Horror and it's subgenres

The Horror Film

A horror film is a movie that seeks to elicit a physiological reaction, such as an elevated heartbeat, through the use of fear and shocking one’s audiences. Inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley, horror films have existed for more than a century. The macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Horror may also overlap with the fantasy, supernatural fiction and thriller genres.

Horror films often deal with viewers' nightmares, fears, repulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or person into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include ghosts, extra-terrestrials, vampires, werewolves, demons, Satanism, gore, torture, vicious animals, evil witches, monsters, zombies, cannibals, psychopaths, natural or man-made disasters, and serial killers.

There are many subgenres to horror; they may include:

  • Psychological - this genre relies on the characters' fears, guilt, beliefs, and emotional instability along with eerie sound effects and relevant music to build tension, scare and further the plot. Notable psychological films may include The Shining (an adaption of Stephen King's novel) and Rosemary's Baby.



 
  • Slasher - this subgenre often revolves around a serial killer who systematically murders people through heavily violent means. Examples include: Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th and Halloween.


  • Splatter - these films deliberately focus on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. They tend to display an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human body and the theatricality of its mutilation. Splatter films include the grotesque The Human Centipede and Saw.

  • Supernatural - the supernatural horror may include ghosts, demons, or other depictions of supernatural occurrences. They may also combine elements of religion into the plot. Films like The Ring, The Grudge, and The Exorcist are all supernatural horrors.



  • Gothic - This contains elements of Goth and horror, as well as some romance to create suspense. Some of the earliest horror films were of this subgenre. For example, Dracula (1931) was a gothic horror, and is based on the story by the gothic writer Bram Stoker.


  • Natural - this subgenre of horror "features nature running amok in the form of mutated beasts, carnivorous insects, and normally harmless animals or plants turned into cold-blooded killers." A famous example would be Jaws.


  • Found Footage - this involves giving the audience a first person view of the story that is discovered from an original recording source within the plot. Recording film in this way merges the audience with the character’s experiences inducing suspense, shock, and bafflement. A famous example of this would be the Paranormal Activity series or the Blair Witch Project.

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