SUB-GENRESUNNATURAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SLASHERBY SHANNON MULLANE

UNNATURAL HORROR

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This film is an example of an unnatural horror. It contains the demon which is conventional of this sub-genre as the demon is the threat in the film. The demon is usually from an unknown world. In ‘The Conjuring’(2013, James Wan) the demon is from a supernatural world known as ‘the other side’. This horrifies an audience as ‘the other side’ is not known to human beings making us intrigued as to what is happening but wanting to know more about this world makes us vulnerable to the threats it contains. This portrays our inner fears as many people share the fear of the unknown and death. Unnatural horror films usually use children as the ones who are under-threat as this makes the audience more empathic towards the character since people generally associate children with helplessness so they are more likely to become emotionally invested within the film.

PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR

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Psychological horror films such as ‘The Shining’ (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) relies on the characters' fears and emotional instability to build tension. The antagonist is usually mentally ill with a streak of humanity within the character. This makes the audience understand why Johnny in ‘The Shining’ commits crimes because where he works he is treated like a second class citizen. Within the majority of psychological films, the lead character will often have a ‘epiphany’ where they immediately experience remorse and regret before slipping further into insanity.

SLASHER HORROR

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Slasher horror films are known for their visual imagery such as gore. All killings that happen in a slasher film are often committed with a cutting tool such as a knife, an axe, or a chainsaw. used by a psychotic killer. In the film ‘Scream’ (Wes Craven, 1996), the protagonist Sidney Prescott is stalked by the killer named Ghostface. In the process most of Sidney's friends are killed by the murderer with a knife. Slasher films often use conventional ‘safe’ settings such as a house and turn them into a dangerous place. This makes the killings seem more real and more terrifying to the audience as this breaks the boundaries between safety and danger.