Stuart Fischoff PHD

Movie monsters, horror movies and spine tingling thrillers provide food for our imaginations nourishment. We consciously; deliberately put away the rich fears of childhood as we acquire knowledge and temper irrational fears with rational self talk.

We fulfill the adultified expectations of our adult peers, we relinquish many of our superstitions with science based explanations. However, it's argued that our imagination is diminished and tamed in blandness

Childhood fears never disappear and live as a subconscious archetype

Fischoff had several theories on why so many of us flock to the cinema to watch the latest horror

1. Lifestyle - The individual wants to be scared but have a safe scare, what happens in the movie will not happen to them in real life. We seek excitement and we need to have our brain periodically revving like an engine                                                                                                              
2. Personality factors - Sensitizers vs repressors. Sensitizers like to confront their fears whereas repressors like to avoid their fears                                                                                                           
3. Physiology - We have a need for stimulation, we are thrill seeking and enjoy the fear we get from horror movies. Numerous studies show how the more negative the effect was on the audience member the more they enjoyed the movie

The economics of horror

Paranormal activity = production costs $15,000 made $190 million at the box office

Blair Witch project = production costs $35,000 -> $245 million

Both films were low budget horror movies that made millions at the box office where as high budget movies like Pirates of the Caribbean: On stranger tides which had the highest budget of any movie ever at $378 billion and received negative reviews

Horror lacks family appeal and isn't considered an artistic film genre


We like to watch films that reflect our real life fears. Roughly contemporary films that deal with concerns over "Broken Britain" and a fear of "hoodies" are very popular. 
For example 'Harry Brown'

Backwoods and redneck movies are films were locals turn on the visitors in gruesome an horrible ways e.g. torture and death

• Eden Lake trailer
• Deliverance
• Straw dogs

 A low budget can help in the horror genre because it seems more realistic, it creates more fear as it represents the horror in their real life. Found footage movies are low budget movies that exceeded expectations in terms of box office success, the amateur videoing and lack of Hollywood stars makes it feel like it could happen to anyone. According to Henry Joost, 1/2 of the directing team that came up with paranormal activity 3 & 4 says that for a good found footage horror there are 3 simple principles:

1. Forget cinematography. Cameras can jump and story lines can jumble in found-footage movies. "The genre coincides nicely with the popularity of YouTube," Joost says.
2. Keep it cheap. "Don't spend more on video equipment than your character would," he says. "It needs to look homemade.
3. "Cut your makeup budget. "Make sure the boy's hair is a mess and the actress doesn't have on makeup," Joost says. "Pimples are good. Nothing takes you out of a movie like seeing a character get out of bed who doesn't look bad."

What's the key to a successful short film?

Conventions of a short film:

• Under 40 minutes
• Low budget
• One simple idea
• Unity of time and action
• Plot twist
• Easily recognisable genre
• Establish characters and relationships quickly

Some award winning/famous/ good short films:

Cargo - Zombie movie -  This short film is conventional of the zombie genre because it features the undead (couldn't have a zombie movie without the zombies) and the main character is bitten by a zombie, ultimately transforming into one. However, the short is very unconventional because rather than featuring multiple zombies eating flesh, its a moving story about parenthood and the parents protecting the child no matter what.

Human Form - Body horror - A typical body horror that features mutilation of the face but reflects the modern worlds need for perfection and uniformity to fit in and look beautiful

INSiDE - Psychological horror - This is conventional in that it features a plot twist at the end and focuses on a mental illness its not necessarily unconventional but is gripping even in a short amount of time

What makes psycho scary?

Psycho is the original slasher movie. It is what most of the common tropes of slasher are based on and many movies directly copy or are influenced by psycho. For example the classic music in the shower scene.

Before psycho, horror was mostly based on monsters and movies adapted from gothic novels such as Dracula and Frankenstein. These films, although scary at the time, lacked the realism that psycho delivered and this made it incredibly scary for audiences at the time and to modern audiences today.

Prior to this, most stories had that typical set up where the main character is protected or at least dies for a purpose. But not in this case. This is where Hitchcock changed the game. He killed off a female main character for no reason other than (spoiler alert! )the anger of Norman Bates. The thing with psycho is that the monster involved isn't from another planet or built in a lab, it is a normal person you could come across in the street. In 1960 the term 'serial killer' which is effectively what Norman was, wasn't a common term and the fear to audiences at the time would be like nothing they'd have experienced, it would hit them that anyone could be a killer.

You couldn't talk about psycho without mentioning the way the film itself is made. Firstly the whole movie is filmed in black and white, the first colour showing on TV was in the 50's although most homes didn't have a colour television till the mid-60's it still would've been possible for the movie to be made in colour. Black and white definitely has more of an effect on audiences now than at the time. Now we really only see newspapers in black and white which is where the real life horrifying stories of war and famine are present today and I think that the black and white in psycho reflects this.

Next the incredible score in psycho is something you feel down to your core. Especially in the shower scene, the high pitch squealing of the strings haunts you and is the epitome of suspense and terror. It forced the audience to feel the sheer terror that Janet Leigh felt. The composer of the arguably most famous piece of music, Bernard Herrmann, considered the music the 'communicating link' between the filmmaker and audience. He was able to watch the movie and write the score scene by scene.

To really understand the complexity of the movie, the layering of themes and subtle symbolism, multiple viewings are necessary.

The low budget movie was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best  Art Direction/Set Decoration at the academy awards sadly not winning any of these but remains one of the best films ever made, scaring people for generations (and definitely deserved those Oscars)

Theoretical approaches to horror

Noel Carroll
Attention/repulsion: Attracted to gore and violence whilst simultaneously being repulsed by it. We enjoy killer point of view shots yet we do not identify with them. We fear vampires but fancy them. We can't stand looking but can't stop looking.

Laura Mulvey

Male Gaze: The film positions us at the killers point of view spying on the woman, objectifying her but simultaneously empathizes with the victims on screen while still occupying the killers point of view.

There is a shift from seeing the world through the killers eyes to seeing through the final girls.

Cynthia Freeland

Graphic violence and gore are so over the top and exaggerated that the create a "perverse sublime" - making something so far fetched that we can enjoy the film on an aesthetic entertaining level

Freud

The uncanny: Something secret and disturbingly strange. It's what ought to have been kept secret but has come to light within the unconscious or subconscious mind. It is essentially the return of the repressed and it is projected onto objects, peoples and places. The uncanny valley is also important here this is things that are close to reality but aren't quite there.

Jung

The Shadow: The animalistic side of us, the 'evil' or 'bad' in us that we do not want to be and is projected onto an external figure like the monster of villain in a horror film.

Adam Lowenstein

Spectacle horror: Combination of special effects, camerawork, gore music etc is more important than the suspense and topic of the movie. For example, jump scares become a better way of creating fear

Carol Glover



Argued horror offers males a chance to revel in their feminine side and also claimed slasher movies were actually feminist . E.g. Final girl theory



Tzvetan Todorov

He studied classic fairy tales and stories and found that narratives move forward in chronological order with one action following the other

A clear beginning middle and end

He also suggested that characters would change through the narrative and this would be demonstrated in the resolution.

The steps:

1. Equilibrium - A happy start, the majority of the characters are content
2. Disruption - This is where a problem starts, disruption of happiness
3. Realisation - Everyone realises there is a problem and it becomes chaotic
4. Restored order - The characters attempt to restore order and repair damage
5. Equilibrium -  Problem is resolved and everything goes back to normal

Most episodes of Sherlock follow this traditional narrative structure.

1. Sherlock and Watson are relaxing at the start of the episode
2. then an action or character will do something that creates a case for them to solve
3. They begin their quest to find a solution and apprehend the villain.
4. The narrative continues until they confront the villain at the climax.
5. Once the disruption is resolved and the equilibrium is restored, Sherlock and Watson can relax again.

Unconventional narratives

A non linear narrative will move backwards and forwards in time, flashbacks and flash forwards

A circular narrative starts at the end of a story, the audience doesn't really know what's happening till the end of the film