1. Horror Genre Conventions
Callum Carmichael

2. Setting Conventions
 Isolated Area
 Urban Area
 Dark Streets/Alleyways
 Ghost Towns
 Woodlands
 Empty House/Cabin/Hotels
 Basements
 Run down cities
 Countryside
 Asylums
 Abandoned area
 Lakes
 Roads

4. Conventional Technical Codes
 High and Low Angles to connote fear and power
 Point of View allow audience to see through the person view
and put you into the world of there terror
 Handheld Shots creates a more terrifying experience and
bring the audience into the action
 Sound Effects an extremely important feature to create fear
through diegetic sounds such as heartbeats
 Editing creates mood through build up from slow cutting and
transition to action through quick cuts and transitions

5. Iconography
• Visual – Often dark tones and highlights within the visual style of horror as well as
consistent relations between red and black to connote fear and death within the film
itself – a common convention of the horror genre
• Lighting – Lighting is a very important component of the iconography of a horror
film/trailer due to the way in which it expresses fear and horror. Low lighting is mainly
used within the horror genre to represent the ‘unknown’ and create shadows to spark
the audience imagination and create fearful emotions
• Props – Props are used within the horror genre to help identify the particular genre and
the style of horror – common props associated with horror are religious symbols, knives
and masks which connote the fearfulness and horror of the movie and represents the
horror genre through its common convention
• Monsters – The monsters iconography within the horror movie connote the fear,
disgust, supernatural and extreme nature of the horror movie and the frightening
emotions that are portrayed within the movie

7. Narrative
• Todorov narrative structure suggested that conventional narratives are structured in
five stages and these are common with horror movies:
 A state of equilibrium at the outset;
 A disruption of the equilibrium by some action;
 A recognition that there has been a disruption;
 An attempt to repair the disruption;
 A reinstatement of the equilibrium
• In ‘Overcoming the Monster’ stories which is very common within the horror genre the
hero/heroes must overcome a dark evil creature/person/entity that has exerted an evil
destructive force over a place, persons or people.
• Levis-Strass Binary Opposition Theory of Good v Evil is also a very common convention
within the horror genre and used within the films and film trailers.

8. Themes
 Good vs. Evil
 Religion
 Supernatural
 Revenge
 Death
 Zombies
 Nightmares
 Psychological
 Gore
 Insanity
 Suicide
 Fantasy
 Thriller
 Fear
 Terror