After deciding that we want to do a psychological horror film, I thought it would be helpful to research the conventions of this genre so that I understand it better so that the genre is clear from our film. We will need to include some of the basic conventions in our film to relay to our audience that the genre of our film is psychological horror.
Psychological horror films are scary due to their focus on daily life, so the events in the film could happen to any of the audience. This makes the audience feel on edge. Usually at the start of the film the words "based on a true story" are shown. This is usually due to the film being based on "factual occurrences in real life", so by this it's based on something that could very easily happen to anyone.
Usually psychological horrors are all set in the same few locations: a big house, woodland areas, warehouses, schools or some kind of hospital. It is these casual settings which make the audience feel so afraid because they have easy access to these locations on a regular basis. For me personally, I always find films creepiest when they are set in a normal house, as I just live in a house, so the horrible events that occur could happen to me.
In a psychological horror, the killer is usually a very unsuspecting person who seems very innocent. Often in these films, child killers are popular as children are often seen as being very pure and innocent. A very successful (in my opinion anyways) psychological horror that has a young child as the killer is 'Orphan' as at the beginning of the film she seems really sweet and after having such a troubled background you feel sorry for her - until she starts killing people. It is the idea of such an "ordianry" person exerting pain and horror on someone else that makes psychological horrors so chilling, because everyday we are surrounded by people unaware of their intentions.
There are a lot more haunting visual moments in this genre as opposed to a slasher which just has lots of violence and gore. There are a lot more jump scares and such in this genre as it is playing tricks on the audience and wanting to get under their skin.
Psychological horror films are scary due to their focus on daily life, so the events in the film could happen to any of the audience. This makes the audience feel on edge. Usually at the start of the film the words "based on a true story" are shown. This is usually due to the film being based on "factual occurrences in real life", so by this it's based on something that could very easily happen to anyone.
Usually psychological horrors are all set in the same few locations: a big house, woodland areas, warehouses, schools or some kind of hospital. It is these casual settings which make the audience feel so afraid because they have easy access to these locations on a regular basis. For me personally, I always find films creepiest when they are set in a normal house, as I just live in a house, so the horrible events that occur could happen to me.
In a psychological horror, the killer is usually a very unsuspecting person who seems very innocent. Often in these films, child killers are popular as children are often seen as being very pure and innocent. A very successful (in my opinion anyways) psychological horror that has a young child as the killer is 'Orphan' as at the beginning of the film she seems really sweet and after having such a troubled background you feel sorry for her - until she starts killing people. It is the idea of such an "ordianry" person exerting pain and horror on someone else that makes psychological horrors so chilling, because everyday we are surrounded by people unaware of their intentions.
There are a lot more haunting visual moments in this genre as opposed to a slasher which just has lots of violence and gore. There are a lot more jump scares and such in this genre as it is playing tricks on the audience and wanting to get under their skin.
My final point on this genre is about the colour palette. They're very washed out and don't use any bright colours at all (except for perhaps the blood in some films). The way that all the characters are dressed are generally in very dull neutral colours, however it may just look this way due to how it has been edited. Above I took some screenshots from the films: The Ring, Orphan and Insidious and used the colour picker on my drawing software to create a colour palette for each scene. As you can see the colours are very similar, each screenshot has a predominant shade, so in the middle one it is brown and then in the bottom and top ones it is a greenish blue. This greenish blue colour is very common as it is quite sickly and makes everything seem abnormal and surreal.
Below, I have added a really interesting flow chart on how to make a horror film as I thought that this linked in well as I am writing about the conventions of a horror film.
Below, I have added a really interesting flow chart on how to make a horror film as I thought that this linked in well as I am writing about the conventions of a horror film.
Sources:
http://richardoalevel.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/codes-conventions-of-psychological.html
http://www.slideshare.net/ievaasnina/psychological-horror-research
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2011/canal-plus-film-making-flow-charts/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+tirdaily+%28The+Inspiration+Room%29
http://richardoalevel.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/codes-conventions-of-psychological.html
http://www.slideshare.net/ievaasnina/psychological-horror-research
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2011/canal-plus-film-making-flow-charts/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+tirdaily+%28The+Inspiration+Room%29