conventions of a horror movie

Films within a genre such as horror, action adventure or romance usually apply and share similar codes and conventions. For example, the horror genre will generally make references to death, pain, fear and the dark side that exists within most people’s sub-conscience. Other criteria will include a villain or supernatural force, blood, a chase and a helpless victim. John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’, Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’ and ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, all stick to these traditional conventions of horror films. All three male antagonists are evil personified, wear masks, chase helpless female protagonists, and kill people with carving knives or other similar weapons.

Horror films often involve a complex set of codes and conventions that will give the audience the idea that they are watching a horror film. In most media texts, particularly advertisement posters concerned with films of the genre, many of the codes and conventions displayed within the narrative of the film are portrayed to an effect that will suggest important aspects of the film i.e. lead characters and their alignment (good/evil). This is important in informing the audience of what to expect of the film and give them an idea of the narrative structure or plot, which in itself is very inviting as we want to see why these particular elements and themestool of representation for characters, the monster is often enshrouded in darkness and we rarely see its face in most posters.

A monster or representation of distorted humanity and evil:The monster is mostly a singular entity and is often pictured in the background if at all as if to linger over their victim. The monster often has a trademark tool for killing e.g. a claw, hook or knives that is emphasised in the pictography.

The victims:The victims are often displayed in different colours than the text and monster to show innocence or neutrality. The lead character that is often the sole survivor (another regularly used convention of the horror genre)


Freytag`s dramtic pyramid




Todorov`s theory of narrative