Genre

We looked at a range of horror sub genres in the trailers we analysed which helped us decide what type of horror we wanted to make. We thought about ever kind of horror we could do:

• Psychological horrors play on common fears and vulnerability, they mess with the mind mentally rather than graphically. They rely on a clever use of sound and subtle messages to scare the audience. Examples of psychological horror films: The Shining, Blair Witch Project, Buried.
• Slasher films always include extreme blood and violence. They most often include a serial killer or other psychotic being wielding a horrific weapon contrasted with a weak women/woman victim. Slasher's are very dramatic and rely on lots of graphic violence, screams and drama. maybe write about scream queens classic horror genre Examples of slasher horror films: Halloween, Scream, Friday the 13th.
• Zombie horror films usually set in a post-apocalyptic world with the majority of humanity turned zombie by an awful disease. There are many reasons we chose not to make a zombie film as it would be very ambitious, such as; lots of extras, extreme make up and prosthetics, special effects, and vast empty expanses. Examples of zombie horror films: 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead.
• Similarly, monster films would be very difficult because of special effects and elaborate costumes. It would be difficult on our small budget to create a monster outfit without looking cheesy and cheap. Examples of monster horror films: Dracula, Frankenstein, An American Werewolf in London, Alien, Let The Right One In.
• Supernatural (possession, poltergeist, ghost etc.) As supernatural horror films always include lots of unseen entities etc messing with humans, they include lots of effects to make inanimate objects move by themselves etc. Examples of supernatural horror films: Paranormal Activity, The Others, What Lies Beneath.
• Teen horrors are a very common sub genre of horror. It generally includes a group of friends of camping or in a secluded area getting tormented by a villain. It is a possibility as this genre is the right age range for our actors. Examples of teen horror films: Prom Night, Jeepers Creepers, Cabin Fever.
• Suspense/thrillers are a more subtle horror sub genre. They build tension through clever use of sound and are often set in one location. Examples of thriller horror films: Them, Psycho, The Strangers.
• Splatter/Torture Porn horror films are very extreme and for people with strong stomachs. Crucial elements of this sub genre is graphic violence, extreme gore and sexually suggestive. In many of these films the cause of death is unusual and horrofying with a lot of imagination. It would be difficult for us to create a low budget splatter trailer because it would be very difficult to make a deaths look realistic. Examples of splatter horror films: the Saw franchise, Hostel, Wolf Creek.

Many horror films however are hybrids and blend boundaries of their sub genre. For example Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) was a hybrid of slasher and of course, suspense. Hitchcock was known as the master of suspense because of his brilliant, dramatic use of sound with incredible, unique camera shots such as the 'Hitchcock zoom' (named after the director) in which the foreground remains stationary while the background swells closer, creating a sensation that the world was closing in on the helpless subject. These suspense techniques combined with the classic shower scene in Psycho, that included lots of blood and violence (maybe not as much as were now used to, but for the time it was very gruesome) meant that Psycho was a hybrid horror.