Codes and Conventions of a horror

Horror films are always dark they contain much more blood and gore than a thriller. they play on the viewers mind to make them feel jumpy or feel as though what is going on is happening to them. They are similar to thrillers because they use suspense and tension to help draw the viewer into the film. Some use believable locations such as a house, graveyard, out of use building or a woods etc these help the viewer believe what is going on is real or could happen. The storyline changes with the different Horror films some may use begin with the present and use flashbacks to re tell the story or cut the story up and tell bits and pieces throughout various sequels. Some may not tell you the beginning and go backed to the start at the end of the movie and explains why. Horror uses music more than thriller for example silence can create tension in a horror then the music may come in and build up to a crescendo in which the action may happen. Victims in a horror film you can always tell in a horror film who is likely to be killed e.g. a girl walks into a cursed house the audience will know something is going to happen to her. Horror uses the weather something is more likely to happen if there is bad weather than on a clear day. They also use day and night to create atmosphere more bad things happen at night than in the day but sometimes that rule can be broken e.g. grudge 2 the girl at daytime in telephone box. Horror may use everyday props to play on the audiences mind for example phone, rope, bath tub, TV, bed, roller coasters things you can find all around you. To show a flashback or the past they may use black or white or sepia to show the difference they may use more echo so it sounds far away and distant. The camera plays a big part it is audiences eyes looking into action or is a point of view of character when the audience wants to look around e.g. a scream is hear the camera pans right on the door fast then slowly pans left then pans right again and a shadow is there, this creates tension for the character and also for the audience.

Codes and Conventions of Thriller

The codes and conventions of a thriller is that they always use suspense and tension to draw the viewer into the film, they do this through the music and the non digetic sounds they also use slow camera angles to show tension between the to characters. They piece the storyline like a jigsaw so you know bits and pieces so you don’t know why something is happening but in the end it makes sense. A Thriller film always begins with cutting into the storyline and the beginning is told through back tracking so you know what happened from the start. The lighting is brighter than a horror films and has less gore. Thrillers use the unknown e.g. you may hear the sounds and the see the body after your mind ma presume that the person has been attack or is dead. Thrillers play on that thought an may let a character look at the body look away and there is no body and the body may surprise the person from behind, this makes the viewer jump. The use of shadows in a film especially in fight scenes to hide others or the person they are frightening, shadows are also used to represent danger because thrillers are lighter than horrors when you see the lighting change from light to dark you know there is danger. Thriller are usually set inner city or foreign places if it is a SC-fi thriller another planet but the verisimilitude helps keep it really so the audience still feel part of the movie.