Horror Films are unsettling films designed to , cause dread and alarm,frighten and panic, and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in an Intense experience. Horror films effectively center on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsions, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, loss of identity, or fear of sexuality.
Whatever dark, primitive, and revolting traits that at the same time attract and repel us are featured in the horror genre. Horror films are often combined with Science Fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is threatened by aliens. The Fantasy and Supernatural film genres are not synonymous with the horror genre, although Thriller Films may have some relation when they focus on the revolting and horrible acts of the killer/madman. Horror films are also known as chillers, scary movies, spookfests, and the macabre.
Horror films go back as far as the beginning of film making, infact centuries before that. From a young age we have all imagined seeing 'something' out of the corner of our eye, shadowy shapes/ghostly images and have come to fear the unknown. Horror films give shape to this fear, an outlet for the essence of fear itself, launching us into a terrifying and disturbing world without ever being in danger at all.
Horror films, when done well and with less reliance on horrifying special effects, can be extremely potent film forms, tapping into our dream states and the horror of the irrational and unknown, and the horror within man himself. For example the Blair Witch Project which was a film that was created using only hand held cameras and no special effects whatsoever. It played on the fact that at the time no other films had ever been made like it using just hand held cameras. Also its storyline was developed on and incorporated the legend of Elly Kedward, a woman banished for witchcraft in 1785 in the Blair Township (latter-day Burkittsville) where the film was set which fooled the audience into thinking "could this actually be real?". The way it was amateurly filmed just added to this sense of ultra realism which opened the audience up to a whole new level of fear. I think that we will use some of the camera techniques from this film to try and recreate that sense of realism and fear in our own short film.
Horror films developed out of a number of sources: folktales with devil characters, witchcraft, fables, myths, ghost stories, Grand Guignol melodramas, and Gothic or Victorian novels from Europe by way of Mary Shelley or Irish writer Bram Stoker. In many ways, the expressionistic German silent cinema led the world in films of horror and the supernatural, and established its cinematic vocabulary and style.
Another film i feel builds up tension well is The Ninth Gate directed by Roman Polanski featuring Johnny Depp.(Based upon the novel The Club Dumas (1993), by Arturo Perez-Reverte)
Brief Synopsis: Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) is highly skilled at his work - locating rare books for wealthy collectors - a position that requires dexterity, cultural expertise, nerves of steel ... and few scruples. Corso is hired by eminent book-lover and scholar of demonology, Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), Corso's mission: to compare Balkan's newly acquired edition of the legendary manual of satanic invocation, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of the Shadows, with the two remaining copies located in Europe, and ascertain the authenticity of the three books,
From New York to Toledo, Portugal to Paris, Corso immerses himself in a labyrinth full of pitfalls and temptations, disturbing encounters, violence and mysterious deaths. Protected by an other-worldly creature (Emmanuelle Seigner) and guided by a force more powerful than himself, the hunter solves one by one the mysteries of the dreaded book and discovers the real purpose of his mission ...(Quote from: http://www.movieweb.com/movies/film/FIqx9tvsQqritw/synopsis)
It uses a Great Soundtrack with lots of low sustained notes which makes the audience hold there breath subconsciously and builds the tension as it gives a sense of foreboding, like something terrible is lurking just around the corner...
Above is the Soundtrack from this movie.
Brief Synopsis:
A group of Norwegian scientists in Antarctica chance upon an alien spacecraft buried in the ice. Near the strange craft is the body of an alien being, frozen solid. Thinking they have made the find of a lifetime, the scientists bring the alien body back to camp and thaw it out. The alien awakens and proceeds to take over the identities of the scientists, the remaining humans try and destroy the creature before it reaches another camp but ultimately fail. Now the members of Outpost #31 soon find themselves in the same situation and must discover who among them is human and destroy "the thing" before it takes them all.
While the Scientists are trying to find out who the alien is impersonating the tension increases until it climaxs with a scene where Kurt Russell,the main character, forces everyone to take a blood test to make sure they are not "The Thing". I think that the special effects used in this are excellent but this isnt really that relevant for our film as we dont really have a creature in it.
The feeling of being isolated and alone with the tension building is relevant to our film though and i think this is another thing this film does well.This is the Scene from the movie which i have uploaded.(Copyright of David Foster Productions,Turman-Foster Company and Universal Pictures) (Contains Strong, Bloody Gore)
I took inspiration for the Severed limb part of our Film from the Evil Dead movies by director Sam Raimi.
The way that he still creates the scariness of a Horror but it has comedy elements in it too. This is why they have become cult classics as they are so original and at the time they were made they were unique and mind-blowing to the audience as nothing like them had been made before. Here is a Definition of Cult Films.
An Example Scene From The Evil Dead 2.
(Copyright De Laurentiis Entertainment Group DEG and Renaissance Pictures)
Another bonus to adding a Comedy element to the Film is that it attracts a Comedy Audience too as it would appeal to them. This would lead to more people viewing the film and if we were making it for real to gain a profit we would make more Money.
Top 20 Shockingly Chilling and Tense Horror Movies
This is an extensive top # list of the best scary movies ever made. The list was made after hours in dark rooms in front of big and small screens. It has been compiled with critic reviews and best-movie lists. Some are box office hits and some you may only find on VHS at the local rental store. If you like the feeling of being truly terrified and surprisingly startled check out this list of the top 20 scary movies of all-time.
| 1. | The Ring |
| 2. | The Exorcist |
| 3. | Campfire Tales |
| 4. | Silence of the Lambs |
| 5. | Seven |
| 6. | Saw |
| 7. | Mothman Prophecies |
| 8. | The Blair Witch Project |
| 9. | Exorcism of Emily Rose |
| 10. | Scream |
| 11. | Friday the 13th |
| 12. | The Shining |
| 13. | The Sixth Sense |
| 14. | Texas Chainsaw Massacre |
| 15. | Alien |
| 16. | The Others |
| 17. | Rosemary's Baby |
| 18. | Hostel |
| 19. | High Tension |
| 20. | American Pyscho |
Judging by this list it shows just how crucial a good Plot is for the Horror film to be Great as none of these movies have the same storyline unlike many other horror movies who use an already existing Horror Storyline but just change an aspect slightly. For our movie we have tried to come up with an original storyline so the audience will be intrigued and not be able to just guess what will happen and become bored straight away.
A useful website for Horror Movies is http://www.allmovie.com/explore/genre/horror-654
It has an extensive list of Major Horror movie works which might be useful to look over at a later date.
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