Conventions of a horror film

In a film that has the genre of horror, usually a range of props and shots are used. The meaning of this is usually to scare and engage the audience in to what is being presented and the different meanings. Within the opening of a horror based film, not much evidence or information is presented to the audience, because if this was to happen the audience would lose interest after the first few minutes and the whole purpose of the film has already been presented to the audience.

Conventions of a horror film: 
 Props
An example of a prop that could be used is a knife; this is usually used to communicate to the audience the theme of death or something bad happening. Usual in horror based films, a knife is presented with blood dropped on to the end of the knife, to illustrate the idea of someone potentially being or had been murdered, which scares the audience and makes them intrigued to carry on watching and seeing what has happened from blood to be on a knife. An example is presented below:


Scary mask/ facial make up:

 Scary make up and facial masks are often used in horror based films, to create the spookiness of the film and also to create a mystery about the character. Masks are used in horror genre films to hide the identity of the character, this is a convention used to hide the characters identity as well as withholding information to keep the audience engaged to what is happening within the opening sequence. An example is presented below to show scary facial make up/ face mask that is commonly presented in horror based films:

 
Blood
Blood is often used in horror based films, to create the theme and idea of death and danger. This is an element that is used in horror films, to disorientate the audience in to watching the opening section of the film. This also spooks out the audience, because people have the common understanding of blood being inside the human body, and for blood to appear on the surface of the skin and then it a form of pain and torture has happened. 

RING

By having a ring included within the opening sequence this would count as a weapon or something to identify a character. This would be a strong piece of material to use within the sequence, as it is strong and is associated and stereotyped with faith and love however this could be changed within the narrative and understanding. 

COSTUME

By having costume within the opening sequence this would be effective within the Mise en scene that is illustrated. For example, potentially including a white piece of clothing could suggest the meaning of innocence, purity and vulnerable and also precious. This could potentially be worn by someone that is a victim within a situation to suggest that they don’t deserve pain and torture.

 

SETTING AND BACK GROUND

By having setting and a background throughout the opening sequence, this allows the audience to have an understanding of where each scene is located at as well as the relevance to what is being communicated between the screening and the audience. Throughout the sequence, it will also communicate the era of time of the sequence, and whether it could potenitally drop any clues to whether its dark or what part of time this is dropping hints to show that there is a climax and people associating darkness with negativity.