The Horror Genre Reading Hollywood 2008

The Horror Genre Horror Films are unsettling films designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time.

The Horror Genre 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 terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, loss of identity.

The Horror Genre The Horror film genre is most recognizable by its intended emotional effect on the audience. It tries to frighten, shock, disgust and repel the viewer and this is what shapes the genre’s other conventions.

Why watch it? Watching a Horror film gives the audience an opening into that scary world, into an outlet for the essence of fear itself, without actually being in danger. Weird as it sounds, there's a very real thrill and fun factor in being scared or watching disturbing, horrific images.

Why watch it? 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.

The Horror Genre The Horror genre horrifying emotional effect is usually created by a character convention: a threatening, unnatural monster. In a Horror film, a monster is a horrible breach of nature, a violation of our normal sense of what is possible.

Conventional Horror Plots The conventional Horror plot will often start with the monster’s attack on normal life. In response, the other characters must discover the monster and try to destroy it. People may not believe the monster exists or there may be many obstacles to overcome before they can destroy it.

Conventional Themes in Horror Man vs. Science: There are things that humans are not meant to know or do. Man vs. Nature: The environment and disasters create the monster.