Portfolio Project Genre #2

Genre #2: Horror

My secondary option for my portfolio project is horror films. As a fan of horror myself, I am interested in making a film of my own, but this genre has a little more flaws in the making. For a beginner film maker, it can be hard to produce scary content, as it could appear cheesy or just not good. The reasoning behind my interest for this topic is that I just love the suspense and mystery behind those scary scenes. Even though I do not relate to or connect to these films as much as drama’s, it is always just such a fun, interesting watch for me, simple as that.

Contradictory to my first pick of genre interest, the majority of the audience for horror films are men, even though most teenagers are attracted to such thrills, the range going between ages fifteen through twenty-five. Teens just like me do not relate to films like this, but the reason it is so popular is because they will go to the movies with their friends or girlfriends to enjoy a good jump scare or two. People also like to see the bad guy in films lose, as most of horror productions end up with the slasher going to jail or killed. The idea of diving into another world to experience adrenaline rushes and confronting their fears without any real-life consequences is an experience a young crowd craves.

Going on to how most horror films are, they share common conventions with content and technique. The atmosphere of a scene or film can really determine the success of the production. Most of them focus on the scenery along the lines of a dark forest and abandoned houses or asylums, making it an unsettling environment that builds suspense for a known impending danger.

Themes of death, the supernatural, fear of the unknown, isolation, and suspense also take part in how scary a film could be. Characters such as ghosts, demons, clowns, and other supernatural entities unlock the audiences' deeper fears about topics relating to death or idea of the afterlife. Ideas of horror that we cannot predict nor understand is used to implement suspense to the watcher, showing a mysterious evil is lurking beyond the character’s control. Another situation a character can be put into in a film of such genre is by themselves, removed from the safety of society, building tension, leaving the audience wondering how the fate of said character will change.

Lastly, the use of gore and CGI makes horror films what they are today. Using bloody scenes and gruesome deaths will always get an emotional response out of the audience while also showing how dangerous the antagonist is and what the protagonist has to face to defeat evil. This proposes themes of survival and justice as the character needs to find a way out of their situation efficiently and fast.

Some examples of horror films are “The Exorcist” and “Terrifier.”

 

The Exorcist is a great example of a horror film as it presents the idea of the supernatural, with a regular family making a turn for the worst as the daughter gets possessed by a demon. The rest of the movie is the process of trying to get rid of this evil, hence the name, the Exorcist.

On the other hand, the Terrifier has a different approach and mixes many themes, including the supernatural, using a character like a clown which looks human but is actually a demon, which goes beyond the audience’s understanding. This movie is just a modified slasher, similar to the Scream saga, but definitely more intense as the producers use components such as gore to reveal their point about Art the Clown.

In conclusion, the genre of horror is a very interesting one, with a lot of diversity that I would like to research more about before producing a film of my own for my Cambridge portfolio. Once I do that, I just have a decision to make, what could I, as a student produce that would end up more successful, an eye-catching drama or a suspenseful horror film?