1. { Horror
Leah Patterson

2. What is genre?
Genre does not only rely on what's in a media text but also on the way it is
constructed. This can be important, for example, when distinguishing between a
horror movie and a thriller. These two genres deal with similar subject matter, and
often look the same (e.g. dark scenes, tense non diegetic sound) , However the
separate genres mean that the text deals with different things (e.g. a horror film
takes the audience into a supernatural place, where as thriller is based on reality.)
Depending on its genre a media text will adopt the codes and conventions of other
texts in that genre. These codes and conventions are included in the texts so that it
lives up to the audiences expectations.
Although texts can belong to different mediums they can still belong to the same
genre (e.g. CSI is a television program belonging to the crime genre and ‘Taken’ is a
film also belonging to this genre.)

3. Genre Theory
• Steve Neale:
‚Genres do not consist only of films: they consist also, and equally, of specific systems of
expectation and hypothesis that spectators bring with them to the cinema and that interact
with films themselves during the course of the viewing process.‛
Neale see’s a genre as a set of labels and definitions that are used for a certain type of film. He
has the idea that genres help the audience with recognition and their expectations.
Genres help describe and give an explanation for what is being shown for example: ‚why
particular events and actions are taking place, why the characters are dressed the way they
are, why they look, speak, and behave the way they do, and so on.‛
They give an idea of what is acceptable for a certain type of film and of what will probably be
included.
• Daniel Chandler
Chandler does not agree that genres are so definite – ‚One theorist's genre may be another's
sub-genre or even super-genre (and indeed what is technique, style, mode, formula or thematic
grouping to one may be treated as a genre by another)‛
To chandler conventions of genres are not consistent throughout different features of film.
Genres mix throughout films and there is never a clear ONE to be stuck to in things such as in
form and content.
‚Specific genres tend to be easy to recognize intuitively
but difficult (if not impossible) to define.‛ Films normally tend to includemore than one
definite genre.

4. Codes and Conventions
• Depending on the monster/villain, horrors are often combined with:
- Science fiction (menace or monster is related to the acts, or when Earth is threatened by aliens)
-Thriller films (relation when they focus on the revolting and horrible acts of the
killer/madman)
• Younger, female victims are normally used, making them vulnerable. Either this and they are
alone or a group of young characters are involved.
• Isolated settings are normally used, again making the victim vulnerable.
• There is normally a death/murder or torture. This can be a build up to
someone's death, however serial murders normally make the story line.
• The villain/monster is not revealed straight away, there is normally an element of mystery and
suspense to horror movies.
• Extensive use of enigmas are used throughout horrors, again adding to the suspense and
anticipation included in horrors
• low lighting and dark colours are mainly used, giving negative connotations.
• Sound is used to build up tension and show the climax of horror, or when a death in nearing.
This is normally shown through use of eerie non-diegetic music. Sudden diegetic sounds are
used to create the tense, jumpy tone.

5. Saw: The final chapter
Synopsis:
Death is
included
and is the Detective Matt Gibson chases the psychotic Detective Mark Hoffman
main part while Jigsaw's widow Jill Tuck tries to kill him as assigned by her Serial
of the story husband. However he escapes and Jill meets Gibson and offers to deaths
line. sign an affidavit listing the murders committed by Hoffman. In throughout
return, she requests protection. Meanwhile, the prominent Jigsaw the story
A group of survivor and leader of a support group Bobby Dagen is abducted
young with his wife and friends and forced to play a mortal game to save
friends are Crosses with
the main
himself and his beloved wife. thriller as the is
a focus on
characters. horrible acts of
killer
Opening scene:
Young
female Unknown/
The movie opens with a glass cage. Two men who apparently know each disguised
victim other wake up chained to either end of a table saw. The puppet "Billy" rides killer.
in on a trike and says they each have to decide whether the other guy will
die, so that the girl that has been dating both guys is suddenly revealed to
Gruesome be suspended above them will live, or choose to live and let the girl die.
features are The girl tells one man she loves him and the jilted man starts winning.
included in the Then she tells the one who is about to die that she loves him and he starts
story winning. Then they agree to let her die and she is sawed in half.
line, another
connotation of
horror.

6. Saw: Opening scene analysis
From the very beginning of the film, the genre is set clearly in a number of ways. At the start of the
opening scene non-diegetic music is used to set the tone, often a code used to build tension in
horrors. Fast pace music is played over the footage showing the lead to danger.
The two victims shown are both young and are some how linked (regular victims in horror
movies). Not only does this make them vulnerable but the different shots, close-ups and mid shots
etc. show how the victims are unable to escape, adding to the typical ‘vulnerable victim’
convention.
Although the whole of the setting is not isolated, in the middle of a city, the victims are alone. A
long shot shows them stuck inside a glass cube, and later on in the scene a women is shown trying
to smash it open, however failing, emphasising the fact that the victims are isolated.
A small puppet slowly comes on screen in the opening. At first, just a short take is used, showing
just his legs. This is an enigma code, something used frequently throughout horror movies, leaving
the audience wondering what/who it is, building tension. Through dialogue it is revealed that the
puppet is linked to the acts, suiting the typical convention of the killer being mysterious or
disguised. The supposed killer/ link to the killer is dressed in black and red, two negative colours
giving the connotations of death and danger, suiting the theme and genre.
A lot of close-ups, mainly in short takes to build tension, are used
to show the characters faces and their panicked, horrified
expressions, setting the typical horror mood. To add to this,
make-up is used, and blood is added, to show the increase of horror.
Diegetic sound is also used, such as screams and the sound of saws
to increase the tension and suit the mood.