Codes and Conventions

• Horror films are designed to frighten the audience, cause dread and alarm and play on our hidden fears. They also entertain and captivate an audience and usually end in a shocking finale.
• The fears that horror films play on include nightmares, vulnerability, alienation, fear of death and fear of sexuality.
• There is always a lead character that often ends up as the survivor of the film.
• The killer/monster will usually have a trademark characteristic in the way he kills, for example, their weapon of choice or their type of victim.
• They tend to use musical soundtracks eg. An orchestra rather than actual songs.

The modern horror film serves the same functions for teenagers that the fairy-tale serves for children. They are designed to create strong, emotional reactions, most commonly fear and dread.

There are various motives for watching horror:

- The need for excitement

- The desire to feel intense emotions

- Distraction from everyday life (escape)

There are 3 factors to appeal to males aged 15-45:

- The excitement ("sensation-seeking" by psychologists)

- The wish to see destruction

- The resolution at the end

Initial Ideas

At the beginning of our coursework we decided to look at two different genres, these were Horror and Romantic Comedy. We compared these two genres to see which one would be more practical to make a teaser trailer.

We also looked at the Benefits and Limitations of these two genres.

Poster Analysis

After considering all aspects of our chosen genres, we decided to contine with Horror and explore it's different sub-genres because we thought it would be more practical and we would be able to create a more successful teaser trailer.