Before watching a horror movie, we usually expect it to be scary, disturbing, maybe even grotesque. It usually includes an antagonist, which can go anywhere from someone who is based off their past trauma, psychological issues, someone who’s looking for revenge, even a monster or some kind of creature.
I believe these ideas have been based off stereotypes created by the most popular horror movies and then continued to be carried on to nowadays horror industry.
Currently, the horror genre is known for references like the final girl, the “attractive” killer and the unreliable narrator. And films like “Scream”, “Halloween”, “Get Out” and “Psycho”.
The visual techniques used in a specific film deliver the story by building drama and tension. Color palettes, camera angles and lighting add to the plot as well as the ambiance.
The music is also a great addition to it, it can help you predict the mood of the scene and what the character is about to do next.
One of the pivotal points on the movie Scream is the opening scene, when Casey Baker (Drew Barrymore) receives a phone call from the killer where it marks the way the killer communicates with their next victim in the franchise. Another pivotal moment is when Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) discovers the truth about her family’s past and the killer’s identity. Not only adding drama to the movie but deepening into the killer’s intentions and reasons to have done what they did changing everything for Sidney.
In the end where the killer is captured it gives closure to the characters and to the movie, serving as a resolution. This movie emphasizes the fact that anyone is a suspect and that even the people you think are the closest to you, could betray you.
Sarah Oud
Daniel briefly described the essence of horror movies and what some common and reoccurring factors are in short but descriptive detail. I can see he has a deep understanding of the key things that makes horror, horror. He recognizes some of the stereotypes that are in horror movies and relates them the movie he choose and to other movies as well. He also shows a deep understanding of things that can add to movies that create suspense and simply things that make a movie better such as the music, lighting, camera angles and the colour palates.
The pivotal points he selected from ‘Scream’ are good examples of what pivotal points are and he gave good additional information on how these pivotal points, well, pivoted the movie.
I quite enjoy the part at the end where he describes the resolution of the movie but where he said “anyone is a suspect and that even the people you think are the closest to you, could betray you” really is a great example of something that reoccurs in the Horror genre and something that can be related to real life.