Convetions of Horror Movie Trailers

Below is some research/ codes and conventions of Horror.

Horror movies are designed to:

• Cause Fear
• Cause Panic
• Cause us to realise fears we have
• Capture and entertain the audience
• Have a major plot twist or scary ending

Charles Derry believed that all Horror Movies could be divided in to 3 categories:

• Haunting and Possesion- The Excorcist
• Apocalypse
• Human Monsters

However, I disagree with him, during my research I found several types of other horror movies that I have referenced on my blog previously:

• Slasher (A horror movie involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner) Halloween, Scream, The Devil's Rejects, Friday the 13th.

• Zombie (Self-explanatory - a movie about zombies; zombies are creatures usually portrayed as either reanimated corpses or mindless human beings)Return of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, The Crazies

• Vampire (Self-explanatory - a movie about vampires)The Lost Boys, Fright Night, From Dusk Till Dawn.

• Monster (A horror movie centered on the struggle between human beings and one or more monsters. Usually the monsters are portrayed as over-sized creatures)Jurassic Park, Cloverfield, Tremors, Jaws, Piranha 3-D

•  Splatter (A horror movie that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore) Braindead.

• Torture (A horror movie that focuses on torture and graphic violence) Hostel, Saw.

• Alien (Self-explanatory - a movie about aliens) Aliens, Predator.

Some other conventions include:

• Unknown Actors
• Blood
• Low Level Lights
• Death
• Mysterious, non diegetic music
• Crying, Screaming, Shouting

Some Horror movies are high budget such as some of the Texas Chainsaw Massacres remakes or Friday The 13th whereas films such as The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Acitvity are low budget. My Horror Movie will be Low Budget.