Research - Audience Fear

Fear

Most common fears:
- The dark - The Women In Black
- Strange noises - The Conjuring / Women In Black
- Silence - The Others
- Old places - The Conjuring
- Spiders - The Earth vs The Spider
- Disease - World War 2
- Lightening, rain or wind - The Conjuring ( Thunder and Lightening)
- Snakes and insects
- Isolation - Alien
- Strangers - Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Pain - Scream (slasher films)
- Heights
- The end of the world - Carriers
- Being murdered
- The unknown
- Knowing - for example one sound that happens e.g. a phone rings but no other diagetic sound is there which means the audience knows something "scary" is going to happen

Most horror films use most of these fears as they know this is what people are scared of, but also they know that audience will expect these type of things in horror films as that's what most people find scary.

Chandler stated that: 'Frame the audience's expectations'. 

The fears are created by a number of ways, these being the narrative,the way the camera is used in a film, the way sound is used, editing and mise en scene.

The codes and conventions of fear are similar to the fears from the audience and link into the narrative and mise en scene of the horror genre. Codes and conventions are:

- Isolated setting - This is used in most of all horror films
- Suburban settings - This is mostly used in paranormal and slasher films
- A group of teenagers - Normally on the run and in most slasher films
- Family persecuted - Paranormal / psychological
- Weapons - Slashers
- Lone person with an isolated setting - usually a house, Gothic horror
- Low key lightening - used in most horror films - paranormal, slashers etc
- The telephone - Used in most horror films - slasher
- The toy or doll - Paranormal / psychological

These codes and conventions appear in most genres and sub genres of horror.

Media language and fear

Camera:

- Wide shots to show isolated setting
- Still camera before a jump scare (helps to create the scream)
- Closes ups and zoom in and outs, for example door handle or zooming into a dark room not knowing what will be there

Lightening:

- Stereotypical lighting in horror films is low key lighting (dark rooms and settings)
- Never seeing daylight - The Others
- Focusing on a specific specific light, usually a match or torch, everything else in the shot is bitch black

Sound:

- Laughing (with silence)
- Clapping (with silence)
- Emphases a specific sound, for example breathing, door creaking, footsteps or laughing
- Creepy soundtracks


Editing:

- There is usually no cuts before a jump scare
- During a killing there is usually a fast pace of editing
- Chase scene - slasher films -  fast pace of editing
- Looking for someone or something - slow pace of editing

Changes of fear - 100 year:

In the early stages of horror there was only a small section of horrors and fears. These being:

- Monsters - Gothic and German expressionism
- Space of hell - 50's
- Psycho next door - 60's / 80's
- Psychological, gore and paranormal - 90's and now

Cultural fears:

It is known that different eras have different ideology's and experience different problems, fears and concerns. Successful horrors are the ones that focus on specific cultural fears, such as:

- The Monster
- Advanced in science
- Graphic images on TV and News coverage of events and crimes

John Cawelti - The horror genre reflects aspects of society. Society's fear is shown through the genre. 

This means that it can help the audience relate to the horror and the felling and pleasure of being scared. The audience is able to find their own fears within the film and will help add to the effect and feeling of horror.

Tudor - He says that horrors provide a 'monstrous threat' and this threat is 'based on notions...from producing society'. 

Horror films wont scare people as much as they do now if they didn't use the cultural fears that the audience have.

Different monsters for different fears:

Neale - He identified that horror texts have different types of monster. The monster is the source of the fear. 

He came up with the theory that there is three different types of monsters. You have the:

External Monster - An outsider:
This is the monster that comes from 'somewhere else' and brings the threat to the community as he is the unknown.
For example vampire films. The vampires are seen as the outsiders and can never fit into society.
For example The Decent (2005), The Blair Witch Project (1999) and the Interview with the Vampire (1997)

Man-made Monster - Mans creation
The archetypal man-made monster
For example Frankenstein type films, a collection of body parts put together by a human to create a monster. The monster is not part of the community, but the creator is a member of the community.
For example The Hills Have Eyes (2005) and Frankenstein (1931)

Internal Monster - man gone wrong
The monster is human. The human may come from within the community but they are thinking or behaving in a way that creates a threat from inside the community.
For example Psycho (1960) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Although Neale fears of these monsters are right there are films and ways that he is wrong. This is because these three typed of monsters can combined together to make another 'monster'.
In more modern films society has made the man-made monster into a psychological monster.For example in Pyscho Norman Bates is an internal monster but the birth of his monster was caused by bad mothering. Sometimes there is a reason behind becoming this monster.
For example The Hills Have Eyes, there is an internal monster but the monster is also a man-made monster. Another example is the conjuring where the mum tries to kill her daughter but this is caused by the murders of the previous family in the house.


Wood said that ' normality is threatened by the monster' in all horror films. 

Cohen said that monsters are 'difference made flesh' and this difference can 'cultural, political, racial, economic or sexual'. 

I believe that these statements are not all true. This is because now-a-days political, racial, economic and sexual are all things that are part of the society and are seen the same as everyone else in society.