Unlike the first brief post, this one includes examples of other films withing the genre, the conventions they use and how I would like my film to abide by these conventions.
For my A2 Film Studies Coursework, I have chosen to make a Psychological Horror film. As preparation for the project, I have researched the genre conventions of a psychological horror and considered how I can apply them to my short film.
The main difference between psychological horror and the general horror we would expect from films is mainly how the horror is less in your face and doesn’t tend to rely on gore or sudden shocks (such as slasher films), but the horror is mainly derived from a person in the film, or a supernatural entity. This means that in my own film I will have to consider how to use stylistic elements to create feelings of fear without being as ‘in your face’ as some forms of horror.
A main convention is how the plot is furthered and tension built by characters’ emotions such as guilt, fear, instability, or their own beliefs. This idea will be shown in my film, as the film is about a man who had previously murdered his wife and believed he had gotten away with it. As the disruption of the narrative it will be implied that somebody knows of his past deeds. This will ignite his feelings of guilt about his wife’s death and also create fear that someone knows and he will have to suffer the consequences.
A good example of a psychological horror film which handles tension and emotions in a similar way to how I would like mine to (to an extent) is Rosemary’s Baby (1986, Roman Polanski). Tension is built throughout the film and fear is created as a result of this. It also abides by many other conventions, such as the fact that the evil or fear comes from within a person (it could be possible that the character of Rosemary was just paranoid of those around her, until the very end when her fears are confirmed). The possibility of the true evil being imagined or the result of misconception until being revealed at the end is also a convention used a lot in psychological horror.
While establishing the characters of the film, I would like to initially show the man as being normal and average, lulling the audience into a false sense of security, which is also a genre convention seen, for example, in American Psycho (2000, Mary Harron), in which the serial killer is a normal person on the outside, but deeply disturbed within.
I also regarded how stylistic elements are conventionally used in the genre and how I can apply them to my film. When regarding colour and lighting, I would like the film to have a bluish hue, as this is common in many scenes from psychological horror films, such as the infamous scene (and many others) in The Ring (2002, Gore Verbinski,) in which Samara (the supernatural entity in the film) crawls out of a man’s television to kill him. The film will be quite dark (to represent the darkness of the protagonist) and there will be frequent use of shadows and chiaroscuro (both conventions of the genre, and to emphasise the darkness of the character and contrast between his apparent normality and darkness within, respectively).
To imply the torment of characters the mise-en-scene is often cramped. I will use this and I will also have objects such as photographs of his wife, to indicate his past deeds. I will also make use of flashbacks resulting in non-linear narrative structure; another convention, (due to past events being shown later in the film). To show this I will use the conventions of jump cuts and montage editing to fragment the plot. An example of this in a psychological horror is flashback sequences in the film Silent Hill (2006, Christophe Gans), in which the past crimes of the residents of a small town are shown in flashback as important points in the film’s plot.
Religious imagery (mainly Christian) is also used in the mise-en-scene of psychological horror films, as they convey an idea of fear (of the unknown, life after death (supernatural connotations,) and torment as comeuppance for sins (i.e. past deeds), and I could also use this to imply how the man is being punished for what he did to his wife, like sinners are supposedly punished in Hell after dying. A notable example of a psychological horror with religious imagery is The Exorcist (1973, William Friedkin), in which the plot itself has religious themes and centres on a girl’s possession by a supernatural entity (another convention).
Non-diegetic sound is mainly used in the genre to build tension and often, to add to the distinct brand of horror shown in the genre, the tension is built but not released to add to the feeling of unease (shown throughout the aforementioned Rosemary’s Baby, and many other films). Diegetic sound can also be used to create fear, such as the knocks caused by the demon in The Exorcist, which play on the audience’s tendency to overexert their imagination and perceive general ambient noises and something to be afraid of. Another example in The Exorcist of diegetic sound being used to create fear and unease is when the demon speaks through Regan in a voice which is both frightening in itself (due to the connotations of demons,) and also due to the fact that it is a small girl making the voice, it isn’t what the audience would expect, and that display of something unfamiliar is also effective at creating fear.
Overall, I have found that the main conventions of the psychological horror genre are how fear is not created by in your face horror, such as that of slasher films, but through use of character and audience fears and emotions (such as guilt and paranoia,) which can be furthered by stylistic elements, such as flashbacks through jump cuts to disorientate the viewer, and lighting and colour techniques to reflect aspects of the characters personalities. Stylistics also play an important role in building tension and unease (i.e. non-diegetic sound) and presenting emotions in characters, (such as the particular scene from the ring having a blue-ish hue to represent and convey to the audience an idea of how Samara, the evil entity, feels nothing but coldness as it kills an innocent man).
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