigger effect on people, as it presents them with ideas and situations they are familiar with before introducing unfamiliar situations which makes watching the film more uncomfortable for the audience.

'Nosferatu' opens in idyllic setting and presents a scene which is very familiar and comforting to the audience, especially that of the time. The music used in the opening is positive and upbeat, creating a happy vibe. We are introduced to two of the main characters, a couple, who are presented as very ordinary people that most people would interact with on a daily basis. The opening of Bram Stoker's Dracula is similar in that it begins by presenting the audience with an idea that is familiar in the current time. In this case, the main character is at war fighting for his religion. Although this situation is not particularly joyous, it is not anything out of the ordinary that the audience is not used to. This is later contrasted when the same character turns against God, which is something that feels very unnatural and uncomfortable for a lot of people, as God often symbolises good. Both Nosferatu and Bram Stoker's Dracula use icons that are familiar to the audience in a creative way. In both films they take the crucifix which symbolises good and stability in society and corrupt it, which is uncomfortable for the audience as it feels as though good is being overthrown by evil.

An Interesting Quote.

"Genres do not consist only of films. They consist also, and equally, of specific systems of expectation and hypothesis which spectators bring with them to the cinema, and which interact with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process. These systems provide spectators with the means of recognition and understanding." - Steve Neale (1990)

After reading this quote I realised that for each genre, the audience comes to watch films with expectations of what they are about to see. For example, if a horror movie was screened without any screaming, violence or any other conventions of any kind, it is likely that it would not be very popular, as people going to see movies have an expectation of what they are about to see and people going to see horror movies expect them to be frightening.

Comparing Common Conventions of Horror Movies.

I have compared the common conventions of three popular horror movies to see if there are any conventions that are used across more horror movies than others. This will highlight the conventions that work particularly well and would be useful to include in my own horror trailer. 

The films I chose were:

• The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
• The Shining (1980)
• Eden Lake (2008)

I chose these three films as they are all very different and were released fairly far apart from each other. This meant that any common conventions that featured in more than one of them would be one that I would be wise to include in my trailer, as they can be used to make an effective horror movie. 

All three movies take place in isolated settings. The Hills Have Eyes is set in an abandoned nuclear testing site, the shining in a snowed-in hotel and Eden Lake at a quiet campsite. This makes the films uncomfortable for the audience to watch, as the characters involved are instantly at a disadvantage to the villains in the film. People are naturally scared of the unknown and things that are unfamiliar, so all these movies play on this fear.

The three movies also have similar plot narratives. All of them begin in positive circumstances, for example the hills have eyes begins on a family road trip. This is effective as these are things most people really do, so it makes it much more realistic for the audience. When the plots turns in the movie and things begin to go wrong, the audience is impacted more because they can easily picture themselves in that situation. This also means the movie has more of a long-term impact, as people will remember it when they encounter similar situations. 

The characters is used in these films are also quite similar. Families are featured in all three, which is effective as people usually feel very safe within their own families, so to see others in frightening situations is unsettling and makes it easier for the audience to picture themselves in the place of the characters. In The Hills Have Eyes, the main characters are typical family and in The Shining two parents and their child. To see these families fall apart due to the events of the film leads to natural insecurity felt by the audience, in situations they previously felt very secure in. 

Characters in horror films are often mentally unstable, which is used in The Hills Have Eyes and The Shining. By making the villains insane, films can add fear for the audience, as it makes the villains' actions unpredictable and allows them to do outrageous things that the audience may find unnatural and disturbing. 

Key Conventions of the Horror genre.

Before exploring the conventions of Horror movies, I first looked at the key areas for analysing film conventions in any genre. This made it a lot easier to think about the conventions for any specific genre. 

Key areas for analysing film conventions:

• Social groups
• Editing - effects/cuts/speed
• Mise en scene
• Camera shots/angles/movement
• Music
• Diegetic and non diegetic sound
• Set/Lighting/Props/Costume

I then applied these areas of analysation to the horror genre and came up with these conventions:

• Lighting - very dark, possibly uplighting, shadows, contrast between dark and light 
• Location - Somewhere totally isolated or in your own home - two extremes
• Camera work - Often from villains' point of view
• Characters - Vilain is often an outcast
• Icons - Weapons, blood 
• Music and sound - Screaming
• Setting - Isolation, eg. abandoned house

Studying Genre at a Textual Level.

I have started to look at how genre is represented in films, particularly the horror genre. We watched the opening of the film 'Nosferatu (1922)'  in class and noted down any themes we noticed that indicated it was a horror movie. Here are some of the themes I noticed in the clip:

• Corruption
• The unknown
• Separation
• Greed
• The monster within
• Fragile nature of love
• Abandonment
• Loneliness

These are all themes that could be used within my own horror trailer. They are obviously affective themes to use, as they have been used in films such as 'Nosferatu' since 1922 and are still used in many horror films today.

In class, we also discussed the way horrors often play on fears in society in order to make films more realistic and therefore more frightening for the audience, as they can imagine themselves in the situations presented in the film. 

Fears in society:

• Teenagers turning feral (An example of a movie that has used this is Eden Lake)                   Eden Lake Trailer.
• The apocalypse (For example 28 days later)                                                                                 28 Days Later Trailer
• Science going too far (For example I am legend)                                                                            I Am Legend Trailer
• Contagion - Disease (For example The Crazies)                                                                        The Crazies Trailer
• Technology
• Insanity (For example The Shining)                                                                                           The Shining Trailer
• Family
• Alienation (For example The Hills Have Eyes)                                                                          The Hills Have Eyes Trailer