Horror Movie Codes and Conventions

In every film genre, there are many different types of codes and conventions which you find in many of the same films in that genre. Like in all genre's, horror films have many too.

Secluded Location

In many horror films, the characters are placed in a location where they are far away from somewhere where they cannot get help, or are in a location which they are not used to. These can include a summer camp, a house in a remote location or a wood. In my film I chose the location of a wood because the character is very isolated and isn't sure of his surroundings. This means that he is very vulnerable and therefore gets murdered by the killer.

Someone inventigates a strange noise

When someone hears a noise in the distance, they usually go and see what it is. As humans, we like to find things out and this is shown in many horror films. This can usually happen before a group of people get killed because it is more obvious that a person would check it out. However, when they does so they, the majority of the time, get killed. However, in my film this is different. The boy hears the noise and does the opposite to what many characters do in horror films. However, this comes to no avail because the boy ends up getting murdered anyway. This shows that when you hear a noise, you will get killed anyway.

The victim falls over

Even though it sounds stupid, many people in horror films fall over before or when they are getting chased by the killer. In my films case, when the boy hears the noise from behind he starts to run away. However, momentum makes him fall over. This shows that the killer is watching him and due to horror film codes and conventions, the character is about to die.

Someone gets killed in the opening scene

In many horror films, especially "slasher" films, someone dies in the first opening scene in the film. For example in Halloween, Michael kills his sister when he is a boy. This is to show a little bit about the character and the killer and also sets the mood for the rest of the film. The scene can be highly significant for the rest of the plot of the film or may be just a sign of how dangerous the killer is. Our my film, the boy gets killed in the first scene also. At the ending of the film we see that the killer wears a blue hoodie and that he kills people in the wood, as it is isolated from everywhere else. This sets the mood for the rest of the film which may include a back story of the boy that gets killed and someone looking to find the killer.

Why I chose to research this?

I decided to research this because I needed to know the horror codes of conventions so that I knew what other horror films were like. This meant that I could develop or challenge these conventions into the horror film that I make.