Prop Ideas

In any film, there is a selection of elements that make a movie work. These fundamental aspects are found in every movie and without them, the film is sure to fail. Supernatural horror movies generally keep to the same conventions of the elements of costume, props and locations of other horror movies but with subtle differences. 

An element that is important is props and within the horror genre, if chosen appropriately props can increase the terror in a scene, or destroy it. A useful facet of the supernatural genre in terms of props is that any object can look terrifying when supposedly possessed or cursed. The most commonly used are children’s toys or antiques as the innocence and the aged quality give it a creepy effect.

Children’s toys have always been popular in the horror genre because, as previously mentioned, they portray innocence. The reason innocence is so scary in this case is because that quality is corrupted by a curse or an evil spirit and that resonates with the audience. Being a child is associated with being safe and secure, and by destroying that the horror is enhanced as the audience no longer feel the safety they expected from the objects. A prime example of this is in “The Woman in Black” when the toys are combined with the contrapuntal sound of a wind-up toy. 

Another example of this is seen in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining when young Danny rides around an empty hotel on his tricycle. The image of something so innocent paired with the tense music creates tension that raises questions in the audience's minds; "Where is he going?", "What's he going to run into?", and "What's behind that door?", and as Danny rides away quickly, the audience are left in wonder and fear at what lurks behind the door of room 237.

 Antique items are always popular, and in some cases this is combined with children’s toys as seen in The Woman in Black, as they have a mysterious history that could hide all sorts of supernatural surprises. As well as that, previous centuries were deemed much more superstitious than present day and held séances, exorcisms and other events that seem out of place nowadays. One such antique item is the ‘Dybbuk Box’. This wine cabinet is said to be haunted by a Dybbuk, a restless, and malevolent spirit in Jewish folklore, that is said to haunt and possess the living and was the inspiration for the film “The Possession”. Religious imagery is widely used and follows along the theme of superstition. The Christian faith is riddled with superstition, the main portrayal of that being exorcisms. Even before the movie of the same name, exorcisms have been seen as a terrifying event of pulling a demon from a person through religious ceremony. The presence of crosses has given the crucifix itself horrific connotations and now religious imagery is present in most horror movies.

Other conventions in the supernatural genre are Ouija Boards, Tarot Cards, Pentagrams and other Satanic Symbols that are all used to contact the deceased. Each of these inevitably led to a possession or bodily harm to the person exposed to it or using it. This all ties in to the human nature of superstition; most people will admit that they believe that there are unknown forces such as spirits or ghosts and many of those people would admit to doing certain things to avoid spirits etc. whether that is burning sage to ward off spirits or not looking in mirrors at night. Witchboard from 1986 is an example as it uses a ouija board at the centre of it's storyline as a line of communication from a group of friends to a deceased friend on the 'other side'. The spirit they contact however is an evil spirit that is impersonating their friend and wants to possess the protagonist so that it can come back to life and soon friends begin dying in it's quest.

   

 The conventions of props that we have decided to adhere to are antique style items, possibly children's toys and possibly religious imagery. As the main conventions in horror, these props seem necessary to add the extra “scare factor” to our project. Children’s toys and religious imagery may feature in our trailer, but the antique style items may feature across all three items and it is through this style of prop that we can create a symbiotic link between the products.