Horror

Horror films go back years but our irrational fear for the unknown, death, loss of identity, alienation, fear of sexuality and vulnerability has been with us for much longer. Horror films use these deep primal nature fears to frighten and panic the audience. However horror films are also made to be captivating and entertaining. We are all emotionally connected to the unknown. horror films change according to the generation and what is happening on the world, for example when hitler was shadowing the world, horror films contained evil men and showed the horror within men, for example a man who was half man half wolf called 'The Wolf Man' and 'The Silence Of The Lambs' In all good horror films, the thrill, fear and horror is suggested in subtle ways to build a story, the villan needs to be defeated and the normality must return to end the film to make it potent, 'Nightmare On Elm Street' for example. The film must be captivating and an opening into the scary world and the dark side of life with forbidden, strange and alarming events because people fear the improbable. Horror is the essence of fear, with all the action, suspense and fear with no real danger. Horror is all about the thrill and the fun, people find it fun to watch disturbing and horrific and images because all of it consists in our imagination, our minds, our dream state.we make ghosts out of shapes in the shadows, and it has been like this for generations. It's been wired into our brains. The fear of story's, the monster under the bed, and the improbable. Science fiction is involved in horror films when a menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology it is also involved when earth is threatened by aliens for example, 'Aliens vs Preditor'. horror is similar to thriller but not the same, both can contain revolting and horrible acts from the killer/mad man. Horror films can also be called, chillers, scary movies or macabre. One of my favourite horror/thriller films is called 'House At The End Of The Street'. A key moment in this film is when we see Carrie Anne trying to escape. Carrie Anne is Ryan's (one of the main characters) little sister. It starts with diegetic sounds of her breathing and a close up shot of her face. They use lighting effects to show she is disabled/on drugs by flickering the lights and flashing them orange, this adds suspense. The shot changes to a long shot and zooms into a medium shot of the character. When the camera changes to show how Carrie Anne sees things the camera goes out of focus and the lights flicker. They use vertical tilt to show Ryan typing, diegetic sound of typing used. Zooms used a lot and cutting between both characters. Panning is used to follow them both running through the woods. The only dialog is from Ryan shouting "Carrie Anne no, no" as Carrie Anne runs towards Elissa's (main character) house where he is alone. There is non diegetic sound in most of the scene. This scene makes me anxious and tense. The character Carrie Anne is unpredictable and we don't know what she is thinking and what her next move is, this plays on our fear of the unknown. The whole thing uses lighting, camera angles, and sound to build the atmosphere to manipulate how you feel.