Have you ever wondered why a genre that is meant to disturb its audience is so popular? Why do people enjoy feeling uncomfortable and scared?
Famous horror directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven have continued to create famous films in this genre. The purpose of the genre of horror is very clear, it is meant to build up the suspense throughout the movie until it makes the audience feel scared and in shock. But people enjoy this negative emotion because they get to experience feelings of excitement, fear, and danger in a safe way since they are just watching a movie. According to a 2005 study, people who look for intense experiences are more likely to watch a horror movie because they want to feel a high level of emotions which is called sensation-seeking experiences. People who enjoy the horror genre are the ones that feel excitement while they feel horror all at the same time.
The target audience for horror movies is mostly male with ages between 15 to 24-year-old. The reason behind this is that gender can be a factor in interest in horror films since more men have reported enjoying more this genre than women. Also, interest in horror films tends to start young according to a study from 2010 where some children as young as 7 years old who preferred watching scary films.
Between the 1920s and the 1910s, the first pieces of horror film were published.
One of the earliest films was The Student of Prague (1914), it is about a German who deals with a dual personality. Horror films started incorporating evil creatures, animals, or persons to disturb the audience. A few years later some of the most popular films in history were created. Some of these stories are Dracula (1931) featuring a vampire, King Kong (1932) featuring a giant enormous gorilla, and Frankenstein (1957) featuring a monster.
Some elements that these movies have all in common are hinted at throughout the movie that builds up suspense and creates a higher feeling of fear. Alfred Hitchcock describes suspense with “the bomb theory” in his movie The Birds, he explains that there can be two different scenarios. The first one is the character, Melanie, in a boat and a bird scares her, the audience might feel in shock for a few seconds but then it is like nothing happened. However, the following scene is built with more suspense. It alternates from the scene of the birds and the woman who is not aware of the birds who have previously shown a sign of danger and the music gets louder and louder. The frames cut back and forth closer and closer to rise the tension. The audience would feel a higher level of suspense because they cannot do anything to help the characters. The audience would feel more the pressure in the second scene when waiting for that moment of action which will be more impactful than the first scene that is just a short moment of shock.
Marketing in horror films differs from most films in the industry. A simple way to promote the film is showing the creature or monster. But promoting a horror film can be far more creative for example the Blair Witch Project by Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick. The film’s marketing campaign purpose was to establish uncertainty, people did not know if the footage was real or if the people were actually killed. The marketing team even created police reports, stories, and missing person pamphlets. This created a great interest in the potential audience which caused a lot of people to watch it.
The first sample is The Conjuring by James Wan (2013) which is based on a true event story. It is about a married couple Lorraine and Ed Warren who are paranormal investigators, they have a family in need of help with a strange case. The new family of five moves to an abandoned house that was cursed by the witch Bathsheba. Whoever lives in this house will be cursed, every night the clock stopped at 3:10 a.m. which was the exact same hour the witch died. The mother of the family started seeing bruises on her skin and her children would see dead people and hear weird noises. The most impactful scene is when the mother is possessed by the witch and Lorraine and Ed go to do an exorcism on the woman. But the witch does not let the poor woman go. The scene takes place in a dark basement with little to light and then the light explodes, symbolizing that something bad is about to happen. This creates an extreme feeling of fear in the audience and then the possessed woman proceeds to follow her children and try to kill them. This series of scenes build suspense to the point of fear to the audience.
The next example is Anabelle Comes Home by Gary Dauberman (2019). The plot is about the previous couple Lorraine and Ed Warren and her daughter. Her parents leave and her babysitter stays with her in the cause. A friend of the babysitter visits her because she knows the famous couple and their supernatural possessions. She goes to the secret room where they store all the most dangerous possessed and enchanted objects even though the daughter and the babysitter told her not to do it by any circumstance. But she enters and touches everything awakening every spirit. The friend opens the glass box of Anabelle that was blessed by a priest. But when she opens it the spirit is able to move, and the doll slowly starts moving when the friend does not even notice. This scene causes way more suspense until the moment the character notices the doll is free to possess everyone in the house and eat their soul.
https://www.britannica.com/art/horror-film
https://www.site-seeker.com/blair-witch-project-still-greatest-marketing-campaign-15-years/
No comments:
Post a Comment