PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Gore and Disturbing
1) Torture- Focus on the torture whether it has a goal or just for pleasure. Often relate to the story of mad people and poor innocents who meet them.
2) Splatter- Emphasise on gruesome scenes and are very graphic, this is what makes them different from torture films.
3) Cannibal- More produced between late 70's-early 80's. They include extreme violence and cruelty.
4) Extreme- Go further than everything above and look at most disgusting and sick things.
Psychological
1) Phobia and isolation- Typically where people are put into their worst fear or phobia, the most common being claustrophobia
2) Fanaticism- Relates to religion or an alternate belief. The story is often set in a small village or community.
3) Madness and paranoia- Similar to slasher but emphasises more on the madness and not the killing. This genre reminds us that nobody will ever truly understand the human mind.
Killer
1) Slasher- Became popular in the early 80's. This genre often involves a lot of pursuits and gruesome murders, teenagers often being the prey.
2) Crime- Closet to thriller genre as will get but different as murders are more gruesome. This genre often follows a police investigation.
3) Backwood and Redneck- Plays on the myth that woods or the countryside populated with inbred with freaks and manics.
4) Home invasion and survival- The assailants are often masked
or not shown at all.
Paranormal
1) Ghosts and sprits- Usually the soul of dead people who have come back for some reason. The two most popular reasons are unfinished business or revenge.
2) Haunted house
3) Possession- People's body are overtaken by an evil sprit or demon.
4) Devil, Demon and Hell
5) Witches and occult- Usually women who have paranormal powers and do evil things. In films withes are often cruel and merciless.
6) Supernatural- Often features a hero with paranormal powers but they are unable to control them leading to bad things.
Monster
1) zombies:
Undead- Often involves zombies rising out of graves or someone getting bitten by another zombie. Usually slow, stupid and numerous.
Virus- More scientific and the story in the film is more based on how the virus turns other people into zombies. Rules of contamination are similar.
2) Vampire- Concept vampires took off from Dracula. In horror films they are often thirsty for blood and vulnerable to sunlight. Additional rules can be added depending on the movie e.g. sensitive to crosses.
3) Werewolf- The person is human until infected by the curse or virus. In most movies they are affected by a full-moon. These movies are often dramatic as the curse is often seen as a tragedy and the highlight scene is the transformation scene.
4) Classic monsters/ Mythological monsters- This genre is about well known myths or legends.
5) Giant monsters- This genre plays on the fear of huge monsters e.g. King Kong. The film normally includes a scene of the monster destroying a city.
6) Aliens- Closet to the sci-fi genre.
7) Neo-monsters- Film producers are always bringing new monsters to the screen and if they don't fit in one of the sub-genres above they fit here. The only thing that links all these monsters is their aggression and taste for human flesh.
8) Animals and nature- Any horror film that has something in it that could be related to something in nature e.g. sharks, crocodiles or inoffensive creatures such as insects. However, it could also be plants.
9) Small creatures- This sub-genre could be listed with the mythological sub-genre as the creatures are often fantasy, for example trolls. This sub-genre often contains comedy as well because the monsters can be seen as cute.
Comedy horror:
This combines comedy and horror into the same film. However, instead of empathising on the horror aspect it empathises on the comedy aspects.
The popular genre in 2015:
Horror films at the moment are mainly of the sub-genre of paranormal. Many of them have supernatural beings in them or sprits. See the pictures beside of recent horror movies.
