Horror Films: Their codes, conventions and target audience

Horror is a main genre of film and is created through its use of cliches, mise-en-scene and sound. The target audience is mainly males aged 16-24 so the age certificate is normally a minimum of 15.

Cliches:

• Creepy girls or small children
• Zombies turning up in unusual places
• Children humming innocent nursery rhymes
• Teens in horror movies are usually spoilt brats from broken families so that they are more likely to be home alone
• Rural settings so there isn't any neighbours to run to
• Basements
• People washing their face in the sink or having a shower then seeing a creepy reflection in the horror
• Deserted motels
• Shadows of people when you never see what they really look like
• Nuns
• Newly purchased haunted houses/apartments
• Anonymous phone calls

Codes and Conventions:

• Slow paced editing to build tension
• Predictable narrative content (follows typical format)
• Clear binary oppositions e.g. good v evil
• Use of low key lighting
• Use of CGI, FX
• Dominant, hegemomic representation of gender: The Female Victim
• Extensive use of close up
• Incidental non-diegetic sound
• Distorted diegetic sound
• Young/teenage characters
• Use of hand-held camera: audience identification/realism
• Point of view shots
• Low angle shots