Genre

Horror films can be terrifying, dramatic, exciting and entertaining. Horror film genre has been dramatically tainted with violence, death, monsters, pools blood, and ghosts. some great examples are saw, hostel, salems lot etc. Both films followed the genre of horror films  but while many aspects were different from each other, They also shared some similarities, such as tenstion. Plots written within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Themes or elements often prevalent in typical horror films include ghosts, torture, gore, werewolves, ancient curses, satanism, demons, vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, zombies and serial killers.
 Horror films, generally have 5 main stock characters that make repeat appearnces in alot of horror movies.
the wanderer- The character that always leaves at the tensest moment to go for a pee, often killed first.
the popular girl- The girl whos everyones friend, shes pretty, bitchy and mean.
jock- Athletic, handsom and mean to other boys. often sees himself as the protector of the group.
the final girl- The main character in the film who is always left till last and often survives
the pervert- the man who peeps into the girls locker room then gets killed
The setting is where the film is set, for a horror film it is usually isolated and abandoned places or locations with a hidden past. this can create a sense of tension especially since most horror films are set at night.
Visual things that usually signify the genre, colours like black and red often do this on movie posters and use blue filters in the film in order to show that this is a horror film. the Mise en scene of any horror film mostly always uses props such as knives, axes, guns and of course blood. Axes are an iconic prop in horror films and a cliche example of horror mise en scene. two example of axes being used in horror film are through the movies 'the shining' and 'friday the 13th'.
in horror films the camera work is not naturalistic with high and low angle camera shots. Canted camera work is very common in this genre as it makes the movie disorientated. Point of view shots are important as they raise issued of audience identification. they use these to make us see through the monster's or victim's eyes. these are used to make us feel uneasy. extreme close ups of the victim enable the audience to feel the terror of the situation. extreme close ups are also used to exclue everything else from the picture and make the monster more suddenly and shockingly more terrifying. Sound is also important in horror films as it creates a lot of the atmosphere. Asynchronous sounds like screams and contra puntal make it feel more disturbing. if one watched a horror movie without sound it wouldn't even be as half as scary as it it is with the sound.