Possible effects of horror movies

1. Imitation - Directly copying actions from films
2. Catharsis - Purging, "getting it out of your system"
3. Drip-drip-drip effect/ desensitization -  Media influence gradually change us
4. Cultivational differential/ mean world syndrome - Think the world is worse than it is
5. Triggering - PTSD from the experience
6. No long term effects

Stanley Cohen 

Folk devils & moral panics

Cohen explored Mods vs rockers fights of the 1960's and found that the media exaggerated the fights.  Cohen suggested the media overreact to an aspect of behaviour which may be seen as a challenge to existing social norms. However, the media response and representation of that behaviour actually helps to define it, communicate it and portrays it as a model for outsiders to observe and adopt. So the moral panic by society represented in the media arguably fuels further socially unacceptable behaviour.

This is relevant to horror films because of the fears around horror films in that they warp or desensitize young minds. Often the moral panic was over exaggerated.


A clockwork orange

• A 16  year old boy was arrested for a murder of a homeless man. In court he quoted the movie even though he hadn't seen it but friends had described it to him
• The press also blamed a rape case on the movie
• It was then banned in the UK

Child's Play 3

• Allegedly played a part in the James Bulger murder, however the boys had never seen the movie
• Was this exaggeration from the press? 

Uses and gratifications

• People use the media to get specific gratifications

• In the hypodermic needle theory, it suggests consumers have no say in how the media influences them

• The main idea of this theory is that people are not helpless victims to the media but use the media to fulfill particular needs

When we use the media it is suggested we want to fulfill one of these things:

1. Identification - being able to recognise the person or product in front of us, we have similar values or ideas as us
2. Education - to provide us with knowledge, information and understanding
3. Entertainment - It entertains but also gives some escapism to the viewer enabling u to forget our worries
4. Social interaction - We like to watch things that spark debate or conversation (who left X-Factor this week)

In the case of horror movies its likely most people watch the movies for entertainment or escapism. Identification could be another for those who commit crime after watching the horror movies.

Some crticise this theory as it allows the media to take little responsibility over what they show on TV or in movies it also suggests the media have no unconscious influence on our views of the world but in more recent times we have more choice in what we watch and what can influence us. 

Why do people enjoy horror?

According to a 2004 paper by Dr. Glenn Walters, the three primary factors that make horror films alluring to audiences are tension (generated by suspense, mystery, terror, shock, and gore), relevance (that may relate to personal relevance, cultural meaningfulness, the fear of death), and  unrealism. 

According to another psychologist there are 4 main reasons we watch horror movies

1. Gore watching - people with low empathy and identify with killer (if viewer is male)
2. Thrill watching - High empathy and identify with victim
3. Independent watching - High empathy and high positive effect for overcoming fear
4. Problem watching - High victim empathy but characterized by negative effect.In other words, they felt the helplessness of the character

Reading horror movies

Polysemy - Texts are open to different interpretations. Horrors are often deliberately ambiguous.

Stuart Hall was a cultural theorist, political activist and sociologist who lived and worked in the UK from 1951. He developed  Hall's Theory of encoding and decoding. This approach to textual analysis focuses on "the scope for negotiation and opposition on the part of the audience". Meaning that the audience does not simply passively accept a text.

The producer encodes a meaning and the reader decodes the meaning.

A problem for horror movies is the encoded meaning could be received in the way it was intended by contemporary audiences but misinterpreted by modern audiences.

Roland Barthes - The Death of the Author

•  Argues that writing and creator are unrelated
•  Argues against the method of reading and criticism that relies on aspects of the author's identity e.g. their political views, historical context, religion, ethnicity, psychology, or other personal attributes
• "To assign a single, corresponding interpretation to a text is to impose a limit on that text".

Possible Readings
This is how media can be interpreted

1. Preferred/dominant reading = The audience uncritically accepts the intended meaning of the text
2. Oppositional = The audience rejects the message
3. Negotiated = The message is partly accepted and partly rejected
4. Aberrant = Not understanding or interpreting any message

Horror films arouse strong positive and negative readings. Horror movies can be easily misinterpreted for example, the 1978 movie I spit on your grave was widely criticised for being sexist and misogynistic but the director intended it to be controversial and actually a feminist movie.

Controversial Horror

Cannibal Holocaust (1980) - One of the first found footage movies, in this group of anthropologists search for a group of people who made the first tape while looking in the jungle where a cannibal tribe are rumoured to live. 
The film was pulled from theatres after 10 days of release as the director was hit with obscenity charges and then a murder charge under allegations the deaths were real. Luckily for him he was able to find all the actors to prove they weren't actually murdered

The Exorcist (1973) - A young girl is possessed by a demon and holy men try to rid her of the demon.
Even though people were much more accustomed to the loosening restrictions on sex and violence, the exorcist shocked audiences with its sexual scenes and violence with many moviegoers reportedly having heart attacks and even dying and was banned in the UK for a decade

The Human Centipede (2009) - A German surgeon kidnaps 3 tourists and sews them together mouth to anus creating a conjoined organism
The director went looking for controversy using a 100% medically accurate gimmick and creating a 'Nazi' experiment feel. When the movie premiered people were sick in the aisles and some called for the sequel to be indefinitely banned. 

A Serbian film (2010) - A retired porn star is having money troubles and agrees to do one more film until he is led to an orphanage set
Anything that could be seen as controversial was put into this movie including incest, necrophilia, pedophilia and even a baby rape scene. Censor boards all over the world tried to stop anyone seeing this movie. 



Personally, I like horror films as long as they aren't based on the supernatural or paranormal just because I find jump scares too sudden. The fear is only momentary whereas in psychological horror the fear is constant because of the suspense. and that's what makes a good horror; suspense, a good plot and some morality.

Slasher films

What is a slasher movie?

"A horror film, especially one depicting a series of violent murders or assaults by an attacker armed with a knife or razor." Slasher movies are based around killings,  Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) is an early influential "slasher" film but the genre's peak occurred in films released during the 1970s and 1980s.

Common tropes of a slasher:

• Most slasher franchises follow the continued efforts of a specific villain, rather than the killer's victims
• The killers are mostly driven by revenge
• Are not easily killed or injured. Some even make returns in sequels as they were not dead as people thought in the first movie
• Some villains have supernatural abilities for example, super strength and appearing in dreams
• Able to appear and reappear instantly and do the same with the victims bodies.
• The victims tend to be teenage girls or young women who are not typical 'good girls' They will be drinking, smoking or having sex.

The Final Girl theory

 Carol J. Clover explained this theory  in her 1992 book Men, Women, And Chain Saws: Gender In The Modern Horror Film, a critical examination of slasher movies.

The final girl theory literally means the last person left standing at the end of the movie. However, this character has a very typical set of traits which generally all slasher movies follow:

1. Almost always female - Think Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween
2. Almost certainly a virgin, typical good girl type - no drink, drugs or cigarettes
3. Most likely to turn out much more resourceful and clever than the other characteristics. It could also be interpreted that they will end up being as/more sadistic than the real villain



“She alone looks death in the face, but she alone finds the strength either to stay with the killer long enough to be rescued (ending A) or to kill him herself (ending B).”  - A quote from Carol Glover's book (1992)

It is suggested that the final girl has masculine traits to mirror the anxiety of male viewers to make her easier for men to identify with. The final girl is important to a slasher film but in order for her to be the final girl the other characters must come across as deserving to die, this could be from promiscuity or partying which would make them more feminine in comparison to the final girl and consequently more deserving of death.

With a slasher movie, it can be very easy to take it too far and go into the bounds of splatter and even further 'torture porn' this is the use of over the top violence, gore, nudity, sadism and mutilation. Torture porn applies to films like Hostel and Saw even though this is incredibly popular it lacks the morality and purpose of a slasher. To be a slasher there needs to be suspense and build up to produce fear opposed to non-stop murder and violence

Horror genres and sub-genres

In addition to these there are a few other sub-genres that do not fit in with these categories, a few of these are hybrids.

This is when a new genre is created through two other genres merging together for example:

• Comedy Horror - Brain dead & Shaun of the Dead
• Sci-Fi Horror - Alien & Event Horizon
• Horror Romance - Let The Right One In & Warm Bodies
• Creepy Kid - The Omen & The Children
• Gothic Horror - Dracula & Sleepy Hollow
• Body Horror - The Fly & Society

Every genre goes through several phases as it progresses:

1. Seminal or proto-type - conventions are established through experimentation
2. Classic - The genre at its peak and conventions are solidified
3. Revisionist - The conventions are challenged
4. Parodic - Makes fun of typical conventions and tropes

Zombie

1. Night of the Living Dead (1968)- The start of the modern era of blood and gore zombie movies, it was an influential splatter film but also mirrored societal issues at the time. It was incredibly low budget and filmed on a handheld camera in grainy black and white.
2. Day of the dead (1985) - The third film in the 'Dead' series by George A. Romero with a much higher budget than Night of the Living Dead some critics thought it lacked likable characters and was a lot darker than the other movies
3. Warm Bodies (2013) - This is a horror romance movie and is definitely revisionist. Its a new take on a zombie movie and the zombies can be cured by love. Other revisionist movies were remakes. For example, a remake of Day of the dead where the zombies are running.
4. Shaun of the Dead (2004) - A parody movie takes the overused tropes and makes them funny rather than scary

The IMR

The IMR is the 'institutional mode of representation' - This is the style of films that developed during the classic era of Hollywood and continues to this day.

The Primitive Style

- First films made by The Lumiere Brothers 1895
- Movie making that predates classical Hollywood continuity system
- Frontal staging/ tableau style and barely any camera movement
- Silent, very over dramatic mime

Lumiere Brothers - first films 1895 
Early 1895, the brothers had invented their own device combining camera with printer and projector and called it the Cinématographe which was hand cranked. Most of the films The Lumiere Brothers made were films of people doing ordinary things, photographing the world around them known as 'actuality films' such as people leaving a factory.

1902 Le Voyage dans la Lune by George Melies

- Early special effects
- Development of genres and tropes, e.g. It creates tropes of sci-fi   movies such as aliens
- Development of stories and narrative

Birth of a nation 1915 by DW Griffith

- Dramatic scenes made using fast cuts
- Lengthy epic narrative
- Subtitles
- Filmed at night, used tinting and panning
- Perfected close-ups
- Cross cutting and other varied camera angles

He only used one camera to do all of this, and created the IMR we know today.

Montage editing

Eisenstein 'Battleship Potemkin' (1925)
Montage editing is used in the Odessa Steps scene. It goes against continuity editing. This is also used in the scene in Hitchcock's psycho where Marion is killed.

The Jazz Singer (1927) by Al Jolson

- The first 'talkie' film, where spoken dialogue is used throughout
the film, and where music is used on the filmstrip itself. The technology advanced in the 1920s when Bell Laboratories developed a way to allow an audio track to be placed on the film itself.

A brief history of horror

As soon as film tchnology was avaliable directors began to make horror movies. For example, George Melies' "The Haunted Castle" from 1896 is credited as the first horror film. However the big influences to horror were from the German expressionist movements* of the 1920s.

*(German expressionism - defined as a rejection of western conventions and distorted for emotional effect. Expressionists were less concerned with aesthetiocally pleasing work, they looked at societies relationship with art done through architecture, paintings and film.

Expressionist filmis based on the idea that film is art but only to the extent that the film image differs from our reality. We can see expressionist influences to famous directors from the 20th century like Hitchcock and Tim Burton.)

This includes films such as 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' a classic expressionist film.

Many studies suggest that horror movies follow what is happening at the time. In 1920's Germany times were uncertain and expressionist films portrayed this anxiety. The director of 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' ,Robert Wiene, hired expressionist painters Walter Reimann and Hermann Warm to create the sets for the film. They created a world of nightmares, paths that lead to nowhere, jagged lines and warped walls. Representing unease and distrust in Germany at the time.

Around this time production of American horror movies was on the rise with films such as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Monster" and of course, "Jekyll and Hyde" these were knwon as Gothic or melodrama films. Just like in the literature decades earlier. Setting the paving stones for the dominance of Hollywood starting in the '30s

1930's

• Hollywood classics like Frankenstein and Dracula
• Usually reflected what was happening in real life such as the war.
• Horror was mostly shown as B-movies

Universal was now entering 'The Golden Age' of monster movies. Releasing, what was to become some of the classic monster movies of all time, 'Frankenstein' 'Dracula' and 'Freaks'


- Produced and directed by Tod Browning

- About a 'scheming trapeze artist who seduces a midget for his money, and then tries to insinuate herself into the ranks of the circus “freaks”' (Movie review from The Guardian)

- People with genuine abnormalities

- Considered too shocking and was cut from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. The original version does not exist

- In the film, the physically deformed "freaks" are trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are two of the "normal" members of the circus who conspire to murder one of the performers to obtain                            his large inheritance.

This shows how a horror movie reflects real life. Horror is based on the idea that we are scared of monsters. But these re often our social anxiety disguised as monster. 'Freaks' demonstrates how anxieties around people who were different and the prejudice towards these individuals may have been misplaced and the real monsters are people we see everyday

40's

The success of Univeral horror movies began to die in the 40s with the release of less successful sequels and combining characters in the same movie. This made room for other studios to get in on the horror action. For example, 'cat people'

50's

• Hammer horror in the UK
• This was a famous movie studio that re-released versions of the early horrors like Dracula

Horror movies in the 1950's were clearly influenced by society.In the US, the cold war created fears of invasion therefore, the creation of movies such as 'the blob' and ' invasion of the body snatchers' and this tied into movies of mutants generated from fears of nuclear war. 

In the 50's the introduction of TV was deterring moviegoers. Films then started using gimmicks most famously the use of 3D in the horror movie 'House of Wax' created a hype around cinema again.

The UK's competition with Hollywood was Hammer Horror studios. This was explicit, technicolor violence

Hammer horror productions is a British Film production company, best known for their Gothic horrors made from the 50s-70s. Hammer Horrors reintroduced characters like Frankenstein, The Mummy and Dracula in vivid colour. Hammer dominated the horror film industry in their peak

It wasn't just the UK and USA who were making horrors. Before psycho, their was classic French suspense film 'Diabolique'. In the movie a cruel headmasters wife and mistress conspire to kill him; after the murder is committed, his corpse disappears, and strange events begin to plague the two women.

60's

• Psycho changed the game
• Counter culture
• Gore and violence

The 60's marked the start of a revolution, movies were bloodier, sexier, edgier and more violent than ever before. Classic movies like 'Peeping Tom' and 'Psycho' paved the way for future slashers. With the new suspense techniques from Hitchcock audiences were shown a whole new side of fear - fear of real ordinary people

Another game changer movie was 'Night of the Living Dead' by George Romero. The first zombie movie as we know zombie movies now. It was described as being a 'step beyond gore' leaving audiences terrified. Tackling subjects like the cold war and racism (even if unintentional as George Romero states Duane Jones just gave the best audition)

70's 

• Prolific time for horror
• Era of the slasher

The 70's pushed boundaries even further than the 60's. Social issues like sexism and religion were tackled in movies at this time. The Final Girl theory is highly applicable here. This states that there is always a woman as the last survivor who is a stereotypical 'good girl' (no drugs or drink, typically brunette and a virgin) It also tackled the nihilism at the time surrounding the Vietnamese war and society and government in general.

There was also an increase in exploitation movies. Disregarding moral conventions - graphic sex (featured in movies like 'I Spit on your Grave') and violence demonstrated in zombie and cannibal movies

The shock factor involved in the horror movies of the 70's frightened audiences and drove films like 'Jaws' and 'The Exorcist' to blockbuster success

The modern slasher was also born here. Including 'Halloween'

80's

Horror in the 1980's was all about the slasher film in the first half of the decade - 'Friday the 13th' and 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' for example. These movies were unrestricted by societal taboos often cheap with literally unbelievable special effects satisfied the gore fanatic - More is definitely better in the 80s slasher. They idea was to make money and they attracted audiences by franchising the hell out of the masked characters and naked ladies.

The second half of the 80's took a stab at mixing comedy with films. 


Stephen King was a famous face in horror at the time, his book adaptations became infamous in the 80's especially 'The Shining'

Honourable mentions:
- 'Child's play'
- 'The Evil Dead'
- 'Poltergeist'
and even the likes of 'Ghostbusters' and 'Gremlins' come under the horror category


90's 

• Based in truth, films that were made to look like a home video camera was recording it like paranormal activity

In the early 90's horror movies started to regain critical acclaim. With 'Silence of the Lambs', 'Ghost' and 'Misery' winning awards at the Academy Awards. This encouraged big studios to fund horror movies like 'Interview with the Vampire' and 'Bram Stokers Dracula'

In 1996, the success of 'Scream' rekindled the slasher movie creating similar films like 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' but the huge surprise success of 'The Blair Witch Project' demonstrated the anxiety around the start of the 'big brother' age. The start of the found footage represents the fear around the improving technology and constant surveillance that is to come.

2000s-10s

Much of the movies made at this time were remakes but newer movies tried to innovate and came up with 'torture porn' such as 'saw' and 'hostel' these are films which are focused on the torture of individuals rather than the quick slashing of the previous decades.

Horror: What comes to mind?

Top 4 things that come to mind when I think about the horror genre:

• Gore
• The supernatural
• Young children
• Fear and jump scares

Thematic (Inner form) - this includes themes, morals and characters

• Ghosts/the paranormal/psychics
• Sadistic killers
• Religion/ demons/possession
• Death

Iconography (Outer form) - Location, mise en scene

• Dark lighting/scenery
• Mysterious
• Common props: dolls, wind up toys, mirrors and blood etc.

Example of these forms:

How do we know 'The Red Balloon' is horror?

Inner form -
Small child is able to talk to the villain
Home alone vulnerable character
Killer on the loose
Going back into the house

Outer form -
Dark/ night time
Dolls & toys
Raining
Mirror

Without these forms the genre of the film would be unclear, therefore the audience will not know how to react appropriately causing dissatisfaction. When audiences go to see a horror, they excpect to see certain tropes and conventions and if these are not there they will not enjoy the films.

Preliminary task

Stalker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhl_GfpyUcA

For a first attempt i'm fairly impressed with how our preliminary task turned out. With very few options on location and costume and a short time limit I believe it went well. Whilst editing, we were just getting used to using the software, darkening all the colours, slowing bits down and adding in sounds. Everything was very experimental. For the real task, hopefully our plot will be a lot more fear inducing and we will have more experience and skill with editing. 

What to include in our preliminary:

 

Before planning and creating the preliminary we had to think about what we actually find scary in a horror film:

In this mind map there are a few of the classic things we thought were always successful in scaring audiences of horrors, the main areas that are effective in creating fear is the angles or shots used, usually quite unusual shots create a tension. The next is the actual storyline. You cannot have a horror film based on a high school romance for example it's just not scary however, plots of gore, serial killers and spirits is what scares an audience. Along with this, the characters, props and setting all add to the tension. Even just a dark lighting can cause some amount of anxiety in a viewer. Lastly, the sound. Hitchcock was very good at using sound to build tension, the most famous example being the staggered use of strings in the shower scene which creates an atmosphere of dread and creates tension.