Research Into Current and Past Horror Films

I looked at 2 different horror films and looked at the characters, plot and the narrative and why they were effective when creating fear for the audience.

Paranormal Activity:

Paranormal activity looks into terrorising things that the audience finds most safe. In the films we usually have a family home plot. By creating horror in these places the characters can inflict fear on the audience easily. The narratives are fairly basic. We usually see a supernatural storyline. The successful use of ghosts helps to haunt the characters. They also use a lot of jump freights, these usually follow a prolonged silence. This is effective because as the silence continues the audience begin to anticipate when the horror will occur. This surprises the audience and therefore causes freight effectively.

The characters are also very stereotypical, the use of young people is very important as they are vulnerable. The audience worries for these characters and when something bad happens the horror intensifies as they feel as if they have a connection with the character. We also always have a character that tries to be bold and brave. This character usually ends up dead. This is because the creators of the films do not want a safety connection between the audience and a type of hero. Therefore by killing this person more pain is inflicted on the audience.

Sorority Row:

In this film we have a lot of terrorism through teenagers. The main characters are a group of teenage girls that are together at college. Stereotypically girls enjoy partying and joking around. This is used effectively because when they mess around something bad happens. From their on everything goes down hill.
We also have a killer that is unsuspected, he hides behind his girlfriend and we don't expect it to be him. He wears a cloaked hood which creates more horror. As we cant see his face we can have no recognition of who he his and therefore cant create a safe relationship with him. He brutally murders many of the girls and violence creates the most horror.

The most successful plot is when the bubbles are in the front garden and the sound of the jacuzzi is all you hear. You can tell when the girl walks towards it that there is something lurking within. This creates huge amounts of horror because we can anticipate this and we have to watch the horror take place. Although it is obvious it still effects the audience hugely.The film uses a lot of dark scenes and fire to show danger. The horror is most thrilling during the dark scenes as everything is unpredictable. Similarly to paranormal activity jumps are used to create the horror.

Both horrors were very popular for two different reasons. Paranormal activity used a supernatural storyline to create whereas Sorority Row used more of a bloody violence. Although these are both different types they are still very successful at creating horror.