Codes, Conventions and Camera of Horror Films

Codes and Conventions are the elements you expect to find in a horror film, the way things are usually and typically done, or the things that are included.



For example, 

• Death
• Victims and Villains - Binary opposites
• Blood and gore
• Masks 
• Isolated settings/locations to show the characters as alone and vulnerable
• Weapons/ Tools of torture or death to give the killer a signture, eg, Ghost Face (Scream 1-4) - Long blade/Knife
• Violence
• Chase sequences
• Screams/Crying
• Creatures, to take the audience out of their comfortable reality and prevoke our inner fears
• Attempts at romance
• Female or young/teenage victims showing their vulnerability or naivety. 
• An introduction to a typically normal day/lifestyle, then to be abruptly interrupted  
• A heroine, usually the male character attempts to save the day and is killed/fails, whereas a female character battles through and ends up surviving 

In depth examples:

Masks:

Masks are a typical or common convention of a horror film. It provokes the audiences fears of the unknown. The masks are usually scary or creepy, leaving a permanent impression on the audience.

'The Collector' - The mask from this horror film is creepy because the mouth carved in it looks like a half smile, making in sinister and terrifying to look at.

'Scream' - GhostFace from scream is a great mask in my opinion because it is different and memorable. 

'Friday the 13th' - Jason's mask in Friday the 13th strikes fear into the audience because they are looking into both the face of the killer, and the unknown, making them feel uneasy and scared for the characters.

'The Orphanage' - This mask is sinister in the way it plays with childish conventions. It looks like a disturbed and distorted child's toy, making it imprint on the audiences mind and terrify them because a child is being harmed.

'The Silence Of The Lambs' - This make is particularly scary because you are able to look into his eyes, but not discover his full facial identity.

'The Cabin In The Woods' - These masks are simple, but really effective! They're plain white and simple, but are so creepy and plunge us into the fear of not being able to see who we're looking at.

Chase sequences!

I personally love chase scenes, when acted well they can make the whole film, here are a few examples!

Scream 3 - In this chase scene, the victim fights back! It's brilliant.

I Know What You Did Last Summer - This scene is really good because it plays very well on the female victim stereotype, and the stereotype of the horror killers being clever, quick, and you not being able to escape them.

Prom Night (1980)

Halloween 2 - This scene i personally think is brilliant. It's not your typical chase scene, and leaves you on the edge of your seat the whole time, you sympathize with Laurie, the victim and want her to escape, getting the audience involved in the film.

Signature Weapons:

Halloween - A kitchen knife. Simple, but effective. 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Chainsaw. Different, and terrifying.

Nightmare on Elm Street - Freddy's claws.

Scream - Ghostface's blade. 

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Typical Horror Camera Angles/Shots:

Extreme close up:

Extreme Close Up ("ECU" or "XCU"): As its name suggests, an extreme version of the close up, generally magnifying beyond what the human eye would experience in reality. An extreme close-up of a face, for instance, would show only the mouth or eyes, with no background detail whatsoever. This is a very artificial shot, and can be used for dramatic effect in a horror film. The shot is so tight that only a detail of the subject can be seen. 

Close up:

Close up (CU): This shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a specific detail of mise en scène. Everything else is just a blur in the background. This shot magnifies the object (think of how big it looks on a cinema screen) and shows the importance of things, be it words written on paper, or the expression on someone's face. The close-up takes us into the mind of a character. In reality, we only let people that we really trust get THAT close to our face - mothers, children and lovers, usually - so a close up of a face is a very intimate shot. A film-maker may use this to make us feel extra comfortable or extremely uncomfortable about a character, and usually uses a zoom lens in order to get the required framing.

Extreme long shot:

This can be taken from as much as a quarter of a mile away, and is generally used as a scene-setting, establishing shot. It normally shows an EXTERIOR, eg the outside of a building, or a landscape, and is often used to show scenes of thrilling action eg in a war film or horror/disaster movie. There will be very little detail visible in the shot, it's meant to give a general impression rather than specific information.

Reaction shot:



A reaction shot usually implies the display of some sort of emotion on the face of the actor being shown, and is thus most commonly a close-up shot (although a group of actors may be shown reacting together). A reaction shot is also generally bereft of dialogue, though this is not an absolute rule. Its main purpose is to show an emotional response to the immediately preceding action or words of another character in the scene, or to an event in the immediately preceding scene which may or may not involve another actor (e.g., an explosion, monster, killer, etc.)