Horror films seek to frighten its audience inducing feelings of horror and terror. Horror films are unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from its viewers. They deal with the viewers’ nightmares, hidden worst fears, and fear of the unknown. The most common elements of horror films are blood, ghosts, diseases, zombies, haunted house, knives and masked serial killers. There are many sub-genres of horror films such as Slasher, Splatter, Zombie Vampires/Werewolves, Psychological/Supernatural, Monster, J-horror and thriller.
During the summer I looked at a famous horror Director, Wes Craven. He is known for directing a vast range of popular Horror films such as Scream (as well as the other sequels); the hills have eyes 1 and 2, the last house on the left and vampire in Brooklyn. He is very successful in directing slasher films in particular such as Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Zombies are creatures usually portrayed a reanimated corpse. Zombies can also be metaphors for a plague/disease within our culture and can also symbolise a lack of independence of thought within our culture. Some people think that Zombie movies are criticism of capitalism in the sense that they consume more flesh consuming more flesh without considering whether they are full or not. I looked at the film ‘I Am Legend’, which starred Will Smith and was directed by Francis Lawrence. The storyline is about a scientist that was unable to stop a man-made incurable virus that affected everyone and he is looking for survivors. The survivals of the characters are symbolic of an individuals struggle to survive as an individual. Also, I looked at 28Days Later which is about the spread of the rage infection whereby animal activists that invade a laboratory who release chimps infected by a virus. Danny Boyle who was the director, specifically wanted to point out that the Rage virus was a representation of today’s increasing incidences of road rage. It deals with the change of our culture from a spiritual society to a more consuming society leaving people feeling trapped in certain roles.
Monster films originated from Japan. In Japanese cinema, monsters are referred to as Kaiju. Film monsters differ from more traditional antagonists in that many exist due to circumstances beyond their control. I looked at the film Jeepers Creepers 2 which was directed by Victor Salva and is about a school bus stranded on a lonely road and a flesh eating anti-beast that re-surfaces every 23 years to feed. Charles Derry speaks about the ‘human in the monster’ which deals with the sympathetic monster. This is when the audience can feel some kind of understanding for these monsters because of their loneliness.
Japanese horror has been greatly influential over the years and many films have been re-made in the western market such as the grudge and the ring. They tend to focus on psychological horror and tension building involving ghosts, possession and exorcism. A common convention of J-horror films are Yuri, which are Japanese ghosts of which are females, bound to the physical world through emotions. Derry believes that there are several connotations to possessions as evil forces and are usually represented as male. I looked at One Missed Call which was directed by Eric Valette which is about friends who die one after the other by receiving a voicemail of the future date and time of when they will die. I also looked at the ring which was about an urban legend that if you watch a particular tape you would die in 7 days. The new western version was directed by Gore Verbinski. These two films are similar in the sense which they both contain supernatural/demonic forces and the causes of death follow on from each other.
Psychological/Supernatural horror has become very popular in modern day cinema, attempting a certain level of ‘Realism’ to inflict fear in its audience. This is often based on the disturbed human psyche, and focuses around possession and dark forces which can be spiritual presences. The orphan was directed by Jaime Collet – Serra and is about an orphan child from Russia who gets adopted by an American family, who uses psychology to manipulate the husband against his wife. Drag me to Hell was directed by Sam Raimi which is about a loans officer who refuses a time extension to an old woman; the old woman places a curse on her then she ends up being dragged to hell.
Vampire films have been about for decades. The most popular cinematic adaptation is Bram Stroker’s ‘Dracula’ with over 170 versions to date and is one of the most horror icons of modern day. Werewolf fiction denotes the portrayal of werewolves and other shape shifting man-beasts. For example in the wolf man the man transforms into a werewolf at a full moon. The Underworld is series of a film directed by Len Wiseman. It is about a war raging between the vampires and the werewolves; which yet is very common in vampire films today.
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