Horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include monsters, apocalyptic events, and religious or folk beliefs.
Horror films have existed since the early 20th century. Early inspirations predating film include folklore; the religious beliefs and superstitions of different cultures; and the Gothic and horror literature of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley. From its origins in silent films and German Expressionism, horror became a codified genre only after the release of Dracula. Many sub-genres emerged in subsequent decades, including body horror, comedy horror, erotic horror, slasher films, splatter films, supernatural horror, and psychological horror. The genre has been produced worldwide, varying in content and style between regions. Horror is particularly prominent in the cinema of Japan, Korea, and Thailand, among other countries.
Despite being the subject of social and legal controversy due to their subject matter, some horror films and franchises have seen major commercial success, influenced society, and generated popular culture icons.
Characteristics
The book The Film Experience: An Introduction defines the horror film as a genre with origins in Gothic literature that seeks to frighten the viewer. The authors highlight the fundamental elements of the horror film as "characters with physical, psychological, or spiritual deformities"; "narratives built on suspense, surprise, and shock"; and "visual compositions that move between the dread of not seeing and the horror of seeing".Alternatively, The Dictionary of Film Studies defines the horror film as representing "disturbing and dark subject matter, seeking to elicit responses of fear, terror, disgust, shock, suspense, and horror from their viewers." In his chapter "The American Nightmare: Horror in the 70s" from the book Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan, film critic Robin Wood declared that the commonality between horror films is that “normality is threatened by the monster.” This idea was further expanded on by Noël Carroll in his book The Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart ; he noted that "repulsion must be pleasurable, as evidenced by the genre's popularity."
Before the release of Dracula, as historian Gary D. Rhodes explained, the ideas and terminology of horror films did not yet exist as a codified genre, although critics had used the term horror to describe films in reviews prior to Draculas release. Horror was a term used with a variety of meanings. In 1913, the magazine Moving Picture World defined horrors as showcasing "striped convicts, murderous Indians, grinning 'black-handers', homicidal drunkards". Some titles directly suggested horror, such as The Hand of Horror, a melodrama about a thief who steals from his own sister. During the silent era, the term horror was used to describe everything from battle scenes in war films to stories of drug addiction. Rhodes concluded that the term horror film was not used in early cinema.
The mystery film genre was then in vogue, and early information commonly promoted Dracula as a mystery film, despite the novel, the play, and the film relying on the supernatural. Kim Newman discussed the genre in British Film Institute's book Companion to Horror, where he noted that horror films in the 1930s were easy to identify, but after that decade, “the more blurred distinctions become, and horror becomes less like a discrete genre than an effect which can be deployed within any number of narrative settings or narrative patterns”. In the 1940s, the horror film was viewed in different terms. Critic Siegfried Kracauer included The Lost Weekend among films described as “terror films,” along with Shadow of a Doubt, The Dark Corner, Gaslight, Shock, The Spiral Staircase, The Stranger, and Spellbound. Two years earlier, the New York Times described a new cycle of “horror” productions included Gaslight, The Woman in the Window, Dark Waters, Laura, and Phantom Lady. Mark Jancovich wrote in the book The Shifting Definitions of Genre: Essays on Labeling Films, Television Shows and Media that horror was virtually synonymous with mystery as a generic term, not being limited to films concerned with the strange, eerie, and uncanny.
Various writings on genre from Altman, Lawrence Alloway and Peter Hutchings implied that it is easier to view films as cycles rather than genres, suggesting that viewing the slasher film as a cycle would locate it in terms of several factors: the film industry's economy and production, the personnel involved in particular eras, and the manner of film marketing, distribution, and exhibition.
In an essay, Mark Jancovich declared that "there is no simple 'collective belief' as to what constitutes the horror genre" among fans and critics of the genre. Jancovich found that disagreements existed between audiences who wanted to distinguish themselves. Such disagreement included fans of other genres who may view a film such as Alien as belonging to science fiction, as well as horror fans dismissing it as inauthentic for either genre. Further debates exist among genre fans having personal definitions of “true” horror films: some fans embrace cult figures such as Freddy Krueger of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, while other fans disassociate themselves from characters and series and focus instead on genre auteur directors such as Dario Argento, while still other fans would deem Argento's films too mainstream, preferring more underground films. Andrew Tudor wrote in his book Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie that "Genre is what we collectively believe it to be."
Cinematic techniques
Jacob Shelton investigated in detail the many ways that horror films manipulate audience members. Shelton notes that negative space can draw viewers' eyes to anything in the frame—for example, a wall or the empty blackness in the shadows.Anna Powell explores how horror directors use cinematography to induce certain viewer reactions. Powell observes that lighting extremes, whether bright or dark, can prevent viewers from seeing every detail in a scene, which provokes unease. Bright lighting might also trick viewers into feeling safe.
Powell also points out how distorting space and time can confuse and disorient horror film viewers. To confound viewers' senses, directors might use tilted camera angles and shots in slow-motion or reverse.
Powell notes that directors also use colour, through costuming, setting, and lens filters, to communicate mood and evoke certain connotations. Red, for example, might convey blood, passion, or disease. Contrasting colours bring viewers’ attention to certain places in the frame.
The jump scare is a horror film trope where an abrupt change in image accompanied by a loud sound aims to surprise the viewer. This trope can also be subverted to create tension, as audiences may feel increased unease and discomfort in anticipating jump scares.
Mirrors are often used in horror films to create visual depth and build tension. Shelton argues that mirrors have been used so often in horror films that audiences have been conditioned to fear them, and subverting audience expectations of a jump scare in a mirror can further build tension. Tight framing and close-ups are also commonly used; these can build tension and induce anxiety by not allowing the viewer to see beyond what is near the protagonist.
The interaction between horror films and their audiences is another significant issue discussed by Rhodes. He notes that horror films often serve as a safe space for viewers to confront and process their fears. This cathartic experience can provide psychological relief and a sense of empowerment, as viewers face and overcome their anxieties in a controlled environment. The communal experience of watching horror films in theaters or discussing them in fan communities also plays a crucial role in the genre's impact and popularity.
Music
is a key element of horror films. In his book Music in the Horror Film, Lerner writes that "music in horror film frequently makes us feel threatened and uncomfortable" and intends to intensify the atmosphere created by imagery and themes. Music helps to set the tense or chilling mood that horror movies often aim to achieve; it can even cause physiological effects that override learned reactions and behaviors. Dissonance, atonality and experiments with timbre are typical techniques used by composers in horror film music.Themes
In his book Dark Dreams, author Charles Derry conceived horror films as focusing on three broad themes: the horror of personality, the horror of Armageddon, and the horror of the demonic. First, the horror of personality derives from monsters being at the centre of the plot, such as Frankenstein's monster, whose psychology makes them perform horrific acts including rapes, mutilations, and sadistic killings. Other key works with this theme include Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which feature psychotic murderers without monster make-up. Second, the Armageddon theme explores the fear of large-scale destruction, which includes science fiction works but also natural events, such as Hitchcock's The Birds. Finally, the theme of the demonic features graphic accounts of satanic rites, witchcraft, and exorcisms outside traditional forms of worship, as seen in films such as The Exorcist and The Omen.Some critics have suggested that horror films can be vessels for exploring contemporary cultural, political and social trends. Jeanne Hall, a film theorist, supports the use of horror films to ease the process of understanding issues by making use of their visual elements. The use of horror films can help audiences to understand prior historical events, for example, the Vietnam War, the Holocaust, the worldwide AIDS epidemic or post-9/11 pessimism.
Anxieties surrounding race and racism have historically and continuously informed the horror genre. A good example is the history of the zombie apocalypse subgenre. The first zombie horror films, such as White Zombie, were inspired by stories brought back to Europe by colonizers, and these stories explicitly presented Afro-Haitian religious and spiritual practices as evil and perverse. The film which later revived the subgenre, Night of the Living Dead, incidentally presented themes surrounding race in America by casting Duane Jones, a Black actor, as the lead. Whether accidentally or actively, horror films demonstrate societal issues by who or what is chosen to incite fear, and how this choice is represented visually and narratively.