Sub-Genres

In our project, we have to pick a certain sub genre that we would like to focus on within our horror productions. A horror movie seeks to create a negative and emotional reaction by playing on the audience’s most primal fears. The way in which horror movies play with our minds is by bringing to life the target audience’s worst’s hidden nightmares and nastiest fears.  But since everyone has different fears, having sub genres in horror movies allows those different fears to be provoked, whether those be related to ghosts and spirits, crazed killers or of the terrifying depths of the human psyche. With different sub-genres, different audiences can be kept interested and entertained. A sub genre is a subdivision of a biggergenre and is divided depending on the events and certain conventions that appear. 

Within the horror genre, there are four main sub genres and these are, supernatural, psychological, gothic and slasher. Each of these sub-genres have different elements within them to separate them from each other.

 

In a psychological horror movie, you will expect to see people with mental problems or just completely twisted in the brain, usually the killer would look like a normal innocent person before their monstrous and creepy side is revealed to the audience, this is generally more suitable for people that do not like horrific deaths. This sub genre manages to deliver suspense and the shock factor to the audience.

A general code and convention that appears in a psychological horror movie is having the antagonist as a young child. (The Orphan)

Slasher horror movies are full of gore and disgusting, brutal deaths. This sub genre is usually aimed at heavy hearted people that get the excitement and anxiousness out of the horror that happens. The killer is usually shown within the movie but is disguised and hidden in a mask. Knifes, chainsaws and even axes are frequently used as weapons whilst the victim will be a lone female that is destined to survive. Slashers have been around for quite a while since the 1970’s and at that period slasher movies were created for teenagers to scare them as they were rebelling against society because teenagers in the films were committing the same act of rebellion in the films and died as a punishment. There was a clear message to the teenagers in the audience that they should behave or else.

A typical convention of a weapon in a slasher movie (A knife)

 

Thirdly, supernatural horror movies are the most superstitious and mind boggling sub genre that has been made. Ghosts, spirits and demons are generally the main antagonist in horror movies. The narratives of these movies always had a past behind them which come from possessions, miracles and curses. The evil spirit is generally younger children around the age of 7 and older women who are around the age of 60. This in general makes it scarier since they are everyday characters in our daily lives, and they are also seen as innocent and vulnerable. The target audience for this sub genre varies from the young teen age to mid adult age.

Typical Conventions of a supernatural (moving objects)

 

Lastly, gothic horror movies are in the style of traditional, old fashioned but original horror. The first type of horror movie was the gothic sub genre in 1920’s and lasted around five decades!  They tend to feature monsters like Frankenstein, werewolves, vampires and monsters that were inspired by 19^th century novels. The setting is usually old fashioned, misty castles and forests with a brave, knightly, manly hero that saves a damsel in distress.

A typical convention in a horror movie is to have an unusual creature(Frankenstien)

 

The subgenre that I have decided to use in our productions is the supernatural subgenre. The reason why we have decided to use this is because every other genre has had a scientific proof of them not being real. This has killed the other sub genres and  so people wouldn’t feel as scared or as terrified when watching a horror movie. Since supernatural creates a subtle and chilling type of scare, it will be the most effective sub-genre as for it reaches out to a range of audience. Since ghosts and spirits cannot be proven, many people see them as the “unknown” and tend to fear them the most. This will create more suspense, tension and it will keep the target audience on edge!