Main Task (Chosen Genre)

Chosen Genre

The genre I have decided to do is horror, and now I will be going through in more in-depth research of the conventions from horror.

Horror films actually go back as far as 100 years old. Watching horror films create a sense of having a need to be feared through watching horror films. It opens an opportunity to be scared without actually being in a situation where you in danger. Through watching horror films people can actually get a certain thrill out of being scared by visualizing disturbing things or seeing horrific images, so it then makes people want to go and experience the sense of fear that can be created by a horror film again and again. This need to be scared which can be created by watching horror films can be achieved if the film certain affects that can help create more fear as they watch it. Like special effects for example adding them into horror could help the film be made with a darker atmosphere if needed with visual effects or the props that they might use could create the particular horrify scenes look more realistic. But in some examples of horror films for them to be a success in that genre they don’t necessary need to display the horror in obvious ways in order to create the same affect, in some cases the best horrors that are created are quite subtle in horror that they are trying to create. In most horror films the characters involved will try to defeat whatever evil is there and often triumph which then brings them back into normality of their own lifestyles.

The earliest examples of horror films were in a gothic style, meaning that they usually were to be set in old castles or abandoned, anywhere that was seen to be deserted by everyone else. Characters that would be included in these gothic horrors would be unknown if set in abandoned areas or possibly humans, the supernatural or hideous creatures this could be from a range of characters from vampires to monsters, or examples of humans maybe mad scientists, the deceased in form of ghosts, werewolves humans that turn into wolves at every full moon or example of a Jekyll and Hyde, someone who has a dual personality of good against evil.                                 

Horror films first developed out of folktales that people would tell which would feature a range of characters of devils, examples of witchcraft, ghost stories. Novels by people such as Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, Bram Stoker and American writers Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Alan Poe, wrote novels which were adapted into early version films. The expressionistic German silent cinema led the world in films of horror and the supernatural, and established its cinematic vocabulary and style. Many of the early silent classics would be remade when the era of the talkies were introduced

Examples of the earliest horror films would include such characters as vampire’s monsters and other supernatural creatures. Vampires and things that are associated with vampires always intrigued and frightened people from all cultures around the world. Demonic or supernatural possession was often juxtaposed with blood drinking, sex and corpses. Many religions that would hear of myths, folktales and cults espoused the idea of  obtaining the life essence of blood. Vampires began to emerge in popular fiction of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, during that time Bram Stokers 1897 vampire novel which was called Dracula was written. Dracula then became the most popular and influential material for many other vampire films that were created.