Genre - Horror

This is my first blog post of the A2 Media course, watch this space for more!

In class we have been looking at genre in film and our first focus was on the Horror genre. Firstly, we started by discussing the conventions of the horror genre. Many conventions were spoken about including: jump scares, mystery, madness, possession (usually of children), blood, sadness, religion, death, low key lighting and dark settings such as forests and abandoned/haunted houses. After this discussion, we watched a total of 3 very different short films in the horror genre and these were: Virus by Simon Hynd, The Apocalypse by Green Card Pictures, and last but not least, Lights Out by David Sandberg. These 3 films were very different. Virus was a film about a creature creeping round homes and offices, killing people from behind, while filming them on a webcam, from which the footage was saved and sent to someone else, who then watched the clip and suffered the same fate. This film was all about the role of technology in horror whereas in Lights Out, the only real technology used was the simple and classic bed side lamp. In Lights Out, a more traditional horror movie, the use of lighting and few jump scares are enough to create a strong sense of horror in a short space of time. 

After watching these films we were set a number of tasks. First of all we had to discuss the suitability of the horror genre for a short film, giving the pros and cons of a short film in the horror genre.  Starting with the pros, one pro of a short film in the horror genre is that a story can be told but can be left on a huge cliffhanger after a jump scare, leaving the audience in shock after the film, and leaving them with questions like "what would have happened next?" or "why was that character in that situation" and so on. However, one con of a short film in the horror genre is that with a short film lasting from anywhere between 2 to up to 15 minutes, I believe that there is not a enough time to build up a story which surrounds the scary happenings in a horror movie. For example, in a feature length horror film such as The Conjuring, the film may run for up to 2 hours and this gives enough time for the story to be told without leaving a cliffhanger, allowing the audience to understand, for example, the haunting that occurs throughout a film. Overall, I believe that short films in the horror genre are good, but they will always have to be left on a cliff hanger as there will not be enough time for the film to explain the supernatural occurrences in a film, to the audience. 

My next blog post will be a textual analysis of Lights Out. (SPOILER ALERT)