Codes and Conventions of Horror/Thriller

Horror is known as an 'Art Form', people either love it or hate it.

There are two types of Horror films; Basic Horror and Ultimate Horror.

Basic Horror: What is seen, Gory, Gruesome, Graphic, for example; Saw, Halloween and The Collector.

Ultimate Horror: The unthinkable, unimaginable, leaves you mentally scared, for example; Rosemary's Baby, Don't Look Now, Ultimate Horror.

Concepts of Horror:

• Horror works of the audiences 'repressions', their reality and 'what would happen'.
• Male Gaze: 'The look of being looked at' e.g. women are seen as vulnerable.  The way a film or equalibriam is seen generally through a male's point of view.  Stereotypically women are seen as weaker, more timid, more mild, more feminine and prettier.  this is because in the Horror Genre women are seen as the victim.

Key Ingredients of a Thriller:

• A 'gut' feeling of being scared, ' edge of your seat' effect, 'wide eyed'.
• Thrilling or exciting the audience.
• More realistic and the audience can relate.

Suspence - Horror & Thriller:

• Acceleration or Audience curiosity.
• Alfred Hitchcock's 'Bomb Theory': Empathy towards characters, dramatic irony (audience knowing more than the character/s)
• False Plateau: misleading the audience, and planting ideas within the audience mentally.

I wanted to include in my Teaser Trailer aspects of both Basic (Graphic) Horror and Ultimate Horror, at the same time I want to portray the feel of a Thriller, throughout the trailer I am hoping for an 'edge of your seat' response.

The Bomb Teory:

The Bomb-Theory is a technique used that is effective for creating suspence, it can be broken up into 5 sections:

• False Plateau (misleading the audience)
• Sympathy.Empathy for the character
• The audience knowing more than the character
• Notions being placed in the minds of the audience
• Sound

The following article has been taken from: http://everything2.com/title/Bomb+Theory

Bomb Theory is a phrase coined by Alfred Hitchcock to explain his method of creating suspenseful cinema. The following quote by The Master of Suspense himself is taken from the interview book Hitchcock, ©1983 François Truffaut, Simon and Schuster.

Hitchcock: There is a distinct difference between "suspense" and "surprise," and yet many pictures continually confuse the two. I'll explain what I mean:

We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let's suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, "Boom!" There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: "You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!"

In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.

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Our teaser trailer is only one minute thirty seconds so it is very difficult to include the aspect of suspence; our film idea on the other hand is very suspenceful, the whole film would create a false plateau with the audience knowing more than the characters and being on the edge of their seats wanting to help the characters.